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

 

Negotiating Political Power in Turkey

Breaking up the Party

Edited by Elise Massicard, Nicole Watts

This edited collection looks at how political parties in Turkey actually work, inside and out. Departing from traditional macro-level analyses, the book offers a new sociological approach to the study of political parties, treating them as non-unitary entities composed of many different groups and individuals who both cooperate and compete with one another.

The central proposition of the book is that parties must be studied as clusters of relationships in specific locales rather than as unitary ‘black boxes.’ This ground-up approach provides new insights into the internal workings of political parties; why parties gain and lose elections and other political resources; and the ways in which power is negotiated and exercised in Turkey and beyond.

Chapters include studies of Islamic and Islamist parties from the 1970s to the present, ethnic Kurdish parties, center- and extreme right parties, and the far left, as well as independent candidates. The authors pay particular attention to relations – and the blurry boundaries– between parties and civil society groups, religious associations, non-governmental organizations, ethnic and socio-economic groups, and state institutions, and to the variability of external and internal party politics in different geographies such as Adana, Mersin, and Diyarbakir.

 

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 *

 

MiReKoc Call for Research Proposals for Post Graduate Students Research Competition

MiReKoc Call for Research Proposals for Post Graduate Students Research Competition on Turkey-related migration issues

 

 

Addressing the Turkish Dimension in Creating a Euro-Atlantic Security Community

EASI Working Group on Turkey EASI Working Group Paper,

February 2012

Building a Euro-Atlantic Security Community has many dimensions, including the multiple and diverse sides of security—from its political-military aspects to economic, environmental, and energy security, as well as human security in the form of good governance and respect for the rights of individuals.

Other dimensions involve the evolving role and significance of key actors. On that front, none is more important than Turkey and the dramatic changes in its role in the Euro-Atlantic region. The Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative’s Working Group on Turkey, which brought together experts from Turkey and from elsewhere in the region, examined the new assertiveness in Turkish foreign policy, Ankara’s growing influence within its critical immediate neighborhood, and its evolving relationship with other key portions of the Euro-Atlantic region. The report that follows assesses each of these elements. It then recommends measures to be taken by the Turkish government and Turkey’s partners in the Euro-Atlantic region to fit the Turkish component into the construction of a stronger Euro-Atlantic Security Community.

 Igor Ivanov   

 Wolfgang Ischinger

 

S&Ds condemn political trials in Turkey

Group of the Progressive Alliance of
Socialists & Democrats
in the European Parliament

S&Ds condemn political trials in Turkey

Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament are gravely concerned about the decision of the Turkish judiciary to launch a probe against Mr Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of Turkey ‘s main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP). The public prosecutor asked for the revocation of Mr Kılıçdaroğlu’s parliamentary immunity in order to charge him with ‘attempting to influence a fair trial’ and ‘insulting public servants on duty’ following remarks Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu made after a visit to two elected CHP MPs, Mr Mustafa Balbay and Mr Mehmet Haberal, who have been held in pre-trial detention for several years as suspects in the Ergenekon case.

Hannes Swoboda vice-president of the S&D Group said:
"We see this move as part of an ongoing crackdown on people engaged in legal political activity in Turkey . Over the past few years, dozens of journalists critical of the government, thousands of people associated with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the Union of Kurdistan Communities have been arrested and charged with alleged links to terrorist organisations. Most of these cases are based on an excessively broad definition of terrorism in Turkey ‘s anti-terror law. Moreover, the overly restrictive attitudes of judges and prosecutors, and long pre-trial detention periods which obstruct freedom of expression and the rule of law in Turkey .

"The justified fight against military interference in domestic affairs must not be misused for political purposes.

"We call on the Turkish government to build on the legacy of the earlier reforms that brought Turkey closer to the EU standards and demonstrate the central importance of human rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law. In this context, as a matter of priority, we urge the reform of those provisions of Turkey ‘s anti-terror law and criminal law that – coupled with the restrictive and often politicised attitudes of judges and prosecutors – lead to persistent violations of freedom of expression in Turkey ."

 

From one dictatorship to the other

By Fréderike GEERDINK

http://www.journalistinturkey.com

The AKP government of Prime Minister Erdoğan has effectively decreased the once unlimited power of the army. The power of the judiciary was strengthened. But now that power has too strong a grip on society.

Why did you visit wounded demonstrators in hospital? Why did you give interviews to so many TV and radio stations? Why did you attend that press conference? Why did you help get bodies of PKK members back to their families? ‘All legal activities’, says human rights lawyer Reyhan Yalcindag, based in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, ‘but Kurdish politicians and activists are being questioned and jailed for it.’

And not just a few Kurdish politicians and activists were arrested and jailed, but a total of about 4,000 since April 2009. And that number is still rising, because all over Turkey new suspects are still being arrested in what has become known as the ‘KCK trials’. The KCK is an umbrella organisation of Kurdish groups,  including the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States. By arresting peaceful, democratically elected politicians and activists under the KCK flag, practicing democratic rights suddenly becomes a crime. Lawyer Yalcindag: ‘And so you can end up in a cell for giving out a press release, for participating in a demonstration or for shouting a slogan.’

