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Now there were “110 weekly and monthly Islamist journals in circulation, 16 national and 15 regional [television] stations, as well as 300 local ones. ”60 Notwithstanding the rise of Islamist media, the post-1980 era also witnessed the increasing prominence of Islamist social networks, especially that of the Gulen community (alternatively referred to as the Gulen movement, the Community or the Service). ”62 It was during this decade that they built a massive network of dormitories, schools, media outlets, charities, and cultural foundations and established close links with Anatolian businessmen.

Entry of multinational corporations into the Turkish market, inflow of foreign capital and culture, expansion of Turkish businesses into global markets, EU membership application). 37 Like many other developing countries, Turkey had been suffering from massive debt accumulation that was worsened by the worldwide economic recession, the reorganization of the global economy around a global manufacturing system, and rising oil prices. 40 Despite these dramatic measures, however, the country’s woes still eluded any sort of quick resolution, given the resistance from trade union federations and ensuing factory occupations, strikes, and violent clashes with the army and the police.

14 Perhaps the most important of the modernizing reforms was the subordination of religion in the public sphere and the institutionalization of secularism. indd 19 Politics and Culture in Turkey 19 5/13/16 12:10 PM and charities; and the replacing of the Arabic call to prayer with one using the Turkish language. 15 Despite all efforts to institutionalize secularism, however, the Kemalist project was not able to eradicate Islam from public life. 16 A crucial point to note here is that even though the Turkish state repudiated Islam as the chief marker of its national identity, it nonetheless adopted a double discourse regarding religion.