Through a qualitative analysis of the works of Sezai Karakoc (1930-2021), a modernist poet and Muslim-conservative intellectual, this paper locates civilization-centered Islamic intellectual thought that arose in Turkey by the 1960s. Karakoc is the first intellectual during the period to use the concept of civilization systematically as part of what can be deemed as the rise of contemporary Muslim conservative political thought in Turkey. He is arguably one of the most important literary (The Second New Poetry Event) and political (Dirilis Thesis) figures in the post-1950 period. He has been an influential name who had a significant impact on the development of different political movements and ideologies in the Islamic intellectual field including the ruling JDP (AKP)’s civilizationist policies. He developed his civilization-centered ideas through Dirilis Journal published intermittently between 1960-1992; books published by his own Dirilis Publishing; and the Dirilis Party, of which he was the founding leader. This paper argues that through his Diriliş Thesis, Karakoc suggests an alternative Islamic civilization approach to capitalism and socialism under the conditions of the Cold War. This Thesis which calls for a massive Islamic rebirth proposes Islam as the third way that has the highest potential for Muslim societies due to its authenticity and civilizationist transformation in every field made possible by the Dirilis methodology. It refers to remembering the essence, finding oneself, confronting the past, and coming out new and afresh into the future. Returning to oneself by remembering essence means “cultivating humanization in the real sense, from deep personality roots to the fabric of society, in the soil of its own civilization”. Karakoc sees such a process as the beginning of the rebirth phase. Karakoc sees Dirilis as a way of life that cannot be concrete if it is deeply operationalized in society. This paper mainly argues that Diriliş Thesis is the programmatic offer of the civilizational approach of Sezai Karakoc. It respectively inquires Karakoc’s civilization (medeniyet) definition; bases his works within “modernity crisis” contextuality; and links them to his Dirilis Thesis that addresses moral, social, and political rebirth in the Islamic sense. The paper will methodologically analyze the relevant texts spread throughout the books of Karakoc.