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Article The Paradox of Power in Turkey: Omnipotent Leader, Impotent State(Wiley, 2026) Bektas, Eda; Muhurcuoglu, KorhanThis article examines a central paradox of contemporary authoritarianism: how the concentration of power in the hands of a seemingly omnipotent executive can simultaneously erode bureaucratic capacity and autonomy through subordination, producing an increasingly impotent state. Focussing on Turkey's transition to hyper-presidentialism after the 2018 elections, it argues that excessive centralisation has undermined the institutional competence and discretion required for coordinated and effective policy implementation. The government's response to the 6 February 2023 twin earthquakes provides a tragic and revealing case that affected millions of lives. Despite Recep Tayyip Erdo & gbreve;an's pledges that the presidential system would deliver efficiency and decisiveness, disaster governance was marked by delayed decision making, poor coordination, limited capacity for rapid mobilisation and communication and an emphasis on narrative control over effective execution. Drawing on bureaucratic capacity and autonomy as indicators of governance quality, this article shows how personalist rule hollows out state institutions, exposing its limits in delivering good governance.Article Memory, Narrative, and Collective Gendering of Identity: Revolutionary Women in Turkey(Cambridge Univ Press, 2026) Bektas, Eda; Sensonmez, GokhanThis article examines the construction of gendered collective identity among leftist women in Turkey through their post-1980 coup prison memory. By analyzing 124 autobiographical narratives, we uncover a process of identity formation grounded in a continuous negotiation between past struggles and present concerns, constituting a counternarrative that challenges the master narrative of defeat and submission prevalent after the coup. The article's tripartite framework of distance, substance, and persistence underscores women's journey from marginalization to collective empowerment, producing shifting subject positions across time. By placing temporality at the center of collective identity formation, this study contributes to feminist memory literature and identity studies while addressing a significant historiographical gap by bringing the neglected struggles of leftist women in Turkey to light.
