Karagiozov, M. Center and periphery blurred: notes on the most popular debate in social sciences on Turkey
Center and periphery blurred: notes on the most popular debate in social sciences on Turkey
In: Obscured Balkans, vol. 1, 2024.
Author:
Marian Karagyozov, Ph.D., political scientist
Institute of Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Received: September 23, 2024
Technical Evaluation: September 27, 2024
Editorial Review: September 30, 2024
Peer Review: October 3, 2024
Accepted: November 5, 2024
Published: November, 7, 2024
10.6276/OB2024.MK
English
Karagyozov, M. 2024. ‘Center and periphery blurred: notes on the most popular debate in social sciences on Turkey.’ Obscured Balkans, vol. 1, pp. 181–188. DOI 10.6276/OB2024.MK, ISSN 3033-1331.
In an article, published in 1973, the Turkish sociologist Şerif Mardin proposed the idea that the center-periphery cleavage is the key to understanding Turkish politics from the Ottoman era to the present days. Since its publication, this has been one of the most widely discussed texts ever written on Turkey, with the article having between 50 and 100 citations in academic publications every year since 2010. The aim of this paper is to familiarize the audience with the authors’ main thesis, the academic criticisms leveled at it, and the contemporary political uses of the concept. The text will demonstrate the historical reconfigurations the center and periphery undergo, еspecially after the Justice and Development Party, which (claims to) represent the periphery, came to power in Turkey in 2002, thus becoming the center. The text will question the current validity of the center-periphery divide as well.
Şerif Mardin; center; periphery; Turkey
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