Krise, Macht und Gewalt

This book firstly sets out to explain how the contrast between power and violence, which is much criticised in the responses to Hannah Arendt’s work, makes sense in the context of the crisis of the modern age – whose most catastrophic outcome in Europe is totalitarian rule – but it does not make sense beyond that. Secondly, it demonstrates, with the aid of Arendt’s concepts of crisis, power and violence, that the history of modern Turkey, due to its many disruptions, can be interpreted neither as a linear process of westernisation nor as a form of gradual democratisation. Instead, it should be seen as the history of a crisis that in the past created political catastrophes such as genocide, population exchange, massacres, expulsions, forced assimilation and military coups, and, in a worst case scenario, could in the future lead to a new catastrophe currently known as ‘new wars’. As such, this study contributes both to the political theory and research on Turkey and to research into peace and conflict.