Sultan Abdülhamid II: Founding Father of the Turkish State? (Keynote Address)

The central theme of this event, focusing on parallels between present-day censorship and control over the press and precedents under Sultan Abdülhamid II could be an occasion to widen this interrogation by addressing the question of possible continuities between Hamidian autocracy and today's authoritarian Turkey under Erdoğan. The exercise is all the more tempting due to the growing way in which the political party in power and its followers are actively engaged in rehabilitating and glorifying Abdülhamid. Despite obvious risks of facile comparisons and shortcuts, it seems that this approach may hold some clues as to inherent weaknesses of the Turkish state in the face of authoritarian trends and ambitions.