Türkiye entered 2023, the centenary year of the Turkish Republic, with an anxiously anticipated general election. Amidst criticism of economic mismanagement, repression of civil society and political opposition and a delayed and disorganised response to the earthquake, Erdogan’s AKP managed to win yet another parliamentary majority alongside of the presidential office. Beyond the analysis of the election results, our panel of experts will have a future-oriented discussion about what this result means for the country’s democracy and the role it has to play in the region as well as in world politics.

Panelists

Dr David Tittensor is a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of The House of Service: The Gülen Movement and Islam's Third Way (Oxford University Press, 2014), co-author (with Adam Possamai) of Religion and Change in Australia (Routledge, 2022), and is a Series Editor for Muslims in Global Societies (Springer). His research interests are transnational Muslim movements, Turkish politics and society, religion and society, and religion and development with a focus on Islam.

Dr Tezcan Gümüş is a scholar specialising in contemporary Turkish and Middle Eastern politics, with a keen interest in democratisation, authoritarianism, and democratic breakdowns. He was honoured with the 2020 Australian Political Studies Association Award for his PhD research, which delved into the impact of political leadership culture on Turkey's democracy. Recently, he published the book Turkey's Political Leaders: Authoritarian Tendencies in a Democratic State through Edinburgh University Press, and his research has made significant contributions to academic journals like Middle East Critique and Contemporary Islam. Additionally, Dr. Gümüş has taught politics, international relations, and Islamic studies-related courses at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Catholic University.

Dr. M. Murat Yurtbilir has a BA in International Relations and Political Science from Bogaziçi University, Istanbul. He holds an MA in International Relations from Istanbul University, and MSc in Development Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden. He completed his PhD in International Relations at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. He lectured at the Cyprus American University, ANU-CAIS, Istanbul Işık University and was visiting fellow at UNSW Canberra. He worked as consultant in several EU-funded projects and as information officer at the Delegation of the EU to Turkey. His main interests are Turkish political movements, Turkish foreign policy, Middle Eastern studies, and nationalism theories.

Dr Burcu Cevik-Compiegne, Convenor of Turkish Studies at Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies

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