Leiden University Student Repository

Langenberg, Rex (2024)

‘Great Nations Have Great Troubles’: The AKP’s Construction of (In)Security and Identity During the Gezi Protests and the Kurdish Peace Process

Master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (MA)

This thesis explores how the AKP’s discourse on national security constructed Turkey’s national identity and defined threats during two major domestic crises: the Gezi Protests and the Peace Process between Turkey and the PKK. Through a theoretical framework drawing from securitization and ontological security theory, it provides a discourse analysis in order to determine how AKP officials constructed these events as a threat, identified them as a national emergency, legitimized the application of extraordinary measures against them, and rejected legitimate alternatives. Further, it studies the implications of this construction of identity and (in)security on ontological security, and argues that an appreciation of these implications helps provide significant insights on the nexus of identity and (in)security in contemporary Turkey.

Security

Gezi Protests

AKP

Turkey

PKK

Securitization

Ontological Security

Author

Langenberg, Rex

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Yenen, A.A.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en