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While enhancing our economic relations with African countries was positioned as a target within Türkiye’s vision, especially after the Cold War, this could only come true in the first decade of the 21st century. As a result, there have been significant trade volume developments. Although Türkiye had a trade deficit with Africa from the mid-90s to the early 2000s, it became a surplus party in the subsequent period due to stagnation and the impacts of various crises. The trade with Africa is primarily with North African countries due to geographical proximity and historical ties. While Africa's share in Türkiye's total foreign trade volume has been gradually increasing, it remains significantly lower compared to Asia and Europe. Relations between the continent and Türkiye haven’t grown stronger yet, mainly because most African countries were former colonies. On the other hand, Türkiye's geographical proximity to Africa offers a significant opportunity to meet African countries' agricultural and food needs. In this context, this study aims to analyze Türkiye’s trade with the African continent and to reveal the opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses this trade offers for both actors. Furthermore, the study provides recommendations to enhance these relations in this framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial revolutions have been shaped within the framework of certain driving factors such as mechanization, the use of steam and electricity in machines, and the invention of electronic machines. In the 21st century, which is expressed as industry 4.0, new developments and innovations have emerged in many fields such as industry, technology and education. In parallel to these developments, there have been successive changes in other related issues. In this context, the knowledge, skills and competencies that employer institutions and organizations expect from their employees have also changed, and these are named as 21st century competencies. Many academic and non-academic studies have been conducted on the quality and quantity of these qualifications. In addition, nowadays activities have been carried out for the tools and mechanisms that will ensure the acquisition of these qualifications. One of the activities that come to the fore in this context is quality and accreditation studies in the field of education. One of the organizations operating in the field of accreditation of theology and Islamic sciences programs in Turkey and internationally is the Islamic Sciences Accreditation Agency (IAA). IAA expects the outputs of the programs applying to enter the accreditation process to include the outputs of the IAA, so it expects the program graduates in the process to have the outputs of the IAA, and offers the acquisition of program-specific criteria as a recommendation. At this point, the issue of IAA outputs and program-specific criteria come to the fore whether the assurance of 21st century qualifications for graduates of theology and Islamic sciences program or not. For this reason, in this study, the role of Islamic Sciences Accreditation Agency (IAA) criteria is discussed in the process of gaining the knowledge, skills and competencies expected from individuals in the 21st century to the students of theology and Islamic sciences program. Therefore, in this article, it is aimed to reveal the place and importance of the IAA accreditation process and its criteria in the theology and Islamic sciences program undergraduate students who are in the process of IAA accreditation, in order to have 21st century qualifications. 21st century qualifications and IAA outputs as well as its program-specific criteria constitute the scope of this study since the role of IAA outputs and program-specific criteria in the acquisition of 21st century qualifications are discussed in the study. However, in this process limitations have been made at the point of specifying the 21st century competencies. In this context, the competencies expressed in 9 of 19 studies on competencies are taken as basis. All of the IAA outputs and program-specific criteria are included in the scope. This study is important in terms of showing the value of IAA accreditation at the point of gaining the 21st century qualifications to the graduates of the program who are in the IAA accreditation process, and revealing the assurance dimension of the accreditation process in gaining these qualifications. In the research, qualitative research method is used as a method and case study is used as a tool. Due to the uniqueness of the case, the single case model is preferred. For data collection, open-public documents are used. For this reason, it is seen unnecessary to obtain an ethics committee approval. In this process, initially the scientific study documents dealing with the 21st century competencies and the IAA criteria are examined, and then the obtained data are evaluated. Descriptive method is used in data analysis. Both internal validity elements, such as getting expert opinion; and external ones such as classification, categorization and coding of data are fulfilled. In the study, it is noted that IAA outputs support most of the 21st century competencies; on the other hand, it is found that IAA program-specific criteria support a significant part of these qualifications. Therefore, it is concluded that the IAA accreditation process can be a guarantee for the students of theology and Islamic sciences programs to gain these qualifications. It has not yet been determined whether the graduates of the accredited programs have gained these qualifications due to the fact that the IAA accreditation practices have just started and the impact process on the students has spread over the years. In accordance with this purpose, it is recommended to carry out different studies, including the opinions of students, graduates and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the long history of British theatre, the image of Turk has frequently emerged in the works of famous playwrights. Since the beginning of the Crusades, Western perceptions of Turks have centred upon stereotypical images. These negative stereotypes generated by English literature are still present. However, with the acclaimed playwright Richard Bean, a new and positive Turkish image has emerged in British theatre since the turn of the twenty-first century. In his 2007 play, In the Club, Richard Bean explores the relationship between Turkey and the European Union and draws attention to the great power of Turkish culture. The play discusses Turkey's accession process to the European Club, stressing its benefits while addressing stereotypes and biases against Turks. In this context, In the Club emphasizes that Turkey will strengthen the European Union as a model state with its culture and traditions, with its geographical location and secular structure, and by reminding members that Turks are people who work hard to improve their country. This study aims to examine the new Turkish image in Richard Bean's In the Club. