In search of disability rights: citizenship and Turkish disability organizations

Abstract

Criticizing modern citizenship's emphasis on the 'nation' as a homogeneous body of citizens, recent citizenship conceptions draw attention to diverse group identities and their differentiated rights-claims. By way of scrutinizing different disability organizations, this paper analyzes the struggles by people with disabilities in Turkey and examines whether these could be perceived as claims to new forms of citizenship. It argues that due to the institutional, political, cultural and historical specificities of Turkey, most non-governmental organizations maintain relations of patronage with state actors. Far from initiating a rights-based discourse, their activities cannot be perceived within recent citizenship frameworks. Yet, parallel to Turkey's accession process to the EU and technological developments, alternative forms of organizing started emerging at the virtual level. These are the harbingers of a relatively more rights-based discourse.