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The Curfews period of December 2015 to February 2016 in south-eastern Turkey was a time of collective violence in multiple forms, among which the Cizre Basement Massacres are the most known. The period of the general elections in June 2015, until the later and most recent attempt to carry out a military coup in July 2016, covers multiple curfews and military operations in the south-eastern regions of Turkey, and some social media material shared from the region caught international attention and provoked artistic as well as political responses. Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish journalist and artist, modified and re-shared some footage that was first posted in social media accounts of the special forces in Nusaybin and as a result was sentenced to three years in prison. She continued to produce artworks in prison, even though it was 'prohibited' for her to draw. She started to use her own body fluids, hair, newspaper, toilet paper, and any other available daily material in the prison to produce works of art. She also produced a series of work with her menstrual blood. For this article, I conducted two thematic one-to-one discussions with Zehra Doğan and studied her series of works produced with menstrual blood within the scope of mimesis and embodiment theories. Further sections of the article discuss: the function of these series of works for her acting out and working through processes of the collective political violence of which she became both a witness and a victim; methods of artistic transmission of political violence both for the artist and for the audience; and the possible ritualistic functions of using blood while producing work of arts in relation to collective political killings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Chapter 2, Adalet examines the records of Daniel Lerner, another prominent theorist of modernization who conducted research in Turkey. In the study of Turkish-American relations in the twentieth century, much of the focus is on political narratives, diplomatic exchanges, crises, and regional disputes. Adalet also supplies many anecdotes to show the inner details of the relationship between Hilts and Vecdi Diker, who visited the United States and proposed the foundation of a separate Directorate of Highways ( I Karayollari Genel Müdürlügü i ) in Turkey. [Extracted from the article]

To what extent can hostility toward Greeks in Turkish politics be explained sociologically? This paper provides a fresh perspective by examining the value of group position theory in understanding negative perceptions of Greeks in Turkish politics between 1946 and 1960. It proposes that Turkish politicians' perceived threats to valued resources played a key role in their unfavorable portrayals of Greeks. To test the argument, the study scrutinizes all Turkish parliamentary speeches in this period that contain the word Greek (N = 652). Quantitative analysis demonstrates that speaking about border-related threats is a significant predictor of negative perceptions. Qualitative investigation details how politicians justified their negative comments. The paper concludes that the negative remarks about Greeks are a function of Turkish politicians' perceived threats to valued resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has instrumentalised the Turkish army by conducting military operations in the run-up to elections. Although ending military tutelage has been interpreted in other countries as a sign of the professionalisation of the army, in Turkey it has done the opposite: the civilianisation discourse and civilian hegemony over military institutions have led to the instrumentalisation of the army. I demonstrate that the number of military operations significantly increased in the lead-up to elections, which strongly indicates the extent of instrumentalisation. Previous studies have primarily focused on the army’s praetorian role, neglecting the instrumentalisation process in which the military is engaged. This paper analyses the operational aspect of the army and introduces the concept of instrumentalisation. I contend that the cessation of military tutelage in Turkey has resulted in the securitisation of both society and politics. The failed coup in 2016, the double elections of 2015, and the heightened interest in the defence sector during election periods provide strong grounds for examining the instrumentalisation hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis of the historical trajectory of Turkish geographical practice over the past four decades, situated within the broader socio-political landscape of the country. The transmission of the modern geographical tradition from continental Europe to Turkey during the interwar period established the discipline as a holistic science of the human-environment relationship. Although this understanding started to change after the 1968 events, the 1980 Turkish military coup abruptly disrupted innovative endeavors in the discipline, prompting a resurgence of regionally focused synthesis within geography. This insular approach prevailed for several decades but began to evolve in response to the internationalization trends that emerged in the 2000s, with deliberate steps taken toward fostering innovation. Despite institutional damage resulting from the political developments following the 2016 military coup attempt, the discipline maintained its commitment to innovation. This paper critically examines the divergent responses of Turkish geography and its practitioners to the 1980 military coup and the 2016 coup attempt, highlighting the significant influence of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey, under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), has launched large-scale national housing programmes in line with the emerging international trend in low-income housing provision. This paper analyses the place of the government's housing programmes in economic policy and in the international context to illustrate the overall picture of the Turkish housing policy in the AKP era. Housing programmes have enabled low and middle-income people to access homeownership. However, other areas of housing policy such as land provision, taxes, subsidies, or housing finance have ignored the housing needs of low-income households. The case of Turkey reveals that the area on which the government should focus for low-income housing provision is access to affordable finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, summits have gained great importance in developing relations with African countries and they have become useful tools to understand intersecting roadmaps on the continent. China, India, Japan, the United States, European countries and Russia conducted various summits and business forums targeting to develop their political, economic and military relations with Africa. In