Onur Alp Yılmaz

Associate Professor, political scientist, and research director with extensive experience in teaching, public opinion research, and political consultancy. Combines academic rigor with practical political insight through leadership at BUPAR Research, where he has directed nationwide studies on electoral behavior, governance, and social change. Taught undergraduate and graduate courses on Turkish politics, foreign policy, and European studies at several universities, mentoring hundreds of students from diverse backgrounds. Frequently contributes analytical columns and commentary to leading media outlets — including Medyascope, Halk TV, and Independent Türkçe — bridging scholarly research with public debate. Recognized for data-driven analysis, clear communication, and a strong commitment to democratic discourse and evidence-based policymaking.

Orta Sınıfın Düşüşü (The Decline of the Middle Class). İstanbul: İnkılap Yayınevi, 2025.

A comprehensive study examining the global erosion of the middle class and its implications for democracy. The book explores how neoliberal restructuring, rising inequality, and the crisis of social mobility have transformed class structures not only in Turkey but also across advanced and emerging economies. It argues that the weakening of the middle class has undermined democratic institutions, eroded civic trust, and fueled populist and authoritarian tendencies worldwide. Combining original field research with comparative political economy and social theory, the work offers a multidimensional analysis of class, power, and democratic decay in the 21st century.

CHP Tarihini İstanbul’dan Okumak: CHP İstanbul İl Başkanlığı Tarihi (1938–1980) (Understanding the CHP’s History through Istanbul: The Provincial Organization (1938–1980). İstanbul: Telos Yayınevi, 2023.

A historical and institutional study of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) through the lens of its Istanbul provincial organization between 1938 and 1980. The book analyzes how the local structures of the party reflected broader transformations in Turkish politics, urbanization, and state–society relations during the single-party and multi-party periods. It combines archival research, oral histories, and organizational analysis to trace the evolution of political representation and party identity in Turkey’s largest metropolis.

Karaoğlan’ın Akgüvercini: Demokratik Sol Parti (1985–2004) (The White Dove of Karaoğlan: The Democratic Left Party, 1985–2004). Ankara: Siyasal Kitabevi, 2022.

Developed from my doctoral dissertation, this book explores the transformation of social democracy in Turkey during the neoliberal era through the case of Bülent Ecevit and the Democratic Left Party (DSP). It analyzes how the party’s discourse, organization, and policy orientation evolved amid global economic liberalization and shifting class structures, situating Turkey’s experience within the broader international debates on the crisis and reconfiguration of social democracy since the 1980s.

Çeyrek Asır Sonra 28 Şubat: Aktörler Üzerinden Bir Okuma (Twenty-Five Years After February 28: An Actor-Based Interpretation). Ankara: Nika, 2022.

Edited by Onur Alp Yılmaz, this volume offers a balanced and analytical reassessment of Turkey’s February 28 process, a critical moment that continues to shape contemporary political polarization. While most studies reduce the episode to a binary conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Welfare Party (RP), this work broadens the perspective by examining the roles, motivations, and interrelations of multiple political actors. Through this actor-centered approach, it provides new insights into how local and global dynamics shaped party behavior and political outcomes, contributing to a deeper understanding of contemporary polarization in Turkish politics.

Süngülerin Gölgesinde Yeni Toplumun İnşası (1980–1983) (Building a New Society in the Shadow of Bayonets, 1980–1983). İstanbul: Telos Yayınevi, 2022.

Edited by Onur Alp Yılmaz, this book analyzes Turkey’s 1980 military coup and the subsequent period of authoritarian restructuring between 1980 and 1983. It explores how the military regime sought to construct a new social and political order through institutional engineering, ideological reconfiguration, and depoliticization. The study situates the post-coup transformation within broader debates on authoritarian modernization, state formation, and the remaking of civil–military relations.

Sosyal Demokrat Geleneklerin Temel Kaynakları: Türkiye, Almanya ve Fransa Örnekleri (The Foundational Sources of Social Democratic Traditions: The Cases of Turkey, Germany, and France). İstanbul: SODEV Publications, 2021.

This comparative study investigates the intellectual and political roots of social democracy across three national contexts — Turkey, Germany, and France. It examines how different historical trajectories, class coalitions, and ideological traditions have shaped the evolution of social democratic thought and practice. By linking Western European experiences with Turkey’s political modernization, the book offers an analytical bridge between national political traditions and the global crisis of social democracy.

