Ph.D. Theses
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Browsing Ph.D. Theses by Author "Arat, Yeşim,"
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Item Alevis, the state and the Sivas incident :|problems of democratization(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Önen, Levent.; Arat, Yeşim,The Sivas Incident is one of the most tragic and controversial events of the Republican history. It is a multidimensional event involving many critical issues that pertain to democratization of Turkey: the inadequate protection of basic civil rights, the issue of relationship between state and religion, freedom of religion and Alevi Question and the political Islamist challenge. This study aims to understand how political actors in the Parliament, judicial institutions and Alevi organizations politicized the Incident and formed competing narratives around it. I use the political contestation of the Incident between 1993 and 2015 as a novel lens to look at the problematic working of democratic institutions in Turkey and the challenge that Alevi civil society presented to it for further democratization. The methodology of this dissertation rests on the content analysis of the parliamentary records, court documents and the publications of Alevi organizations. I’ve also made use of interviews with the representatives of Alevi organizations. I benefited from a review of secondary resources including the newspaper records in my research. I show how certain violent incidents are politicized in the Turkish context because of structural vulnerabilities that have been there since the foundation of the nation state. The examination of competing narratives establishes that the dismissal of existence of sectarian motives and tensions has characterized the responses of political and judicial actors. I demonstrate the difficulty of Turkish political system to meet the demands of a marginalized community for recognition and justice.Item Islamism and islamic literature in contemporary Turkey: From epic to novel understandings of Islam(Thesis (Ph.D.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering, 2004., 2004.) Çayır, Kenan.; Arat, Yeşim,This study explores Islamism and Islamic identities through literary representations of Islamism in Turkey in the last two decades, a period in which Islamism came on the public agenda through novels, films, music and other artistic productions. My focus will be in particular on the Islamic novels of the 1980s and 1990s in order to elucidate Islamist actors' perceptions of 'self' and 'other' and of the social milieu in which they lived. I will note a change in emphasis in Islamic representations and discourse between the 1980s and 1990s. I will argue that with their didactic and pedagogical narratives detailing 'how Muslims should live in the modern world,' Islamic novels of 1980s provided Islamists with a means to disseminate ideas in popularized form and to develop life strategies that paved the way for assertive collective Islamic subjectivity. By contrast, in the 1990s more self-reflexive/self-exposing novels have emerged in Islamic circles that mirror the questioning of radical conceptions of the previous decade in Islamic circles. The new Islamic novels, with their self-reflexive forms and their narratives exploring the inner conflicts of Islamic actors in the face of changing social relations challenge the collective definitions of Islamic identity and signify novel practices and interpretations of Islam.Item The presidency of religious affairs, women, and politics in Turkey: 1968 – 2014(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2018., 2018.) Genç Yıldız, Ece Han.; Arat, Yeşim,This study aims to provide an understanding of the evolving role of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) or Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı and its implications for women. Due to democratization, over the years PRA’s primary role shifted from controlling religion to expanding the realm of religion. I hypothesized there is a relation between shifting sociopolitical context and Diyanet’s discourse on women. A qualitative analysis of the texts published by the PRA between 1968 and 2014 was conducted. The thesis examined the two periodicals Diyanet Aylık and Diyanet Aile, the book of İlmihal, the pronouncements publicized through the PRA’s official website, as well as the statements of the PRA notables. My cross-time comparative analysis found that the PRA has been dominated by a patriarchal discourse that reproduced gender stereotypes, hierarchy between sexes, and gendered division of labor. However, after the 1990s the PRA shifted toward a more gender - sensitive and egalitarian discourse. Dedicated efforts of the feminist movement, as well as the pursuit of EU membership were influential in transforming the state’s agenda, which in turn moderated Diyanet’s interpretation of religious norms concerning gender relations. Yet, within the last decade the PRA has been radically politicized and tilted toward a new and contradictory type of patriarchy. A critical and gender - focused study of the PRA not only makes a unique contribution to the literature on the relations between state, society and religion; but also deconstructs official religious discourse, which eventually affects the prospects of advancing gender equality in Turkey.