National and State Identity in Turkey: The Transformation of the Republic's Status in the International System [Hardcover]

National and State Identity in Turkey uses the concepts of national and state identity to examine Turkeys domestic and international politics and explain how the countrys position in the international system has changed over the last ten years. State identity is understood as the end result of a transformed national identity, linking both domestic and international levels.

Toni Alaranta argues that there has been a radical reformulation of Turkeys national identity, interest, and positioning in the world since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. This transformed identity has helped the country renegotiate its status in the world. He first examines the changing nature of Turkeys national identity before looking at the struggle between two extreme positionssecularism and Islamism. He then explains how the New Turkey discourse is part of an Islamic-conservative ideology that targets the notion of the domestic other, or minorities, versus the Turkish-Muslim self. This discourse is transforming not only the notion of national identity but also Turkeys relations with the rest of the world, and particularly with the European Union.

[The book's] content is tightly argued and full of food for thought. Its argument is powerful. . . .[and is] backed by a formidable bibliography. Hurriyet Daily News

[I]llustrating that the Islamisation of Turkey has been rooted in the interplay of domestic factors and the international system, Alarantas study is a historically rich and illuminating account of the rise of political Islam. . . .National and State Identity in Turkey offers a valuable and insightful introduction to Turkish identity politics overall, and contextualises the inherent problems of an ethnically and religiously diverse society ambitiously trying to find its place in an anarchic, international order. The LolƒH