Turkish Government Research Articles

The study of pilgrimage in aspects of the economy of tourism organization

The relevance of the work. At the beginning of the XXI century, when the service sector becomes a priority, various types of tourism are actively developing. Among them, religious tourism also occupies a worthy place, which, in our opinion, is a promising area of research. All over the world there are a huge number of religious buildings that are distinguished by historical, cultural and sacred and artistic attractiveness. Sacred objects can be visited all year round, regardless of weather conditions, religion, political ambitions and other reasons. Religious tourism as a scientific direction requires a theoretical basis and the development of a methodological base. The purpose of the work is economic analysis of religious tourism as part of tourism system with a special accent on Turkey. One of the most significant findings relates to the efficacy of integrated development plans initiated by the Turkish government for the Antalya region. This rational policy has led to a substantial increase in state revenues from the tourism industry, tallying at USD 33.3 billion in 1987. The study elucidates how the strategic regulation of foreign investment through integrated plans has not only optimized state revenues but also sustainably developed these resort towns into significant tourism hubs. The global pilgrimage tourism economy has been burgeoning as well, with a CAGR of approximately 8% from 2010-2020, reaching a net market valuation of around USD 60 billion. When dissected further, the data reveal that accommodation services constitute about 30% of the total revenue generated, followed by transportation services at 25%, and miscellaneous expenditures covering the remaining 45%. It unambiguously demonstrates that with meticulous planning and strategic investment, pilgrimage tourism has the potential to become a cornerstone in the diversification and enrichment of national and global tourism economies.

A CONFLICT RESOLUTION PRACTICE OF THE IDEALIST PEACE PROJECT: LEAGUE OF NATIONS' MEDIATION IN THE MOSUL QUESTION

The idealist peace project after the end of World War I realized various principles-based regulations and conventions to provide a new international peace and stability. One such arrangement was the rule that conflicts and disputes should be resolved under the auspices of these principles within the League of Nations. Representing the international community, the League successfully fulfilled this responsibility in many cases and established procedures for settling territorial disputes. However the case of Mosul Question between 1925-1926, considerable divergences in that structure became evident. This article examines Mosul Question as a mediation process through the arguements and proposals that reveal the expectations of the parties or their departure from the idealist peace project. Findings based on archival documents, commission reports, and sources from that period reveal that while the British government avoided practices of the idealist peace project, the Turkish government made more explicit appeals to implement them in the case considered as an opportunity for the League of Nations to foster confidence between the Eastern and Western parts of the World.

Contemporary Narratives of Leftist Islam Movements in Indonesia and Turkey: A Comparative Analysis

This research analyses the contemporary narratives of leftist Islam movements being developed as a counter-narrative to dominant Islamic discourse in Indonesia and Turkey. These leftist Islam movements were introduced under different circumstances in the two countries. In Indonesia, leftist Islam was initially promoted by Islamic scholars who were interacting with Marxist references. This was shown in the cases of Haji Misbach, who was one of Indonesia’s – and the world’s – first leftist Muslim figures. In the case of Turkey, some leftist Islamic movements were inspired by the modern Turkish Marxist movement, which emerged in the middle of the twentieth century and was eventually combined with Islamic elements. This research argues that as both Indonesian and Turkish governments are consolidating their modes of authoritarian neoliberal governance, combined with increasing religiosity, the narratives of leftist Islam are re-emerging as a way to provide socio-political criticisms and to formulate alternative ideas on the role of Islam in improving the livelihood of Muslims in Indonesia and Turkey. This research engages with several cases of leftist Islamic movements in Indonesia and Turkey. In Indonesia, this research takes the examples of FNKSDA (Nahdliyyin Front for Natural Resource Sovereignty) and its media outlet Islam Bergerak (Islam on the Move) which have had an important role in organising leftist Islamic movement in Indonesia during the 2010s. In the case of Turkey, we examine the role of Antikapitalist Müslümanlar (Anti-Capitalist Muslims), also known as Kapitalizmle Mücadele Derneği (Association for Fight against Capitalism). This research identifies the socio-political origins, main ideas, goals, and strategies of the contemporary leftist Islam movements in Indonesia and Turkey.