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the ongoing debates in geography in the last quarter‐century has been on the Anglo‐American hegemony in the discipline. In the present study, the historicity of geographical practice in Turkey as a periphery country is focused on, and it is aimed to determine how hegemonic relations in geography are felt by the geographical agenda of a typical periphery country. For this purpose, a database was created based on citations to non‐Turkish geographers (with regard to their workplaces) in the articles published in all academic geography journals in Turkey between the years 1943 and 2018. Analysis shows that multiple hegemonies are present in Turkish geography. While French and German geographical practices dominated the 'long twentieth century' of the discipline in Turkey as standard‐setting and emulated practices, the twenty‐first century has been dominated by Anglo‐American hegemony, which serves as the governor of capitalist relations and unguided internationalisation in the academy. This pattern, which also reflects a sharp intellectual transformation in Turkish geography, provides a striking example of how localisation (Anglo‐Americanisation) can occur in line with internationalisation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is consensus that climate change is one of the biggest problems of the 21st century. This study investigates the management accounting techniques used for carbon emissions in different dimensions by the Borsa Istanbul-100 Index companies in Turkey. The study uses the CDP (2017) survey responses of the companies, and analyzes the them by qualitative content analysis through the NVivo 12 program. The coding maps expose the management accounting techniques of each company. Results show that the management accounting techniques used in carbon management stages are; Incentive 87%, Planning and Goal Setting 84%, Performance Measurement 84% and External Assurance 71%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dilucu region, which is a land bridge between Turkey and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Region of Azerbaijan, has a strategically important location. The region has been under the rule of many states throughout history. The savior and founding staff of the country, who saw the importance of the region during the years of the War of Independence, started the struggle for independence from the east even in a difficult period when Anatolia was tried to be occupied, and they guaranteed our eastern borders with the Moscow and Kars Treaties. A common land border has been established between Turkey and Nakhchivan, and it has been accepted that Azerbaijan is an integral part of it, by guaranteeing its security under the guarantor of Turkey. In the first years of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the security problems in the region were resolved and necessary arrangements were made in our borders. At a time when new political blocs were formed in the first quarter of the 21st century, Turkish states gathered under one roof and established the Turkic Council. Transportation between these council countries has become even more important. In this article, while examining the geographical, historical and geopolitical features of Dilucu region, which provides a connection between the Turkish World and Turkey, the historical process in which our border in this region was determined is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Syrian crisis is a long-standing problem that affects power relations and creates a regional/global impact in today's Middle East. It has attracted the attention of many states due to its geographical location, natural resources, as well as being located on the route to various assets. In other words, the experienced crises occur in relation to the decisions taken by the states according to their own interests. The most important issue that shapes this situation is - apart from the effort to reach the resources in the region - the embroilment of ongoing problems of the 21st century in the international system. To understand the transitory state that exists in the international system, it is not sufficient to make an inference only from the existing cyclical order when examining the events. In this context, it is aimed to discuss the approaches of two competing powers in the international system by choosing the 1957 Syrian Crisis in the Cold War and the 2011 Syrian Crisis after the Cold War. In this way, two similar period intervals will be studied through the neorealist framework. Because while both the Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation (USSR during the Cold War) want to protect their own interests during these two crisis periods, they also affect the emergence and recovery processes of problems. With this study, it will be tried to reveal how the Syrian issue affects Turkey-Russia relations both in terms of the international system and in terms of differences in the region by help of the neorealist perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall are expected to have negative effects on ecosystem services by causing significant shrinkage or shift of forest distribution particularly in Mediterranean basin. In this study, it was aimed to determine the distribution of oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) by modelling the current and future potential locations of the habitats. With Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) approach, we predicted its distribution under current and future conditions (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) in Turkey. Modelling was performed by using eight bioclimatic variables that show significant relationship to the current distribution of oriental beech and were widely used in the literature. The fitted model had high quality (93.5% AUC) and is biological