Century Turkish Research Articles

Youth and Politics in Turkey in the Context of Education and Cultural Policies

The educational and cultural policies in Turkey are among the important issues impacting Turkish society and inherited from the Ottoman period. These issues show themselves in Turkey’s conception of civilization and perception of the world in particular. Therefore, Turkey’s educational and cultural policies are the main factor in detecting and specifying this conception and perception. On the point where even the conceptual definition of education and culture is exceedingly difficult, these concepts turn into a policy at the practical level, which is a problem in itself. The Republic of Turkey has deeply experienced this problem, and the steps taken on this topic have brought together many new and different problems. This article will primarily address the relationship of education and culture with youth as well as examine the process of how they transform into a policy. Later the practical developments of these phenomena will be examined with a certain historical process. At that point, the educational and cultural policies dating from the foundation of the Republic to the present will be discussed both through the breaking points as well as through the governmental and political-party programs. Last but not least, the article will briefly examine the objectives of these policies and what effect it has had on the 21st century Turkish youth.

Edremit Deniz Savaşı (1334)

Türk gazilerinin XIV. yüzyılın ilk çeyreğinde yaptıkları sürekli akınlar Yakındoğu'da üsleri bulunan Hristiyan devletlerin tepkisini çekmiştir. Bu akınların kaynağı Batı Anadolu'da yer alan denizci Türk beylikleriydi. Onlardan birisi olan Karesi Beyliği, Doğu Roma imparatorluğu çevresinde ve Kuzey Ege'de önemli bir tehdit haline gelmiştir. 1320'lerden itibaren Türk denizcileriyle savaşmakta olan Venediklilerin Avrupa'da Türkler aleyhinde propagandaları da böyle bir seferin oluşmasına katkıda bulunmuştur. Buna rağmen Fransa kralı VI. Philippe ve Papa XXII. Iohannes'in esas arzuları Kudüs'ün Hristiyanlar tarafından geri alınmasıdır. Venediklerin Türk aleyhtarı söylemleri ve Türk gazilerinin akınları Ege Denizi'nde bir Haçlı ligi oluşturulması fikrini kuvvetlendirdi. 1331'den itibaren başlayan ilk müzakereler 1332 yılında Rodos'ta yapılan görüşmeyle sonuçlanmış, çeşitli sebeplerle ittifakın tam oluşması 1334'e kadar sürmüştür. Birleşik Haçlı donanması Karesi Beyliği'nin Bergama kolunun lideri Yahşi Bey'i boyunduruk altına almak için harekete geçip Edremit Körfezi'ne gelmiş, bunun sonucunda 1334 tarihli Edremit Deniz Savaşı yaşanmıştır. Savaşı Haçlı ordusu kazanmış, Karesi donanması ağır bir hezimete uğramıştır. Edremit Deniz Savaşı galibiyeti 1291'de Akka'nın düşmesinin ardından Haçlıların ilk önemli başarısı olmuş ve daha sonraki Haçlı liglerinin kurulmasını temellendirmiştir.

ŞEYH GÂLİB'İN TÜRKÇESİ ÜZERİNE BAZI DİKKATLER

In this article, various determinations have been made about Sheik Galib, the important figure of 18th century Turkish literature, and the leading role of the poet has been emphasized by looking at his place in Classical Turkish literature through the “language” he used in his poems. Attention was drawn to how the poet's stylistic features including different tastes and styles varied in the language of poetry he used; In his art, it was pointed out that, besides having the features that he got inspired by the poets who came before him, he realized an art and language school that is always taken as an example for future poets. In the study, the Turkish used in Sheikh Galib’s poems; Language, literature, art and history perspective, and its effect on poetry that has influenced Turkish literature by being interpreted from various angles in its own era and after it has been examined. As a result, besides using the influences of Indian and Iranian poetry in Turkish poetry in the language of poetry, the form and theme of Turkish folk poetry, the local poetry concept, which is shaped in plain Turkish and includes local motifs, has been set up and reshaped in the sense of art that it has developed and developed in Turkish in the next centuries. It has constituted a school of art whose roots are in the past but whose branches are in the future and which will be inspired by the new poets who will become prominent in their literature and will even consider their name as a master.

