Türkay Salim Nefes

Türkay Salim Nefes
University of Oxford | OX · Department of Sociology

PhD in Sociology

About

52
Publications
55,341
Reads
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1,537
Citations
Introduction
I work on socio-political diffusion and impacts of knowledge. My previous research focused on this topic from different angles: (1) online/offline communication and significance of conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism in Turkey, (2) influence of Emile Durkheim’s sociological theory on Turkish nationalism and (3) teaching sociology by using cartoons. Currently, I expand on my first line of work by developing a study on socio-political significance of conspiracy theories in Turkey.
Additional affiliations
January 2012 - December 2015
University of Oxford
Position
  • Research Associate
July 2011 - December 2011
University of Freiburg
Position
  • Research Associate

Publications

Publications (52)
Article
Full-text available
The most prominent issue influencing Turkish‐Armenian relations is the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. However, there is a notable absence of empirical analyses regarding the perceptions of the genocide among the Turkish population. This study aims to fill this scholarly gap by exploring, for the first time, the perspectives of...
Article
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The academic literature has increasingly emphasized examining the impact ofconspiracy theories on political and social behaviour. However, there isa notable dearth of studies on the potential effects of conspiracy theories onelections. This study addresses this gap by discussing the plausible socialmechanisms through which conspiracy theories might...
Article
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Immigrants are a popular target of conspiracy theories. Despite the urgent relevance of the topic all around the world today, the number of studies on conspiracy theories about migrants and immigration is limited. Helping to fill this important gap in the academic literature, the research analyses conspiracy theory beliefs about migrants and immigr...
Article
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Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? This paper responds to this ever‐significant question by scrutinizing people's belief in conspiracy theories in Turkey. Building on Max Weber's theory of rationalization, it proposes that value‐laden and instrumentally rational predispositions, namely religiosity and partisanship, predict people's belie...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter discusses the communication of popular conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey. First, it briefly delineates the scholarship on conspiracy theories in Turkey. Second, the chapter talks about the timeline of the government’s responses to the pandemic. Third, it highlights which popular conspiracy theories were circulat...
Article
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The main source of animosity in modern Turkish – Armenian relations is the debate on the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. To provide an evidence-based and thorough perspective on the Turkish political stance in this discussion, this article explores all the relevant speeches in Turkish parliamentary records. It pays particular at...
Article
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Las teorías conspirativas suelen ser percibidas como fenómenos ideológicos irracionales con potencial para producir efectos perniciosos en las sociedades donde se propagan. Esta percepción, reforzada por la visibilidad de los ejemplos históricos en que han legitimado la discriminación de minorías o incluso el genocidio, condiciona el análisis socio...
Article
Full-text available
This paper scrutinizes the role of Turkish politicians’ threat perception on negative descriptions of Armenians between 1960 and 1980. In so doing, it brings together the theoretical insights of group position theory with the scholarship on the perception of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey. Building on a comprehensive, mixed-method content analysis...
Article
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This paper introduces the concept of digital citizenship, its practice and application in Turkey.
Article
This article explores the significance of perceived threats about dismemberment in Turkish politics, also called the Sèvres syndrome. Relying on a qualitative content analysis of Turkish parliamentary records, it scrutinises how the syndrome influences the debates about Armenians between 1983 and 2018. It demonstrates that Turkish politicians refer...
Article
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To what extent perceived threats explain negative descriptions of minorities in politics? This study addresses this ever-significant inquiry by scrutinizing all mentions of Armenians in Turkish parliamentary proceedings between 1983 and 2018. Building on group position theory, it proposes that perceived threats influence the perception of Armenians...
Article
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How do perceived threats influence politicians’ attitudes towards religious minorities? Examining the Turkish parliamentary records between 1946 and 1960, this study suggests that perceived security threats significantly contribute to Turkish political parties’ negative descriptions of Armenians. The research analyzes speeches about Armenians via a...
Article
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This article proposes that mixed-method content analysis is an apt and creative technique to investigate large amounts of political texts. To support this premise, the article discusses the advantages of the method on a study that scrutinizes the political debates about Armenians in the Turkish parliament between 1960 and 1980. In so doing, the art...
Article
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What are the political roots of anti-Jewish rhetoric? To address this ever-important query, this study analyses perceptions of Jews in Turkish politics. Building on group position theory and the historical background of Turkish-Jewish relations, the research proposes that right-wing ideological orientation and perceived threats can predict negative...
Article
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Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years, and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we ask three specific questions. First, what factors are associated with conspiracy beliefs? Our review of the literature shows that conspiracy beliefs result from a...
Chapter
Full-text available
The “deep state” conspiracy theory is evergreen in Turkish politics. Why is it so popular, and why do political elites continually turn to different forms of this conspiracy theory? This chapter focuses on an amorphous but significant conspiracy theory, the deep state, which argues that a clandestine elite group is determined to defend the Turkish...
Article
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*** In press---Advances in Political Psychology *** Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years, and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we ask three specific questions. First, what factors are associated with conspiracy beliefs? Our review of the l...