Modernisasi Pendidikan Islam di Turki

This study aims to identify and analyze the modernization of Islamic education in Turkey. The method used in this study is the reference search method (literature study). This study uses a library approach. In the data collection process, researchers used reference searches (literature study). In analyzing the data, researchers used content analysis techniques (content analysis). This research shows that the defeat after defeat experienced by the Ottoman Turks made Sultan Mahmud II formulate a strategy to advance the Ottoman Empire with its main program being the issue of education. In reconstructing the rebuilding of the Ottoman Empire that was carried out by Sultan Mahmud II through an educational program, it did not reach the target he set out because through these reforms, Mustafa Kemal easily turned the Ottoman Empire into a secular socialist state. Mustafa Kemal and overhauled all the arrangements that had been built by the Ottoman Turks for centuries. Even the Turkish state abolished religion and revived Western moods in government. Although recently there have been attempts by the Turkish government to revive religion.

Electricity generation portfolio planning and policy implications of Turkish power system considering cost, emission, and uncertainty

Türkiye is the fastest-growing energy market among the OECD members, and it is among the world's top 20 energy-consuming countries. The existing electricity generation capacity of Türkiye has doubled in the last decade. Planning the electricity generation portfolio is an important problem for the decision and policymakers, especially in terms of sustainable development, and it is crucial for Türkiye's economic growth. In this paper, we study the long-term electricity generation portfolio optimization while considering the uncertainties. An optimization algorithm is modeled and solved while integrating uncertainty information as part of the Pareto concept. The results of three scenarios are presented and policy implications are discussed and compared with similar Turkish case studies and government projections. The results suggest that it is less risky to minimize emissions, thus, more likely to be sustainable than to minimize costs. Comparisons among solutions show that nuclear is a substitute for renewable resources and comparisons among other studies show that natural gas and hydro are substitutes for each other. Multi-objective formulation reveals that the government's scenario provides favorable results in business-as-usual conditions; however, nuclear and renewable investments that the government has planned are too ambitious to keep costs lower while decreasing emissions.

Earthquake, disaster capitalism and massive urban transformation in Istanbul

AbstractIn this paper, I discuss how the earthquake risk is exploited by ‘disaster capitalism’, in order to convert Istanbul to a massive construction site. The shock of the 1999 Marmara Earthquake has been effectively used by the neoliberal market and government as ‘a shock therapy’ to implement a construction‐led development model for Turkey and to favour the construction sector by introducing new incentives, exceptional rights and interventions, which otherwise might be challenged. The current Turkish government justify the ongoing massive urban transformation and new mass housing projects as an improvement of the housing stock to make residential buildings stronger and more resilient to earthquakes. However, areas actually under earthquake risk do not match the areas that are officially declared under disaster risk by the government. The Disaster Law #6306 that granted the government the absolute right to expropriate land based on the justification of ‘protecting residents against earthquakes and other natural disasters’ was applied in a selective way to seize valuable land in Istanbul. In the paper I explore how the disaster was quickly converted to an opportunity for economic growth. To do that I introduce stories of three different neighbourhoods in Istanbul, namely Moda, Tozkoparan and Fikirtepe, each of which experience the ongoing massive urban transformation differently based on the land value of the neighbourhoods, class position of the residents, and residents' capacity to organise in order to protect their rights. I describe, how disaster capitalism is lived and experienced differently in these three neighbourhoods. Although the massive construction projects are indifferent to life's sustainability, those projects are justified as interventions in terms of public health and safety through making housing resilient to earthquakes. I critically discuss how in each case biopolitics presents disaster capitalism's massive urban transformation projects as a manifestation of liveliness.

Securing the exception through securitization: Turkish modular emergency in the making

ABSTRACT This study argues that the Schmittian exceptionalist view drawing on the norm/exception dichotomy is ill-equipped to grasp the nature and operation of current modular emergency regimes where normalcy and emergency coexist as different, yet intertwined modes of governance. These regimes are modular as they enable the interchangeable and simultaneous use of ordinary and extraordinary powers and legislation by executives. In modular emergencies, securitization plays a key role to create a “strategic ambiguity” where the distinction between the “normal” and the “exceptional” becomes untenable and invisible. In securitized political environments, it becomes increasingly difficult for societies to gauge if expanded executive powers and exceptionalist practices are justifiable, reasonable and proportional. Turkey was ruled under a nationwide state of emergency (SoE) for two years declared on 20 July 2016 soon after a failed coup attempt against the Turkish government. Even though the SoE was formally lifted in July 2018, the emergency powers and exceptionalist practices have become entrenched and institutionalized under the guise of the “presidential system of government” designed as a rule of modular emergency.

