This longitudinal study reveals how the conduct of political leaders has been central to the shortcomings of the Turkey's democratic system. The most prominent political leaders, from the birth of the Republic until today, have all displayed a desire to sustain their rule through authoritarian and undemocratic measures. This has ensured efforts to improve, strengthen and respect democratic institutions and practices have been weak or non-existent across the multi-party era. In turn, the chapters identify how the leaders' values, beliefs and practices underwritten by authoritarianism, have resulted in the tenuous existence of democracy, oscillating between simply enduring and failure during the periods they occupied the seats of political power. By looking at the Turkish experience, the book also offers comparative lessons and insights into the role political leaders play in the survival or failure of democracy.

The relationship with Greece has always been at the forefront in determining Turkish foreign policy. This book focuses broadly on the main issues of contention between Turkey and Greece, and analyses Turkey's policies towards Greece, based on the securitisation framework and focusing on the discourse of elites in the post-Cold War period. It inquires how, by whom and the extent to which Turkish foreign policy has securitised and de-securitised Greece.

Based on an extensive discourse analysis of statements from Turkish elites - including the president, prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, chief of general staff and the secretary general of the National Security Council - Cihan Dizdaroğlu presents a fresh and critical analysis of the foreign policy Turkey enacts regarding Greece. Considering the contemporary geopolitical issues such as competition over the Eastern Mediterranean, the ongoing deadlock in Cyprus, Turkey's involvement in Libya as well as the emergence of new tension in the Aegean Sea, Greek-Turkish relations will continue to be a critical subject of international relations.

Through the narrative analysis of texts, ranging from political speeches to museum documents as well as graffiti and posters from protests, this book tries to shed light on contemporary Turkish politics as well as offering a glance into how narratives operate in the political realm. Following the journey of political narratives and counternarratives in the Turkish context facilitates the mapping of the cultural terrain while being attentive to power, resistance and dynamism.

By analyzing narratives of collective memory, patriarchy and economic development, all of which are deeply embedded culturally, it traces the ways in which narratives shape politics. The chapters deal with issues such as the role historical narratives play in hegemonic power struggles among political parties, the narrative resources upon which populist regimes draw, how economic development narratives affect prospects of and threats against democratic practices and institutions, and how protesters subvert dominant notions of citizenship through counternarratives.

Turkish Politics and ‘The People’ enhances our understanding of ‘the popular’ in the study of politics through a critical examination of the uses and constructions of ‘the people’ from the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, to the present. It proposes ways of reading the insertion and operationalisation of the notion of ‘the people’ as a concept, a political subject, the object of policy and politics over the past century. It assesses the ways ‘the people’ have been shaped by the history of the republic, and, in turn, have informed ways of visualising society, the country’s political culture, institutional architecture and framed the parameters and repertoires of political action. Drawing on extensive archival research and contributions from historical sociology and social movement research, Spyros A. Sofos enriches the ways of approaching the ‘popular’ by proposing ways of integrating identity, discourse, strategy, organisation and leadership in the articulation of ‘the people’ in political discourse and action.

Analyses British pressure to partition and ultimately destroy the Ottoman Empire.