Lunch Series on Religion and Nationalism: Turkey

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May 13, 2020 | Part of the Politicization of Religion in Global Perspective project, this series of events will focus on questions surrounding the politicization of religion in India, China, Russia, Syria, and Turkey. Using qualitative and quantitative data, this project has identified patterns of politicization of religion across traditions in various national and international contexts. The main findings will be accessible in a book authored by Jocelyne Cesari and published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

In this conversation, Jocelyne Cesari will be joined by A. Erdi Ozturk, lecturer in international relations and politics at London Metropolitan University, to engage in a discussion on the status of Islam in the building of Turkey as a secular nation-state and on modern-day Turkish politics. They will consider religious dimensions of Turkish politics, the authoritarian turn of the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisim, AKP), features of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's populism, and how the current COVID-19 crisis will affect political leadership.