Islamic Associations in the Politics of the Turkish Earthquakes

Abstract

The two devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey last year, resulting in more than 17,000 deaths and causing extensive material damage to the country's industrial heartland, triggered continuing debates in which the state, state-society relations, and civil society are all being questioned. Particularly in the western press, popular anger with the state's slow and inefficient response to the disaster was portrayed as having reached an unprecedented level, de-deifying the Turkish state which had historically commanded unquestioned trust and fear. In contrast to a state depicted as heavy, shackled and corruption-riddled, the western media and parts of the Turkish press celebrated the birth of a new and vibrant civil society in Turkey. Responding much faster than the state to relief needs, Turkish associations and foundations were hailed as the expression of a new civic consciousness and as an emergent social force driving for democratization.