Atilla Yayla

Atilla Yayla (Turkish: [atiɫɫa jajɫa], born (1957-03-03)March 3, 1957), is a Turkish political thinker and a proponent of liberal democracy. He is one of the founders of Association for Liberal Thinking in Turkey.[1] He was Professor of Politics, Political Economy and Political Philosophy at Gazi University in Turkey.[2] After his retirement from the public sector in 2009, Yayla became head of the International Relations department at Faculty of Commercial Sciences of Istanbul Commerce University until he was fired in 2015.[3] In 2016 he was fired from his teaching post at Haliç University, after the University administration was charged with corruption and turned over to Istanbul University by The Council of Higher Education (YÖK). Yayla lost the case against Haliç University administration in 2019 and was ordered to pay the court fees.[4]

Atilla Yayla
Yayla in 2016
Born(1957-03-03)3 March 1957
Kaman, Kırşehir, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
FieldPolitical economy, ethics, civil rights
School or
tradition		Liberalism • Yeniden Milli Mücadele Hareketi
Alma materAnkara University
B.A. in Economics, 1980;
M.A. in Public Administration, 1983;
PhD in Political Sciences, 1986
InfluencesBastiat • Erdoğan • Evren • Gülen • Hayek • Hobbes • Hume • Locke • Mises
Atilla Yayla
2nd Chairman of Association for Liberal Thinking
In office
1997–2008
Preceded byKazım Berzeg
Succeeded byBican Şahin
Atilla Yayla
4th Chairman of Association for Liberal Thinking
Assumed office
2014
Preceded byBican Şahin

He is currently a faculty member at the Political Science and Public Administration Department of Istanbul Medipol University.

Yayla also wrote articles in the 1980s for the extreme right-wing magazine Yeni Forum, notorious for the donations it received from the U.S. organization the National Endowment for Democracy,[5][6] and later in the 2000s and 2010s for newspapers Zaman, the main publishing organ of the Gülen Movement held responsible by the Turkish government for 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, and the pro-government Islamist Yeni Şafak. He currently writes for the pro-government liberal newspaper Yeni Yüzyıl.


Life and career

He was born in 1957 in Kaman, Kırşehir.[2]

As an undergraduate, he studied economics at Ankara University, going on to earn a master's degree in public administration and a Ph.D in political science (1986).[2]

In the 1970s he was involved in Yeniden Milli Mücadele Hareketi (The War of Independence Anew Movement), an anti-communist, anti-zionist and anti-imperialist reactionary movement founded by Islamist students.[7] In the mid-1980s, around 1984-85 according to his statement, he embraced liberal views.[8] However, Yayla went on during the 1980s to support the military junta in Turkey, writing "Thanks to the 12 September 1980 operation, Turkey has been freed from the blaze of terrorism, which had almost turned into a civil war, and found peace."[9] He praised the army, writing "... the fact that the Turkish army has established an unprecedented tradition in terms of commitment to democracy is also the guarantee of our democracy's survival", and praised the leader of the military junta, the Chief of the General Staff, Kenan Evren, as "... one of the significant sources of hope for the survival of our democracy."[10][11][12] Again, in 2007, Yayla praised Evren for his views on a possible transition to a federal system in Turkey, saying: "No one dares [to express these views] since freedom of speech is not developed enough [in Turkey]. Kenan Evren is in the best position to express these views. He is opening a new era in our thought life, it is a pleasant development."[13]

In 1992 Yayla founded the Association for Liberal Thinking (ALT) with his colleagues and served as its chairperson between 1997 and 2008. He remains an active member of ALT.[2][14]

He was a visiting professor at the University of Buckingham.[15] He was the winner of the Anthony Fisher Prize in 2000 for his book "Islam, Civil Society and Market Economy".[15] Yayla was awarded the Person of the Year Award by the Stockholm Network in 2007.[16]

