ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to shed light on the story of populism in Turkey from the late Ottoman Empire to the present. Since populism is a highly contested and homogeneous concept, its venture in changing historical contexts is essential, and since the most important common characteristics of it has been its anti-elite discourse, a discussion of who the elites were in different periods is elaborated as a central theme. In this respect, the Halka Doğru (To the People) movement of the Unionist era (1908–1922), the populist discourse of the Single-Party era (1923–1950) that ideologically embraced a peasantist outlook and institutionally represented in the People’s Houses, and the changing populist politics under Menderes in the 1950s all enable us to grasp populism as a political style in Turkish history. Finally, the chapter aims to discuss the Islamicist regime of the 2010s with a particular focus on the comparative dimensions of the global rise of populism as the Zeitgeist of our times.