this vein, FOCAC (Forum on China–Africa Cooperation), European Union–Africa Business and Investment Summits, Japan's Africa Development Summits and Russia–Africa Summit provide some details of these powers' Africa policy. Turkey has also emerged as a new actor and summit organizer in Africa since it opened a new page for Africa in its foreign policy in 2005. After being a strategic partner to the African Union in 2008, Turkey has conducted three Turkey–Africa summits, Istanbul (2008), Malabo (2014) and Istanbul (2021), to form its roadmap in Africa. This work aims to analyse the role of Africa–Turkey summits in the development of Turkey's Africa policy and its relationship with African countries. The paper looks at all declarations comprehensively to evaluate Turkey's foreign policy discourse on Africa. Moreover, it examines Turkey's Africa policy implementations and achievements on the continent through the lens of summits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's defence industries have shown significant development in recent years. But the limited domestic market and the financial crisis created sustainability problems for the industry. To increase its arms sales, Turkey began to search for potential markets to expand, and Africa emerged as an excellent market to enter. Turkey had already invested in Africa through its multi-track diplomacy, a necessary condition for arms sales. While the multi-track diplomacy and increased engagement helped Turkey's arms exports, they are insufficient to explain the recent rise of Turkish arms exports, which have been showing an upward trend since 2021. This paper argues that the increase in arms exports is the function of multi-track diplomacy, no-strings-attached arms export policy and the demonstration effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the impact of Turkey's embassies on trade with sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It uses a panel data set that covers 28 African countries for the period of 2002 to 2020 in order to measure if the opening of an embassy increases Turkey's exports to relevant countries. The study found a positive relationship between exports and diplomatic representation via embassies. More precisely, the empirical results indicate that the presence of an embassy in an African country increases Turkey's exports to this country by 108%. The study also found that the presence of business councils has the same positive effect on Turkey's export performance albeit at a moderate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians' ways of speaking and dressing, how they address other leaders and the masses, and even the kind of gestures they use are all evaluated in detail by the media, commentators, and the electorate. Of the above, however, of particular interest to the media is when they openly cry in public. Public weeping is often regarded as a sign of weakness, and even irrationality; however, a political leader doing so publicly may be able to build a connection with the people in some instances. In this paper, I analyse whether public weeping can affect a leader's public approval. Known for his tearfulness, Turkish President Erdogan has wept publicly twenty-seven times between 2014–2022. Based on time-series data and the autoregressive distributed lag model, it does, in fact, seem that public weeping has significantly increased President Erdogan's public approval rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evil eye, the harmful effects of the envious gaze, is a common superstitious belief in many societies around the world, including Turkey. Since ancient times, people have developed a wide variety of practices and rituals to ward off the evil eye. It is generally believed that the evil eye is motivated by one of the most challenging emotions, envy. The discussion of envy has a long history in psychoanalysis. Unfortunately, psychoanalytic self-psychology has neglected envy and confined it to the concept of fragmentation products. This paper aims to contribute a self-psychological understanding of an envy-related cultural concept, the evil eye. The evil eye-related phenomena in Turkey, such as the harmful potential of gazes, the use of talismans and amulets for protection, and the fear of praising and exhibition, are discussed from a self-psychological perspective. Several short clinical vignettes delineating the evil eye in clinical practice are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the patron-client relationship (PCR) between Turkey and Northern Cyprus. The PCR becomes visible in asymmetrically configured reciprocal exchanges that create dependence on patron states. These exchanges may motivate de facto states to defy, dictate, or demand patronage from their patron states, depending on their ontological insecurities, which are expressed both by the public in general and by the political elite in particular. The paper investigates the elite navigations that occur when de facto authorities prioritize local political interests to compensate for the failure of self-realization stemming from non-recognition or when they seek to mitigate external dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While individuals living near or on archaeological sites have frequently been hired around the world to dig on archaeological excavations, they have very rarely participated in the recording or documentation of those excavations. They have played even less of a role in designing the structures of either paper or electronic data management systems. In this paper, I describe some potential gaps in the archaeological record as a result of this exclusion, by detailing some ways that the communities at Çatalhöyük, Turkey and Petra, Jordan have developed highly situated forms of knowledge about these archaeological sites due to their proximities to them. I also argue that "proximity" inculcates not only forms of knowledge about an archaeological site, but also, under certain conditions, an important means of sharing knowledge between archaeologists and the communities who live where we work. I contrast proximity to the expansiveness of big data, and question whether it is possible and even preferable to imagine ways of integrating local, proximate perspectives into the rubric of big data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1950s was an era when Turkish-US relations were developing in various arenas. In addition to hard power instruments, such as NATO membership, the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid, elements of soft power were also being used to promote the relationship between the two states. One element of this latter power was jazz which became tool of US public diplomacy used to export its cultural values. This paper explores how jazz was used as such in Turkey–US relations in the 1950s. The original aspect of this article lies in its dealing with the influence of jazz music, a