Populist Constitution-making through Gift from God: An Analysis of the Friday Sermons in Turkey

• In Event: 4322 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. The Sociology of Populist Movements

Abstract

Just six hours after the first appearance of military tanks on the Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul as part of a broader coup attempt on July 15, 2016, President Erdoğan called this movement as ‘gift from God.’ Besides being a gift for totally silencing his political opponents and consolidating his absolute authority, it was especially a gift for Erdoğan as it led to a constitutional referendum on April 16, 2017 which helped him to finally change the political system of Turkey. I will try to understand the path that led to this system change. I will focus on the use of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in order to sustain their populist politics. Diyanet issued a circular immediately after the coup attempt which, among other centralizing points, obliged the preachers at each mosque to read solely the Friday sermons published by Diyanet during the Friday prayers. Analyzing these Friday sermons, of which the preparation processes were completely centralized during this period, would provide crucial insights on AKP’s populist discourse under the state of emergency. Thus, I will particularly try to understand how the discourse of the Friday sermons represented the political priorities of AKP, which can be considered as populist, between the July 15 coup attempt and the 2017 constitutional referendum. I will reveal to what extent they were used as a tool to sustain AKP’s populist politics during the referendum campaign. I will analyze thirty-nine Friday sermons published by Diyanet between July 15, 2016 and April 16, 2017. I will point out their affinities with AKP’s populist politics in their discourse such as defining Turkish identity through Islam, appealing hope for a ‘better’ future, reaching the Islamized society ideal, taking the leadership of the Muslim world, and invoking the threat from ‘others.’

Author

• Can Mert Kökerer, The New School for Social Research