Serif Esendemir

Constitution of Citizenship in Turkey: Features of Turkish Citizenship: a Strong State Tradition and Ethno-secular Borders Serif Esendemir

This study attempts to give a critical review of the debates on how the citizenship was constructed in Turkey. While doing this the late Ottoman period and the republican era have been examined. It has been observed that the concept of Turkish citizenship started to take its form in a traditional manner, but the evolution of the idea of constitutional citizenship took place in the early 1980s. It has also been found that the role of the state tradition has been strong throughout of history of Ottoman Empire as well as Republic of Turkey. The passive character of Turkish citizenship has been also noted. In addition to the point above, the ethno-secular borders were dealt with to see whether different elements of society were included or not. It has been claimed that the democratic struggles after the 1980s have helped to activate the passive character of the traditional form of Turkish citizenship in terms of inclusion. Also, it was seen that the parameters of change in this form of Turkish citizenship have resulted in development of new ideas of citizenship, including European citizenship started to be discussed with the process of Turkey's candidacy for European Union membership.