ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the various positions taken by Islamist groups without necessarily entering into the debate over which position better reflects the truly Islamic vision. The Refah Party’s rhetoric on the Kurdish question veers between statist and Islamist discursive realms depending on whether they are in government or not, whom they are addressing or appeasing, and which way the winds of political fortune are drifting. The condemnation of Fethullah Gulen by less statist Islamists is compensated by his commendation by secularists. Sabin Alpay in Milliyet newspaper for instance proffered a selection of Fethullah Hoca's opinions in an article on liberal democracy and Muslims, declaring that Giilen's interpretation of Islam was apposite in Turkey's struggle to democratize and modernize. Islamism as a magma of social imaginary significations collides then with the social signification of Turkish-republicanism, leading to as many alliances as enmities with the contending spheres of society.
