The Rise of Conspiracy-Driven Political Parties and the Example of the New Welfare Party from Turkey

Öz

The close relationship between conspiracy theories and politics has intensified even more in the 21st century and transformed the political institution. We see that this transformation has increased even more with the pandemic and conspiracy theories have spread to all institutions and discourses. So much so that there is now talk of conspiracy-driven political parties. In this study, we discussed the New Welfare Party (YRP), which left its mark on Turkey's last local elections, within this framework and evaluated it with aspects that bring it closer to global examples and differentiate it. Accordingly, YRP follows the conspiracy theories that are valid on a global scale and especially believes in the goal of global elites “reducing the population". All the other conspiracies the party promotes are also related to this theme; Covid 19, Vaccine/vaccination, GMO seeds, Global Warming, LGBT and Women's Rights Struggle. What distinguishes the party from other conspiracy-driven parties is its success in the last local elections. Even though there are different explanations for this success in Turkey, our claim is that conspiracy theories increased YRP's visibility in the media and thus enabled it to reach large audiences.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Conspiracy Theories
• Conspiracy-Driven Political Parties
• Populism
• Post-Truth
• New Welfare Party

Komplo Güdümlü Siyasal Partilerin Yükselişi ve Türkiye’den Yeniden Refah Partisi Örneği

Öz

Komplo teorileri ile siyaset arasındaki yakın ilişki 21.yy’da daha da yoğunlaşmış ve siyaset kurumunu dönüştürmüştür. Bu dönüşümün pandemi ile daha da arttığını ve komplo teorilerinin tüm kurumlara ve söylemlere sirayet ettiğini görüyoruz. Öyle ki artık komplo güdümlü siyasal partilerden söz edilmekte. Biz de bu çalışmamızda Türkiye’nin son yerel seçimine damgasını vuran Yeniden Refah Partisini (YRP) bu çerçevede ele aldık ve onu küresel örneklerine yaklaştıran ve farklılaştıran veçheleri ile değerlendirdik. Buna göre YRP global ölçekte geçerli olan komplo teorilerini takip etmektedir ve özellikle “küresel elitlerin nüfusu azaltma” hedefli nihai amacına inanmaktadır. Partinin öne çıkardığı tüm diğer komplolar da bu tema ile ilişkilidir; Covid 19, Aşı/aşılanma, GDO’lu tohumlar, Küresel Isınma, LGBT ve Kadın Hakları Mücadelesi. Ancak YRP komplo teorilerini inşa ederken zaman zaman Batı’dan ayrışmaktadır da. Öyle ki, Amerika ve Brezilya’da virüsün kaynağı üzerinden komplo teorileri üretilip, Çin şeytanlaştırılırken; YRP Millî Görüş geleneğini takip ederek, anti-siyonist ve batı karşıtı komplo teorileri ile kitlesini canlandırmaktadır. Partiyi, diğer komplo güdümlü partilerden ayıran boyutu ise son yerel seçimlerdeki başarısıdır. Bu başarının Türkiye özelinde farklı açıklamaları olsa dahi, iddiamız komplo teorilerinin YRP’nin medyadaki görünürlüğünü artırdığı ve böylece geniş kitlelere ulaşmasını sağladığıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Komplo Teorileri
• Komplo Güdümlü Partiler
• Popülizm
• Post-Truth
• Yeniden Refah Partisi

Kaynakça

1. Aaronovitch, D. (2010). Voodoo histories: How conspiracy theory has shaped modern history. Random House.
2. Alsan, M., Eriksson, K., & Niemesh, G. (2020). Understanding the success of the know-nothing party (No. w28078). National Bureau of Economic Research.
3. Butter, M. (2022). Conspiracy theory after Trump. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 89(3), 787-809.
4. Cinelli, M., Etta, G., Avalle, M., Quattrociocchi, A., Di Marco, N., Valensise, C., ... & Quattrociocchi, W. (2022). Conspiracy theories and social media platforms. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101407.
5. Del Vicario, M., Bessi, A., Zollo, F., Petroni, F., Scala, A., Caldarelli, G., Stanley, H.E. and Quattrocioc-chi, W. (2015). ‘Echo chambers in the age of misinformation’, Computers and Society, 5(43), 1–6.
6. Douglas, K. M., & Sutton, R. M. (2015). Climate change: Why the conspiracy theories are dangerous. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 71(2), 98-106.
7. Esin, A. & Altundağ, M. (2024). DEVA ve Gelecek’in Yapamadığını Yeniden Refah Nasıl Yaptı. Birikim Dergisi. https://birikimdergisi.com/guncel/11668/deva-ve-gelecekin-yapamadigini-yeniden-refah-nasil-yapti
8. Erbakan, N. (1996). Gizli Dünya Devleti, İstanbul: Milli Gazete Yayınları.