Article
Do perceived political threats lead to religious exclusion? This study explores the political rationale of the exclusionary attitude towards non-Muslim minorities in Turkey. It relies on a qualitative content analysis of the discussions on the Armenian, Greek and Jewish foundations in the Turkish parliament in the 2000s. While doing so, the researc...
Data
This is a database of the current academic literature on conspiracy theories, and literature on other closely-related topics. Its production was supported by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (ESRC Award: ES/N009614/1). We intend to keep it up to date and re-post it every three months. If you have any updates that you would l...
Article
Full-text available
Please use the Parliamentary Affairs version for citing the paper. Do perceived political threats lead to religious exclusion? This study explores the political rationale of the exclusionary attitude towards non-Muslim minorities in Turkey. It relies on a qualitative content analysis of the discussions on the Armenian, Greek and Jewish foundations...
Article
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Although Ziya Gökalp was one of the most important intellectuals to shape Turkish nationalism, scholarship has not systematically examined the links between his sociological perspective and nationalism. This study shows how Gökalp’s culture‒civilization theory, predominantly adapted from Emile Durkheim’s sociological perspective, provides a basis f...
Data
Please see updated version here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323485603_Conspiracy_theory_research_database_-_UPDATE_MARCH_2018 Thank you.
Article
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What happens when a prime minister frames a momentous protest as a foreign conspiracy? The Turkish government’s reaction to the Gezi Park protests, a reaction centred on a conspiracy theory about an ‘interest rate lobby,’ provides a unique case to explore the impacts of conspiracy theories about big-scale protests. Relying on quantitative and quali...
Article
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While various studies suggest that anti-Semitism is almost non-existent in Turkish society, the popularity of the conspiratorial rhetoric about Jews raises question marks about this view. This article probes into contemporary anti-Semitism in Turkey by scrutinizing conspiracy theories about a crypto-Judaic society called Dönme. It explores the infl...
Article
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Although conspiracy theories have been politically significant throughout history, only a few empirical studies have been about their influence on readers' views. Combining a rational choice approach with a content analysis of an anti-Semitic best-selling conspiracy theory book series in Turkey - the Efendi series - and semi-structured interviews w...
Book
This is the first study that examines online anti-Semitism in Turkey. Nefes surveys important historical events concerning Turkish-Jewry and analyses people's online expressions about Adolf Hitler in the most popular forum website in Turkey, Eki Sözlük.
Chapter
This chapter recounts the history of Jews and anti-Semitism in Turkey in two subsections: Turkish Jewry during the Ottoman period and the Turkish Republic. The former is a brief account about the origins of the Jewish population in Anatolia and the life of the community during the Ottoman period. The latter underlines significant socio-political ch...
Chapter
The book explains anti-Semitism in the unusual Turkish context by combining online content analysis with historical event analysis. It presents fresh data by unveiling the perception of a non-Muslim minority in a secular and democratic Muslim country. Moreover, the study takes a middle stance between two existing views in the scholarship about anti...
Chapter
This chapter discusses online users’ comments about Adolf Hitler in the most popular online forum website in Turkey, Ekşi Sözlük. It begins by describing the socio-political significance of Ekşi Sözlük in Turkey and outlining the structure of the website. Subsequently, the research analyses the content of the online entries about Adolf Hitler from...
Article
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Despite their apparent, and at times escalating, significance, there are not many studies on the ways conspiracy theories are used in political debates. This research attempts to fill the gap in the existing scholarship by suggesting a rational choice view in understanding conspiracy theorizing, and tests its argument on the uses of online conspira...
Article
Full-text available
The academic literature on the use of television shows in sociology education has successfully highlighted the value of the practice, but has not afforded any examples from seminar teaching. This article contributes to the discussion by demonstrating how The Simpsons, an American animated television sitcom, assists in teaching sociology seminars. T...
Article
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Although Emile Durkheim’s sociology was used by the Turkish state elite in the early 20th century, no comprehensive literature delineating its influence on Turkish politics exists. This article attempts to fill this lacuna by analysing how Ziya Gökalp, the founding father of Turkish sociology and a prominent politician of the early 20th century, ad...
Article
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Despite its ever-present and at times escalating significance, conspiracy theory is an under-researched topic in the social sciences. This paper analyses the political influence of conspiracy theories by drawing on semi-structured interviews with the representatives of four major political parties from the Turkish parliament about widespread anti-S...
Article
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Abstractvar REST_ID=21;This paper investigates the history of social constructions, principally conspiracy theories, about a crypto‐Jewish group, the Dönmes, in Turkey. It considers the socio‐political reasons for the conspiracy theories and their significance by analysing their contents in different periods. The findings suggest that the fluid ide...
Thesis
Full-text available
This thesis investigates the social and political significance of conspiracy theories, which has been an academically neglected topic despite its historical relevance. The academic literature focuses on the methodology, social significance and political impacts of these theories in a secluded manner and lacks empirical analyses. In response, this r...
Article
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This thesis attempts to understand and conceptualize the contemporary popularity of conspiracy theories. While doing this, conspiracy theories are approached as symptoms of current society. Moreover, the issue of what peculiar characteristics of contemporary society are responsible from conspiracy theories has been discussed. Heretofore, the concep...

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