Challenges to Citizenship | Competitive Authoritarianism in the Middle East: The Turkish Case

Join the Middle Eastern Studies Program to discuss the aftermath of the recent presidential elections in Turkey as a part of the Moynihan Institute’s Challenges to Citizenship webinar series on authoritarianism. Panelists will discuss President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s perspective on Turkey’s relationship with the West, specifically focusing on President Erdoğan’s role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In addition, they will examine the upcoming municipal elections in Turkey and dissect Erdoğan’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seeking to unravel their potential impact on the complex web of international relations and domestic politics.

Panelists 

Ayça Alemdaroğlu, Ph.D. 

Research Scholar and Associate Director

Program on Turkey, Center on Democracy Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University

Alemdaroğlu is a political sociologist who examines inequality, ideology, and change in Turkey and the Middle East. Before joining Stanford, she served as an assistant research professor of sociology at Northwestern University, where she also directed the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program. From 2011 to 2015, she was a postdoctoral fellow in anthropology and taught as a lecturer at Stanford University. She has taught courses on gender and sexuality, urban disparities, and political demonstrations, with a particular focus on Iran, Egypt and Turkey. 

Yunus Sözen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political ScienceLe Moyne College

Yunus Sözen is an assistant professor of political science at Le Moyne College. Previously, he was a Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University and an assistant professor at Özyeğin University. Sözen’s areas of expertise are comparative politics and democratic theory. His research focuses on the relationship between political ideas/ideologies (particularly populism) and political regime dynamics (democracy, authoritarianism). Recent publications include studies on populism, authoritarianism and elections published in Political Studies Review, Electoral Studies, and South European Society and Politics.

Moderator 

Altuğ Aslanoğlu 

Ph.D. Student, Political Science

Syracuse University 

Altuğ Aslanoğlu is a political science Ph.D. student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He studies comparative politics with a focus on the rise of right-wing populism in rural areas in Turkey, Brazil, the UK and Germany. Altuğ has a B.S. from SUNY Binghamton, an MBA from Sabanci University, and an M.S. from Penn State in international affairs.