Reactive and Aggressive Years of the Akp

Abstract

This chapter aims to read the AKP period of Turkey in light of a combination of domestic and foreign policies, with religion at the forefront. In these two chapters, the concept of ‘state of exception’ is employed to understand the authoritarian ethno-nationalist Sunnification of Turkey under AKP rule. Indeed, throughout the chapters the new positions of state institutions such as Diyanet, the role of the Gülen Movement, the role of Ahmet Davutoğlu in the new Turkish foreign policy and the leadership of Erdoğan constitute the priorities, since these are the main determinants in an understanding of the relations between the Balkans and Turkey since the early 2000s.