Court case

In 2006, Yayla was charged with insulting the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk by calling him "that man" in a speech where he argued that the one-party period of Republic of Turkey was less democratic than the preceding period of constitutional monarchy under Ottoman empire and the early and short-lived multi-party period of the Republic of Turkey,[17] and also strongly criticized the cult of personality that has grown up around Atatürk since.[18] Some newspapers, notably Yeni Asır proclaimed him a traitor.[19][20][21][22] In a court case, he was convicted and received a suspended 15-month jail sentence.[23][24] Yayla was also dismissed temporarily from his academic post.[17]

Work and views

In 2008 Yayla was one of the signees of the Özür Diliyorum (I Apologize) campaign that caused an enormous reaction in Turkey by the government and the public. The participants implicitly claimed that the Ottoman Empire was responsible for the Armenian Genocide, which Yayla had denied in the 1980s as "an alleged genocide that never happened".[25][11][26] The declaration read as "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them."

Yayla supported The Kurdish Initiative project launched by the AKP government in 2009 to improve the human rights of Kurdish citizens of Turkey, and praised the advisory group, Akil İnsanlar Heyeti (The Wise People Commission), organized by the government to contribute to the solution process. As part of the support, the Association for Liberal Thinking sent, through the Ministry of Justice, a package of books with liberal themes to the leader of the militant Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, who was arrested in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) and has been in prison since then on İmralı island in the Sea of Marmara.[27]

Yayla is the author of many books and articles in English and Turkish on terrorism, liberalism, constructivist rationalism, social justice, and Friedrich Hayek.

Books

Several of Yayla's books are published by Liberte Yayınları (Liberte Publications), a company associated with the Liberal Düşünce Topluluğu.

  • On Terrorism (1990)
  • Liberalism (1992,1994,1997,2000,2003)
  • Liberal Approaches (1993, 2000)
  • The Road to Freedom (1993, 2000)
  • Social and Political Theory (ed.) (1994, 2000)
  • Rules and Order (Turkish translation of book by F.A. Hayek, 1994)
  • On the Welfare Party (with Melih Yürüsen) (1996, in Turkish and German)
  • On Turkish Political Parties (with Melih Yürüsen) (1996, in Turkish and German)
  • Introduction to Political Theory (1998)
  • Islam, Civil Society and the Market Economy (ed.) (1999, in English)
  • Road to Freedom: the Social and Economic Philosophy of Hayek (2000, in Turkish)
  • Guide to Protect Democracy (2001, in Turkish)
  • Statist Mentality and Market Economy (2001, in Turkish)
  • Dictionary of Political Thought (2007, 5th ed., in Turkish)
  • Market Civilization (2004, in Turkish)

Selected articles
  • “Terrorism: A Conceptual Framework” (1980)
  • "Terrorism in Turkey" (PDF). SBF dergisi. Ankara University. 44 (3): 249–262. 1989. ISSN 0378-2921. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-30.
  • “On Theories of Justice” (1991)
  • “Constructivist Rationalism, Justice, and Socialism” (1993)
  • “The Theoretical and Actual Meaning of Human Rights” (1994)
  • “Minorities and Religious Freedom in Democracies: The Case of the Amish Community” (1997, in English and Turkish)
  • “Cultural Clashes Between Minorities and Larger Society in Democracies” (in English, 1997)
  • “Islam, Secularism and Democracy in Turkey” (1998)
  • “Information Age: Some Misunderstandings” (1998)
  • “A Guide to ‘Protect' Democracy” (2000)
  • "Freedom of expression in Turkey". International Herald Tribune. 2006-12-07. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  • "Freedom of Expression Under Attack in Turkey". International Society for Individual Liberty.
  • "Seçimlerden Çıkan Sonuçlar" (The Results of the Elections), Yeni Forum 5, No. 112 (1 May 1984): 10.
  • "Demokratik Sistemde Basın Sorumluluğu" (The Responsibility of the Press in a Democratic System), Yeni Forum 5, No. 118 (1 August 1984): 10-11.
  • "Dünya'da ve Türkiye'de Terör" (Terrorism in the World and in Turkey), Yeni Forum 6, No. 128 (1 January 1985): 36-37.

