Every loss that has not been symbolized

always returns to haunt subsequent generations.

Erdoğan Özmen

Over the past two decades, a particular concept has become increasingly prevalent in Turkish political and social life: Neo-Ottomanism. The reason why it has become so ingrained in political discourse and in our social and cultural repertoire has much to do with Neo-Ottomanism exceeding the use of the terminology of the political sphere and becoming increasingly commonplace in daily life. Neo-Ottomanism exists as a constructed story, as a narrative of the glorious past, as a political framework into which individuals and collectivities place themselves, as a means for knowing, understanding and interpreting the world and as a way of forming political identities. The intensity of the emotional investments in this narrative, both by ruling elites and among supporters, has itself become an object of scholarly inquiry.

The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, hereafter AKP) has left its mark on more than two decades of Turkish politics, and attracted no shortage of academic interest in this time. Yet, none of the studies on the party’s rule have included emotions—which I believe are deeply embedded in the AKP’s mode of conducting politics—as a central unit of analysis. For this reason, what might be termed an ‘emotions-proof’ perspective on politics, the support the AKP has received over the years has often been evaluated within a reductionist, judgemental and even condescending framework that does not attempt to understand the emotional motivations of its supporters. The point of departure for this study lies in interrogating emotions.

Taking up the AKP’s politics of emotions in a way that encompasses both the past and the present requires locating a medium, an object of the symbolic politics in which people have emotionally invested. Deriving its power from the emotionally charged nature of the party’s journey, the most arresting political narrative, both as an increasingly visible phenomenon in everyday life and in its capacity as a receptacle of emotion, is Neo-Ottomanism. Throughout the 2000s, an alternative to the republican narrative of the past was constructed by the AKP, with the help of its supporters. Grounded in an alternative reading of history by elites, Neo-Ottomanism challenges the republican regime in Turkey as founded on the overthrow of the historical institutions, symbols and practices reminiscent of its Ottoman past. The republican symbols that had dominated the official narrative for nearly a century were replaced under the AKP by an alternative recollection of national belonging that glorified the Ottoman past and mobilized collective emotions of pride and pleasure. Neo-Ottomanism was not only a strategic political narrative, it was an outlook enthusiastically embraced by both the ruling elite and the people as well. It permeated everyday life through various symbols and thus became an object that was constantly reproduced, refreshed and felt. It was transformed into a powerful symbolic political tool determining the country’s ethos and pathos. As such, Neo-Ottomanism is the perfect framework for unravelling and understanding the emotional dynamics of the AKP’s longstanding and unwavering grassroots support.

So, how do the symbols of the Neo-Ottomanist narrative speak to their recipients? What do these symbols ask of them? Which emotional needs are behind the adoption of Neo-Ottomanism by the people, and how do these conform to a new understanding of national identity? What role do emotions play in linking past, present and future and thus in fostering a national mood? I argue that Neo-Ottomanism functions foremost domestically, exposing, transforming and activating the desires, ambitions and anxieties of the people. For the ones who eagerly embraced the narrative, Neo-Ottomanism enabled the transition to a new phase of emotional experience in the national consciousness, and paved the way for the creation of a national mood quite unlike what came before. The AKP’s rise to power led to the emergence of a new collective that needed symbolic recognition, a segment of society that had always made sense of its own story within a narrative of oppression. The definition of this collective necessitated the redefinition of national identity. Thus, in Neo-Ottomanism, the AKP has found its most effective tool to respond to the emotional needs of some segments of society.

This book focuses on the emotions that act upon the Neo-Ottomanist symbols circulating in the political and social sphere. It looks at how emotions stick to symbols and, contracted by them, and move around the surfaces of collective and individual bodies. In doing so, it aims to develop a perspective on both the political nature of emotions and the emotional nature of the political. I argue that the political narrative of Neo-Ottomanism most clearly reveals the AKP’s politics of emotions and the support it has received through this style of politics. I aim to demonstrate that the emotions which emanate from this narrative are a projection of the historical-emotional journey of the Islamic conservative tradition from which the AKP emerged—at times, the journey of the Turkish subject in a broader sense. I discuss Neo-Ottomanism as a new pathos of national identity, a kind of mechanism for the production of national emotion that functions to disclose, transform and mobilize the desires, ambitions and anxieties of the people. This book takes seriously the dialogical dimension of the politics of emotions—in other words, it examines how the emotions addressed by Neo-Ottomanism are attributed meaning by its supporters, and in which forms they are reproduced, transformed and strengthened.

