Ph.D. program in “Political Theory, Political Science and Political History” XXX Cycle: 2014-2017 Neo-Pan-Islamism in Turkey: foreign policy discourse of Turkey’s Islamist thinkers and parties (1970s-1990s) PhD Candidate: Alessio Calabrò Supervisor: prof. Francesca Corrao 1 Neo-Pan-Islamism in Turkey: foreign policy discourse of Turkey’s Islamist thinkers and parties (1970s-1990s) Contents Abbreviations ................................................................................................ 4 Introduction .................................................................................................. 5 Concepts and typologies for a research on Turkish Islamist Parties and their foreign policy ambitions .................................................................... 19 Defining concepts ..................................................................................... 20 The concepts of political party, movement and opportunity space .......... 25 The concept of foreign policy ................................................................... 29 The concept of Islamism ........................................................................... 33 A categorization of Turkey’s Islamist parties ........................................... 36 A brief history of Turkish Islamism: main thinkers and organizations 45 Islamism in the Late Ottoman Empire and in the Early Republic of Turkey .................................................................................................................. 46 Islamism in multi-party Republic of Turkey ............................................ 64 The political role of the Naqshbandi Sufi order from the Ottoman Empire to the Republican Era ................................................................... 70 Mehmet Zahid Kotku, Esad Coşan and the İskenderpaşa Cemaati: links with the NOM and Pan-Islamist visions ................................................... 83 Said Nursi’s anti-communist Islamic Union ........................................... 108 The relevance of religious brotherhoods for the development of Turkish neo-Pan-Islamism ................................................................................... 119 International affairs discourse of key Islamist authors in Republican Turkey ........................................................................................................ 122 Pan-Islamist discourse in late Ottoman and early Republican context ... 125 The reemergence of Pan-Islamism in Cold War Turkey ........................ 141 Necip Fazıl Kısakürek: a Turkish leadership of a united Muslim world 148 2 Sezai Karakoç: the clash between the Islamic and the Western civilization ................................................................................................................ 163 Salih Özcan: Islamist writer, publisher, and “Nursi’s foreign minister” 174 Abdurrahman Dilipak and Dış Politika: Pan-Islamist ideas at the end of the Cold War era ..................................................................................... 191 The Islamist discourse on foreign affairs in Turkey’s Islamist magazines .................................................................................................................... 201 Continuity and change in Turkey’s Islamist discourse: a history of the NOM through its parties’ electoral campaigns (1973-1999) ................. 246 The National Outlook from the MNP to the FP...................................... 248 The MSP and the 1973 campaign ........................................................... 251 The MSP and the 1977 campaign ........................................................... 258 The RP and the 1991 campaign .............................................................. 262 The RP and the 1995 campaign .............................................................. 267 The FP and the 1999 campaign .............................................................. 272 A shift from a long continuity ................................................................ 276 Elements of neo-Pan-Islamist foreign policy discourse in the NOM’s political parties (1970s-1990s) .................................................................. 279 Foreign policy views of Necmettin Erbakan .......................................... 280 Foreign policy views of the NOM parties through parliamentary debates ................................................................................................................ 294 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 323 Bibliography .............................................................................................. 327 Islamist magazines .................................................................................. 341 Daily newspapers .................................................................................... 342 3 Abbreviations AKP: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party ANAP: Anavatan Partisi, Motherland Party CHP: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Republican People’s Party D-8: Developing 8 DYP: Doğru Yol Partisi, True Path Party FP: Fazilet Partisi, Virtue Party JI: Jamaat-e Islami, Islamic Society (Islamist movement, Pakistan/Bangladesh) MB: Muslim Brothers MHP: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, Nationalist Movement Party MMTD: Millet Meclisi Tutanak Dergisi, National Assembly’s Journal of Minutes, TGNA Archive MNP: Milli Nizam Partisi, National Order Party MSP: Milli Selamet Partisi, National Salvation Party MTB: Müslüman Topluluklar Birliği, Union of Muslim Communities (congress) MWL: Muslim World League NOM: National Outlook Movement (Milli Görüş Hareketi) RP: Refah Partisi, Welfare Party SP: Saadet Partisi, Felicity Party TBMM/TGNA: Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi/Turkish Grand National Assembly WMC: World Muslim Congress 4 Introduction As one approaches the study of Turkish Foreign policy under the rule of Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP, Justice and Development Party), the concept of Neo-Ottomanism is frequently central to the discussion. Even if one has additionally pointed out the nationalist features of AKP’s Neo-Ottomanism,1 the latter can be generically defined as a label for a multi-dimensional approach to foreign relations through the utilization of Turkey’s soft power based on historical, geographic and cultural connections dating back to the Ottoman era. Embracing Neo-Ottomanism implies a rejection of the idea of Turkey as merely “a bridge between East and West”, an unassertive actor, valued only from the point of view of its relations with the West. Turkey’s former Prime Minister Turgut Özal was the first ruling figure in contemporary Turkey to be considered a promoter of a “Neo- Ottomanist” foreign policy. Two decades later, AKP’s foreign policy was labeled the same way after its theoretical structuring within Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Strategic Depth. Professor Davutoğlu, a former International Relations scholar, Turkey’s former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, is considered to have been the intellectual architect of the AKP’s foreign policy even before his appointment as minister. Davutoğlu’s Strategic Depth concept can be described as soft power that should be exerted by Turkey in the international arena, and on its neighbors in particular, in the light of the country’s historical and geographical heritage. However, the so-called Neo-Ottomanism has not been sufficiently studied in relation to the stances of the 20th century’s 1 Taşpınar, “The three strategic visions of Turkey”. 5 Islamic movements, parties and intellectuals that certainly influenced Turkish political scene, also by generating the heterogeneous series of pro-Islamic parties from MNP to today’s AKP and Saadet Partisi. In fact, there have been different kinds of Neo-Ottomanism in the history of Turkish foreign policy, and this generic “instinct” of assertiveness and multidimensionality has characterized political personalities and projects diversely situated in Turkey’s political spectrum, from right (Özal) to left (İsmail Cem).2 For this reason, one should rather focus on the differences between this different approaches to the idea of a “more independent” and multidimensional (or multi-directional) Turkey as an international actor. Someone has outlined the connection between Davutoğlu’s doctrine and Pan-Islamism, therefore indicating a more specific origin and nature of the former FM and PM’s “Neo- Ottomanism”.3 The background issue that the present research helps to clarify is the continuity among the Turkish Islamic movements of the second half of the 20th century, as this is also useful to explain the evolution towards today’s Turkish Islamic-based political parties. The core of this research, however, is a study of the specific sphere of foreign policy discourse though a study of these parties’ ideology and discourse. I explore this discourse through research on those movements and parties that appeared on the Turkish political scene approximately in the 1970s- 1990s period, by analyzing in particular their views on foreign affairs. Nevertheless, I focus my research on political parties, rather than on movements. Specifically, the conclusive aim of this research is the analysis of the stances of the main Turkish Islamist parties in relation to foreign policy. The possible evolution or continuity of these stances 2 Altunışık, “Worldviews and Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East” 3 Özkan, “Turkey, Davutoğlu and the idea of pan-Islamism”. 6 is to be explored