Monday, April 10, 2017

Matthew Wills — The Turkish Origins of the “Deep State”

The Turkish phrase derin devlet literally means “deep state.” According to historian Ryan Gingeras, the term “generally refers to a kind of shadow or parallel system of government in which unofficial or publicly unacknowledged individuals play important roles in defining and implementing state policy.
This concept of a deep state, Gingeras continues, is used to “explain why and how agents employed by the state execute policies that directly contravene the letter and spirit of the law.” Breaking the law, of course, often means employing criminals. Gingeras, a specialist in organized crime in Turkey, looks at the underbelly of the Turkish deep state to examine how alliances between generals, statesmen and “narcotic traffickers, paramilitaries, terrorists, and other criminals” are formed. (Elsewhere, Gingeras traces the heroin connection, noting that the Turkish deep state itself is riven by factional rivalries.)

JSTOR Daily
The Turkish Origins of the “Deep State”
Matthew Wills

1 comment:

Marian Ruccius said...

Wonderful post and article. A huge aspect not highlighted is that much of this
Turkish deep state, I am informed by Turkish friends, was in fact created, or perhaps more accurately necessitated, by NATO, especially during the Cold War. As one friend remarked, internal policy and external policy were entirely indistinguishable; all activity (and hence any reform) had to take place within specific parameters enforced by NATO.