***

Chapter 2 is devoted to a theoretical discussion of the relationship between emotions, politics and political symbols. I examine the intellectual motives behind the longstanding neglect of emotions in modern political science. Based on the claim that emotions are collective as well as individual phenomena, the effort here is to introduce a new understanding of emotion. The chapter argues that the objects of emotions in politics are political symbols. It demonstrates the crucial role of symbols and symbolic politics in establishing the relationship between politics and emotions. It further aims to theorize how symbolic politics function as a means of forming dialogic, productive and emotional bonds between the ruling elite and the people.

Chapter 3 focuses on the journey of Neo-Ottomanism as a political narrative in Turkey’s political history. Primarily through a method of historical excavation, it uncovers the traces and motivations behind the political moves directed at the Ottoman past and its revival. It then attempts to reveal the concrete manifestations of the glorification of Ottomanism as a narrative of national identity that characterized the zeitgeist in Turkey in the 2000s, not only in the political discourse of the ruling elite, but also in the enthusiastic embrace and glorification of this narrative by large segments of society.

The remaining chapters of the book are devoted to what I consider to be three powerful political-symbolic sites of Neo-Ottomanism: the leader, space and myth. At each site, I examine the emotions that evoke and mobilize the mood that the Neo-Ottomanist narrative prescribes. Chapter 4 focuses on the journey of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a leader and symbolic political figure prior to the foundation of the AKP and up to its present position, and on the emotions inherent in this journey. Erdoğan has played a key role in the transformation of Neo-Ottomanism into a new narrative of national identity. The emotional climate that enabled Neo-Ottomanism to move from a minor narrative of belonging that appealed to a limited segment of the population to a dominant element of national identity is embodied in Erdoğan's biography, political history, personality, symbolic actions and discourse. This chapter reveals how humiliation, envy, disgust, hatred, anxiety and anger are manifested in cathartic forms through the symbolic acts and language of Erdoğan during AKP rule. It thus demonstrates that Neo-Ottomanism is built on an emotional basis of ressentiment that transcends the sum of above-mentioned emotions.

Chapter 5 reveals how the emotions addressed by the Neo-Ottomanist narrative are fleshed out through space, namely, Istanbul. Throughout the AKP era, Istanbul has been vigorously appropriated as the founding site of nostalgic interest in the Ottoman past, as well as the site of a symbolic war waged against republican regime over the city. The country witnessed the revival of Ottoman Istanbul against the Ankara of the Republic. Above all, Istanbul has been a symbolic political site that most powerfully embodies the loss, disillusionment, longing for a golden age and nostalgia of the Islamic conservative tradition from which Erdoğan and the AKP emerged. From the Hagia Sophia to the Çamlıca Mosque, from the Ottoman Military Barracks to the Panorama 1453 Museum, in the bridges, the new airport, the Marmaray and Eurasia tunnels and finally, in the Conquest Festivities, the restoration and renovation of Istanbul under the AKP exemplifies a nostalgic longing for a golden age, a vision of the future that aims to restore this glorious past along with a vengeful domestic imperial appetite.

Chapter 6 proposes a reading of the 15 July 2016 coup attempt through the lens of a Neo-Ottomanist politics of emotions, questioning how the events of that night were framed and mythologized to appeal to narcissistic emotions by the ruling elite. For the AKP, the 15 July transformed a narrative of history dominated by defeat and oppression into a radically different narrative of the present and future, which I interpret through the concept of narcissism. Indeed, this story was not limited to the AKP; in the aftermath of the failed coup, calls were made for a new national spirit in an effort to imbue it with inclusive content that might appeal to all citizens of the Republic of Turkey. Considering 15 July an attempt to create a myth reflective of the narcissistic mood invoked by Neo-Ottomanism will allow us to see the transformation of emotions across the AKP’s two decades in power.

***

This book was written at a particularly tough time in Turkey’s political history. I would like to think of it as a ‘taking notice’ of the relationship between emotions and politics in Turkey. Far from exhausting the matter, this book aims to initiate a debate on the role of emotions in Turkish politics. Of course, my pen might have slipped at times while trying to capture a process already in progress. I, as the author, take full responsibility for any shortcomings and defects of this work.