Civil Society’s History: New Constructions of Ottoman Heritage by the Justice and Development Party in Turkey

Abstract

This article examines the impact of JDP’s (Justice and Development Party) neo-Ottomanist heritage politics upon state-civil society relations in Turkey. Instead of treating Ottoman heritage as a fixed essence, this essay illustrates how shifting interpretations of the Ottoman past serve to construct alternative understandings of civil society. Although during the 1990s the Islamist movement largely depicted Ottoman “civil society” as a democratic force, I argue that this earlier understanding has been abandoned in favour of a depoliticized notion of state-civil society relations after JDP come to power in 2002. The ongoing selective portrayal of Ottoman heritage represents religious endowments [vakıfs] as state-supportive civil society organizations. Consequently, many contemporary civil society organizations are expected to conform to these newly conceived ideas about Ottoman heritage. Most importantly, this new mode of heritage production emphasizes a collaborative model of state-civil society relations instead of one that tolerates political opposition.