The Minority Concept in the Turkish Context

Practices and Perceptions in Turkey, Greece and France

Samim Akgönül, Strasbourg University

In The Minority Concept in the Turkish Context, Samim Akgönül presents a conceptual discussion of the term ‘minority’ from various perspectives, most notably history, sociology and political science. The concept of minority has a specific understanding in the Turkish political, sociological and legal context due to the Ottoman Millet system approach. The conceptual discussion is illustrated by three case studies: religious minorities in Turkey that are the result of the elimination policies during the Turkish nation building process, Muslim minorities in Greece as heritage of the Ottoman domination until the 20th century, and new minorities originating from Turkey and living in France as the result of the Turkish immigration of 1960′s and following decades

 

Spatial Conceptions of the Nation

Modernizing Geographies in Greece and Turkey

Edited by Nikiforos Diamandouros, Thalia Dragonas and Çaglar Keyder

The formation of nation-states is as much the result of developments regarding land and people, as of military and political struggle. How nationalists imagined the borders of their desired territory, and how they defined the nation have determined the nature of the struggle.Spatial Conceptions of the Nation looks at the various aspects and stages of this process in Greece and Turkey — two states where alternative principles establishing the basis for territory and population continue to compete. This book considers the intellectual and political conditions within which variously demarcated national spaces were imagined and considers the debates, social forces, and world-historical events that have affected national boundaries and conceptions of the nation.

ntroduction * PART I * The Imaginary Topographies of the Megali Idea: National Territory as Utopia—Anastasia Stouraiti and Alexander Kazamias * Urban Space and Nationalism: Changing Local Networks in the Nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire—Yonca Koksal * From Ottoman Territory to a Greek State: Hypotheses on an Unfinished Rupture—Yannis Tsiomis * Sisyphian Task or Procrustean Bed? Matching State and Church Borders and Promised Lands in Greece—Abastassios Anasstassiadis * The Role of Religion and Geography in Turkish Nationalism: The Case of Nurettin Topçu—M. Asim Karaömerliou * Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Dilemmas—Nur Yalman  * PART II * The Materiality of Sovereignty: Geographical Expertise and Changing Place Names in Northern Cyprus—Yael Navaro-Yashin * Greek Cypriot National Identity: A Clash between  Geography and History * Caesar V. Mavratsas * PART III * Nationalisms vs Millets: Building Collective Identities in Ottoman Thrace—Paraskevas Konortas * Contested Territories and the Quest for Ethnology: People and Places in Izmir 1919-22—Georgios Agelopoulos * Antakya between Empire and Nation—Re’at Kasaba * Narratives of Istanbul’s Ottoman Heritage—Ayse Oncu *

 

Old and New Islam in Greece

 

 

Muslim Minority Affairs

The Muslim Minority of Western Thrace in Greece: An Internal Positive or an Internal Negative “Other”?

Christina Borou

 

Abstract The signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, the main bilateral agreement for the protection of Greek and Muslim minorities, hallmarks the onset of a bilateral conflict between Greece and Turkey. Together with tackling the issues of the Aegean and Cyprus, the question of the Muslim minority in Greece impedes the normalization of Greek-Turkish diplomatic relations in recent decades. The state of affairs of the Muslim community in Western Thrace has been labeled as an extremely sensitive issue within the political scene. Drawing upon Pille Petersoo’s typology this paper introduces the notion of “negative and positive Others” to explore its role in Greek nationalist discourse. The main minority political, cultural and religious claims are also discussed, emphasizing minority’s most prominent political claim, the recognition of its ethnic Turkish identity. The paper argues that the historical and political conditions as well as the common ethnic background of a minority group with a kin-state, have nurtured the formation and expression of an internal negative “Other”. However, new dynamics have promoted the reconstruction of the role of otherness in Greek national identity.

