Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Turkish Think Tanks, The Akp’S Policy Network From Neo-Gramscian And Neo-Ottoman Angles, Kubilay Arin

Center for Turkish Studies Occasional Paper Series

This paper will show how the AKP’s utilization of political Islam together with framing of neo-Ottomanism as a prerequisite for its opening to the Muslim world as the former Ottoman lands in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Arab Peninsula exacerbate tensions with it western partners. At the domestic politics level, the Islamic-conservative Justice and Development Party is generally accepted more libertarian than its predecessor the Islamist Welfare party with a platform based on strong national security, free markets and social and fiscal conservatism. The Islamists and the libertarians are often competing for influence in the AKP. The study counters …