On regime change; the PKK's bonfire; the Directorate of Communications

Notebook 27

This is a regular feature in which I write about the things I’ve been reading and watching. Free subscribers get the first item, paid subscribers get the whole thing.

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This week has again be heavy on Turkish politics for me. Before I get into it, I’d just like to point out that the events this week have really highlighted the core argument of my book, New Turkey and the Far Right: How Reactionary Nationalism Remade a Country. The theorists behind the regime under construction today, the nature of the Kurdish “peace process,” as well as some of the peripheral characters involved, like Burhanettin Duran, who was made head of the Communications Directorate, are all in the book.

People sometimes ask me where they can get the book. It depends on where you are. Just search for the title wherever you buy English-language books. It’s published by I.B. Tauris, which is an imprint of Bloomsbury, one of the biggest publishers in the world. It shouldn’t be hard to find.

I.B. Tauris also has amazing catalogue of academic and semi-academic Turkey books. Check them out.

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Latest podcast drop

I messed up and didn’t send the latest podcast with

Nick Danforth

to free subscribers. If that’s you, you can listen to the first half of it here.

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Regime change everywhere all at once

Regimes of government are constantly evolving, and sometimes they change all together. France is currently on its fifth republic, Germany, even though it was only unified in 1871, went through several phases as well. Abraham Lincoln marked a “new birth of freedom” in the United States, dramatically re-casting that republic through the Civil War.

It has been my argument that Erdoğan wants to do something similar in Turkey, casting off the Kemalist republic in favor of something else. As I’ve argued in my book, I believe the right way to think about this is through the prism of values, rather than ideologies.

What I’m seeing is that regime change is an increasingly prominent theme in the United States as well. Trump is not nearly as deliberate about all this, but at the highest levels, he is aware that he is proposing a radically different set of values than that of liberalism. He wants men to be men again, for religion and ethnic homogeneity to be valued higher, for “real” Americans to rule over the other kind, and for a martial culture to reign supreme. But he isn’t very disciplined about it, nor is he good at shaping it. He’s just surfing a political and cultural wave that’s been brewing relatively independently of him.

J.D. Vance appears much more deliberate. He gave a speech at the Clairmont Institute, a California think tank that he says has been highly influential for him. I think California conservatives are like Izmir Islamists: they’re embedded in the enemy population, so they’ve sharpened their reactionary sentiment to the edge of a samurai sword. They’ve long argued for regime change, and Vance is excited to be their voice.

In his speech, Vance explicitly argues against the ideas in the American Declaration of Independence, arguing that American nation isn’t united by a creed, but one’s ancestral ties to the land. He contrasted his view — rightly I think — the democratic socialism of NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who was the perfect example of someone who didn’t feel gratitude towards the men and women who settled America and built it into its current shape. (For more, read John Ganz’s recent piece.)

These are all reactions to republican notions of equal citizenship under a constitutional order. I think this is a disaster for the US, the oldest major republic in the world. The sheer ineptitude of the Trump administration is doing major legal and economic damage, but this attempt at a deeper reconfiguration of the country could have much deeper consequences.

But let’s turn to Turkey now. Because Erdoğan and his team have been at this game for longer, their enemies are much weaker, and they themselves have a much better idea of where they want to go. They are also on the brink of taking a major new step in solidifying their institutional structure. As the PKK is laying down arms and Syria comes under Ankara’s control, there’s a lot of talk about whether the country is abandoning the republican idea of equal citizenship, and turning towards an Ottoman “millet” model, where ethnic and religious groups will be recognized by a central, sovereign authority.

“hurrah, it’s Ottoman cuisine again!”