References
  1. "About ALT". Association for Liberal Thinking. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  2. Academic Web site, Gazi University Archived May 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Academic Web site, Istanbul Commerce University Archived September 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. https://twitter.com/atilla_yayla/status/1105382775715053568
  5. Mumcu, Uğur (1985-03-26). "Yardım... (Donation...)", Cumhuriyet (in Turkish), p. 1, p. 12.
  6. Yıldırım, Mustafa (2005). Sivil Örümceğin Ağında (In the Civil Spider's Web), 5th edition, İstanbul: Toplumsal Dönüşüm Yayınları, pp. 63-65.
  7. Yayla, Atilla (2016-09-23). "Darbelerin Gölgesinde Hayatlar (Lives in the Shadow of Coups)".
  8. This statement comes from the radio programme Yayla attended in 2011, titled "Entelektüel Bakış". At 25:47 he can be heard saying in Turkish “Actually, my liberalization was perhaps before that. For example, I was a liberal in the mid-80s, as of 84-85, but I wasn't very keen on using the label.”
  9. Yayla, Atilla. "Dünya'da ve Türkiye'de Terör (Terrorism in the World and Turkey)". Yeni Forum 6, No. 128 (1 January 1985): 36-37.
  10. Yayla, Atilla. "Seçimlerden Çıkan Sonuçlar (The Results of the Elections)". Yeni Forum 5, No. 112 (1 May 1984): 10.
  11. Madenci, Can (2013-06-25). "Atilla Yayla, 12 Eylül ve Gezi Parkı (Atilla Yayla, September 12 and Gezi Park)".
  12. https://odatv.com/atilla-yayla-12-eylulde-neler-yazmisti-2606131200.html
  13. "Prof. Dr. Atilla Yayla: "Kenan Evren Yeni Bir Dönem Açıyor" (Prof. Dr. Atilla Yayla: "Kenan Evren Opens a New Era")".
  14. "Atilla Yayla" (in Turkish). Liberte Publications. Archived from the original on October 28, 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  15. "New Visiting Professor in Economics and International Studies". Archived from the original on 2007-06-24. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  16. "Golden Umbrella Think Tank Awards" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-09. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  17. Tavernise, Sabrina (2008-01-25). "Turkey to Alter Speech Law". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  18. Rainsford, Sarah (2008-01-28). "Academic sentenced over Ataturk". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  19. Kaya, Nuray (2006-11-19). "Hain Sözler (Treacherous Remarks)". Yeni Asır (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  20. İnce, Devrim (2006-11-20). "Haine Tepkiler Yağıyor (The Traitor Receives Flak)". Yeni Asır (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  21. Yilmaz, Murat (2008-07-02). "Yayla'yı kim mahkum etti? (Who condemned Yayla?)". Yeni Şafak (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  22. Elidemir, Yücel (2006-11-29). "Hakaretin adı, fikir özgürlüğü (The insult is called freedom of thought)". Yeni Asır (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  23. Daren Butler and Gareth Jones (2008-01-28). "Turkish academic convicted of insulting Ataturk". Reuters UK. Archived from the original on 7 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  24. "Professor convicted of insulting Ataturk". USA Today. 2008-01-28. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  25. Yayla, Atilla. "Uluslararası Terörizmin Sebepleri (The Causes of International Terrorism)". Yeni Forum 6, No. 137 (15 May 1985): 16-20.
  26. https://odatv.com/atilla-yayla-12-eylulde-neler-yazmisti-2606131200.html
  27. Yayla, Atilla (2014-07-19). "Kürtler ve Liberal Fikirler (The Kurds and Liberal Views)". Yeni Şafak (in Turkish).
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