The Nexus Between COVID-19 Government Responses and Aviation Stock Prices in Turkey: OxCGRT Stringency Index-Based Analysis

Air transportation is the significant mode of transmission, enabling the worldwide spread of infectious diseases through the mobility of infected persons. Therefore, governments applied the most comprehensive restrictions and preventions in civil aviation during COVID-19. The industry is one of the most economically impacted due to travel, and flight restrictions. This paper aims to investigate the long- and short-term nexuses between government responses to COVID-19 and the aviation stock prices traded in Borsa Istanbul. The OxCGRT stringency Turkey index is used to measure the Turkish government responses and policies to COVID-19. In the study, the daily data of Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Do&Co Catering, TAV Airport Holding, Celebi Ground Handling stock prices, and the OxCGRT stringency Turkey index for the 24.01.2020-11.11.2021 period were used, and Granger causality and Engle-Granger cointegration tests were applied to reveal the nexuses. In conclusion, there is a cointegration nexus and one-way causality from the index to all Turkish aviation stock prices, except the Celebi Ground Handling stock prices. The contribution of this study is that it is probably the first one in Turkey to reveal the nexus between the government's policy and responses to COVID-19 and aviation stock prices.

The fight for evolution.

As the Turkish government intensified its attacks on the theory of evolution, the academic community rallied to push back. A researcher recounts how she decided to join them.

A diplomatic trip

Why do infrastructures remain in place if they do not perform the functions which compelled their design? If soft infrastructures such as diplomatic trips do not increase bilateral trade volumes, why do they stay on the agenda? Drawing on fieldwork with businesspeople and government representatives attending a Turkish government sponsored diplomatic trip to Algeria, Mauritania and Senegal in 2018, this article makes three points. First, it shows that businesspeople joined diplomatic trips, not necessarily because they were interested in African markets or because they had the necessary expertise to engage in foreign trade, but because they saw them as practical spaces for improving their relations with Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Second, it points to how businesspeople believed that participation in these networks offered “a fast track,” enabling entrepreneurs to acquire wealth quickly. Third, it demonstrates that businesspeople participate not only because they seek involvement in relationships of exchange, but also because they believe in the emergence of a grand Turkey, dominant in international politics. In this context, such infrastructures remain intact not necessarily because they fulfill the promises with which they were started, but because they serve legible pragmatic and ideological purposes for a range of users. Overall, this article documents and analyzes how businesspeople in Turkey conceptualize their existing and future presence in African markets, while providing windows into the repurposing of soft infrastructure.

Nations on the Move: U.S. Humanitarians and Refugee Management in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1918–1923

In January 1923, a treaty between the warring nations of Greece and Turkey authorized by the League of Nations empowered the two states to denaturalize and expel over one and a half million residents of their nations in what became known as the Greco-Turkish population exchange. Hundreds of thousands of Greek and Turkish residents deemed ethnic minorities—Greeks in Turkey and Turks in Greece—were stripped of their citizenship and forced out of their homes on the promise that citizenship, along with housing and welfare, would await them in their new home country. While the Greek and Turkish governments oversaw the eviction and expulsion of their counterparts’ newly made citizens, the actual movement of these refugees took place largely under the official protection of the U.S. Navy, with the transportation out of Turkey under the auspices of an American humanitarian organization, Near East Relief (NER). NER’s role in the exchange represented a radical break from years of work in the region focused on nurturing a generation of American educated Christian minorities to “reconstruct” the Middle East.