relatively little mentioned soft power element in Turkey–US relations of this period. The main finding of the article may be conceptualized as follows: Turkey's relationship with the US was based not only on economic and military interests, but also cultural ties between the two which were also crucial to strengthening their bilateral relations. In this context, musicians were key agents of cultural diplomacy with their music and songs legitimizing a new and different 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction techniques and building materials are greatly affected by traditions and local factors which makes each historical structure unique. Therefore, the structural evaluation of these structures should be a structure-specific evaluation rather than a common-precise acceptance. The first step is to set the aim of the evaluation such that it would increase the level of knowledge through field studies and non-destructive experimental methods. This paper presents a formal and structural evaluation of the traditional timber structure, an impressive Turkish Storage Building known as 'Serender', in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. The formal assessment includes an analysis of construction materials and techniques. The structural evaluation consists of non-ambient vibration test which help determine the dynamic responses of the structure. The method details the natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios, representing the dynamic behavior of the structures. For this purpose, 8 Serender buildings were analyzed and detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erna Eckstein-Schlossmann (1895–1998) and Albert Eckstein (1891–1950), a pediatrician couple from Düsseldorf, had to hand in their official resignations after being declared as 'Jews' according to the laws of 1933 and 1935. Albert Eckstein accepted the offer of the Turkish government to become the head of the pediatric clinic of Ankara Hospital. Relying on a biographical approach and utilizing ego-documents, such as memoirs, letters, and travelogues at the Eckstein family archives, together with Turkish state archives, and Erna Eckstein-Schlossmann's research publications, this paper conceptualizes Erna's exile years in Turkey along gendered lines and provides an intersectional interpretation of migration. This microhistorical reconstruction acknowledges her agency and subjectivity as a high-skilled migrant woman; intertwines her life story with the larger dynamics of the migrant networks in Turkey; and brings it into dialogue with macro-level structural factors with regards to the war, the mass murder and the global movement of European Jews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, wind energy has been utilized globally as a renewable, sustainable, and eco-friendly energy source. However, wind energy's unpredictable and stochastic nature influences its entry into the national electrical grid. An effective wind speed prediction is required to meet these challenges. In this article, the Nonlinear Autoregressive Neural Network (NARNN) model is used and investigated for short-term wind speed forecasting by taking a dataset from the Kandıra wind farm in Kocaeli- Türkiye. The crux of the paper is to improve the actual application of the existing NARNN model with factual data using a different number of neurons of the hidden layer, delays, and training functions in the learning phase called the model's hyperparameters. The mean squared error (MSE) and determination coefficient (R2) are used as performance measures. As a result, the hyperparameter optimization for wind speed prediction using the NARNN increased the forecasting performance. Suggested NARNN model is compared with its exogenous version (NARXNN) using three extra inputs. It is observed that NARNN is not falling behind NARXNN because they provide close results, and NARNN has been shorter to run. Likewise, the learning algorithms were also compared, and it turned out that Bayesian Regularization (BR) is the best learning algorithm. Still, Levenberg Marquardt (LM) algorithm is much faster to execute and provides close results to BR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our research is to draw attention to school learning spaces that fulfil the needs of students and promote their well-being. With the aim of facilitating a deeper understanding of teachers' and students' views about well-being in the school setting, this research integrates self-determination theory with important insights between teachers and students. The method used in the study is a collective case study. The research data have been collected through multiple sources, including face-to-face interviews, observations, and visual materials. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 students and 24 teachers at high schools in Türkiye. Observations were also made in 12 school environments. The findings of this study underline the significance of school learning spaces in fulfilling students' needs for autonomy (self-actualisation), competence (feeling capable of achieving desired outcomes), and relatedness to others (belongingness, forming close relationships) which promote students' well-being. The paper provides a deeper understanding of where well-being is enhanced in learning spaces and which learning environments need to be developed in Turkish high schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this opinion paper, I trace children's access to play in the urban context against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the news, civil society organizations' reports and conversations with experts working in Istanbul, Turkey during the last year, I show how children's access to public places in the city gets constrained by urban governance that neglects young people's needs. Examples from the neighborhoods of Istanbul, Turkey, indicate the importance of having in mind the whole community while thinking about bringing play opportunities in public spaces and at the same time raise questions about children's participation in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I apply Walter Benjamin's concepts "aura" and "wish-image" to explain the cultural making of avocados into a "superfood commodity" in southern Turkey's peasant communities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I employ a cultural-historical analysis to point out how, quickly after being introduced, the tree's leaves were used in folk medicine. As folk medicine, avocado leaf gained cultural importance due to its "aura." Later it was the dying charm of the leaf that breathed new life into the fruit to make it a "superfood," that is, a capitalist "wish-image" in Benjamin's thinking. This case study offers new theoretical insights into the production of symbolic-value from the bottom-up in the context of contemporary global capitalism while also suggesting new directions for