BARIŞ MANÇO’NUN “DÖRT KAPI” ADLI ESERİNİN METİNLERARASILIK BAĞLAMINDA İNCELENMESİ

Julia Kristeva tarafından oluşturulan metinlerarasılık, tarihsel metinlerin birbirleriyle olan karşılıklı etkileşim ve alışverişine dayalı olarak kurgulanan post-modern bir söylem biçimidir. Bu yönüyle metinlerarasılık, aynı zamanda kolektif bir hafızanın ürünü olarak kavramları veya olguları zamandan bağımsız olarak yeniden üreterek toplumsal belleğin canlı kalmasına da yardımcı olur. Müzik eserleri de -doğası gereği- metinlerarası söylemlerin kullanılabileceği alanların başında gelmektedir. Nitekim XX. yüzyıl Türk popüler müzik tarihi açısından önemli bir isim olan Barış Manço, gündelik kaygılara ve konulara sıkışmayan eserleri ve özgün sanatçı kimliği ile alanında iz bırakmış sanatçılardan biri olarak bu çalışmaya konu olmuştur. Geçmiş ve bugün arasında kurduğu ilişkinin yanı sıra eserlerindeki çok katmanlı söylem biçimi, Manço’yu döneminin çok ötesine taşıyabilmiştir. Barış Manço’nun şarkılarında genellikle didaktik konular ağır basmakla birlikte dini motifli eserleri incelendiğinde, Anadolu inanç sistemleri ve özellikle Türk-İslam tasavvufuna ait pek çok mistik temayı bulabilmek mümkündür. İnanç, insan olmak ve öteki dünya gibi pek çok felsefi konuyu eserlerine taşıyan sanatçı, bestelediği şarkılarla Türk popüler müzik tarihinde ayrıcalıklı bir yerde durmaktadır. Bu şarkılardan birisi sanatçının 1985 yılında çıkardığı “24 Ayar” adlı albümünde yer alan Dört Kapı adlı eserdir. Türk-İslam kültüründen pek çok mistik söylemi içinde barındıran bu eser, nitel araştırma deseni kullanılarak metinlerarası bir bakışla incelenmeye çalışılmıştır.

On the short but eventful life of Abdülhalîm Memdûh

Reforms introduced in 1839 (known as the Tanzimat) which were intended to modernize the Ottoman political and administrative structure, led inevitably to movements which introduced new literary ideas into the Ottoman cultural sphere. One of the first writers who wished to see Ottoman literature catch up with developments in Europe was Abdülhalîm Memdûh (1866 – 1905). His contributions covered the areas of poetry, prose, drama, journalism and political activism. Memdûh was not content with using classical chronicles; he published at the age of 22 the very first History of Ottoman Literature in Turkish, which served as the model for subsequent literary histories. Later, in his short life, he collaborated with Edmond Fazy, a Swiss writer, to publish a book in Paris titled Anthologie de l’amour turc, which contains Turkish love poems in French translation for the first time. This article evaluates the contributions of Abdülhalîm Memdûh in order to give him a place among the pioneers of 20th century Turkish literature.