Governing contingencies by proxy: a governmentality approach on social supports in Istanbul under mutual uncertainty

ABSTRACT Contingencies comprise immediate possibilities and aleatory interactions in the form of calculated responses to mutual uncertainties. While contingencies are critically important to governmental policies, yet they have been rarely considered in social analysis. The aim of this study is to analyze how the Covid-19 pandemic as a crisis has been governed both against and through contingencies by investigating the social support measures initiated by the Turkish government and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM). We gathered empirical data qualitatively from 12 in-depth interviews with the officers of local government and NGOs, supplemented by official documents. We found that contingencies are produced and become residual through configurational interdependencies, such as competition between the central and local government, unemployment, inadequate support, standardization, path dependency, and lack of diversification in need assessment. This study revealed that governmental practices are governed through contingent possibilities and interactions under mutual uncertainty and the politics of crisis management and conflict between local and central authority changed social support mechanisms.

Türkiye’s Migration Experience and Policy Orientations: Integrating Syrians in Higher Education

Türkiye has had multidimensional migration experience not only in its past, but also in its present that has led to the formation of a dynamic migration policy to govern such a dynamic process. Türkiye’s migration policy has been informed and shaped by its geopolitical location as a migrant receiving, labour migrant sending, and migrant transit country. Today, Türkiye hosts the largest number of migrants and refugees in the world with a far-reaching social, political, and economic impact on the country. This article aims to shed light on the multidimensional migration experience of Türkiye and analyse its migration policies to govern manifold challenges brought about by the presence of almost 6 million foreigners in the country. It is argued in this article that the integration of migrants in general and of Syrians in particular remains a major challenge for Türkiye. Therefore, this article recommends that Turkish decision makers should make short and long-term plans for the integration of Syrians as the current conditions indicate that it is unlikely that Syrians will return in any significant numbers any time soon even though the Turkish government has initiated a number of projects in parts of Northern Syria for the safe and voluntary return of its countrymen and women. One important area of integration in this context is higher education, which would enable Syrians to have access to employment and social mobility that would benefi t both themselves and Türkiye.

Home-State Politics Vis-à-Vis Turkish Emigrants: Instrumentalizing Emigrants

: This article scrutinizes the ways in which Turkish state actors have shaped the social ecosophy of emigrants and their descendants residing in Europe. Describing the Turkish state’s perspectives toward emigrants reveals that Turkish state actors always have instrumentalized emigrants since the beginning of the migratory processes in the 1960s. The focus will be on the current Turkish government’s acts and policies, which are likely to contribute to the Muslimization of Turkey-origin emigrants in diaspora, or in other words, to their labeling simply as ‘Muslims’. Based on a thorough analysis of secondary literature, discourse analyses of contemporary Turkish political leaders’ speeches aimed at Turkish emigrants and their descendants as well as my earlier and ongoing field research findings, I argue that it is the indifference of some European state actors who have not offered political opportunity structures for devout Muslims with Turkish background to be incorporated into the public/political space at the expense of pushing them into the Turkish state actors’ hands that offer alternative political opportunity structures. Hence, the article elaborates the ways in which receiving states’ policies and practices toward migrant-origin people impact diaspora politics of the migrant-sending states. The emphasis is on German and Turkish state actors.

On the Receiving End of Diaspora Engagement Policies: Evidence from the Turkish Diaspora in Sweden

: While many states directly engage their non-resident populations to rally support for domestic political agendas, extract remittances, or to further foreign policy objectives, few countries have been more active in this space than Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). By the early 2020s, researchers and scholars had obtained a fairly good understanding of the ways in which the Turkish government seeks to (selectively) engage or cooperate with, but also to suppress some members of what it perceives as its diaspora. These efforts are specified in official diaspora engagement policies and implemented through, for instance, governmental institutions like the ‘Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities’ (YTB), or cultural institutions like the ‘Yunus Emre Institutes.’ However, even though scholars have learned a fair bit about the supply side of Turkish diaspora engagement, we know comparatively little about the demand side of and for such efforts. To begin filling this gap, this article switches perspectives from the supplier to the consumer/recipient and seeks to understand better the ways in which diasporans perceive, relate to, and engage with such efforts. By building on primary and secondary sources as well as semi-structured interviews with members of the Turkish diaspora in Sweden, this article seeks to contribute to an understanding of the varied ways in which diasporans relate and react to different forms of state-led diaspora engagement.