research on symbolic-value resulting from the interplay between food and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates belonging among Turkish Alevi older migrants during their stays in the origin country. The few studies that cover belonging among older migrants primarily examined belonging within the confines of host countries. As substantial amounts of time are spent in origin countries, migrants' life worlds are thus only partially studied. Furthermore, the importance of context for belonging is thereby insufficiently acknowledged. Antonsich's (2010) framework inspires this investigation, distinguishing place-belongingness and politics of belonging. Based on observations and 21 interviews with older Alevi migrants in Turkey, we show that the autobiographic story is particularly useful to study older migrants' belonging, that minority identity shapes belonging, and that the location of the interview matters for the types of narratives collected. This study thereby adds to literature on belonging among older migrant populations, to understanding of the complementary nature of place-belongingness and politics of belonging, and to scholarly acknowledgement of the importance of context for belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development process and key findings of the first-ever health impact assessment (HIA) conducted on the proposed Alpu coal-fired power plant (ACPP) in Eskisehir, Turkiye. The study followed a systematic HIA methodology, commencing with an extensive literature search on coal-fired power plants and the region's specific characteristics during the screening step. In the subsequent scoping phase, in-depth discussions were conducted with a diverse range of experts and stakeholders to be used as inputs. The study findings highlight that the ACPP's impact on human health will be multifaceted. In addition to the estimated additional 10,000 premature deaths attributed to air pollution during the 35-year, the ACPP is expected to have implications for occupational health, including increased occupational diseases and injuries. Furthermore, it may also affect income, employment, food access, and nutritional quality. The health implications of the ACPP will extend beyond Eskisehir, potentially affecting a region with a current population of approximately 11 million residents throughout its lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of English medium instruction (EMI), multilingual research approaches are crucial to carrying out effective and ethically responsible research, because EMI policies and practices are inherently multilingual. This paper is a partial replication study that adopts a 'researching multilingually' analytical framework to interrogate the challenges and affordances of using multiple languages during two EMI research projects. In the project in Turkey, the lead researcher, who is an English-Turkish bilingual, analysed policy documents (n = 145) and interview data (n = 67) drawing on her knowledge of both languages. Additionally, 85 EMI classroom observations were conducted. In the project in China, the research team of two L1 English speakers and two L1 Chinese speakers investigated 93 bilingual policy documents and conducted interviews with 26 policy arbiters by drawing on both languages during data collection and analysis. Together, these reflections highlight how multilingual approaches can be utilised throughout the research process, from team formation, research design, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of findings in research reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the phenomenon of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education through the lens of neoliberalism and linguistic entrepreneurship. Although commonly reported benefits of EMI include improved English proficiency and better job opportunities, there is a lack of research critically examining the relationship between EMI and these presumed benefits. Through the lens of linguistic entrepreneurship, this study compares engineering students' perceptions of the linguistic and professional benefits of EMI before, during, and after study in Turkey. Employing a mixed-methods design, data were collected from prospective, current, and former students via questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups. The findings revealed significant differences between groups regarding perceptions of learning and professional outcomes. This paper demonstrates how students' perceptions of EMI are shaped by the ideals of linguistic entrepreneurship and suggests that the professional benefits of EMI may be more nuanced than assumed, with implications for EMI pedagogy and policy in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of modernity and its association with the West and secularism is being challenged with the rise of religious movements in the age of globalisation. This provides a fertile ground for alternative modernities, disconnected from the West and secularism, to surface. This paper provides a theoretical explanation for the emergence of alternative modernities by drawing on insights from epistemic injustice and recognition theory, through an analysis of Turkish media outlets. Turkey serves as an illustrative case to examine the emergence of alternative modernities due to its long-standing tradition of incorporating Western modernity and its complex liminal identity between the boundaries of the East and the West. This paper argues that the period from 2005 to 2020 presented a window of opportunity for an alternative modernities paradigm to engage in epistemic struggles for recognition, supported by the ideological context of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP) government. This period paved the way for questioning the superiority and uniqueness of Western modernity. However, it also indicates the birth of a new form of epistemic injustice as counter-narratives defending the superiority of Islamic civilisation emerged, seeking to establish epistemic hegemony for Islam and its association with modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers have examined how sacred spaces are made spiritually meaningful through embodied practice. This paper brings together scholarship on post-secular feminism and geographies of religion to develop a theory of non-subversive power in the sacred space literature. This paper demonstrates how Kurdish women create sacred space through embodied Islamic mystical practices in Kurdish Turkey and how these practices carve out a space for creative existence within and alongside state and masculinist systems of power, not against. Using a post-secular feminist framing and building on conversations of power in the sacred space literature, we show how the formation of sacred space forms the feminine subject and constitutes an act of feminine agency. Specifically, we focus on two material and sacred sites: private