Sacralizing the nation: religion, nationalism, and populism in Turkey under AKP rule

This article analyses the entanglement of religion, nationalism, and populism in Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Drawing on scholarship on nationalism and populism and on the instrumental use of religion, it shows how the AKP has recast national identity through Islamic themes. By fusing religious and nationalist narratives, the party presents itself as the authentic voice of ‘the nation’, treats Islam as a core marker of Turkishness, and marginalizes secular interpretations. This synthesis helps explain the AKP’s broad electoral appeal and its legitimation strategies, which depict opponents as threats to the nation’s moral fabric. The article argues that this produces a distinctive populism that valorizes ‘authentic’ Islamic values, invokes a particular historical identity, and imagines a homogeneous community aligned with AKP ideology, reshaping secular foundations and policy.