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Abstract
This article departs from the observation that Turkey's last decade has witnessed the increasing influence of conservative populism. Because proponents of that view are trying to popularize a construct of the past to bring historical legitimacy to the new conservative elites of the economy, culture and politics, they portray the right-wing leaders Menderes, Özal and Erdogan as conscious defenders of the "return of the authentic nation" which was marginalized by an "un-authentic westernist minority with disproportional weight." This article will reconsider the legacy of Özal to criticize and prove the implausibility of the conservative populist' claims of continuity and authentic representation. Its purpose is to contribute to demystification of an elitist claim to power inherent in conservative populism.
Since its foundation in 2001, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has attempted to position itself within the center-right tradition of Turkey. Prime Minister Erdogan has been acclaimed as the heir of Adnan Menderes and Turgut Özal while Süleyman Demirel1 has been excluded from the list of the "authentic and undaunted defenders of the nation" (Millet)-which the AKP depicts as a silenced majority vis à vis a westernist minority with disproportional weight and power.2 In a commemoration for Adnan Menderes, his son Aydin Menderes exemplified this approach: "The names of Menderes, Özal and Erdogan will forever live in the heart of our nation."3
The claims of historical continuity are part of an effort to use a conservative populist discourse to build legitimacy for the new conservative elites of the economy, culture and politics. The ascendance of those elites has made the rise of the AKP possible while the latter has also facilitated their march towards the "center." As indicated above, I believe the AKP's version of conservative populism has tended to revitalize a mechanism of exclusion and inclusion around a divide between "the silent Muslim majority and disproportionally influential westernist minority."4 It is an ambiguous mixture of the material and non-material aspirations of the counter-elites who are claimed to be the legitimate, yet temporarily discarded, representatives of the nation. Its proponents believe that re-conquering the political, cultural and economic echelons is a just act that will return them to their status as long-excluded genuine sons of the nation.
To understand how the context-specific nature of...