The use of the concept of “Perişan” (Miserable) in Divan by Nef’i

17. yüzyıl Türk edebiyatında önemli bir yeri olan
 Nef´i’nin sanatına güvenen, bildiğini söylemekten çekinmeyen bir
 karakteri vardı. Zaman zaman hırçın, tutarsız, saldırgan olmuştur. Sanatkâr
 kişiliğinde gelenek kıskacından kurtulma isteği görülür. Olgunluk döneminde
 bütün İran şairlerine karşı üstünlük iddiasında bulunur. Ancak Örfî ve Enverî’den
 ihtiyatla söz eder. Türk şairler içerisinde başta Bâkî olmak üzere Fuzûlî,
 Şeyhülislâm Yahyâ, Şâhidî (İbrâhim Dede) gibi şairlere nazireler kaleme
 almıştır. Nef´i’nin şiiri üç kavramla özetlenebilir: Övgü, övünme ve yerme. Divan
 şiirinde kendine has bir üslup oluşturmayı başaran Nef´i, şiirini
 mübalağa ile beslemiştir. Düşüncelerini mazmunların arkasına saklanmadan açıkça
 ifade eder. Anlamdaki derinleşmeyi ve yoğunlaşmayı zengin hayaller ile sağlar.
 Şiirinde anlamda kapalılık ve sanat endişesi hissedilmez. Kelime oyunları
 yapmak yerine manaya, mazmuna, ahenge ve musikiye önem verir. Sebk-i Hindi
 akımının dil ve üslup anlayışına bağlı olmasına rağmen bu akımın şairleri
 arasında gösterilmez. Dilinin oldukça sağlam olduğu söylenebilir. Yabancı
 kelimeleri fazlaca kullanmıştır. Kasidelerinde debdebeli, yabancı kelimelerden
 oluşan terkiplerle dolu bir dil görülür. Ancak gazellerindeki dili,
 kasidelerine göre daha sadedir. Yenişehirli Avni Bey’e kadar bazı şairler
 bilhassa kaside sahasında onun ustalığını kabul etmişlerdir. Nef´iyâne
 söyleyişin/tarzın sahibidir. Şiirlerine farklı dönemlerde nazireler
 yazılmıştır. Onun tesiri Namık Kemal, Ziya Paşa ve Tevfik Fikret gibi şairlere
 kadar ulaşmıştır. Bu çalışmada, Nef´i’nin “perişan” kavramına yüklediği
 anlamları ve kelimenin hangi kavramları vasıflandırdığı, hangi kelimelerle
 alakalı kullanıldığı ele alındı. İncelemede “perîşân”, “perîşânî”, “perîşânlık”
 kelimeleri esas alındı. Elde edilen bulgular başlıklar hâlinde sıralandı. Nef´i gibi divan şiirimizin
 büyük bir şairinin Divan’ında kelimenin hangi manalarla ne şekilde yer
 aldığı belirlendi. Ayrıca çalışma ile divan şiirinin estetik dünyasının
 belirlenmesi yönünde yapılacak daha genel araştırmalara katkı sunmak
 hedeflendi.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGES IN THE INTERIOR DESIGN OF HOUSES DUE TO THE WESTERNIZATION MOVEMENTS IN 19th CENTURY IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Westernization movements during the 19 th century caused great changes in interior design of Ottoman houses. It is a question of debate whether the cited changes have been carried forward to our day. The interior design features of traditional Ottoman houses prior to Westernization period were analyzed as methodology primarily in order to answer this question discussed within the purview of the study. Subsequently, the interior design features of the Ottoman house influenced through the 19 th century Westernization movements and the interior design features of the 21 st century Turkish houses were determined. At the next stage, interior designs of houses belonging to these three phases were compared in terms of spatial organizations, usage of furniture and design styles. At the last stage of the study, it was determined if the changes caused through the 19 th century Westernization movements in the interior design of the Ottoman house were preserved in the 21 st century Turkish houses in line with the results obtained from the comparisons made to this end.

