INTERVIEW: Cenk Özbay and Ayşecan Terzioğlu on the making of neoliberal Turkey

The economic reforms kicked off in Turkey in the 1980s caused lasting changes not limited to the economic sphere. Almost all areas of life were affected by the opening up of the Turkish economy.

"The Making of Neoliberal Turkey" (reviewed in Hürriyet Daily News here) is a collection of essays exploring the political, cultural, and social effects of economic policies implemented in Turkey since 1980. With 13 chapters mostly written by sociologists, anthropologists and ….., the book explores diverse topics including masculinity in satirical comics, laws to address violence in football, and the healthcare sector in the years since the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup.

Two of the book's editors, Sabancı University associate professor Cenk Özbay and Galatasaray University lecturer Ayşecan Terzioğlu, spoke to Hürriyet Daily News about their book and what it can tell us about persistent divides in today's Turkey.

After the 1980 military coup there were huge changes and the Turkish economy was opened to the winds of the free market. Summarize what took place in this era.

Cenk Özbay: Actually everything started with the Jan. 24 decisions and economic reforms undertaken by the Süleyman Demirel government in 1980, which was followed by the coup in the same year. The military administration appointed Turgut Özal - who was the architect of the Jan. 24 decisions - as the interim economy minister of the military government. Then in 1983, after the first free elections Turkey had after the coup, Özal became prime minister. His agenda was clearly neoliberal, integrating the Turkish economy into global markets, applying deregulation, de-unionization and privatization. He used similar slogans and mottoes to Ronald...