A biopolitical perspective on national belonging in the early Turkish Republic

Dell A. C.

Turkish Studies, vol.25, no.4, pp.581-602, 2024 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 25 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/14683849.2024.2340508
  • Journal Name: Turkish Studies
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Historical Abstracts, Index Islamicus, Political Science Complete, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.581-602
  • Keywords: Agamben, Biopolitics, citizenship, Foucault, Turkey
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This article explores the degree to which citizenship in the early Turkish Republic was informed by a biopolitical logic of the administration of population as a social body. How this larger biopolitical logic is connected to understandings of the national project being ‘modern’ and/or ‘scientific’ is also explored, as well as how this approach is preferable to an account based on the perspective of Agamben. Furthermore, this analysis examines how limits to belonging were understood in the period, especially in relation to minority populations, and how they were categorized.