communal prayer houses and public tomb sites used for communal petitions. In these spaces, women organize and lead collective and embodied meditations and petitions that centre their desires, concerns, and wishes in a common register to create, following Saba Mahmood, a 'politics in unusual places'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relation between nationalism and heteronormativity through the lens of hegemonic masculinity and shows how Turkish nationalism helps to construct the "normal" and thus strengthen heteronormative thinking in Turkish society. Utilizing in-depth interviews in Çanakkale with 16 men who carry the typical features of a privileged Turkish citizen—namely the ones self-identifying as Turkish, Sunni Muslim, heterosexual, and breadwinner—my aim in the paper is to reveal and comprehend attitudes toward non-heterosexual people in Turkey, to challenge the effect of the possible nationalist ideological tendencies on participants' discourses, and to explicate if such tendencies play a part in justifying their attitudes. I suggest that respondents' privileges are obtained in exchange for strict commitment to Turkish nationalistic values. These values not only define what constitutes "normal" but also determine and disparage anyone who deviates from such definition. Greater commitment to such values signals a more powerful heterosexual matrix and thus greater exclusion of queer people in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to understand the "accented" documentary practice of Mizgin Müjde Arslan, a contemporary Kurdish female filmmaker who was born in Turkey but lives in diaspora. I will discuss her filmmaking through the features of accented cinema, developed by Hamid Naficy and furthered by Asuman Suner. These features are multi-perspectivity, liminality, being the subject and the storyteller simultaneously, deconstructing the borders, replacing the history with a new memory, and cyclicity. As Naficy's model lacks the gender dimension in its imagery of nation, identity and belonging, I will discuss his model from a broader perspective by adapting Suner's approach, adding the gender dimension into my discussions. For this purpose, I will use the principles of "accented feminism", a term I develop within the paper and draw the concept of "accented feminist cinema" from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critique of perspectives that see the recent global rise of right-wing populism as a direct reaction to the disastrous effects of neoliberalism. By turning attention to the uneven development of capitalism and international competition, in this paper, I present a distinction between 'offensive' and 'defensive' types of right-wing populism that take place in different zones of the world economy. Through a comparative analysis of India and Turkey, this paper discusses the particularities of the rise of 'offensive' populists in emerging powers of the Global South in a period of economic growth. The comparative-historical framework employed in the paper allows us to understand how the world-hegemonic crisis empowered populists by providing opportunities for upward mobility for emerging powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the Turkish political landscape through the November 2002 elections, amid rising expectations for full-membership negotiations with the European Union. Holding of the elections in a period when legitimacy of political parties was questioned and the risk of political crises was pronounced; Delineation of the axes of crises that eclipse Turkish political modernity.

Turkish Republic was founded as a new state, a homeland for Turks, and on a Turkish identity that had yet to be created which would serve as the basis of the political community. This paper analyzes the overall regime properties of the Turkish political system in that period, which has been mired in legitimacy and national identity crises. This paper identifies the varying substance and style of successive Turkish political regimes, examine the domestic and international factors influencing their changing characteristics. The frequent change in the nature of Turkey's political regime have been major sources of its political instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working children and adolescents face diverse problems, including long working hours, low pay, lack of quality education/training, unrealistic expectations, workplace hierarchies, and bullying, all of which cause them to be bereaved of leisure opportunities. However, there is a lack of study on this topic. The dominant perception of child labour being mainly an issue of the Global South, a geographically and socially under-represented context, is a significant reason behind the lack of thorough exploration of the leisure capabilities of working children and adolescents. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Turkey, this paper explores the everyday realities of working children and adolescents in terms of their leisure preferences and capabilities. The study is based on in-depth interviews and focus groups with working children and adolescents aged between 11 and 17. Using the Capabilities Approach as an analytical lens, the paper discusses the ways in which work shrinks the already limited leisure capabilities of the participants. In the face of fatigue and time scarcity, children adapt their leisure preferences to the available leisure cultures. Simultaneously, however, they display agency in various ways so as to gain time and protect their leisure rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using President Joe Biden's opinion article published in The Washington Post ahead of the June 14, 2021 NATO Summit as a point of departure, the present paper examines how NATO members fare in terms of the core constituent elements of liberal democracy such as civil liberties and freedom of expression. To this effect, the paper uses three indices constructed and published by the Varieties of Democracy project. The Liberal democracy, Civil liberties and Freedom of expression indices. The results from club convergence analysis that covers the post-Cold War period, indicate the presence of different convergence clubs among NATO's member-states and Turkey as the single divergent country. Moreover, given that many NATO countries are also EU members, the paper examines the comparative effect the dual NATO and EU membership had on the democratisation process of East European countries and Turkey. The findings suggest a statistically stronger impact of EU membership vis-à-vis NATO membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of violence in Turkey's state-coordinated pursuit of rapid urban transformation. We argue that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) implemented an urban development regime that relied on structural violence to control and distribute urban rent, housing and land. Despite