Political opposition in Turkey: reflections on political Islam

Despite the common perception in the Turkish society on the ineffectiveness of opposition, the scholarly work is very few on the opposition movements. This paper aims to contribute by discussing whether there is a real opposition movement at the state/system level in Turkey, by focusing mainly on political Islam. The main argument of the study is that although political Islam is currently the most distinguished oppositional voice, it is also articulated to the state tradition failing to move beyond the founding principles of the state tradition. * I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Hasan Bulent Kahraman and Prof. Dr. Serif Mardin for their constitutive comments.