meaningful. The prediction of warmer condition in future showed that the populations on the southern slopes of the North Anatolian Mountains were expected to shrink and that there would be reduction in the populations found in the main distribution area in the Istranca Mountains and the Northern Anatolia, especially in populations in the transition zone of Central Anatolia. Also, oriental beech would lose its isolated-marginal populations in the southeast of Turkey. The results highlight the importance of a genetic conservation programme for beech population in Turkey. Otherwise, the genetic pools seem to extinct under climate change. Furthermore, the paper is intended to provide a starting point for a monitoring of oriental beech at the edge of its distribution, to observe its climatic migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to determine the 21st century skills level of undergraduate students studying in Library and Information Science (LIS) departments. A cross-sectional survey design from non-experimental research approach was preferred to examine the change in the students' 21st century skill levels. The sample of the study consisted of 683 students studying in the LIS departments of 9 universities with active students in different geographical locations of Turkey. As data collection tools, 3 different measurement tools were used to measure 21st century skills determined within the scope of the study, and the data were collected in the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. One-Way MANOVA statistical analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. As a result, students' levels of digital literacy, collaboration, and algorithmic thinking skills were found to increase as the year of study level increased. When examined according to age levels, only collaboration and algorithmic thinking skills differed between the groups. When a comparison was made according to universities, it was determined that the level of effective listening skills, which is an element of algorithmic thinking, collaboration, and effective communication skills, differed significantly. The highest level of digital literacy skills was determined in the students studying at Hacettepe University. The findings related to universities' getting their students to gain 21st century skills were discussed in detail in the study, and recommendations were presented in accordance with the findings. The results of the present study is hoped to guide LIS teaching staff to design a curriculum which enables their students enhance the 21st century skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey and China countries have shared unique historical background. There is no doubt, historical facts and perceptions affected their mutual relations. International system in the 21st century is complex and interdependent where mutual relations have been more diversified and intensified. That’s why complexity theory has been useful tool to understand nature of international system. In this respect, this article seeks to understand three dimensions of Turkey and China relationship which are concurrent modernization, economic and security cooperation with the notion of co-evolution, interdependency and emergence vis á vis complexity theory. As analyzed, complex international system would bring new opportunities especially post COVID-19 era together with more material, operational and institutionalized policies by two actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to understand the outcomes of the crackdown on the Arab revolts and the lessons learned thereof. There is no doubt that the Arab revolts were corrupted shortly after their start and used to serve the interests of counterrevolutionaries. The economic, social, and political problems, which triggered the riots in 2011, have not been mitigated a decade later. In this respect, Turkey's respect for popular demands, the attractiveness of its democratic model, and it proactive foreign policy have concerned the Gulf states leading them to view Turkey as a country that they had to contain. However, Turkey's post-2016 efforts to restore the balance of power through the use of hard power prevented Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from developing a new regional blueprint under the Trump administration. Right now, there are indications that all regional powers are engaging in a fresh strategic assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early twenty-first century, tall building construction has gained significant momentum in the urban cities of Turkey as a result of the population and economic growth. Accruing more than 1500 buildings by year 2015, the majority of the country's exposure now clusters across the seismically active landscape of the Istanbul metropolitan area. As such, the underlying earthquake risk calls for the investigation of the seismic performance of these structures. While hazard studies for Istanbul are available, the literature is still devoid of studies related to the seismic risk assessment of tall buildings located there. As an attempt to fill this gap, this paper focuses on the characterization and quantification of the existing exposure to allow risk assessment both at single building and portfolio levels. To this end, an extensive tall building inventory containing the structural drawings of 94 buildings is compiled and thoroughly examined to make a projection of the design practice. After establishing statistically representative archetypes, we quantified their dynamic response to 1999 Düzce and Kocaeli earthquake ground motions. We notice a maximum difference of 100% in the maximum interstory drift ratios (equaling a 2% increase in absolute value) between two different tall building archetypes. Moreover, the analysis results indicate that the incident angle of the applied ground-motion can be a discriminant factor between structural collapse and survival. The outcome of this study puts forward a robust basis for prospective structural analyses, collapse risk assessment as well as loss estimation analyses of tall buildings in Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that linkage to the West can have a strong democratizing influence on transitioning states. Yet, Western linkage and leverage lost much of their democratizing force by the early twenty‐first century. Turkey's political trajectory over the last decade furnishes a representative case study of the waning power of the West as an anchor