framing this mode of urban transformation as a way to include marginalised urban populations in economy and society, it ultimately proved to be politically and economically unsustainable. In response to resistance, the AKP shifted its strategy to one of coercion in order to maintain control of the pace and scope of urbanisation. We present original research from Ankara and show how this strategic shift unfolded through an analysis of urban policy and planning practice. By highlighting the negotiated nature of Turkey's urban transformation and the limits of structural violence, this paper offers insights into the complexities of contemporary urban politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the AKP (Justice and Development Party) right-authoritarianism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, as seen from the perspective of necropolitics. It examines the relationships between politics and death, asking the question of how such relationships fell into an authoritarian character adversely influencing democracy and democratic values. For this, the study centres on the AKP government's response to the pandemic crisis, discussed as a manifestation of necropolitics. The paper explains the concept of necropolitics and underlines two of its fundamental characteristics: state of exception and creation of enemy. The paper focuses on these two traits to frame and critique the AKP's right-authoritarian politics during the COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of the analysis is to show how AKP politics has politicised death, bearing in mind the social and political opposition's moves against such politics in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking religious education as an important indicator in evaluating religious freedom in a country, this paper focuses on the religion courses in Turkey in order to evaluate Europeanisation and religious freedom in the country. The EU Commission's recent progress reports indicated that the conduct of religious courses in Turkey is incompatible with EU norms. Although important legal arrangements have been made in accordance with the adoption of minority rights in Turkey, it seems more difficult for change to happen in an ideological issue such as education. As religious freedom is an important value for the European Union, this paper aims to explore the impact of Europeanisation on the state of religious education in Turkey and the extent of Turkey's compliance with the European norms in a highly debated area like religious education. It also aims, in a broader sense, to shed a light on the place of religion in the national identity of Turkey today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing focus in political science on right-wing populist parties. But few comparative studies address their discourses and politics relating to family values, especially when involved with policy-making. Moreover, many comparative works about populism focus on a single region – often Western and Eastern Europe. This paper adopts a definition of populism with two different dimensions: the vertical (inclusive), which regards elites, and the horizontal (exclusive), which addresses 'foreigners'. The use of family values in political discourse and policy pertains to the two axes of populism. On the one hand are elites who are accused of being uncommitted to traditional values and morally corrupt. On the other hand are demographic concerns regarding declining birth rates among native populations and immigrants with large families. The stress on family values can also originate from a value orientation – or merely a tactical move – engendered by political competition. This paper specifically examines the politics of family values in the context of policies concerning gender equality, family planning and LGBT rights in three countries: Israel, Italy and Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the Copenhagen, Denmark summit on European Union (EU) enlargement held on December 12-13, 2002, which declined to give Turkey a firm date for accession negotiations. EU's agreement on a document setting out terms in which Turkey could begin negotiating its membership of the EU; Cautious welcome given by the EU to Turkey's program of social and economic reforms.

Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, increased tourism in traditional settlements have led to the adaptive reuse of built vernacular heritage to serve the tourism industry. The adaptive reuse of historic buildings is considered a conservation strategy and an alternative to new constructions in historic environments. Nevertheless, the adaptive reuse of built vernacular heritage and its socio-spatial impacts have not yet been sufficiently investigated. To fill the gap, this paper, focuses on Cappadocia, Turkey, where adaptive reuse of individual vernacular houses has recently paved the way for the transformation of an entire neighbourhood, the historic neighbourhood of Kayakapı, into a 'holiday village.' This study argues that traditional settlements and communities in Cappadocia have been subjected to 'gentrification' and so-called 'Disneyfication.' Such historic environments are facing controversial physical interventions, detached from local communities and devoted to a single function, namely tourism, becoming 'stereotypical and depersonalised.' The study further argues that the current situation is incompatible with international heritage and conservation policies. Correspondingly, to reveal the potential conflicts, the recent revitalisation project of the historic neighbourhood of Kayakapı in Cappadocia is examined as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Istanbul Zone (NW Turkey) forms the eastward extension of Avalonia and was subjected to deformation, uplift and erosion for a time period of 40–50 Ma following the collision with the Sakarya Zone during Early to Late Carboniferous. This paper deals with the petrology and age of the volumetrically minor basic and acidic volcanism at the lowermost horizons of Middle Permian continental red beds, which are overlain by Lower Triassic marine sedimentary rocks in the Kocaeli Peninsula. The volcanic activity is represented mainly by amygdaloidal basalt, rhyolite and minor trachydacite. The amygdaloidal basalt was derived from near-primary middle-K calc-alkaline mantle melts with negligible crystal fractionation. On the other hand, the rhyolite and trachydacite compositionally resemble A2-type rhyolites and underwent low-pressure crystal fractionation as indicated by the presence of a significant Eu anomaly. Initial ɛNd values of amygdaloidal basalt range from 0.0 to 1.5 and those of rhyolite-trachydacite are between −0.4 and −3.4. Amygdaloidal basalt and rhyolite-trachydacite are not directly related to each other by crystal fractionation. Amygdaloidal basalt probably represents the product of the near-primary mantle melts from