Authoritarianism, Geopolitics and Nationhood: New Forms of Inclusion and Exclusion in Turkey

ABSTRACT This paper explores politics of citizenship and nationhood in Turkey since the outbreak of Syrian War. It argues that the Turkish state's embracement of authoritarianism in domestic politics and a geopolitical perspective in regional affairs have paved the way for significant changes in admission to Turkish territory, Turkish citizenship and Turkish nationhood. Turkish nationhood, the paper suggests, has recently become inclusive towards non‐citizen Muslims of non‐European lands, such as Syrian refugees, and exclusive towards Turkish‐citizen Kurds and Turkish‐citizen members of the Gülen community. These changes, the paper concludes, confirm that the national community in Turkey is stratified in that it is composed of Turks, prospective‐Turks and pseudo‐Turks and that one's position in Turkishness hierarchy is not fixed.