Democracy And Kinship: Who Rules?

Many writers are prolifically writing about Turkey, but what is missing is the important way in which family structures and religious views shape the Turkish government. In the modern Turkey, networks of kin are still the foundation of wealth, security, and personal happiness. That is a problem. For example, in the Kurdish society people, including rulers, have more loyalty to their family than to the state. When rulers want more people to serve them, they will just go into their kinship system, like the Barzani and the Taliban clans. The Muslim community in the southern Philippines has the same problem, The preferred marriage is between a man and his cousin because such an arrangement solves the problem of marriage and creates a strong lineage. Instead of marrying a women from outside his lineage, a man will marry his cousin, because then his wife will not be alien but rather a trusted member of his own kin group, Kinship carries strong obligations of mutual support and interest. People look to their kinship from day to day for their sociability, for getting jobs, and for receiving official favors. Kinship and marriage ties have important political and economic implications. For example, on April 22, it was announced that two Turkish owned state banks had stepped in to provide more than $750 million of loans to Calik Holding, which is owned by a Prime Minister…

Click here to read the rest of the article.