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Blame avoidance has been one of the most applied strategies by policy makers in both democratic and non-democratic regimes to avoid responsibility and accountability in cases of failure and tragic events. It is also known that politicians have used religion for Machiavellian purposes, as exactly advised by Machiavelli. However, a systematic empirical analysis of how religion is used for blame avoidance by politicians has not been conducted. In this article, we aim to address this gap by examining the empirical data derived from the weekly Friday sermon texts produced by Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs and delivered in more than 90 thousand mosques every week to a large segment of the population in Turkey, where the majority claims to be religious. Starting with its violent response to the peaceful Gezi protests in 2013, the ruling AKP has opened up a new phase in Turkish political history by resorting to civilizational populism: it blamed the Western world for financing and masterminding the protests, using the protestors as internal pawns to attack Turkey and the Muslim World, suppressed the protests brutally and entered into a populist authoritarian regime. Our paper shows, following this turn, how the Diyanet sermons started using religion to help with the AKP’s blame avoidance. The Diyanet either parroted the AKP’s conspiratorial narrative or tried to convince the citizens that all negativities are works of God and with these humans are being tested by God. The AKP’s use of religion to avoid blame is a text-book case of how both a religious institution and religious discourse can be used to help the incumbent avoid responsibility. Whenever, there was a problem that would the AKP votes, the Diyanet’s sermons tried to shift the blame to either God or citizens or conspiratorial enemies.

In this study, the bacterial flora of important poplar pests was studied. This included Cryptorhynchus lapathi (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Sciapteron tabaniformis (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), Nycteola asiatica (Lepidoptera: Noli- dae) and Gypsonoma dealbana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). The final goal was to propose alternative ecological control agents for poplar pests and decrease the undesirable effects caused by chemical pesticides in urban areas and urban forests. Forty-three bacteria were isolated from the larvae and adults exhibiting characteristic disease symptoms of these pests in five different localities for the first time. All bacterial isolates were cultured and identified using VITEK bacterial identification systems (VITEK® 2 GN ID card prod. no; 21341 and VITEK® 2 GP ID card prod. no; 21342, bioMerieux, Marcy l’Etoile). The members of the genera from Bacillaceae and Enterobacteriaceae families were most commonly isolated from both pest insects. Resumen Se registra el estudio de la flora bacteriana de cuatro importantes plagas de álamo, Cryptorhynchus lapathi (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Sciapteron tabaniformis Rott (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), Nycteola asiatica (Lepidoptera: Nolidae) y Gypsonoma dealbana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) en la búsqueda de agentes de control ecológicamente alternativos contra las plagas del álamo y disminuir los efectos indeseables causados por los plaguicidas químicos en el área urbana y los bosques urbanos. Se aislaron e identificaron cuarenta y tres bacterias de las larvas y adultos de estas plagas a partir de cinco localidades diferentes. Todos los aislados bacteriales fueron cultivados e identificados usando los sistemas VITEK (VITEK® 2 GN ID card prod. no; 21341 and VITEK® 2 GP ID card prod. no; 21342, bioMerieux, Marcy l’Etoile). Los miembros de los géneros de las familias Bacillaceae y Enterobacteriaceae fueron aislados con más frecuencia de ambos insectos de la plaga.

In the present study, the first record, occurrence and distribution of three different pathogens: two protistan pathogens; a coccidian and a neogregarine, and an entomopoxvirus from the European cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha L. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are given. A neogregarine pathogen was recorded for the first time from M. melolontha populations. A coccidian pathogen, Adelina melolonthae was recorded for the first time for Turkey. An entomopoxvirus was recorded from a new locality, Kocaeli in Turkey, The infections caused by pathogens were observed in the haemolymph and fat body of the adults and larvae. The occurrence and distribution of these pathogens in the M. melolontha populations are also presented.

Sahin, Huseyin/0000-0002-6018-1494; KIRALAN, Mustafa/0000-0001-7401-8025 WOS: 000339433600006 The study was designed to examine the effects of different manures (fish, pigeon and cow) and synthetic fertilizer (nitrogen) on some biochemical activities of Mentha piperita L. (mint, peppermint). Seventeen different phenolic constituents and 19 essential oils were determined in M. piperita samples. While caffeic, gallic, ferulic, protocatechuic, syringic, o-coumaric acids and rutin were detected as common phenolics; carvone, limonene and 1.8-cineol were identified as major essential oil components in all mints. Total phenolic compounds, ferric reducing antioxidant power and cupric (III) reducing capacity (CUPRAC) tests were used to evaluate antioxidant capacities of the mints. The highest total phenolic compound (4.8 mg gallic acid equivalents/100 g) and antioxidant capacity (971 mM Fe(II)/mg; 823 mM Trolox /100 g) were observed in mints fertilized with pigeon manure. Mint samples also had different antimicrobial activities against the studied microorganisms (eight bacteria and two fungi), especially Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes.

WOS: 000247629100003 In this study, the antifeedant, growth and toxicity effects of some plant extracts derived from Liguidamber orientalis Mill. (Hamamelidaceae), Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae), Hypericum perforatum L. (Hypericaceae), Tanacetum vulgare L. (Asteraceae), Origanum vulgare L. (Lamiaceae), Sambucus nigra L. (Caprifoliaceae), Alnus glutinosa L. (Betulaceae), Arum italicum Mill. (Araceae), Artemisia absinthium L. (Asteraceae), Achillea coarctata L. (Asteraceae), Erica arborea L. (Ericaceae), Rhus coriaria L. (Anacardiaceae), Buxus sempervirens L. (Buxaceae), Colitea aborescens Strauch. (Fabaceae) and Aesculus hippocastanum L. (Hippocastanaceae) are reported. In the tests, carried out with the larvae (1.-4. instar) and adults of Leptinotarsa decemlineata, extracts from A. hippocastanum, T. vulgare and A. absinthium showed a high toxicity rate in 48 hours, and LC50's of 33.3, 33.3 and 26.6%, respectively. No mortality was determined in control groups. Alcohol extracts from B. sempervirens and A. absinthium showed a high antifeedant activity rate (92.77 and 88.23%) on the larvae (instar 1) of L. decemlineata, whereas that of R. coriaria showed high antifeedant activity /77.77%) on the larvae (instar 4) of L. decemlineata. L. orientalis and B. sempervirens showed 77.77 and 60%, respectively, on the adults of L decemlineata. B. sempervirens, L orientalis, A. absinthium and R. coriaria extracts caused body weight decreases per mg of larvae's food consumption (instar 1), and the highest values were -12.9, -12, -11.7 and -9.4 mg, respectively. The same effects had C. aborescens and B. sempervirens extracts causing upto -21.3 and -17.5 mg decreases per mg of larvae's food consumption (instar 4), whereas alcohol extracts from O. basillicum caused. 12.30 mg body weight increase per mg of larvae's (instar 4) food consumption. The highest consumption (371, 349 mg) was observed with alcoholic extract from C. aborescens, but the minimum with that from B. sempervirens. All other tested extracts and control combinations in this study showed almost similar activities. The highest rates of egg decays were caused by the alcohol extracts from C. aborescens, R. coriaria and L. orientalis.