Atilla Yayla is a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 political thinker

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 and a proponent of liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...

. He is Professor of Politics, Political Economy and Political Philosophy at Gazi University

Gazi University

Gazi University is a public university primarily located in Ankara, Turkey.It was established in 1926 by Kemal Atatürk as Gazi Teacher Training Institute...

 in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 

Life and career

He was born in 1957 in Kaman, Kırşehir

Kirsehir

Kırşehir, formerly Macissus and Justinianopolis, is a city in Turkey. It is the capital district of the Kırşehir Province. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 121,947 of which 105,826 live in the city of Kırşehir.-History:The history of Kırşehir dates back to the Hittites...

.

As an undergraduate, he studied economics at Ankara University

Ankara University

Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....

, going on to earn a master's degree in public administration

Public administration

Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

 and a Ph.D

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in political science (1986).

He is a visiting professor at the University of Buckingham

University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham is an independent, non-sectarian, research and teaching university located in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Great Ouse. It was originally founded as Buckingham University College in the 1970s and received its Royal Charter from the...

. He was the winner of the Anthony Fisher Prize in 2000 for his book "Islam, Civil Society and Market Economy". Atilla Yayla was awarded the Person of the Year Award by the Stockholm Network

Stockholm network

The Stockholm Network is a pan-European think tank and network, located in London. In addition to its own policy research, it is an umbrella organisation for market-oriented think tanks in Europe...

 in 2007.

Work and views

Atilla Yayla is the author of many books and articles in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 on terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

, constructivist

Constructivist epistemology

Constructivist epistemology is an epistemological perspective in philosophy about the nature of scientific knowledge. Constructivists maintain that scientific knowledge is constructed by scientists and not discovered from the world. Constructivists claim that the concepts of science are mental...

 rationalism

Rationalism

In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...

, social justice

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

, and Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...

.

In a 1998 article "Türkiye'de İslam, İnsan Hakları ve Demokrasi" (Islam, Human Rights, and Democracy in Turkey), he suggests that the human rights and democracy should be implemented by Islamists in Turkey.

In 2006, Yayla was charged with insulting the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

 by calling him "that man" in a speech where he argued that the early years of the republic

Single-Party Period of Republic of Turkey

The single-party period of the Republic of Turkey begins with the Republican People's Party being the only party between 1925 and 1945. It ends with the establishment of National Development Party . End of single party period marked with Republican People's Party leaving the majority to Democratic...

 were less democratic than the period after Turkey became a multi-party system, and the cult of personality

Cult of personality

A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...

 that has grown up around Atatürk since.

Court case and exile

Yayla's views on Atatürk and the early years of the Turkish Republic led certain conservative newspapers, notably Yeni Asır, to proclaim him a traitor. In a court case, he was convicted and received a suspended 15 month jail sentence, which he will appeal. Yayla was also dismissed temporarily from his academic post.

Books

Several of Yayla's books are published by Liberte Yayınları

Liberte Publications

Liberte Publications is a publishing company in Turkey established to produce books and journals on liberalism and promoting liberal ideas...

(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)
• “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 Under Attack in Turkey". International Society for Individual Liberty.

External links

• http://www.liberal.org.tr/
• http://www.liberte.com.tr/
• http://www.hurfikirler.com/
• http://www.atillayayladestek.org/