“The Construction of Reconciliation and Social Cohesion by Turkey’s Republican People’s Party: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Kılıçdaroğlu’s Helalleşme Call.” Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2024): pp. 137–154. (With Melek Aylin Özoflu) (ESCI)

(Book Review) “Thomas Piketty: A Brief History of Equality.” Journal of International Relations, Vol. 19, No. 76 (2023): pp. 97–99. (With Melek Aylin Özoflu) (SSCI)

“Atatürk’ün Halkçılık İlkesi Üzerine Bir Tartışma: Halkçılık mı Popülizm mi?” (A Discussion on Atatürk’s Principle of Peopleism: Populism or Peopleism?) Memleket Siyaset Yönetim, Vol. 17, No. 37 (2022): pp. 143–172. (Scopus)

“Sol-Kemalizmin Tasfiyesi: 12 Eylül’ün Atatürkçülüğü ve Kökenleri (Liquidation of Left-Kemalism: 12 September’s Atatürkism and Its Origins)." Atatürk Yolu Dergisi / Journal of Atatürk Yolu, No. 70 (2022): pp. 473–485. (EBSCO) 

“Neo-Kantçı Ahlak Felsefesi Bağlamında Sosyal Demokrat Revizyonizm Tartışmaları (Social Democratic Revisionism Debates in the Context of Neo-Kantian Moral Philosophy).” Felsefe Arkivi / Archives of Philosophy, No. 54 (2021): pp. 97–114. (ERIH PLUS) 

“Atatürk’ün Nutuk’undaki Dış Politika Olaylarını Realizm Çerçevesinde Değerlendirmek (Evaluating the Foreign Policy Incidents in Atatürk’s Nutuk within the Framework of Realism).*” Iğdır Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi / Iğdır University Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences, No. 6 (2021): pp. 13–23. (DOAJ) (With Harun Talha Ayanoğlu) 

“American–Turkish Relations in the Aftermath of World War II: The Beginning of American Hegemony over Turkey.” Lectio Socialis, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2022): pp. 39–49. (DOAJ) 

“How Social Democrats Have Reacted to Migrants: Turkish and German Samples.” Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2023): pp. 20–33. (MIAR)

“Cumhuriyet Döneminin İlk Sosyal Demokrat Partisi: Türk Sosyal Demokrat Partisi (1946–1951) (The First Social Democratic Party of the Republican Era: Turkish Social Democrat Party (1946–1951)).*” SDÜ Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi / SDU Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, Special Issue for the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye (October 2023): pp. 52–63. 

“Behice Boran: Öğretim Üyesi, Siyasetçi, Kuramcı (Behice Boran: Academic, Politician, Theorist).” Mülkiye Dergisi / Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 3 (2022): pp. 891–897. (Book Review)

“12 Eylülden Sonra Merkez Solda Kemalizm Anlayışının Dönüşümü (The Transformation of Kemalist Thought in the Center-Left after the 1980 Coup).” In Tek Parti Döneminden Ulusalcılığa Kemalizmin Düşünsel Tarihi (The Intellectual History of Kemalism: From the Single-Party Era to Neo-Nationalism), İstanbul: Telos, 2025, pp. 267–293.

“Can the ‘Table of Six’ Democratize Türkiye?” In Democracy, Opposition, Europeanisation and Its Reversal in Turkey, edited by H. Kutay Ayuğ and Armağan Öztürk, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024, pp. 101–112.

“Deniz Baykal.” In CHP’nin 100. Yılı: Kuruculuktan Daimi Muhalefete (100 Years of the CHP: From Founding to Perpetual Opposition), İstanbul: İletişim, 2023, pp. 287–290.

Rejim Koruma Güdüsüyle Pragmatizm Arasında Baykal CHP’si (The Baykal-Era CHP between Regime Preservation and Pragmatism).” In CHP’nin 100. Yılı: Kuruculuktan Daimi Muhalefete (100 Years of the CHP: From Founding to Perpetual Opposition), İstanbul: İletişim, 2023, pp. 255–285.