low-degree melting of a spinel peridotitic source, and the rhyolite-trachydacite originated from highly-fractionated products of basic magmas that are slightly more alkaline than amygdaloidal basalt. However, basic and intermediate products of alkaline basic magmas are unknown in this region to date. U-Pb dating of zircons from a rhyolite sample yielded an igneous crystallization age of 261 ± 3 Ma (2σ), suggesting that the date of deposition of the continental red beds goes back to the latest Middle Permian. Based on the transgressive nature of the Permian-Triassic sequence that starts from the Middle Permian continental red beds and grades into Lower Triassic marine deposits, we suggest that the volcanism likely occurred in an extensional setting. This extension was concurrent with the northward subduction of the Palaeo-Tethys beneath the Sakarya and Istanbul zones after the Variscan orogeny. Therefore, the latest Middle to Late Permian volcanism might have occurred during the initial stage of a back-arc extensional setting [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study highlights the experiences of Turkish asylum seekers who have been persecuted, victimized, stigmatized, labeled, discriminated against, prosecuted, segregated, and targeted following the Turkish government crackdown after the failed coup attempt in July 2016 and settled in the United States, Canada, and European countries. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field notes, and documentation, conducted, and subsequently analyzed using the principles of Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis. After examining the most frequently repeated concepts in the interviews, the following three themes emerged: 1) labeling, 2) targeting, and 3) social pressure and psychological status. This study showed the depths of the psychological pressure, discrimination, torture, and humiliation that detained and jailed participants who were excluded from society endured. The paper ends with several recommendations for Turkey to rejoin the community of nations protecting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the novella Ergrort Amusnut'iwně (The Second Marriage) by Hagop Demirciyan (pen name Hagop Mnts'uri) in a larger historical context including the conditions which led to the Armenian genocide, the ramifications it had on the life of the survivors and the irreversible realities it created in post-genocide Turkey. Published in Istanbul in 1931, the book represents the deep historical and structural differences between Istanbulite Armenians and those from the provinces. Reading and explaining these differences in their context through the lenses of Mnts'uri's characters as well as through the lens of the literary theories of uneven development, I argue that the Armenians in the provinces and in Istanbul were deeply separated from each other, becoming non-contemporaneous contemporaries. This unevenness was coupled with genocide denial in the decades after 1915, imprisoning the survivor as kaght'agan² within silence over generations, not just in Istanbul but also the communities where they sought refuge abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately estimating the collapse height of buildings during earthquakes holds great significance. Acquiring precise height information of buildings using dual-phase high-resolution stereo satellite images (HRSSIs) requires high-precision ground control points, which are difficult to obtain in earthquake-stricken areas. Spaceborne laser data has been validated to significantly improve the vertical accuracy of HRSSIs. Therefore, this paper first proposes the application of a combined stereo adjustment model in building collapse estimation and thoroughly verifies its feasibility. Firstly, the laser altimetry points (LAPs) acquired by GF-7 and ICESat-1 serve as elevation control points (ECPs), and the tie points from HRSSIs were used as constraint to conduct combined adjustment to improve the consistency of stereoscopic positioning accuracy between HRSSIs before and after the earthquake. Subsequently, a footprints-to-conners, coarse-to-fine, automatic building corners extraction method was performed. Avoiding the time-consuming generation of large-scale DSM while also improving the accuracy of building collapse assessment. Finally, according to the height change of building corners calculated from HRSSIs, building damage assessment was completed. According to the above methods, independent experiments were carried out respectively for the Oaxaca earthquake in Mexico in 2020 and the Kahramanmaras earthquake in Türkiye in 2023. GF-7 HRSSIs was used to verify the accuracy and stability of the proposed method for 3D assessment of building damage. The results indicate that the RMSE of elevation positioning accuracy has been greatly reduced in both regions, ranging from 10.29 m to 0.95 m and from 6.67 m to 0.99 m, respectively. This accuracy guarantees the feasibility of detecting the building floor-level collapse. And 2541 building corner points were extracted from two disaster areas, with correct corner points accounting for 85.18%. A total of 520 buildings were correctly extracted corner points, with an accuracy rate of 94.12% for assessing the degree of damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage structures reflect the lifestyles and creative aspects of our ancestors. Indeed, they contain the cultural roots of today's societies and connect the past to the present. There is no doubt that architectural and structural evaluation plays important role in the conservation of these structures for the future. This paper focuses on an architectural evaluation and current usage of the specific timber vernacular structure, the Turkish Storage Building 'Serender', which has not yet been protected in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. The architectural assessment includes morphological analysis, material, and construction techniques of the timber storage buildings. We believe that this assessment will contribute to the preservation of the authenticity and integrity of these structures, and also will contribute to sustaining the skills of craftworker and their traditional and cultural knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a novel joint method for connecting rectangular hollow section (RHS) members in reticulated shells. It is proposed to overcome the problem of connecting rectangular tubes using the traditional joint (cast steel joint) under dead and snow load. A case study is a structure in the eastern region of Turkey that was built on August 20, 2019. This museum-style structure is 40 meters long and 20 meters wide, with an oval shape. In the middle of the building, five tree-shaped columns were used. ANSYS is used to create a refined 3D solid model of the RHS joint. The moment-rotation results show that the proposed RHS joint (plate steel joint) for connecting