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1131. Turkey's Troubles in the Caucasus

Author:
Michael A. Reynolds
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Increasing numbers of Turks have come to recognize that their country's traditionally hesitant and circumspect foreign policy no longer serves its interests, and is incommensurate with Turkey's regional weight. Accordingly, the governing Justice and Development Party has attempted to shed that tradition by seeking to engage Turkey's neighbors proactively in recent years. In the Caucasus, Ankara has taken steps that may lead to the normalization of relations with Yerevan and the breaking of the stalemate over Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russo-Georgian War of 2008, however, demonstrates that Turkish diplomacy faces a severe test for which it may not be prepared. The war revealed that old institutional practices continue to constrain Turkey's diplomacy; moreover, the war restored Russia to the position of spoiler in the Caucasus. The return of Russia may mean that Turkey's new diplomacy will be too little, too late.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Turkey and Caucasus

1132. Turkey-EU Relations: Beyond the Current Stalemate

Author:
Ziya Öniş
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
The prospects for Turkey's ambitions for full EU membership do not appear to be very bright in the current conjuncture. The “grand coalition for special partnership” appears to be firmly entrenched. With key chapters for negotiation already suspended what is likely to happen is that the government in power is likely to pursue a loose Europeanization agenda of gradual reforms falling considerably short of deep commitment for full-membership. The paper investigates the underlying reasons for the decline of enthusiasm for EU membership following the golden age of Europeanization and reforms during the early years of the AK Party government. The article also points to domestic and external developments which may help to reverse the current stalemate and, hence, ends with an optimistic note concerning the future of Turkey-EU relations.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Turkey

1133. Turkey and the EU: Democratization, Civil-Military Relations, and the Cyprus Issue

Author:
Kıvanç Ulusoy
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
The paper analyzes Turkey's democratization efforts between 2004 and 2008. In addition to the challenges that the EU accession process brings to the Turkish political structure, an assessment of the current impasse of Turkey's democratization along the EU accession process is made with respect to the detailed analysis of two major issues: the Cyprus issue and civil-military relations. With an eye to studying the EU's impact on the domestic politics of accession countries with special reference to Turkey, the paper concentrates on the current government's performance over the past three years in EU accession negotiations, showing how this immediate experience reveals the main problematical issues of Turkey-EU relations under these two headings. The concluding remarks focus on two crucial problems of the post-2004 period in Turkey: the sustainability of the reform process and the importance of the time factor in evaluating the EU's leverage on democratization.
Political Geography:
Turkey and Cyprus

1134. Explaining Transformation of Turkish Civil Society in the EU Accession Process

Author:
Ahmet Arabaci
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Insight Turkey
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
This study investigates the relationship between the announcement of Turkey's EU candidacy status at the EU's Helsinki Summit in 1999, and the development and transformation of Turkish civil society organizations (CSOs). It is argued that theories of historical institutionalism and rational choice institutionalism provides a useful framework for explaining the changes that took place in the number and institutional structures of Turkish CSOs. Historical institutionalism helps explain how the EU's affirmation of Turkey's EU candidacy has served as a critical juncture for the evolution of path dependency for Turkish CSOs. The economic reforms and democratization driven by Turkey's accession process are given special attention in this respect. Rational choice institutionalism will be employed to explain structural transformations within Turkish CSOs, and their considerable dependence on the funds provided by the EU.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Turkey

1135. Turkey's Middle East Policies: Between Neo-Ottomanism and Kemalism

Author:
Ömer Taspinar
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
In what represents a remarkable departure from its policy of non-involvement, Turkey is once again becoming an important player in the Middle East. In recent years, Ankara has shown a growing willingness to mediate in the Arab– Israeli conflict; attended Arab League conferences; contributed to UN forces in Lebanon and NATO forces in Afghanistan; assumed a leadership position in the Organization of Islamic Conference and established closer ties with Syria, Iran, and Iraq.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Islam, Nationalism, and Religion
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, and Syria

1136. Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation?

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
At a time when rising Arab-Kurdish tensions again threaten Iraq's stability, neighbouring Turkey has begun to cast a large shadow over Iraqi Kurdistan. It has been a study in contrasts: Turkish jets periodically bomb suspected hideouts of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) in northern Iraq, and Ankara expresses alarm at the prospect of Kurdish independence, yet at the same time has significantly deepened its ties to the Iraqi Kurdish region. Both Turkey and Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG, a term Turkey studiously avoids) would be well served by keeping ultra-nationalism at bay and continuing to invest in a relationship that, though fragile and buffeted by the many uncertainties surrounding Iraq, has proved remarkably pragmatic and fruitful.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Iraq, Turkey, and Middle East