“Bir Asır Sonra Kemalizmi Sakin Bir Değerlendirme Arayışı (A Century Later: A Calm Reassessment of Kemalism).” In 100. Yılında Atatürk ve Cumhuriyet (Atatürk and the Republic at its 100th Anniversary), edited by Şaduman Halıcı, İstanbul: İBB, 2023, pp. 17–37.

“Karaoğlan’ın Akgüvercini: Demokratik Sol Parti (The White Dove of Karaoğlan: The Democratic Left Party).” In Türkiye’nin 1980’li Yılları (Turkey in the 1980s), edited by Mete Kaan Kaynar, İstanbul: İletişim, 2023, pp. 505–509.

“28 Şubat’ta MHP: Devletle Milletin Arasını Açmayın (The MHP during February 28: ‘Do Not Drive a Wedge between the State and the Nation’).” In Çeyrek Asır Sonra 28 Şubat: Aktörler Üzerinden Bir Okuma (Twenty-Five Years after February 28: An Actor-Based Interpretation), edited by Onur Alp Yılmaz, Ankara: Nika, 2022.

“Post-Seküler Bir Önerme Olarak İnançlara Saygılı Laiklik, DSP ve 28 Şubat (Secularism Respectful to Beliefs as a Post-Secular Proposition: The DSP and February 28).” In 28 Şubat’ı Aktörler Üzerinden Okumak: Siyasi Partiler, Üniversiteler, Basın ve Diğer Kurumlar (Reading February 28 through Political Actors, Universities, the Press and Other Institutions), edited by Onur Alp Yılmaz, Ankara: Nika Publications, 2022. (With Emrah Konuralp)

“Devrimcilikte Bir Süreklilik: CHP’de Ortanın Solu Açılımı (A Continuity in Revolutionary Thought: The ‘Left of Center’ Turn in the CHP).” In Sosyal Demokrat Geleneklerin Temel Kaynakları: Türkiye, Almanya ve Fransa Örnekleri (The Foundational Sources of Social Democratic Traditions: The Cases of Turkey, Germany, and France), edited by Onur Alp Yılmaz, İstanbul: SODEV Publications, 2021.

“Türkiye’de Merkezin Çöküş Yılları: 1990’larda Türkiye Siyaseti (The Years of the Center’s Collapse in Turkey: Turkish Politics in the 1990s).” In Türkiye’nin Son 30 Yılı (The Last 30 Years of Turkey), edited by İhsan Ömer Atagenç, İstanbul: Kriter Publications, 2020.

“Mehmet Akif Ersoy ve Ziya Gökalp’in Milliyetçilik Anlayışları Üzerine Mukayeseli Bir Değerlendirme (A Comparative Evaluation of Mehmet Akif Ersoy and Ziya Gökalp’s Understandings of Nationalism).*” Paper presented at the 2nd International Symposium on the National Anthem and Our National Poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy on the 101st Anniversary of Its Adoption, March 12, 2022. (Published in the Conference Proceedings) 

“Alevilerin Kamusal Özne Olma Arayışları: 1960’lar Örneği (The Alevis’ Search for Becoming Public Subjects: The Case of the 1960s).*” Paper presented at the 2nd Ankara Congress on Humanities and Social Sciences, Ankara Bilim University, Ankara, 2023. (Published in the Conference Proceedings) 

“CHP’de Ortanın Solu Hareketi: Devrimcilikte Bir Süreklilik (The Left-of-Center Movement in the CHP: A Continuity in Revolutionism).*” Paper presented at the 17th Social Sciences Congress of the Turkish Political Science Association, Bilkent University, Ankara, 2019. (Published in the Conference Proceedings)

“Atatürk’ün Nutuk’ta Bahsettiği Dış Politika Olaylarının Realist Kuram Çerçevesinde Bir Değerlendirmesi (An Evaluation of Foreign Policy Incidents Mentioned by Atatürk in His Nutuk within the Framework of Realist Theory).*” Paper presented at the 6th Yıldız Social Sciences Congress, Yıldız Technical University, İstanbul, December 12–13, 2019. (Published in the Conference Proceedings)

“Türkiye’de İktidarın Beşerileşmesi: Meşveretten Millet İradesine (The Humanization of Power in Turkey: From Consultation to the General Will).*” Paper presented at the International Cappadocia Social Sciences Student Congress, Ömer Halisdemir University, Niğde, 2019. (Published in the Conference Proceedings)