rectangular hollow section members can be considered a semi-rigid connection and preferred due to its lower cost and weight. Moreover, the dissipated energy capacity has been raised by approximately 3.22 times when the plate steel type model has been used instead of the cast steel type. The stress ratios indicate that the connection stress in the Cast steel type model is lower than the stress in the Plate steel type model. As a result, the Cast steel type model is determined to be incredibly safe and more rigid than plate steel. Furthermore, since the resulting stress rates are lower than those of S355 steel, both models (cast and plate steel type models) can be used for connecting RHS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the history of Turkey's efforts to establish a national automotive industry, which culminated in a state-driven project to build a Turkish automobile, the Devrim (Revolution), in 1961. The outcome of the project was three prototypes unveiled in Republic Day ceremonies, but quickly left in oblivion afterwards. This paper investigates the possible causes of the termination of the project, arguing that building a Turkish car had great symbolic significance for the identity of a nation in the quest for modernization and Westernization. The project was difficult to sustain considering the vexed political and ideological motivations invested in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Analytical Letters is devoted to selected articles based on contributions from the Third International Congress of Environmental Chemistry (EnviroChem 2021). The authors have expanded their conference papers and included their latest experimental results in this special edition of Analytical Letters. EnviroChem 2021 has aimed- to promote and disseminate knowledge on various topics and technologies related to Environmental Chemistry. All articles have gone through the standard review process. The EnviroChem 2021 Conference, where chemists, environmental engineers/scientists and researchers from many countries came together, was held in Antalya Kemer, hosted by Erciyes University (ERU), Karadeniz Technical University (KTU), Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University (MSKU), and the Chemists Society (of Turkey). EnviroChem 2011 combined invited lectures, oral sessions, and poster presentations with a total of 9 invited lectures, 46 contributed oral presentations, and 41 posters. The Conference Organizers would like to thank all committee members, invited speakers, and presenters, authors and reviewers of EnviroChem 2021 who generously shared their expertise with us by presenting/reviewing their valuable contributions to this special issue. Finally, we extend our thanks to Professor David Butcher as the Editor-in-Chief of Analytical Letters and the staff of Taylor & Francis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptualising place-making as a dialectic process that contributes to both empowerment and repression, this article examines a mediated and spatial form of 'refugee voice' and the reactionary responses to the presence of refugees through a widespread video from Turkey. By using video as a place-making tool, the paper investigates the political agency and reception of Syrians in Turkey through a recently controversial YouTubed event that showcases Syrians' celebration of the New Year's Eve in Taksim Square. This mundane event has received wide-ranging reactions on physical spaces as well as online geographies. To understand the online place-making practices of Syrians and reactionary Turkish 'hosts' and study the visual politics of the text and context of the video, the paper combines multimodal discourse analysis of the video and content and sentiment analyses of its YouTube comments. The paper contributes a digital perspective to both claiming rights to the cities and enclave societies in the so-called post-refugee crisis period, whilst throwing light on a new regime of nationalism in Turkey and on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative analysis, dietary exposure, and health risks of four European Union (4EU) priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH4) were investigated in different varieties of vegetables in Turkey. PAH congeners were analyzed by an in house validated HPLC method. Low amounts of PAHs were detected in all examined vegetables. The leafy vegetables showed higher contamination among all types of vegetables. The sum of PAH4 (benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, chrysene, and benzo[b]fluoranthene) levels of leafy vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower were determined as 0.77 and 0.59 μg/kg, respectively. The peels were found to be more contaminated than the cores in root and fruit vegetables. Among the root vegetables, maximum PAH4 concentration was found 0.73 μg/kg in potato peel. The highest level of individual PAH in all vegetables examined was Benz[a]anthracene (BaA), and its value was 0.38 ± 0.16 μg/kg in cauliflower. Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), the most representative of the carcinogenic PAHs, was most commonly detected in all samples. Benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF) and chrysene (CHR) showed relatively lower levels in all studied samples. Human dietary exposure to PAH by consumption of the fruits and vegetables was determined considering the estimated daily intake. The study revealed that the estimated incremental lifetime cancer risk indicates a low health risk for children and adult consumers. The present paper is the first attempt concerning quantitative analysis and health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fruits and vegetables grown in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, particularly since 2002, relations between Iran and Turkey have been on the rise and generally expanding. The aim of this paper is to analyse and clarify the reasons for the sustainability of the two countries' relations while undergoing intermittent eruptions of disputes over the years. In other words, the main question is: why have Iran and Turkey, with their political frictions, routinely embraced rapprochement and collaboration in recent decades? Accordingly, the hypothesis proposed is that a key reason for the ongoing cooperation between Tehran and Ankara in different fields, is the rationale of geopolitical complementarity engendering their security needs in broad meaning, particularly energy security and natural gas. Whilst the logic also applies to water security, both states attach greater importance to border security and energy. In short, their common geopolitical destiny over-rides individual state preferences. To examine this hypothesis, Barry Buzan's theory based on a broad definition of security as well as regional security complex has been deployed through descriptive analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]