(iPoster) Notes on a Scandal: Cynicism and Indifference in Contemporary Turkey

• In Event: Poster Session: Immigration Politics in a Changing World & Middle East Section
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Middle East Section

Abstract

This paper tracks a scandal that roiled Turkish politics when an infamous mob-boss began releasing a series of “whistle-blower” revelations about alleged connections between the Justice and Development Party (AKP), religious orders, and the global criminal underworld. Through a qualitative analysis of the whistleblower’s revelations and reactions to them, the paper charts how weaponized information is deployed, how it draws on diverse ideological framings, and how “scandal” anchors the ways in which the politics of cynicism and indifference are performed and interpreted by everyday citizens in authoritarian contexts.

Author

• Kristin E. Fabbe, European University Institute