The AKP Era

This chapter begins with an analysis of the shifts in global and local conjunctures that facilitated the Islamist AKP's (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi or Justice and Development Party) rise to power, followed by an overview of its neoliberal and pro-EU policies during its first term. It then explores how the anti-Western and anti-globalization currents became substantial elements of media, politics, and culture in the twenty-first century. Local and international developments—such as the EU accession process, the relative easing of restrictions on Kurdish cultural rights, the US invasion of Iraq, the emergence of a revisionist discourse on the Armenian genocide, and the entry of foreign media companies into the Turkish market—began to engender fears and anxieties among the nationalists about the decline of the Turkish state. Through the lens of these developments, the chapter discusses the tensions between globalizing and statist dynamics as well as the AKP's consolidation of the authoritarian neoliberal order.