Copper Vessels and Rice from Kamianets­Podilskyi

 The publication aims to draw scholarly attention to a group of the 17th century objects of Turkish origin from Kamianets-Podilskyi discovered in 2016 during the exploration of a foundry assemblage called Liudvisarni. The material was located in a layer of mixed loam with traces of a fire, full of broken brick «fingerings», ceramic floor tiles, fragments of kitchen and dining ceramics, a burnt tree and ashes. A «kitchen set» was found, consisting of four copper vessels: a large cooking pot, a pot with a handle (perhaps a frying pan), and two similar small «bowls» showing different levels of damage. Similar vessels to no. 1, 3, and 4 can be found in the collection of the 17th century Turkish copper dishes from Hungary, as well as in modern Turkey. Also noteworthy was the discovery of rice weevils from the burnt layer. Along with the pots, these findings indicate direct importation of copper vessels and rice. Consequently, the artefacts found in the enclosure between the southern (no. 2) and northern (no. 1) walls of the Turkish tower, as well as the palaeoethnobotanic materials, most likely refer to the time of Turkish garrison’s stay in Kamianets-Podilskyi during the period of the Podolia Eyalet (1672—1699)

Comparative Analysis of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar’s Travels to European Countries

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar (1901-1962) is one of the most controversial authors in the 20th century Turkish literature. Literature critics find it difficult to place him in a school of literature and thought. There are many reasons that they have caused Tanpinar to give the impression of ambiguity in his thoughts through his literary works. One of them is that he is always open to (even admires) the "other" thought to a certain age, and he considers synthesis thinking at later ages. Tanpinar states in the letter that he wrote to a young lady from Antalya that he composed the foundations of his first period aesthetics due to the contributions from western (French) writers. The influence of the western writers on him has also inspired his interest in the materialist culture of the West. In 1953 and 1959 he organized two tours to Europe in order to see places where Western thought and culture were produced. He shared his impressions that he gained in European countries in his literary works. In the literary works of Tanpinar, Europe comes out as an aesthetic object. The most dominant facts of this aesthetic are music, painting, etc. In this work, in the writings of Tanpinar about the countries that he travelled in Europe, some factors were detected like European culture, lifestyle, socio-cultural relations, art and architecture, political and social history and so on. And the effects of European countries were compared with Tanpinar’s thought and aesthetics. Keywords: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Europe, poetry, music, painting, culture, life

Analysis of real world problems in mathematics textbooks of early twentieth and twenty-first century Turkish education: political and social reflections

This paper aims to show that historical eras from the perspective of socio-political approaches can be linked to the context of mathematical real world problems in conformity with the eras they were used. Three mathematics high school textbooks were selected from the Hamidian era [1876–1909], Early Republican era [1923–28] and the Contemporary era [2002–]. A content analysis was carried out by taking the political events into consideration and linked them with the context of the problems. The problem contexts were examined under four general categories, military, gender, religion, and work force. Findings of the study indicated that mathematics could be related to socio-political aspects of history.

An overview of classical ottoman art of fabric

Seljuk Turks who began to settle in Anatolia since 11th century showed a great improvement in this area by combining the weaving tradition that they carried from Central Asia, Transoxiana, Khwarezm and Iran with the savings in Anatolia (Ulgen, 1996). Turkish fabrics began to get their most characteristic motifs and a thin and a perfect weaving technique just to the end of 15th century. Reaching its highest level in 16thcentury, our fabric weaving technique improved after such a long development cycle (Suslu, 1976). All the arts had their golden age during the classical Ottoman Period. It is also the most magnificent age for 16th century Turkish fabric art. It has been effective in the selection of topic that fabrics wear out in time and design schemas on them face the danger of evanescence because of their raw materials. In this research, relevant resources have been searched and fabric figure drawings were drawn by taking photos from the museums that have classical Ottoman Period fabrics. The weaving centers, raw materials, colors and figures of classical Ottoman Period fabrics have been established and has set out the importance of the Classical Ottoman fabric art. Keywords: Fabric, Art, Classical Period