for democratization in high‐linkage countries. Despite Turkey's robust ties to the West, competitive authoritarianism has been further entrenched and signs of a drift toward full‐fledged authoritarianism emerged since the failed coup of July 2016. We argue that in a context where the European Union and the United States' willingness to support democracy declined considerably the AKP's distancing from the West in foreign policy and balancing the Western powers with its new economic and political relations with autocratic regimes have served to stifle the democratizing pressure of Western linkage by lowering the cost of autocratic behavior for the AKP government and facilitating Turkey's illiberal turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I analyze the rise of the "Lausanne Syndrome" in Turkish politics during the twenty‐first century through the prism of ontological security theory. The arguments are presented through the examination of the legacy of the "Sèvres Syndrome", the impact of the Turkish‐Israeli diplomatic break‐up during the 2010s on the Turkish self‐narrative, and the declaration of the second war of independence following the failed coup attempt of 2016. The "Lausanne Syndrome" serves both as a domestic and foreign policy tool, as it relates to Erdoğan's search for ontological security and geopolitical strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first half of the twentieth century, Thompson-Starrett and Co., a New York-based American engineering, construction, and contracting firm, dominated the building scene. In operation between 1899 and 1968, it was a leader in skyscraper construction and large-scale projects, and literally built the New York skyline. It designed and constructed the tallest skyscraper of the era, the Woolworth Building, as well as other iconic Manhattan structures such as the Equitable Building, the American Stock Exchange, the New York Municipal Building, and the Claridge, Algonquin, Roosevelt, St. Regis, and Waldorf-Astoria Hotels. A formidable pioneering force in structural engineering a hundred years ago, Thompson-Starrett is, by and large, forgotten today, especially its post-World War II ventures in Turkey, such as the Sarıyar Dam and the Çeşme Beach Houses, a luxury beachfront cooperative located in Ilıca, Izmir. However, what would prompt the engineering firm responsible for the Woolworth Building to take on the road and utility construction and project management of a Turkish summer resort? The answer lies in Cold War geopolitics and booming private enterprise, both of which, in the 1950s, converged in Turkey, relied on American engineering, and involved a complex process of Americanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As oneness reflects the much-needed worldview in the 21st century, exploring how oneness behaviors might play out in different cultures seem a worthwhile scientific pursuit in the service of humanity. The main purpose of the present study is to test whether factor structure and measurement construct of Oneness Behaviors Scale is valid on the Indian sample. A total of 1040 participants (651 from Turkey 389 from India) participated in the study for testing the cross-cultural equivalence of the scale. The results demonstrated limited partial invariance of oneness scale across Turkish and Indian samples with suggesting most of items have been perceived and understood differently, even factorial structure is similar. With the very limited findings of invariant items between these cultures, making further tests would add to our understanding of oneness behaviors in terms of both research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evapotranspiration calculation is an important matter due to agricultural reasons, but also for understanding water resources and runoff amount in a certain territory. Two CMIP5 multimodal projections (2011–2040 and 2041–2070) and land‐cover pattern were used to analyse the seasonal and annual crop evapotranspiration trend in Turkey. The spatial distribution of crop evapotranspiration related to the initial season, mid‐season, end season and cold season were computed through a geographical information system. The maximum crop evapotranspirations were found in the mid‐season for present and future, with 1,072 and 1,241 mm respectively. For the future period, an increase in the spatial distribution of crop evapotranspiration was depicted in several places due to climate warming, mainly in the southern and southeastern areas of Turkey and on the Mediterranean coast. The minimum seasonal crop evapotranspirations fell to below 154 and 164 mm in the present and future respectively. The annual crop evapotranspiration increased from 1,675 to 1,944 mm from present to future and the significant values of absolute changes were identified in the western, eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey. The findings are useful for scientists in the climate, hydrology and agriculture fields, but also for management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people learn that demonstrators are being subjected to harsh treatment by the police, sometimes their reaction is to join demonstrations. What explains the potentially mobilizing power of repression? Information-oriented theories posit that repression changes people's beliefs about the likely success of the protests or the type of the government, thus encouraging them to join. Social-psychological theories posit that repression provokes a moral and emotional reaction from bystanders, and these emotional reactions are mobilizing. Our research offers a rare opportunity to test these theories, empirically, against one another. We offer experimental evidence from Turkey after the 2013 Gezi uprising. In this setting, emotional reactions appear to be the link between repression and backlash mobilization. Information-oriented theories of backlash mobilization may be less germane in democracies, in which people already have access to information about their governments, and in highly polarized polities, in which few people's political affinities are up for grabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the alleged persecution of Christian minorities in Turkey under the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling political party Justice and Reconciliation Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP). The impact that political Islam has on the putative persecution of Christians in Turkey is discussed.