Read more : http://www.journalistinturkey.com/stories/human-rights/from-one-dictatorship-to-the-other_2588/

 

 

 

From Caliphate to Secular State

Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic

 Hakan Özoglu

This insightful analysis looks at the power struggles of 1920–1926, a time during which the Ottoman Empire was replaced by a secular and modernist Turkish nationalist regime.

Designated president of the newly proclaimed Republic of Turkey in 1923, Mustafa Kemal embarked upon a process of Westernization that included the promotion of a secular Turkish national identity and the adoption of the Latin alphabet for the modern Turkish language. How was the new regime able to silence its critics and consolidate its vision?

Covering a short but eventful period in Ottoman/Turkish history From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic focuses on three major political and judicial maneuvers to demonstrate how opposition to and within the emerging Turkish regime was addressed during those pivotal years, and how the resulting power struggle contributed to the form of the new state that arose.

The analysis begins in 1918 when the Ottoman Empire, having lost World War I, was waiting for its fate to be determined by the Allied Powers. The book examines the original intentions and vision of Mustafa Kemal (later known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk), as well as the effects of the Kurdish uprising in 1925, which helped the new regime silence its critics. The ongoing power struggles and their consequences are examined through 1927, after which the new regime quashed any and all opposition, enabling the new Turkish Republic to emerge as a staunchly secular, modernizing Western state.

Features
• A bibliography of archival sources from the United States, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey, as well as other primary and secondary sources in the Turkish, English, and Ottoman languages

Highlights
• Examines a crucial period in Turkish history that has always been regarded as sacred for critical analysis
• Depicts the political landscape of the early Turkish Republic in the context of a struggle for power
• Gathers and draws from primary documents from the U.S. archives that have not been utilized before on the subject of the Ottoman and Turkish Republican history

 

EU-Turkey relations: Towards visa liberalisation?

Tuesday, 6 December 2011, 10.00-12.00

TEPAV Building, 3rd Floor Conference Room
TOBB University of Economics and Technology
Söğütözü Cad. No: 43 Söğütözü – ANKARA

TEPAV and the European Stability Initiative cordially invite you to the roundtable/brainstorming meeting

Turkey is the only EU candidate country whose citizens need a visa when they want to travel to the EU. This is a source of growing frustration among Turkish citizens. Earlier this year, the EU and Turkey negotiated a readmission agreement, which is a precondition for a formal visa liberalisation process. However, EU interior ministers refused to offer Turkey such a process. At the same time, a rising number of EU court decisions has cast doubts on the legality of the visa requirement for Turkish citizens, yet EU member states have been reluctant to change their visa policies.

With Turkish resentments running high, are there ways out of the current deadlock? What can Turkey learn from countries which recently received visa liberalisation? These and other questions will be at the heart of the roundtable, which will start with a presentation by Gerald Knaus, ESI Chairman.

The European Stability Initiative (ESI) is an independent think-tank. It has conducted a major project on visa liberalisation for the Western Balkans and been credited for contributing to its success. Currently ESI tries to use its experience to help initiate a visa liberalisation process for Turkey. It has recently organised events on the issue in Brussels, Berlin and Amsterdam. ESI is working with an advisory board that is chaired by former Italian Prime Minister and Interior Minister Giuliano AMATO and which includes former EU interior ministers such as Otto SCHILY (Germany) and Chares CLARKE (UK). More on this campaign can be found at www.whitelistproject.eu

RSVP: Mrs. Ceyda ALTUNAY – DEMİR
Phone: 312.292 55 86
E-mail: ceyda.altunay@tepav.org.tr

 

Is Turkey an Economic Exception?

Le programme Turquie contemporaine de l’Ifri est heureux d’inviter

 

 à la conférence-débat : 

In a context of severe global crisis, Turkey kept recording impressive growth rates over the last two years (8,9% in 2010, IMF forecast 6,6 % for 2011 ). It is now the world’s 17^th economy and is knocking at the BRICS’s door. While European countries have to face enduring economic slowdown, Turkey’s resilience appears as a miracle by contrast. What are the Turkish assets and resources and what strategies support this Turkish exception? To what extent an economy still strongly anchored to Europe can further avoid the turmoil?

This roundtable will gather François FAURE, head of country-risk division at BNP-Paribas, Esen ÇAĞLAR, economist at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (Türkiye Ekonomi Politikaları Araştırma Vakfı – TEPAV), Deniz ÜNAL, economist at the Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales (CEPII) and Rémi BOURGEOT, economist, expert on emerging economies.

Moderator: Dorothée SCHMID, head of Ifri’s Contemporary Turkey programme.

The conference will be held in English

Event registration

or register by mail at cecillon@ifri.org

or by fax at +33 (01 40 61 60 60