What is the matter with citizenship? A Turkish debate

Formation of the Turkish Nation-State, 1920–1938

“…When, in a very different context, the republican elite took up the challenge of creating a Turkish citizenry, the definition of citizenship combined territorial and descent-based understandings. Moreover, throughout the Kemalist era a sharp division between the rules of belonging to the citizen body and to the nation persisted (İçduygu et al 1999;Kirişci 2000) which became especially manifest in the 1930s. This separation unambiguously revealed itself in the formulation of immigration and resettlement policies.…”

Transnational citizenship: German-Turks and liberalizing citizenship regimes

“…As Turkish policy makers understood that their emigrants had become permanent settlers in their countries of destination, it became more rational to introduce dual citizenship in order not to lose the ethno-cultural bond of young generation Euro-Turks. Icduygu et al (1999) underline that Turkey decided to introduce dual citizenship for its citizens living abroad because of national interest in keeping close contacts with its citizens abroad, and therefore encouraging emigrants to retain their citizenship and transfer it to their children.…”

Globalization, Civil Society and Citizenship in Turkey: Actors, Boundaries and Discourses

“…Since its establishment the Turkish Republic has been guided by a series of rationales that view citizenship as serving goals and practices of a universal kind reflected in Western political and philosophical tradition (Icduygu et al, 1999). In these rationales, a civic-republican understanding has been prevalent in the formation of Turkish citizenship (Soyarik, 2000).…”