On 29 October the Republic of Turkey – initiated and founded by the visionary M. Kemal Atatürk and the leaders of the national liberation and reform movement – celebrates its centenary. The country, however, has unfortunately reached a crossroads. Envisioned by Atatürk as a sovereign, independent, democratic, secular and republican country belonging to the Western […]
Turkey's 100th anniversary: domestic polarisation and international constraints
This 29 October 2023, the Republic of Turkey will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Yet, this year, the remarkable accomplishment of building a modern state from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, will be commemorated with less enthusiasm and in the flagrant absence of grand official celebrations.
For more than 20 years, the country has been ruled by a mix of Islamism and nationalism, which consistently steers Turkey away from the founding principles of the Republic. It is also facing multiple crises – democratic, demographic and economic – which feed into the country’s existing ideological conflict and polarisation. Internationally, Turkey’s geopolitical role is underlined by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. But at the international level too, the country is marked by contradictions, hidden behind President Erdoğan’s attempts to ‘Make Turkey Great Again’.
This new Progressive Post dossier aims to shed light on this strategic actor – placed between Europe, Middle East, Balkans, Black Sea and Caucasus – and examine Turkey’s current trajectory.
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The Republic of Turkey is poised to mark its centennial on 29 October 2023, yet a palpable air of celebration appears conspicuously absent. While flags and posters dot the landscape, a handful of corporations are unveiling previously commissioned commemorative videos, and a select few musicians are debuting compositions in honour of the occasion, the prevailing […]
The mass attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip to Israel, and Israel’s collective revenge-oriented response to it, offers an appropriate and timely case study to re-visit Turkey’s role in ‘the region’ by exposing its real constraints. It shows a certain mindset that when one speaks of ‘the region’, one does not think of the […]
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