Wednesday, November 6, 12-1pm, Global Education Center Room 1005
Dr. Sinan Ciddi explores the question of why Turkey’s governing Justice and Development party (AKP) has been electorally unchallenged since 2002. Opposition parties have continued to remain electorally weak in the AKP era mainly due to an inability to challenge the incumbent’s service oriented performance record. This said, as of 2013, a new wave of citizen-based political participation in the form of street protests has challenged the AKP’s confidence. The “Gezi” protests, which erupted in May 2013, have demonstrated that citizens may not need to rely on opposition parties or regular election cycles to voice their grievances against the incumbent.
Sinan Ciddi was appointed as the fourth executive director of the Institute of Turkish Studies, succeeding David C. Cuthell at the end of August 2011.Ciddi was born in Turkey and educated in the United Kingdom, where he gained his Ph.D. in Political Science from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in June 2007. He was previously an instructor at Sabancı University between 2004-2008 and completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the same institution between 2007-2008.