An overview of classical ottoman art of fabric

Seljuk Turks who began to settle in Anatolia since 11th century showed a great improvement in this area by combining the weaving tradition that they carried from Central Asia, Transoxiana, Khwarezm and Iran with the savings in Anatolia (Ülgen, 1996). Turkish fabrics began to get their most characteristic motifs and a thin and a perfect weaving technique just to the end of 15th century. Reaching its highest level in 16thcentury, our fabric weaving technique improved after such a long development cycle (Süslü, 1976).All the arts had their golden age during the classical Ottoman Period. It is also the most magnificent age for 16th century Turkish fabric art. It has been effective in the selection of topic that fabrics wear out in time and design schemas on them face the danger of evanescence because of their raw materials.In this research, relevant resources have been searched and fabric figure drawings were drawn by taking photos from the museums that have classical Ottoman Period fabrics. The weaving centers, raw materials, colors and figures of classical Ottoman Period fabrics have been established and has set out the importance of the Classical Ottoman fabric art.
 Keywords: Fabric, Art, Classical Period

The Politics of What You Wear on Your Head

For more than a century Turkish politics has been preoccupied with numerous debates focusing on the headwear of both men and women. As an indicator of the religious, ethnic and cultural affinities of the people who use or refrain from utilizing a particular sort of headwear, this issue has gained enormous political importance during particular time periods. This article argues that the overemphasis on certain types of headwear, namely the fez, top hat and headscarf, have figured at particular times as state policy, although their longevity as an issue was relative. Instead, the significance of the headwear continues its importance through metamorphosing the debate to another style of headwear. Despite arguments suggesting that women's attire has been at the core of Turkish modernization since the assertion of modern identities, which usually have been defined over women's issues, this article argues that it has been very important what both men and women wear on their head since modern dichotomies have classified both men's and women's identities, recognition and exclusion over their headwear. The state, as the modernizing actor of the masses, has stressed people's attire and in particular their headwear, as an ideological instrument.

Tradition and Modernism in the Works of the 20th Century Turkish Writer A.H. Tanpinar

The urgency of the problem under investigation is caused by the fact that the studies on the history of Turkish literature, in contrast with the previous eras, are marked by a certain dynamic that aims to identify the dominant trends in the development of Turkish literature that contributes to rethinking of the traditional breaking of consciousness and assessment of historical and cultural heritage of writers. The purpose of the article is to examine the processes leading to the change in traditional attitudes by modernist worldview; revealing the author's personality by interpreting the text; in the analysis of the writer’s literary traditions, involving the transfer of cultural and artistic experience of the past. The methodological basis of the work is the comparative-historical method, which allows considering the philosophical views of the writer, as well as the ideological and emotional assessment of Tanpinar in relation to the literary phenomena of the studied period. The article may be useful in the development of special academic courses, and taken into account in the general courses on Turkish literature and literature of Asia and Africa, with the establishment of various training manuals - college textbooks and monographs.

Acupuncture points in the book of Şerefeddin Sabuncuoğlu, a 15th century Turkish physician.

Şerefeddin Sabuncuoğlu (1385-1468?), the author of Cerrahiyetü'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), was a distinguished Ottoman Turkish surgeon. The first illustrated Turkish surgical textbook, Cerrahiyetü'l-Haniyye consisted of three chapters (ie, cauterisation treatments, surgical procedures and fractures and dislocations). Although the main source of the book was Al-Tasrif (Textbook of Surgery) by Albucasis (Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi; 936-1013 AD), Sabuncuoğlu added much new information, his clinical experiences and suggestions. The original illustrations and human figures made Cerrahiyetü'l-Haniyye the first illustrated medical textbook in Turkish and Islamic medicine literature. Cerrahiyetü'l-Haniyye was also a valuable source for acupuncturists. Some new sections and additions revealed that Sabuncuoğlu had knowledge of Chinese medicine. In four sections of Cerrahiyetü'l-Haniyye (ie, toothache, haemorrhoids, eczema and dermatophytosis) Sabuncuoğlu described acupuncture techniques and point locations. It is likely that the Chinese medicine content of Cerrahiyetü'l-Haniyye was derived from Central Asian roots of Anatolian Turkish people.