Mainstream academic and policy literature emphasizes the nexus between an active and vibrant civil society sector and greater political accountability. As a result, support for civil society has become central to international policy efforts to strengthen democracy in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. However, the empirical evidence presented in this article questions the validity of this assumption. Drawing on information gathered through 38 in-depth qualitative interviews with women’s organizations from across the seven administrative regions of Turkey, and key representatives from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), this article analyses the role of the AKP government in co-opting and influencing women’s organizations in Turkey. The results that emerge demonstrate that the government is actively involved in fashioning a civil society sector that advances their interests and consolidates their power. Independent women’s organizations report that they are becoming increasingly excluded from policy and legislative discussions, as seemingly civic organizations are supported and often created by the government to replace them. These organizations function to disseminate government ideas in society and to provide a cloak of democratic legitimacy to policy decisions. These findings and their implications have significant consequences for theory and policy on civil society and its role in supporting democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contemporary developments throughout the world have been marked by post-truth politics. Epitomized by a disregard for truth coupled with a reliance on emotive arguments, the term ‘post-truth politics’ has not yet been adequately reflected upon by political or social theory. This article uses Turkey’s 15 July (2016) abortive coup as an entry point to address this gap and argues that the post-truth has altered both the grammar and vocabulary of politics. The term denotes the contemporary shift from a ‘regime of truth’ to a ‘regime of common sense’, which also operates as the discursive ground of new populisms. While treating three contending narratives of 15 July - ‘kamikaze coup’, ‘staged coup’ and ‘controlled coup’ - this article focuses on the post-truth elements in the government’s narrative performance that obstructed the pursuit of truth and set the conditions for a particular interpretation of the events of 15 July. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies conducted in many different countries suggest that marriage rates are falling. Factors to explain these trends include higher levels of economic freedom on the part of women, higher rates of divorce and partnering out of wedlock, individualization, and weakening of ties between having and raising children and marriage as an institution. Investigating the reasons for not marrying on the part of women is important in Turkey as a country where the institution of marriage is regarded as the only form of having children in a socially accepted way. The present study focuses on the experience of university graduates and professional women in the age interval of 35–50 who have never married. This qualitative, descriptive study draws upon 20 in-depth interviews to probe the reasons these women did not marry in order to examine whether this decision emerges as an individual solution to some structural problems. More generally, the article explores the contradictions between the socio-economic and cultural distances covered by women and the lack of change in gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how education became the site of hegemonic struggles in Turkey. Topics covered include background on the secularization of schooling and attempts at establishing a centralized system of universal education, the struggle over resources in national education and control, and impact of the failed military coup in the country on July 15, 2016.

This article uses a comparative approach to discuss women's access to property using evidence collected from field research conducted on two distinct communities of Istanbul: one secular and one Islamic. The two groups of women possess distinctly different views of the world and how it is organized. This is particularly the case concerning gender where secular women put forth a view rooted in the sameness of the genders where the Islamic women were clear in their commitment to the idea of difference. These attitudes toward the equality and difference of the genders structures the relations of these women to property and the process of inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do certain protests prompt more intervention from the police? And why does the intensity of intervention vary over time? Drawing on analytical approaches in the protest policing literature, and on studies investigating the relationship between civil conflict, public opinion, and state repression, this study examines whether pro-Kurdish events in Turkey are treated more severely than others, and how the policing of these protests changes over time. Based on an original dataset, we analyze more than 10,000 protest events that took place in Turkey between 2000 and 2009. Our findings suggest that compared to others, pro-Kurdish events are more likely to encounter police action, one that particularly involves repressive strategies. We further show that repressive policing in pro-Kurdish events is more pronounced when the Kurdish armed insurgency against the state intensifies. Given that this is the first systematic quantitative study on protest policing in Turkey, it not only tests previously confirmed theories of protest policing, but also makes a theoretical contribution by providing a dynamic notion of threat beyond its situational forms, which builds on the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality approaches to politics are often criticized for not examining the effect that institutional role constraints have on individual beliefs and preferences. When leaders appear to change their stance when they change roles, it is assumed that roles have a determining influence. Modern personality theory and contemporary sociological role theory, however, view the effects of roles as interacting with agents' personalities. In this article, we investigate this question by comparing personality profiles of three Turkish leaders (Özal, Demirel, and Gül) during their tenure as prime minister and during their subsequent time as president. For Gül, we perform an additional comparison during his time as foreign minister. The personality profiles are in the form of quantitative scores generated from machine-coded content analysis of leaders' words using the Leadership Trait Analysis method. We hypothesize that different leaders will be more susceptible to changing role contexts, depending on core personality traits, and that different traits are more likely to change with new roles. Overall, our results suggest that leaders' traits are fairly resistant to changes across roles and that task orientation is the most likely trait to change as leaders adapt to different role demands and expectations. This study makes a contribution to our understanding of the interaction between personality and political contexts by offering specific theoretically derived hypotheses and by empirically and statistically examining a preliminary set of expectations that could be applied more broadly to other leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the increasing authoritarianism of the Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his tenure throughout the early 21st century, including the impact that attempted July 15, 2016 coup d'etat had on authoritarianism in Turkey. The role that military officers and members of the Gülen movement played in the July 2016 coup, including the possible role that Muslim preacher Fetullah Gülen played in planning the coup, is discussed.

