Daha Az Devlet Daha Çok Vakıf: Bir Özel Mülkleştirme Yolu

Abstract

The waqfs are legal and political entities, which have social and economic functions. Even though they are seen as institutions of the past, they are still influential during neoliberal times. Over the last twenty years we have observed that waqfs act like a public organization within public assets that were assigned to waqfs service. Waqfs are functioned as a medium of transformation of public assets into private property. This study based on the examples of waqfs that are known in the last twenty years, argues that waqfs are functioning as a form of privatization of public assets and evolved into an essential tools for neoliberal policies.

Historically the waqfs are known as institutions holding and governing various movable and unmovable properties with a large sum of revenue to operate economically and socially. In Ottoman social formations, waqfs made it possible for miri lands to be transformed into waqfs' property so that these lands could be possessed as private property, thus the waqfs functioned as a tool of “enclosure”. Moreover, making miri lands into waqf's property made capital accumulation possible by conveying the revenue generated through these lands. This phenomenon shows that the waqfs institutionalized the essential conditions for capitalism and transforming public assets into private property. However, this function did not finish with capitalist development in Ottoman era. Today the waqfs continue to fulfill the similar functions and they are positioned as a legal institution that dissolves public assets in favor of private property.

Presently, it is interesting to note the waqf’s coherent character with neoliberal policies. Based on analysis of waqfs such as Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation, Turkish Maarif Foundation, The Turkish Youth Foundation, and The Youth and Education Service Foundation of Turkey, this article finds out that waqfs are operating in an aligned way with the principles of neoliberal policies. It is essential to mark that neoliberal change in Türkiye is heavily relied on dissolving public assets through waqfs. The main contradiction is that although the waqfs are known as private legal entities, they have emerged as public assets due to the sources that are assigned to. Thus in terms of legal technique, the in-between position of waqfs requires an emphasis on their functions as a means of transformation of public assets into private property. Their "flexible and adaptable" qualities render them integral to not only pre-capitalist accumulation but also neoliberal commercialization of property relations.