| Summary/Abstract |
The coup attempt of 2016 constitutes a major incision in contemporary Turkish politics. Focusing on the symbolic aspects of the AKP’s authoritarian rule in the direct aftermath of the coup attempt, this article offers a new conceptual framework to analyze three symbolic and discursive strategies that the government employed with the aim to normalize its exceptional and transformative measures: legitimation, narrativization and ritualization. It argues that these strategies contribute to the deepening of the AKP’s authoritarian regime formation and contends that the government’s actions are a reflection of the power struggle between the AKP and the Gülen movement.
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