 

Minorities / Minorités

"Rapport Hunault" sur les minorités en Turquie en et en Grèce

La liberté de religion et autres droits de l’homme des minorités non musulmanes en Turquie et de la minorité musulmane en Thrace (Grèce orientale)

Freedom of religion and other human rights for non-Muslim minorities in Turkey and for the Muslim minority in Thrace (Eastern Greece)

 

Mübadele… devam

MÜBADELE’DEN SONRA…

 Türkiye ve Yunanistan arasında 1923 zorunlu nüfüs mübadelesi sonrası göçmenlerin entegrasyonu

 -Siyasal, Sosyal ve Ekonomik Perspektifler -

►Perşembe 9 Nisan 2009, 17.30  İFEA’da

 š Mehmet Ö. Alkan (Istanbul Üniversitesi):

“Bir Okulun Selanik’ten İstanbul’a Göçü:Terakki Okulları Örneği”. (dil : türkçe)

►Sali 14 Nisan 2009, 17.30 p.m at the İFEA

š Souli Tseleka (Aix-en-Provence Üniversitesi):

"Din ve Mübadillerin entegrasyonunun sorunu : Yunanistan gelen bektasi insanlar”

 š belegesel gösteri : LMV’nin belgeseli “Kriftçe’den yeşilburç’a”

►Cumartesi 20 Nisan 2009

š Katerine Nazloglou (Tarih öğretmeni, Bordeaux):

"Küçük Asya’dan gelen Mübadillerin Sosyal, kentsel ve siyasal entegrasyonu birkaç örnek arasinda”.

š Belgesel gösterimi“Barış için sürülenler”, Osman Ozkan and Simone Sitte (dil : türkçe fransizca altyaziyla)

 

Minorities in Turkey and Greece

The expected "Hunault Report" on Minorities in Turkey and in Greece is available.

Greece and Turkey should treat their religious minorities according to European standards

Both Greece and Turkey should treat all their citizens who are members of religious minorities according to the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights – rather than invoking “reciprocity” under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne as a basis for refusing to implement some rights.

Approving a report today on “Freedom of religion and other human rights for non-Muslim minorities in Turkey and for the Muslim minority in Thrace (Eastern Greece)”, the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) acknowledged the question was “emotionally very highly charged”.

Nevertheless, it said the two countries should “treat all their citizens without discrimination, without taking into account the way in which the neighbouring state might treat its own citizens”.

In a draft resolution, the committee said the recurrent invoking by Greece and Turkey of the principle of reciprocity as a basis for refusing to implement the rights guaranteed to the minorities concerned by the Treaty of Lausanne was “anachronistic” and could jeapordise each country’s national cohesion.

However, it also welcomed “a degree of new awareness by the authorities of both countries, which have demonstrated their commitment to finding appropriate responses to the difficulties facing the members of these minorities”.

The parliamentarians urged both governments to recognise the “freedom of ethnic self-identification” and to make a series of changes in minority, education and religious policy.

Read the Draft resolution (provisional version)

 

Initiative

Migration and Asylum is NOT a crime

A Greek-Turkish Initiative

Une initiative gréco-turque

Bir Yunan-Türk Girisimi

http://www.kayiki.net/file/cards.html

 

BIBLIOGRAPHIE

Bibliographie sur les relations gréco-turques

Bibliography on Greek-Turkish Relations

Türk-Yunan İlişkileri Kaynakçası

  Avec les étudiants de 4e année de Relations Internationales de l’Université de Galatasaray, nous commençons ici, une bibliographie sur les relations gréco-turques. Pour l’instant, les critères -arbitrairement- choisis sont : des livres publiés en français, anglais, turc et grec (pour le grec nous utiliserons la translittération) qui concernent les relations bilatérales. Merci de m’envoyer des références pour enrichir cette bibliographie.

 We start here, with the Students of 4th Year of International Relations of Galatasaray University, a bibliographical work on the Greek-Turkish relations. For the moment, the main criteria are: books published in French, English, Turkish and Greek, on bilateral relations. Please send references to develop this bibliography.

 

Galatasaray Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü 4. Sınıf öğrencileri ile bir Türk Yunan İlişkileri kaynakçası başlatıyoruz. Elinizdeki referansları gönderip bu kaynakçanın gelişmesine katkıda bulunursanız sevinirim. Simdilik seçilen kriterler Fransızca, İngilizce, Türkçe ve Yunanca yayınlanmış ikili ilişkileri konu alan kitaplardır.

Pour le début de la bibliopraphie voir : bibliographie-turquie-grece

 

Human rights reports

U.S. State Department Human Rigths Reports

2008 Human Rights reports have been published. (There is no report on human rights in the United States)

.

 2008 Human Rights Report: Turkey

 

2008 Human Rights Report: Greece

 

  2008 Human Rights Report: France