XV. YÜZYIL MUTASAVVIFLARINDAN CEMÂL-İ HALVETÎ’NİN MESNEVÎLERİNDE MESNEVÎ

Mavlânâ Djalal al-Din Rumi is a grand character who lead Turkish Literature by his personality and works. The stories in his unique work Mathnawi, are used frequently after his lifetime. So Djamâl-i Khalwati who is one of the prominent names in the XVth. century Turkish sufi literature, wrote five masnavis named Djawâhir al-Kulub, Beyân-i Cheng-nâma, Risâla-i Tashrihiyya, Risâla-i Fakriyya ve Risâla-i Sufiyya. He used the stories which he learned from Masnavi in his works Djawâhir al-Kulub, Risâla-i Fakriyya ve Risâla-i Sufiyya. The works of Djamâl-i Khalwati were written to explain the main features of tasawwuf, to enlighten and to lead the person who want to join tasawwuf movement. For this reason in his works he explained some of the main concepts of tasawwuf. He frequently used stories, representations and interpretations in order to explain the subject of his works or some of the concepts of tasawwuf and by this way he simplified his works for the sake of readers. In this study the stories taken from Mathnawi in these mentioned works of Djamâl-i Khalwati will be examined and the effect of Mawlânâ on Djamâl-i Khalwati will be explained

Review: Osman Hamdi Bey and the Americans: Archaeology, Diplomacy, Art; Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753–1914; and Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930–1947

Osman Hamdi Bey and the Americans: Archaeology, Diplomacy, Art Pera Museum, Istanbul 15 October 2011–8 January 2012 Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753–1914 SALT Galata, Istanbul 22 November 2011–11 March 2012 Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930–1947 Koc University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Istanbul 25 June–10 November 2013 Three exhibitions that examine ways of looking at the ancient and Byzantine past from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century were recently on display in Istanbul. These exhibitions reevaluated the changing discourses and practices of archaeology as both a scholarly enterprise and a popular endeavor, particularly in relation to the late Ottoman and early Turkish contexts. They explored how contemporaries looked at, understood, and wrote about the culture, art, and architecture of the past from their various and varying perspectives. The exhibition Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753–1914 at SALT Galata was curated by Zainab Bahrani, Zeynep Celik, and Edhem Eldem (Figure 1). It revolved around a double narrative of an apparently conventional historical account of the birth and development of “modern archaeology” from the founding of the British Museum in 1753 to the establishment of the Ottoman Pious Foundations Museum in 1914 alongside a contested story about some historically renowned archaeological sites that once dotted the former Ottoman lands. As its provocative title Scramble for the Past suggests, rather than presenting a celebratory narrative of archaeological practice, the exhibition put forward a critical interpretation of the history of archaeology. The seemingly neutral time line, highlighting the major dates in the long march of archaeology alongside significant historical political events, constituted a backdrop on the walls and literally encircled the main body of display, which focused on certain archaeological sites within the framework of eight different themes. True to the exploratory and interdisciplinary cultural mission of SALT, the sites were presented through their various historical representations in different media from written texts to oil paintings, from drawings to photographs and films, together with some original artifacts, among which were also dispersed commissioned installations on the nature of archaeology by artists Mark Dion …

