"They Want to Control Everything" - Discourse and Lifestyle in Contemporary Turkey

Abstract:

Based upon anthropological fieldwork and contemporary literature as well as an analysis of media reports and statements by government officials such as current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this thesis explores the interrelations between political discourses, lifestyle, and identity construction in contemporary Turkey. In the thesis, it is depicted how certain lifestyle choices are legally limited or (drawing on moral, religious, and nationalist discourses) labeled as 'bad' or 'wrong' by the current AKP government and certain parts of society. The informants interviewed for this thesis, mostly well-educated, young Turkish urbanites, feel like these restrictions of lifestyle choices limit their possibilities to freely construct and express their identities, which leads to feelings of resentment, unhappiness, and discomfort. By analyzing political developments in the 20^th and 21^st century, it is furthermore illustrated that authoritarianism has been a substantial part of the Turkish state project ever since the founding of the Turkish Republic. The current political events and conflicts about lifestyle and identity construction, it is argued, have to be understood in this context rather than depicting them as based upon a strict dividing line between 'secular' and 'religious' parts of society, as it is often depicted in Western media.