This paper examines heritage representations within the 2013 “Gezi” protests in Turkey, focusing on the contest over the historical, social, and political significance of Gezi Park in Taksim, Istanbul. Gezi Park is a multi-layered urban space, once associated with the Armenian community, then with the Ottoman military and finally, from the 1930s, with the modernist urbanism of the secular Republic. Prior to the protests, the conservative Islamist administration planned to erase and refashion Gezi Park as a site of neo-Ottoman nostalgia. While the protests were associated with ecological and civil society concerns, the contest between protestors and state actors was also characterized by competing mobilizations of histories and notions of legitimate heritage over a range of representational sites and forms, from political speeches to protestors’ performances. Combining an analysis of these representations with interview data we explore Taksim-Gezi as a site of “ground memories” that are selectively articulated and strategically renewed by different groups. The state attempt to erase and remake place in a specific historical image was countered by people's diverse mnemonic and socio-ideological relations to place histories, that became repertories for reaction. We argue that civil crises like protests may help us to understand and problematize the spatio-temporal, multi-relational articulations of heritage, and, vice versa, a view through heritage and memory opens critical exposures of socio-political conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public reaction to the coup attempt in Turkey on July15, 2016, organized by members of a terrorist organization in the Turkish Army received a wide coverage in the Western media. This coverage however failed to reflect the pulse of the streets and the active presence of women from every segment of society in protests. This commentary argues that the ethnocentric and biased coverage of the events by the Western media, their ignorance and negligence of the heroic struggle of women against the coup attempt is a result of feminist orientalism that portrays Eastern women as oppressed, submissive and incapable of taking their own decision and act upon it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the media sector, foreign policy and identity of Turkey. Topics discussed include the vision of the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partis (AKP) or the Justice and Development Party (JDP), the political parallelism and private broadcasting in the country, and the impact of the Arab uprisings on the bilateral relations between Syria and Turkey.

Some European emerging markets appear to be weathering the global financial crisis better than others. Countries such as Turkey continue to enjoy robust economic growth due to ‘strong’ domestic demand, a ‘solid’ financial sector and an elevated geo-political ‘significance’. All these factors contributed to the robust performance of the Istanbul Stock Exchange in 2012. The recent crisis is in this respect ‘special’, since some emerging markets are now re-imagined as ‘safe havens’ in comparison with volatile Western economies, and consequently their financial markets are seen as attractive investment opportunities. However, how can the changing attractiveness of places such as Turkey be explained? In this paper I suggest that the appeal of Turkey and its financial markets is not simply a consequence of Turkey’s domestic dynamics. Reminiscent of recent debates about the links between territorial and relational spaces, I show that Turkey’s emergence as an attractive destination for financial capital is the consequence of the territorial as well as the relational dynamics of global capitalism and the power of financial actors to shape (as well as being shaped by) economic geographies. I explain how Turkey is currently been discursively framed as an alternative destination for portfolio investments through a reassessment of its geo-political and economic assets in the light of the recent financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002 Turkey has undergone double regime transitions. First, tutelary democracy ended; second, a competitive authoritarian regime has risen in its stead. We substantiate this assertion with specific and detailed evidence from 2015 election cycles, as well as from broader trends in Turkish politics. This evidence indeed confirms that elections are no longer fair; civil liberties are being systematically violated; and the playing field is highly skewed in favour of the ruling AKP. The June 2015 election results and their aftermath further confirm that Turkey has evolved into a competitive authoritarian regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2003 the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has increased the number of female preachers (vaizeler). These state appointed professional female preachers are engaged in illuminating women and providing them with an appropriate religious education. Within the frame of Turkish state’s regulation of religious affairs, this phenomenon is important since it calls into question both the state’s monopoly over religious officers and women’s access to the religious public realm. The article casts light on these issues by addressing the following questions: what does theDiyanet’sincrease in female preachers reveal about the intertwined relationship between women, religion and the state in contemporary Turkey? Or, in other words, what does it reveal about the transformation of Turkey’s assertive secularism? Following year-long ethnographic observations of thevaizeler’sdaily activities in three Istanbul districts (Bahçelievler, Üsküdar and Beşiktaş), this paper analyses the evolution of female religious engagement in Turkey. The concluding remarks highlight the trend of professionalisation and standardisation in the traditional activity of female preaching. Thevaizeler’ssessions are also extremely telling of a broader and complex redefinition of Turkish secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey has thus far been generally neglected in most IR studies on power categorisations, such as middle or middle-range power, regional power or rising/emerging power, despite its rising regional power status in the past decade. This paper attempts to understand Turkey’s regional power together with its rising power status using an integral approach. In doing so, it empirically tests whether or not Turkey fits Daniel Flemes’s ‘regional power’ category, which seems to be proposing a more complete and integral framework through the fulfilment of four basic preconditions: claim to leadership; possession of necessary power resources (material and ideational); employment