In the wake of a coup attempt in July 2016, this presentation will discuss the history of feminist scholarship and activism on militarism in Turkey and examine the contemporary debates and challenges. The first part of the talk will provide a historical overview of the ways in which Turkey's political culture has been shaped by gendered militarization and analyze feminist critiques of such militarization. In the second part, contemporary challenges faced by feminist scholars and activists will be discussed, with a particular focus on the "Kurdish question" and the recent coup attempt.
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Ayşe Gül Altınay (Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Sabancı University) has been exploring the nexus of gender, memory, militarism, and war in Turkey's convoluted past and present. She is the author of The Myth of the Military-Nation: Militarism, Gender and Education (2004) and co- author of Violence Against Women in Turkey: A Nationwide Survey (with Yeşim Arat, 2009). Among her recent works are The Grandchildren: The Hidden Legacy of “Lost” Armenians in Turkey (with Fethiye Çetin, trans. Maureen Freely, 2014) and Gendered Wars, Gendered Memories: Feminist Conversations on War, Genocide and Political Violence (co-edited with Andrea Pető, 2016). She serves as an associate editor for the European Journal of Women’s Studies.