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Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  • 2012. Kaya, Serdar. "The Social Psychology of the Ergenekon Case: The Collapse of the Official Narrative in Turkey." Middle East Critique 21(2) (forthcoming)

    • Abstract: This paper examines the developments before and after the Ergenekon case in regard to the alternative retrospective that the emerging counter-narrative has introduced to the recent Turkish history. This retrospective is diametrically opposed to the perspective of the official narrative, especially in terms of the way it interprets the landmark historical events and primary actors. This paper thus argues that recent developments in Turkey since 2002, and then the Ergenekon case, have constituted a "meaning threat" for those who subscribe to the official narrative. As some of the recent works in the social psychology literature demonstrate, meaning threats occur when people apprehend new experiences that are at odds with the frameworks through which they give meaning to and view their outer worlds. According to that argument, people feel more comfortable when they experience an event that supports their cultural worldviews, because such an experience either helps them feel less uncertain about themselves or makes it easier to tolerate uncertainty. For the same reason, experiences that conflict with people's worldviews cause negative reactions. Applying to the Turkish case the insights offered by these works, this paper argues that, in the Turkish case, those who experience meaning threats take resort in political conservatism, which, in the political context of the country, corresponds to paternalist authoritarianism, assertive ethnic nationalism, and efforts to revert back and maintain the status quo.

  • 2009. Kaya, Serdar. "The Rise and Decline of the Turkish "Deep State": The Ergenekon Case." Insight Turkey 11(4): 99-113.

    • Abstract: This article tests Mancur Olson's theory of distributional coalitions against the case of the Turkish "deep state." Olson's theory holds that rent-seeking (or special-interest) groups tend to be exclusive by nature and pursue only the interests of their own members. Since their members account to a very small minority, these groups present their interests as being the interests of larger communities. The article argues that the Turkish case confirms the fundamental assumptions of the theory of distributional coalitions. An analysis of the historical process of the newly-exposed Turkish deep state reveals that, when put in proper context, its clandestine activities manifest a pattern which involves systematic efforts of an exclusive circle of group members (1) to impact the workings of Turkish society, and more recently, (2) to reverse the country's democratization process in an effort to sustain the network's dominating influence.



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