XVII Century Ottoman Chronic “Tarih-I Naima” in Corpus Comparison

An Ottoman prose work (Naima's Histor y) for a long time has been the subject of special interest for literary critics, historians and linguists due to its stylistic features. The general comparison of the chronicle frequency lexical parameters with other Ottoman prose texts by corpus approach demonstrated that it had been created according to the canons of Ottoman Prose Literature and rules of its language norm. Yet at the same time differs from other t exts in some obscure, inexpressive form which let the annalist work stay quite famous in Ottoman Literature for two centuries and not be forgotten aswas the chronicle Seyahatname of the famous traveler Evliya Chelebi. Corpus approach enables an exact idiolect analysis due to its broad comparison with other texts in synchronistic and diachronic perspective. The comparison is usually based on the data of texts frequency vocabularies and syntax. At the same time, the correlation analysis between frequency vocabularies rank parameters can be used for the sample validation while compiling electronic documents collection (Prohorov, 2002). Such collection (corpus) in total of 21Ottoman prose texts was created for our research on idiostyle of the 18th century Turkish chronicle Tarihi Naima (Naima's History), or in the full name:The Garden of Husayn in the Summary of the Chronicles of Eastand West (Ravḍatu'l�Ḥuseynfi ḫulāsati aḫbāri'l�ḫāfiqa yn), written by the first vakanuvis (state chronicler) of Ottoman Empire Mustafa (1655�1716).While researching his idiostyle, we proceeded from the linguistic view of this phenomenon as deviation from language norm and tried to fix it in empirical statistical way. In our case, the calculation of the Pierson correlation coefficient (R) between rank parameters of electronic documents vocabularies verified the sampling adequacy for created corpus. However, the analogical computation between frequency vocabularies of researched text and documents collection demonstrated lexical deviation of Tarihi Naima from other Ottoman chr onicles. Meanwhile lexicon of selected documents in the view of their common frequency dictionary and according to high lexical closeness between them can be considered as hypothetical language norm of Ottoman chronicles. Method

Linking Turkish Credit Card Market as Two-Sided Market

Credit Card markets are special kind of market which is called as Two-Sided Markets in economics literature. In these markets there are two sides which benefit from the number of subscribers on other sides. Although scholars and economists has given importance and examined two-sided markets since the beginning of 21th century Turkish scholars have not interested much about these markets. We studied Turkish Credit card market by using Two-sided markets approach and also we aimed to contribute literature that is poor about Turkey Two-Sided Markets. We defined actors and competition structure in Turkish credit card markets and explained profit functions of them and set profit maximizing problems.

The Message of The Damascus Sermon for Muslim-Christian Relations

AbstractThe context in which Bediüzzaman Said Nursi wrote the first version of his now famous Damascus sermon was a meeting on a continent and in an age in which Muslims were being forced to reflect on their identity due to negative interaction with non-Muslims.Meanwhile, the relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims have changed drastically. Nonetheless, not only Muslims but also Christians and even Muslims and Christians together in dialogue now have more rather than fewer reasons to be concerned about the question of how they, based on their authentic religious values, can contribute to a good society.Even the mid-20th century Turkish revision of the Damascus sermon is dated. The document does, however, offer a clarifying template that can still be highly beneficial for Muslims and Christians a century later in striving for what is beneficial for themselves and their environment while keeping their own identities in mind.Christians could also acknowledge a great deal in the six ailments and remedies the healer identifies in the “Six Words.” At the same time, it suits the spirit of the age to proceed not only via a set of major resemblances between both religions but also mutatis mutandis in connection with what is typical for each religion. As a Christian, I would like to flesh this out with “hope,” “faithfulness,” “love,” “unity,” “dignity,” and “consultation,” based on my faith, of which Jesus Christ is the centre.The challenge of today’s and tomorrow’s globalised reality that Muslims and Christians have to cope with is, for instance, to formulate a new Purifying paradigm based on the concepts listed by Nursi, designed to be fully respective of the well understood uniqueness of the other. Christian acceptance of Muslims should not depend on the extent to which they are integrated into Western society, nor should Christians be viewed by Muslims as pre-Muslims.This challenge goes further and is more difficult than striving to come to “a common word”: in fact, we will need to understand a variety of words. But if the efforts are crowned with success, this is a more valid way for Muslims and Christians - who together make up the majority of the world’s population - to be a good example for society.From a Christian point of view and that of the 20th century’s disenchantment, Nursi is overly optimistic when he suggests society can be affected by implementing religious values. Religious people and non-religious people alike in the current demographic will continue to co-exist and individually suffer from the cited and notcited maladies, and this was no different in the golden eras of yore.Nevertheless, we can point to signs of hope when we succeed together in resolving the dilemma of right-wing capitalism and liberalism on the one hand and left-wing communism and socialism on the other by means of our own religiously motivated values to allow Christians, Muslims, and others to sample a bit of the future heaven on earth.