9. Gera, M. (2023). “Here, the Hungarian people will decide how to raise our children”: Populist rhetoric and social categorization in Viktor Orbán’s anti-LGBTQ campaign in Hungary. New Perspectives, 31(2), 104-129.
10. Harper, S., & Sykes, T. (2023). Conspiracy Theories Left, Right and... Centre: Political Disinformation and Liberal Media Discourse. New Formations, 109(109), 110-128.
11. Kalil, I., Silveira, S. C., Pinheiro, W., Kalil, Á., Pereira, J. V., Azarias, W., & Amparo, A. B. (2021). Politics of fear in Brazil: Far-right conspiracy theories on COVID-19. Global Discourse, 11(3), 409-425.
12. Kessel, Hannah. (2022). "Backsliding: Donald Trump, Conspiracy Theory, & Democratic Decline". Senior Theses. Trinity College, Hartford.
13. Hauwaert, S.V. (2012) ‘Shared dualisms: on populism and conspiracy theory’, Counterpoint. Available at: https://counterpoint.uk.com
14. Hellinger, D. C. (2018). Conspiracies and conspiracy theories in the age of Trump. Springer.
15. Karabell, Z. (2021). Here’s What Happens to a Conspiracy Driven Party. Politico.
16. Kelley-Romano, S., & Carew, K. L. (2017). Make America hate again: Donald Trump and the birther conspiracy. J. Hate Stud., 14, 33.
17. Kużelewska, E., & Tomaszuk, M. (2022). Rise of conspiracy theories in the pandemic times. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law-Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 35(6), 2373-2389.
18. Lakoff, R. T. (2017). The hollow man: Donald Trump, populism, and post-truth politics. Journal of Language and Politics, 16(4), 595-606.
19. Landau, J. M. (1988). Muslim Turkish Attitudes towards Jews, Zionism and Israel. Die Welt des Islams, (1/4), 291-300.
20. Levine, B. (2001). Conservatism, nativism, and slavery: Thomas R. Whitney and the origins of the know-nothing party. The Journal of American History, 88(2), 455-488.
21. Montgomery, M. (2017). Post-truth politics? Authenticity, populism and the electoral discourses of Donald Trump. Journal of Language and Politics, 16(4), 619-639.
22. Mortimer, K. (2017). Understanding conspiracy online: social media and the spread of suspicious thinking. Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management, 13.
23. Owen, D. (2022). A Global Crisis of Liberal Democracy?: On Autocratic Democracy, Populism and Post-Truth Politics. Journal of Social and Political Philosophy, 1(1), 30-46.
24. Önnerfors, A. (2021). Conspiracy theories and COVID-19: The mechanisms behind a rapidly growing societal challenge. Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap.
25. Papaioannou, K., Pantazi, M., & van Prooijen, J. W. (2023). Is democracy under threat? Why belief in conspiracy theories predicts autocratic attitudes. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(5), 846-856.
26. Pigden, C. (1995). Popper revisited, or what is wrong with conspiracy theories? Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 25, 3–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/004839319502500101
27. Pirro, A. L., & Taggart, P. (2023). Populists in power and conspiracy theories. Party Politics, 29(3), 413-423.
28. Rutjens, B. T., Van der Linden, S., & Van der Lee, R. (2021). Science skepticism in times of COVID-19. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(2), 276-283.
29. Ren, Z. B., Carton, A. M., Dimant, E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2022). Authoritarian leaders share conspiracy theories to attack opponents, galvanize followers, shift blame, and undermine democratic institutions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 46, 101388.
30. Siraki, A. T., & Mohammad, M. H. (2023). Bill Gates and the ‘new normal’COVID-19 conspiracy theories:‘it’sa new thing’or nothing new under the sun?. Journal for Cultural Research, 27(2), 136-153.
31. Sismondo, S. (2017). Post-truth?. Social studies of science, 47(1), 3-6.
32. Stoica, M.S. (2017) ‘Political myths of the populist discourse’, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 16(46), 63–76.
33. Suiter, J. (2016). Post-truth politics. Political insight, 7(3), 25-27.
34. Van Prooijen, J. W., & Douglas, K. M. (2018). Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain. European journal of social psychology, 48(7), 897-908.
35. Van Prooijen, J. W. (2018). Populism as political mentality underlying conspiracy theories. In Belief systems and the perception of reality (pp. 79-96). Routledge.
36. Vassiliou, P. (2017) ‘Enemies of the people: Latin-American populism, political myth, and the psychody- namics of conspiracy thinking’, Επιστήμη και Κοινωνία: Επιθεώρηση Πολιτικής και Ηθικής Θεωρίας, 35, 135–59.