of material, institutional and discursive foreign policy instruments; and acceptance of leadership by third parties. Based upon these analytical tools, the article will discuss Turkey’s performance in creating a regional impact in its neighbouring regions of the Middle East, the Balkans and the Black Sea and Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of the paper is to investigate the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey from the perspective of terror management theory (TMT). The Gezi Park Protests started at the end of May 2013 to defend the destruction of a small park. The protests started with environmentalist reactions and acquired a political nature afterwards. The roles of social media and humour are also discussed in relation to the different dimensions of the Gezi Park Protests. TMT, more specifically the mortality salience hypothesis, is used to explain these protests, since they include both the concrete and abstract forms of mortality. The concrete forms of death were the death of trees and the death of protesters themselves. The abstract forms of death, on the other hand, were the death of lifestyle from the protesters’ perspective and death of exercise power from the government’s side. Three necessary conditions for an alternative experimental manipulation in TMT studies are discussed in relation to the Gezi Park Protests. It is concluded that the protests provided a concrete and real-life example of TMT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the causality link between economic growth and oil consumption using annual data over the years of 1974-2014 by using causality tests and the Engle-Granger and Gregory-Hansen co-integration models for the Turkish economy. The empirical findings support the view that there is no long term co-integration between the level of economic growth and oil consumption level. However, the UVAR, TYVAR and Hsiao's Granger causality tests in the short term show that a positive one-way causality is going from the oil consumption level to the economic growth rate, and oil consumption level stimulates economic growth rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's governance of Turkey, including his calling for November 2015 elections soon after the political party Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) was defeated in June 2015 elections. An overview of Turkey's conflict with its Kurdish population is provided.

This article explores women's rights activism in Turkey during the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) time in power (2002–present). A comparative analysis of three feminist campaigns for policy reform shows that in a context in which majority public opinion and the policy preferences of the ruling party militate against feminist policy proposals, a strong political ally (the European Union) was necessary to generate a policy change. The article also argues that the political opportunity structures within which feminists are embedded have been reconfigured over the course of the AKP's three terms in power, leaving the AKP in a stronger position to resist feminists’ demands. This explains the paradox of an internally stronger and more dynamic social movement that, nevertheless, appears to have weakenedvis-à-visthe state. Furthermore, because some recent legal reforms do not significantly reflect the AKP's or much of the public's preferences, the movement has been less able to generate implementation of recent policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 2015 parliamentary elections in Turkey marked an important turning point as the outcome ended the 12 years of single-party government by the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Apart from the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), two other opposition parties, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), gained more votes than in the previous election. Significantly, by gaining 13.1 per cent of the vote, HDP managed to cross the 10 per cent electoral threshold. Since no party obtained enough parliamentary seats to establish a single-party government, the parties that are represented in the parliament had to form a coalition government which could have moderated Turkey’s enduring social polarization. However, since none of the parties was able to establish a government, the president called for the early elections on 1 November 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary In countries where governments’ disproportionate power over the bureaucracy is coupled with a strong political polarization, can votes for the national incumbent party “buy” preferential policy treatment and faster regional economic growth? The article tests such question on Turkey’s 81 provinces over 2004–12. Results uncover a link between votes and faster regional growth, as well as a small influence of preferential allocations in explaining it. Yet, after addressing potential endogeneity, economic performance is almost entirely explained by standard drivers, primarily human capital endowment. Results suggest that the impact of electorally motivated distributive politics on regions’ economic performance is extremely limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of Turkey's 2023 Vision Project, which coincides with the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, is to bring the Turkish economy into the ranks of high-income countries. To reach this goal, strategies have been drawn up with a focus on the mid- and long-term future of the economy. However, the current state of affairs indicates that the Turkish economy has fallen into the middle income trap, and the key to breaking free of that is reconfiguring a model of growth that focuses on production. In light of that situation, the aim of the study is to provide a discussion of the trade policies and strategies that could be used to realize an effective model of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “Incentives Program for the Tourism Industry in Turkey” foresees a high growth rate in inbound tourism revenues over the next 10 years. This paper aims to analyse the economic effects of a 10% increase in foreign demand for the tourism industry in Turkey by using a computable general equilibrium model based on a social accounting matrix year of 2002. The tourism industry is specified by using tourism satellite accounts and set as a separate sector in input–output table. Simulation results suggest that increase in foreign tourism demand causes an increase in the GDP and employment, households' income, real private consumption and investment expenditures in the economy and puts pressure on domestic prices at different levels as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although