Conclusion

Abstract

This book’s attempt to understand the emergence and possible resolution of the issue of human rights violation in Turkey has led to a combination of theoretical and empirical analysis, which makes a contribution both to the sociology of human rights and to the sociological study of Turkey. Through the construction of a theory of human rights, based primarily on the work of Adam Smith, the book draws upon and integrates many of the ideas that have been important to the development of human rights sociology (Sjoberg and Vaughan 1986; Turner 1993, 2006; Waters 1996; Barbalet 2001; Woodiwiss 2005; Morris 2006). Empirically, it has been shown that, alongside the serious issue of local responsibility for individual crimes, the emergence of many of modern Turkey’s human rights issues — including an understanding of the more general prospect for their resolution — has been broadly affected by Turkey’s continuing transition from a religious to a predominantly secular understanding of social cohesion. It is now the purpose of this section to summarise and consolidate the main points that have arisen in these analyses.