Search

Begin New Search Topic Politics Political Geography Turkey

111. Globalization of Culture and Change of Established Political Positions

Author:
Kudret Bülbül
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article argues that the modernization process has created standardization in different areas of life, while culture has been relatively and independently preserved during this process. Nevertheless, it is difficult for societies to sustain independent compartments in the cultural area while employing standardized techniques, institutions, and principles in the areas of economics, politics, and technology. This article explores the reflections of members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) on cultural globalization, since the TGNA is the main policy maker in Turkey. Although the perceptions of TGNA members generally differ, according to whether they are members of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) the CHP (Republican People's Party), their approaches do not depart greatly from that expected from general theoretical discussions. The approaches of the members of parliament (MPs) do not pertain to Turkey only.
Topic:
Globalization and Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey

112. Turkey Gets Ready to Elect President under New Chief of Staff: Implications for the United States

Author:
Soner Cagaptay
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On September 1, 2006, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit became Turkey's new chief of staff. Compared with his predecessor, Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, who came into office about the same time as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, General Buyukanit is a more vocal personality on many issues, including secularism. As Turkey prepares for the April 2007 election of a new president by parliament, General Buyukanit's term marks a new, crucial era in military-civilian relations in Turkey. What are the dynamics of this new era, and what implications does it have for U.S. policy?
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Turkey

113. Rising Tensions Between Turkey's AKP and the Courts

Author:
Soner Cagaptay
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On May 17, a gunman chanting Islamist slogans attacked the Turkish Council of State (the Danistay, or high court for administrative affairs) in Ankara. The gunman killed one judge and wounded four others who were sitting in the Council's second chamber, which has recently upheld Turkey's ban on “turbans” in schools. In accordance with the European and Turkish notion of secularism (laïcité in French) as freedom from religious symbols in the public sphere, Turkey bans public officials and school students wearing turbans—a specific style of women's headcover that emerged in the mid 1980s and that the courts consider an Islamist political symbol. (Turbans are distinct from traditional headscarves, which are not banned.) Photographs of the judges had earlier been published in Islamist newspapers with headlines targeting them.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, Politics, and Religion
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East

114. Hamas Visits Ankara: The AKP Shifts Turkey's Role in the Middle East

Author:
Soner Cagaptay
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Khalid Mishal, a Hamas leader currently residing in Damascus, visited Ankara today. Despite fierce debate in the Turkish press and objections from the secular-minded foreign policy elite, Mishal's visit went ahead with backing from Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. From the American perspective, the visit is important for three reasons. First, it could potentially hurt Turkey's longstanding role as an honest broker between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Second, it serves as yet another foreign policy breech between Turkey and the West. Third, the visit is a telltale sign of the AKP's policy of “strategic depth” toward the Middle East, a policy that Washington needs to understand given U.S. objectives in Iraq, Syria, and Iran.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Syria

115. Turkey's Reform Effort Reconsidered, 1987-2004

Author:
Kivanç Ulusoy
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This article aims to develop a coherent explanation of the impact of the EU on Turkey's politics between 1987 (the year Turkey applied for EU membership) and 2004, providing a more profound analysis of Turkish political transformation within the framework of its relations with the EU. It integrates Moravcsiks' work on the human rights regime in post-war Europe with Risse's theory on communicative action in world politics to provide an alternative explanatory framework for recent political transformation in Turkey. It will be argued that the main dynamics driving recent democratisation in Turkey were its newfound location within the European human rights regime—a result of having been granted the right to individual petition to the European Court of Human Rights just before its 1987 membership application—and the increasing power of European argument as an alternative way of resolving domestic political conflicts in Turkey.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

116. Turkey and the European Union: The Domestic Politics of Negotiating Pre-Accession

Author:
Kemal Kirisçi
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Turkey is facing massive challenges as a function of its aspiration to join the EU. In November 2000, the EU adopted the Accession Partnership Document, which listed the re-forms that Turkey was expected to adopt to be able to meet the Copenhagen political criteria. In the midst of these challenges, slowly but surely the EU and Turkey are moving closer to-gether. How can one explain the political process that has brought Turkey, after four decades of membership aspirations, to the very gates of EU membership? This essay will argue that the process was primarily driven by a long and bitter process of "negotiation" between advocates and opponents of membership within Turkey, on the one hand, and between a range of Turkish "negotiators or players" and their EU counterparts, on the other.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey

117. Caucasian Diaspora in Turkey and Its Impact on Turkish Foreign Policy

Author:
Mitat Çelikpala
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The concept of diaspora, which was incorporated into the literature on politics in the 1960s, has become a significant notion in current international politics. This study aims to present a theoretical assessment of the diaspora concept, followed by the organisation and the evolution of the Caucasian diaspora(s) in Turkey, which include Armenians, Azeris, Georgians and other North Caucasian peoples. It discusses their transformations from emigrants to diaspora, their views regarding each other as well as the changes that took place within these groups after the collapse of the Soviet Union which had a dramatic impact on their relations with their homelands. The second part of this study shifts the emphasis to the recent developments in Abkhazia and Chechnya, and to the activities and increasing influence of the diaspora over Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the political leaders in Turkey.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Migration, and Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey, Chechnya, Armenia, Georgia, and Abkhazia

118. People / Networks / Power: Communications Technologies and the New International Politics

Author:
David Bollier
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Kurdish people living in Turkey can now receive satellite television broadcasts emanating from London. Iranians can view Farsi-language television programs that originate in Los Angeles. Even though they are dispersed throughout the world, emigrants from mainland China remain a vital diasporic community, thanks to websites and e-mail discussion lists. Insurgent movements from the Zapatistas to the East Timorese to Indonesian students have used the Internet to organize themselves and communicate a political vision to the world.
Topic:
International Relations, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States, Turkey, London, Kurdistan, and Los Angeles

119. The Catalysts, Directions and Focus on Turkey Agenda for Security Sector Reform in the 21st Century

Author:
Ümit Cizre
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This paper addresses three questions regarding Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Turkey: First, under what objectives of the SSR concept does the discussion of the Security Sector Reform in Turkey fall, or, put differently, what is the relevance of the post-Cold War SSR agenda-–coming as a response to Western reorientation of security priorities–for the reform of the guiding principles, structures, and operations of security institutions in Turkey? The second query concerns the nature of SSR in Turkey, problems contained therein, and its impact on the system, if not on the country's chances for accession to the EU, and on the civil-military equilibrium in the new millennium. The final question explores the lessons to be learned from the objectives and trajectories of Turkey's SSR agenda. These questions, and corresponding answers, will be organized in the following five sections.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Cold War, and Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey and Eastern Europe

120. Azerbaijan: Turning Over a New Leaf?

Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Oil-rich Azerbaijan, which borders Iran, Turkey and Russia and is still scarred from its defeat by Armenia ten years ago, gives cause for both hope and concern. The October 2003 election of Ilham Aliyev to the presidency that his late-father, Heydar, had held almost from independence, highlighted the stark choices which now face the country. Its government is a carefully designed autocratic system, which the father and former Soviet-era politburo member began to construct in the late 1960 s, with heavy reliance on family and clan members, oil revenues and patronage.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Iran, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Armenia, and Azerbaijan