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This article examines the parallels between the trajectory of international sporting contacts of Turkish football, at both national and club levels, and Turkish foreign and diplomatic policy since the 1920s. This convergence of international football and foreign policy is particularly true for the 1930s and the 1950s. During the 1930s, although the ruling elite was not fond of football as a spectator sport, its potential for international recognition and as a tool for diplomacy was not ignored. Turkey's rivals on the pitch were mainly countries from the Eastern Bloc, e.g. a series of friendly matches against the USSR, which was suffering from a lack of international experience due to the footballing ‘embargo’ imposed by the West. In contrast, the years following the Second World War saw Turkey's efforts to keep the USSR and other communist states at bay both politically and culturally. In the post-war international conjuncture, Turkey preferred to build up closer relations with the West and gave western European teams priority in its footballing contacts. Finally, Turkey's bid for membership of UEFA – a tortuous tale involving individual influence, FIFA and the ‘Europe–Asia question’ of Turkish identity – was also in line with Turkey's changed foreign policy strategy and priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on a study which analyzed the different sequences of the first hypervariable domain of the control region of Miniopterus (M.) schreibersii sampled in colonies located in the western- and eastern-most borders of its distribution. The glacial refugia species are said to be the main causal factors for the presence of divergent genetic lineages associated with distinct geograhical patterns discovered within many European taxa. The study examined whether M. schreibersii originated from the same ancestral population that survived the major glaciations.

The prevalence of Behçet's disease (BD) is much higher in countries along the ancient Silk Route, extending from Japan to Mediterranean countries including Turkey, than in northern Europe and the USA. Three previous epidemiologic surveys have been carried out in different regions of Turkey. This study investigated the cross-sectional prevalence of BD in individuals aged > 12 years in Istanbul, Turkey, in two stages. The first stage aimed to identify individuals with recurrent oral ulcers (ROUs) by visiting them in their homes, and the second stage aimed to further examine those with ROUs for the presence of other BD-related manifestations under hospital conditions. The sample size was determined to be 24,000 with an expected BD prevalence rate of 1/1000 and a sampling error of 4/10,000, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 6–14/10,000. The number of individuals to be screened in each district was determined in proportion to the population of all districts in Istanbul. The standard questionnaire was applied to a total of 23,986 individuals at their homes. A history of ROU was recorded in 2289 individuals (9.5%), and a previous diagnosis of BD was recorded in 47. The diagnosis of ROU was confirmed in 700, and the diagnosis of BD was established in 101 according to the International Study Group criteria. The prevalence rate of BD was estimated as 42/10,000 (95% CI, 34–51/10,000) in Istanbul, Turkey. This survey conducted in Istanbul, the largest cosmopolitan city in Turkey with immigrants from all over the country, has a larger sample size than other previous studies, and therefore the reported prevalence rate of BD has a more acceptable confidence interval. This study aids in the estimation of the prevalence of BD in Turkey, and supports previous findings that Turkey has the highest prevalence rate of the disease in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]