Introduction

Abstract

During a television interview in June 2011, days before the national elections, Turkish Prime Minister and leader of the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated, “There are minorities [i.e. non-Muslims] according to [the Treaty of] Lausanne. They are one percent [of the population]. In Turkey, all those except minorities are the founding members [asli unsur] of the nation.” At the time, some of the liberal media criticized the Prime Minister’s complete dismissal of non-Muslim citizens in his reference to belonging to the nation. Yet, the statement did not incite a wider-based debate.