Pandemic, Demagoguery, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Vol. 30 - 2023, No. 1

Guest Edited by Robert L. Ivie

Politicising Death in the Covid-19 Outbreak: AKP Necropolitics and Right-Authoritarianism in Turkey

Özgür Olgun, pages: 82-95

This study deals with the AKP (Justice and Development Party) right-authoritarianism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, as seen from the perspective of necropolitics. It examines the relationships between politics and death, asking the question of how such relationships fell into an authoritarian character adversely influencing democracy and democratic values. For this, the study centres on the AKP government’s response to the pandemic crisis, discussed as a manifestation of necropolitics. The paper explains the concept of necropolitics and underlines two of its fundamental characteristics: state of exception and creation of enemy. The paper focuses on these two traits to frame and critique the AKP’s right-authoritarian politics during the COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of the analysis is to show how AKP politics has politicised death, bearing in mind the social and political opposition’s moves against such politics in Turkey.

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