New Book: Islamization of Turkey under the AKP Rule

I know this is too expensive for you but, hey, what are libraries for? Not to mention getting your library to order it! :)

Islamization of Turkey under the AKP Rule, Edited by Birol Yasilada and Barry Rubin
•Price: £80.00, Hardback, ISBN: 978-0-415-56056-6, Publish Date: 1st November 2010
Routledge •Pages: 136 pages

This book examines the decade in office of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its efforts to transform the Turkish republic toward a more Islamist-oriented system. If it succeeds, Turkey’s dramatic shift will be the most important change in the Middle East power balance since the 1979 Iranian revolution and will have equally devastating effects on Western interests.

For more than 80 years Turkey has been ruled by the secular democratic structures created by Kemal Ataturk. Now, however, the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its series of electoral victories are creating a new system.

While portraying itself as a centre-right reform party, the AKP has been accused of having an Islamist agenda. After almost a decade in power, there is serious evidence that this claim is true. At home, the AKP has been changing basic Turkish attitudes and institutions, from buying up a large portion of the country’s media to revising its laws, and even taking the lead in the writing of a new constitution.

Internationally, Turkey has moved away from the West and Israel and toward Iran and radical Islamist groups. While its intentions—and ability to fulfil them—are still unclear, the AKP has been leading the most important transformation of Turkey since the formation of the republic after World War I. This book systematically examines the AKP’s ideology, support base, actions in office, and goals. This book was published as a special issue of Turkish Studies.

1. Changing Values in Turkey: Religiosity and Tolerance in a Comparative Perspective Birol A. Yeşilada and Peter Noordijk 2. Justice and Development Party at the Helm: Resurgence of Islam or Restitution of the Right-of-Center Predominant Party? Ersin Kalaycıoğlu 3. Dismantling Turkey: Will of the People? Nur Bilge Criss 4. Transformation of Turkish Islamism and the Rise of the Justice and Development Party Mustafa Şen 5. An Unfulfilled Promise of Enlightenment – Kemalism and its Liberal Critics Halil Karaveli 6. A Paradigm Shift in Turkish Foreign Policy: Transition and Challenges Ahmet Sözen