{"title":"A political game?: the dispute over the Canal Istanbul project","authors":"Ezgi Pehlivanli, Hande Eslen-Ziya","doi":"10.1080/14683849.2023.2262090","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to understand how ideologies become embedded in political projects through strategies of legitimation aimed at justifying specific ideas, beliefs, and emotions. By using the political negotiation between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) concerning the Canal Istanbul Project as an illustrative example from Turkey to ‘ideology in action’, this article shows how various rhetorical combinations appeal to an analysis of ‘ideology at work’. Our analysis is based on 20 in-depth interviews with both opponents and supporters of the project, in addition to a comparison of two official websites providing scientific evidence from each party’s perspective. The results show that the two poles of the dispute aim to recruit more people as their political supporters by using their own scientific reports with claims that they are ‘objective’ and aspire for the benefit of Istanbul.","PeriodicalId":47071,"journal":{"name":"Turkish Studies","volume":"2011 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Turkish Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2023.2262090","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study aims to understand how ideologies become embedded in political projects through strategies of legitimation aimed at justifying specific ideas, beliefs, and emotions. By using the political negotiation between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) concerning the Canal Istanbul Project as an illustrative example from Turkey to ‘ideology in action’, this article shows how various rhetorical combinations appeal to an analysis of ‘ideology at work’. Our analysis is based on 20 in-depth interviews with both opponents and supporters of the project, in addition to a comparison of two official websites providing scientific evidence from each party’s perspective. The results show that the two poles of the dispute aim to recruit more people as their political supporters by using their own scientific reports with claims that they are ‘objective’ and aspire for the benefit of Istanbul.
期刊介绍:
Turkey is a country whose importance is rapidly growing in international affairs. A rapidly developing democratic state with a strong economy, complex society, active party system, and powerful armed forces, Turkey is playing an increasingly critical role in Europe, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. Given Turkey"s significance and the great interest in studying its history, politics, and foreign policy, Turkish Studies presents a forum for scholarly discussion on these topics and more.