January 31, 2022
Published by the Middle East Research and Information Project on January 25, 2022.
By: Utku Balaban, associate professor of anthropology and sociology at Amherst College. He is a MESA Global Academy Fellow for the academic years 2020–2021 and 2021–2022.
Balaban examines the relationship between the rise of the small industrialists and the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. He shows how growth in the Islamist voting bloc is facilitated by small industrialists and the urban working class adopting Islamist ideals as cuts in social spending drive the rural population into urban centers. He writes: “The presence of small industrialists in urban areas has proved to be a crucial element of the continued electoral success of the Islamists.” Moreover, he also chronicles the rise of Erdoğan to power as a leader of the Islamists political movement spearheaded by the AKP.