1137. Migration and Cultural Interaction across the Centuries: German History in a European Perspective

Author:
Dirk Hoerder
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
German Politics and Society
Institution:
German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:
Once upon a time, German studies seemed to be an easy field to define. Like fairytales, the resulting stories were addressed to a faithful audience—but here, an audience of adults, true believers in the nation and nation state. Today, by contrast, we understand that defining area studies is, in fact, a highly complex task involving overlapping regions and social spaces, and analyses of borderlands, interpenetrations, and métissage, as well as of processual structures and structured processes. Even geographies have become “processual.” The origins of area studies are often traced to the U.S., the hegemon in the Atlantic world's academe, and the emergence of American studies in the 1930s. Nevertheless, something like area studies also emerged in Europe in the late nineteenth century, juxtaposing 1) a country and its colonies; and 2) a country and its neighbors. The former were inferior societies, the latter competitors in world markets and, repeatedly, enemies in war. Area studies—after a preceding period of knowledge acquisition as reflected in early mapmaking— became colonial studies, competitor state studies, enemy state studies—in each case transnational, transterritorial, and transcultural. Unable to deal with the concept of “trans,” i.e., with fuzzy borders and shifting categories and geographies, scholars in each bordered country set their own society, their Self, as the “yardstick.” The Other, the delimited opposite, was meant as a background foil before which their respective own nation was to appear as the most advanced and to which—knowledge and interest are inextricably linked—the profits from worldwide trade and the spoils from colonial acquisitions were naturally due (Folien- or Spiegeltheorie). Since then, motivations for country studies have become more complex but they basically are framed still by bordered territories, “national culture,” national consciousness or identity, nation-state policies, and international relations. Once the ideology of “nation” is abandoned, the blindfold removed so to say, it appears that German-language people may be studied in America or Russia—or Africans, Poles, and Turks in the German-language societies (plural!).
Topic:
Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Africa, Russia, America, Europe, Turkey, and Germany

1138. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey

Author:
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
This World Leaders Forum program features a keynote address by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey entitled, "Turkey's Role in Shaping the Future."
Topic:
Islam and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, and Asia

1139. Unfinished Symphony: Turkish Political Crises

Author:
Hamza Al
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Değişim Yayınları
Abstract:
Türk siyasal hayatı krizlerle doludur. Belirli aralıklarla siyasal sistem krize girmekte ve krizden çıkış için çeşitli yöntemler uygulanmaktadır. Sürekli tekrarladığı dikkate alındığında, krizlerin iyi analiz edilmediği ortaya çıkmaktadır. İktidarlar, genellikle krizden kaçınma ve krizi aşma politikası uygulamaktadırlar. Bu politika, sistemin belirli bir süre yürümesine yardımcı olsa da, krizlerin tekrarlamasına engel olamamaktadır. Asıl yapılması gereken ise, krizin kalıcı olarak çözülmesidir. Krizin çözülmesi de krize yol açan aktörlerin iyi analiz edilmesiyle mümkündür. Çalışmada kriz yönetimine değinildikten sonra, Türk siyasal krizinde rol oynayan aktörler ve faktörler incelenmiştir. Bu çerçevede sorunların kaynağını insandan çok sistemde aramanın yararlı olacağı tezi işlenmiştir.
Political Geography:
Turkey

1140. Religious Aspects of the Loss of Social Capital in Turk

Author:
Mustafa Kemal Şan
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Değişim Yayınları
Abstract:
İkinci Dünya savaşından sonra dünya toplumlarının bulundukları eşitsiz düzlemden kurtulmaları adına bir dizi kalkınma kuramları üretildi. Bu kuramların en önemlisi modernleşme kuramıdır. Bu yaklaşıma göre toplumlar Batılı bir gelişme çizgisini takip etmedeki becerilerine göre gelişmiş, gelişmekte olan ve az gelişmiş olarak tasnif edilerek bu gelişme altına düşen toplumların top yekûn bir kalkınma hamlesi içine girmeleri gereğinden söz açılmaktaydı. Ancak bir süre sonra toplumların aynı gelişme çizgilerini izlemek zorunda olup olmadıklarından tutun da bu gelişmenin salt ekonomik etmenlerle olup olmayacağına ilişkin önemli itirazlar yükseldi. Bu süreçlerin sonunda yeni bir toplumsal kalkınma modeli olarak sosyal sermaye kavramının yükselişe geçtiğini görüyoruz. Sosyal sermeye toplumun güven çapının yüksekliği kriterine dayanan ve buna göre toplumların maddi ve manevi yönden kalkınmalarını sağlayan en temel unsurlardan birisi olarak kabul edilmektedir. Sosyal sermaye her şeyi olduğu halde hala istenilen düzeyde bir ilerlemeye ulaşmayan ulusların sahip olmadıkları şeye işaret ederken, gelişme ve kalkınma için öyle elle tutulur fazlaca elverişli bir yapıya sahip olmadıkları halde dünyanın en müreffeh ülkeleri arasına girmeyi başarmış kimi ulusların da kalkınma durumlarının ardında yatan motive edici unsurları anlamamıza izin vermektedir. Bu yazıda kalkınma modelleri içinde çoğu kez hesaba katılmayan ancak çok yakın zamanlarda toplusal gelişmişliğin bir unsuru olarak kabul edilmeye başlamış olan sosyal sermaye kavramı ve bu kavramın Türkiye açısından taşıdığı önem ele alınacaktır. Bu yazı çerçevesinde biz özellikle Türk toplumunun modernleşme süreci içine din ekseninde yaşanan tartışmaların sosyal sermaye kaynaklarını nasıl heba ettiğini tartışma konusu yapılmaya çalışacağız.
Political Geography:
Turkey