Turkey is no stranger to protest events, there has been only limited research into why some people participate in protests, such as demonstrations and boycotts, while others do not. Using the 2008 European Values Study data, this paper investigates how socio-economic and demographic variables, political attitudes and orientations, social capital and religiosity explain variations in the likelihood of engaging in unconventional political activity in Turkey. Comparing results for Turkey with results for the European Union (EU), the present study finds that traditional explanations of participation in unconventional forms of political action in stable democracies do not seem to explain participation in Turkey. Education, institutional trust, democratic satisfaction and religious beliefs are the only factors that shape non-traditional participation in Turkey. Socio-economic and demographic characteristics, political attitudes and orientations, social capital and religious beliefs explain most of the variation in unconventional activism in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The argument of this paper is that the new foreign policy orientation of Turkey under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government is a constitutive component of a new nationalist project, constructed and carried out by the AKP over the last decade. The article expounds the ways in which the AKP has reformulated the notions of nation, national history, homeland and national interest and demonstrates the role foreign policy has played in this reformulation. Our point of departure will be the patterns we have observed in the statements and political practices of the AKP government and its officials, particularly the incumbent minister of foreign affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose book, Strategic Depth, presents a more systematic explanation of the major principles and assertions of AKP nationalism and foreign policy. We will also argue that after the Gezi protests in June 2013 this new conception of nation and nationalism has faced with a deep crisis, which has also exacerbated the problem of pursuing an ambitious foreign policy strategy in international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses issues related to the conflict between the Turkish state and pro-Kurdish insurgents that killed over 5,000 soldiers between 1984 and 1999. Topics covered include the tendency toward groupism among religious scholars, the cognitive approach to ethnicity, and how the Quran refers to the inappropriateness of tribalism according to Turkish nationalist Ahmet Agayef.

The article discusses the labour and labour relations policies in Turkey under the country's ruling political party the Justice and Development Party (JDP) during the 2000s, including in regard to aspects of authoritarianism within Turkey's government. An overview of legislation on labour unions in Turkey is provided. The article compares the labour policy in Turkey under the JDP to its labour policy from the 1960s through the 1990s.

While the perspective of ‘liberalism of fear’ assumes that human rights limit the despotic power of the state, this paper argues that human rights reforms promoted in the context of institution- and capacity-building programmes have had significant power effects by enhancing the disciplinary capacities of the Turkish state and blunting the transformative potential of rights claiming. The reforms increased state surveillance by rechanneling criminal justice processes towards producing evidence (such as telecommunications data, DNA collection, etc) rather than testimonies. Instead of limiting state power, these reforms enhanced the disciplinary mechanisms of social control. They depoliticised the problem of torture by constructing it as an occupational accident (as opposed to a state crime) that happens because of lack of police officer know-how or resources for the investigation of crime. Finally, reforms revamped the way police investigated crimes, rather than launching campaigns against torture and dismissing past wrongdoers in the police. The paper concludes that the neoliberal emphasis on the technicalisation of political problems has limited the democratic potential of human rights reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The Turkish government has implemented several reforms to improve the Turkish Statistical Institute Death Reporting System (TURKSTAT-DRS) since 2009. However, there has been no assessment to evaluate the impact of these reforms on causes of death statistics. This study attempted to analyse the impact of these reforms on the TURKSTAT-DRS for Turkey, and in the case of Izmir, one of the most developed provinces in Turkey. Methods: The evaluation framework comprised three main components each with specific criteria. Firstly, data from TURKSTAT for Turkey and Izmir for the periods 2001-2008 and 2009-2013 were assessed in terms of the following dimensions that represent quality of mortality statistics (a. completeness of death registration, b. trends in proportions of deaths with ill-defined causes). Secondly, the quality of information recorded on individual death certificates from Izmir in 2010 was analysed for a. missing information, b. timeliness of death notifications and c. characteristics of deaths with ill-defined causes. Finally, TURKSTAT data were analysed to estimate life tables and summary mortality indicators for Turkey and Izmir, as well as the leading causes-of-death in Turkey in 2013. Results: Registration of adult deaths in Izmir as well as at the national level for Turkey has considerably improved since the introduction of reforms in 2009, along with marked decline in the proportions of deaths assigned illdefined causes. Death certificates from Izmir indicated significant gaps in recorded information for demographic as well as epidemiological variables, particularly for infant deaths, and in the detailed recording of causes of death. Life expectancy at birth estimated from local data is 3-4 years higher than similar estimates for Turkey from international studies, and this requires further investigation and confirmation. Conclusion: The TURKSTAT-DRS is now an improved source of mortality and cause of death statistics for Turkey. The reliability and validity of TURKSTAT data needs to be established through a detailed research program to evaluate completeness of death registration and validity of registered causes of death. Similar evaluation and data analysis of mortality indicators is required at regular intervals at national and sub-national level, to increase confidence in their utility as primary data for epidemiology and health policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]