| dc.description.abstract | The management of diversity has been the chief dilemma of the Turkish state since
the 19th century to the present day. This thesis explains, from a legal perspective, the
ongoing dilemmas regarding the management of diversity in Turkey. The Turkish
legal system is shown to have persistently failed to accommodate ethno-religious
diversity in the country. This failure is attributable to the state’s founding
philosophy - Turkish nationalism - and its influence upon legislation and judicial
bodies. The concepts of ‘nation’, ‘citizenship’ and ‘minority’, formulated in line
with this nationalist perception, are key coordinates of a policy on managing
diversity in the Turkish legal system. The ‘civic’ language used in the Constitutions
is therefore argued to be misleading if one takes into account the heavily loaded
ethno-cultural and religious references in the constitutional preambles, legislation,
and particularly the courts’ jurisprudence. In fact, as shown here, the state’s official
stance of ‘civic/territorial nationalism’ has been used to justify the promotion of
‘Turkishness’ and the Turkification of ‘others’ in Turkey. Thus, one of the main
concerns of this thesis is to examine the scope as well as the ethnic and religious
coordinates of the notion of ‘Turk’ which is claimed by the state and judicial bodies
to be an ‘umbrella’ identity. Lastly, this thesis argues that the Turkish state and
legal system’s nationalist stance has created a legal discourse which has problems
with the very justification for minority protection given in international law. Thus,
the thesis further hopes to demonstrate that without a thorough reconstruction of
the founding philosophy of the state and the legal system, which would also
require a de-construction of history, education, legislation, jurisprudence, etc., any
solution to dilemmas of managing diversity would be inadequate. | en_US |
