RE-IMAGINING THE CITIZEN-CONSCRIPT EXAMINING THE DYNAMICS AND EFFICACY OF CONSCRIPTION AS AN ARENA FOR CITIZENSHIP CONSTRUCTION IN ISRAEL AND TURKEY Laura Payne Name of supervisor: Dr Irna van der Molen Date of submission: 13th August 2010 Program trajectory: research and thesis writing only (30 ECTS) Word count: 26, 913 A thesis submitted to The Board of Examiners in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Conflict Studies and Human Rights ‘If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences’. William Isaac Thomas (1928:572) 2 | P a g e CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 5 ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS ............................................................................... 6 Israel .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Turkey ................................................................................................................................................. 6 INTRODUCTION: CONSCRIPTION IN A CHANGING WORLD .................................................................... 7 Configuration ...................................................................................................................................... 8 RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................................................................. 9 Objectives: delineating the puzzle and its constituent parts .............................................................. 9 Case selection ................................................................................................................................... 10 Data capture ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Data analysis and interpretation ...................................................................................................... 11 Limitations ........................................................................................................................................ 12 CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMES ........................................................................................... 13 Citizenship ......................................................................................................................................... 13 Discourses of citizenship: Republicanism; Liberalism; Ethno-nationalism ................................... 13 Qualifying ‘citizenship status’: legal, political and social barometers .......................................... 14 The social construction of identity.................................................................................................... 15 Militarised socialisation ................................................................................................................ 16 BUILDING THE NATION: FROM THE FOUNDING FATHERS TO 2O10 .................................................... 18 The case of Israel .............................................................................................................................. 18 ‘Next year in Jerusalem’: Theodor Herzl and Der Judenstaat, 1896 ............................................. 19 May 14th, 1948: Ben-Gurion and the foundation of the modern Israeli state .............................. 20 The present day: challenges to the republican supra-narrative ................................................... 22 The case of Turkey ............................................................................................................................ 24 October 29th, 1923: Atatürk and the foundation of the modern Turkish state ............................ 24 1950 – 1960: The reconfiguration of civil-military relations in the multiparty period ................. 26 The present day: liberalisation and the gradual erosion of the civil-military compact ................ 28 THE CONSCRIPTION REGIME: WHO SERVES, WHO DOESN’T, AND WHY? ........................................... 30 Israel: the politics of sherut hova and sherut leumi .......................................................................... 30 Arab citizens of Israel .................................................................................................................... 31 Women .......................................................................................................................................... 32 The Charedim ................................................................................................................................ 33 The Refuseniks .............................................................................................................................. 34 3 | P a g e The military backbone: non-Charedi Jewish men ......................................................................... 35 Turkey: the declining orthodoxy of vatani görev .............................................................................. 36 More than just a degree: streaming recruits according to educational attainment .................... 36 Ill-treatment of recruits: the military’s worst kept secret ............................................................ 37 The asker kacagi and vicdani retci surge: liberal bellwethers? .................................................... 38 The prospect of professionalisation.............................................................................................. 39 SITES OF SOCIALISATION: THE RITUAL OF SWEARING-IN ..................................................................... 41 Deconstructing and interpreting public events ................................................................................ 41 Israel: ‘I cried like hell’ ...................................................................................................................... 42 Turkey: ‘I just wanted the day to finish’ ........................................................................................... 44 CONVERTING MILITARY SACRIFICE INTO CITIZENSHIP STATUS ............................................................ 46 Converting resources from the military to the civilian sphere ......................................................... 46 Israel: a career prerequisite .............................................................................................................. 47 Turkey: ‘We leave just as we arrived’ ............................................................................................... 49 WHO COUNTS? PERCEPTIONS OF EX-CONSCRIPTS .............................................................................. 51 Israel: ‘They live on our backs’ .......................................................................................................... 51 Turkey: ‘It’s officers that don’t deserve to be called Turkish’ .......................................................... 54 CONCLUDING REMARKS ....................................................................................................................... 57 Israel: the politics of exclusion .......................................................................................................... 57 Turkey: acta non verba ..................................................................................................................... 58 Returning to the question ................................................................................................................. 58 Horizons ............................................................................................................................................ 59 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................................... 60 Appendix 1: Fieldwork locations ....................................................................................................... 60 Appendix 2: Article 318 of the Turkish Penal Code ........................................................................... 60 Appendix 3: Confidence in the Turkish Armed Forces ...................................................................... 61 Appendix 4: Article 63 of the Turkish Penal Code ............................................................................. 62 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 63 4 | P a g e ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude goes to my respondents, who risked opening their doors and their minds to me and extended the hand of friendship; you are anonymous but not unknown. Heartfelt thanks also go to Dr Irna van der Molen, for leading me with patience, honesty and encouragement, and to the residents of Aida Camp, to whom I attribute my long-standing interest in the significance of soldierhood. Inshallah peace will reign upon the Holy Land. 5 | P a g e ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS Israel Eretz Yisrael Biblical land of Israel IDF Israel Defence Force Hashba’ah Swearing-in ceremony, IDF Mamlachiyut Statism MK Member of Knesset Refusenik Conscientious objector Tironut Basic training, IDF Yeshivot Jewish religious academies Turkey Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi Republican People’s Party Cumhuriyetçilik Republicanism