Religion, Identity and Power: Turkey and the Balkans

The goal of the lecture series is to grasp and compare reproductions of religion in Southeast European space as a social phenomenon. This will be accomplished by mediating an understanding for the relationship between religion, politics and society based upon the example of contemporary Southeast Europe. It will be illustrated through inputs from current research in the field and the inclusion of approaches from historiography, anthropology, sociology, and political science.

26.05.2021
13:00 - 14:30

As an intrinsic part of identity, religion has the capacity to shape politics and power relations as well as identities and foreign policy behaviours of the states. Turkey is one of the sophisticated countries which religion and its complicated relations with state have been playing a significant transformative role on the country’s identity and foreign policy preferences. In this regard, this lecture scrutinises contemporary Turkey’s history through religion-state relations and examines its ethno-religious activism and power related political strategies in the Balkans with a specific focus on the period of Justice and Development Party Period.
 

Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is a lecturer of politics and international relations at London Metropolitan University. Between 2021-2023 he will work as Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Coventry University in the UK and GIGA in Germany. He is also an associate researcher (Chercheur Associé) at Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes, non-residence scholar at ELIAMEP’s Turkey Programme, co-editor of Edinburgh University Press’ Series on Modern Turkey and editor of International Journal of Religion. He was a Swedish Institute Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellow at Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), at Linköping University, Scholar in Residence at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. 

Meeting-Link: https://unigraz.webex.com/unigraz/j.php?MTID=m0679acb8ab7c40954f528f7fdce53125 
Meeting-Kennnummer: 121 008 3481
Passwort: 8JhPr4W9rM3