‘Big Clean’, the ‘Death Ship’ and the Hazardous Waste Trade between West Germany and Turkey, 1987–1988

This article narrates the history of two high-profile West German-Turkish toxic waste scandals in 1988. It argues that they marked a watershed moment between two ‘waste regimes’. The first scandal showcased to the Turkish and West German publics how waste dealers and policy makers misleadingly packaged hazardous waste exports as a substitute for traditional forms of debt and as a vehicle for economic development. The opposition it fuelled hastened the demise of this waste regime by prompting the Turkish government to enact a ban on toxic waste imports. The second scandal revealed the new regime that emerged in its aftermath – one in which waste dealers and policy makers sought to evade new restrictions in the less visible margins of a changing regulatory and legal space.

Testing the impact of external sovereign debt on Turkey’s ecological footprint: New evidence from the bootstrap ARDL approach

As is glaringly apparent, the world is now bedeviled with environmental challenges and ecological complications. This may not be unconnected with the persistent ecological challenges emanating from fossil fuel consumption and changing lifestyles. This is why various attempts are ongoing to advance the course of renewable energy and economic growth as a response to environmental change. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the dynamic effect of external debt, energy usage, and real income on the ecological footprint in Turkey, covering the period 1985–2017. To achieve the stated objective, the study used the newly developed Bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (BARDL) test and the Granger causality test to unravel the co-movement as well as the direction of causality among the variables. The results revealed that external debt influences environmental quality in both the short and the long run. However, energy consumption and real income have been found to have retarded environmental quality in both the short and the long run. The Granger causality test results revealed that the causal flow direction runs from external debt, economic growth, and energy usage to environmental quality. Therefore, the study argues that for the Turkish government to achieve a long-term plan of environmental sustainability, there is a need for the government to venture into debt consolidation programs such as implementing tax increases and cutting public spending in order to increase fiscal space that would finance long-term environmental protection policies.

Policy towards Minorities in the Early Turkish Republic (1920s and 1930s)

This article highlights the politics of the early Turkish governments towards various ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities living on the territory of the Republic of Turkey in the light of the principle of nationalism, which became one of the fundamental principles of the new Turkish state. Based on the achievements of modern historiography and the archive documents in the records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religions kept at the Central State Archives – Sofia, it makes a review of the typical practices aimed at assimilation of the Muslim linguistic, ethnic and denominational minorities, on one hand, and, on the other hand, at the exclusion of non-Muslims from the concept of the “Turkish nation” and the adoption of discriminatory, and even repressive practices, encouraging their emigration from the Republic of Turkey.

World Literature Bigger Than Five

Abstract This paper examines the history, political background, and literary aesthetics of Turkey’s newly inaugurated Necip Fazıl Cultural Prize and the Istanbul Publishing Fellowship Program to examine how the Turkish government instrumentalizes literature to contest Turkish cultural values and identity. Describing the current need to advance Turkish culture and literature as “important a matter of survival as the fight against terror,” Erdoğan has increasingly emphasized cultural power in recent years as a means of cultivating and promoting his regime’s local and pious version of Turkishness. This paper explores how literary prizes and publishing programs partake in the formation of Turkish cultural power and investigates the ramifications of these government-sponsored initiatives for scholarly understanding of the relationship between world-building, the circulation of aesthetic practices underpinned by nationalism and religion, and the projection of national power on a global stage.

Büyük Taarruz’un Kazanılmasının İngiliz Prestij Faktörüne Etkileri

The purpose of the study is defined as to examine the effects of the winning of the Great Offensive and the Field Battle of the Commander-in-Chief by the Turks on the prestige factor of England in the Near East. England’s prestige and superiority in the Near East were severely shaken following the Turkish-Greek War. The reason is that the Turkish victory was not just a military success. It also reflected a mentality change in the context of nation-building of Middle Eastern or Asian societies. The defeat of the Greek side and the diplomatic difficulties that England fell into after the Great Offensive not only caused England’s material and spiritual superiority being questioned but also shook its position of being the most important power of the world. After the Great Offensive and the Field Battle of the Commander-in-Chief, attitude of world public opinion towards the English changed. In order not to lose its political superiority, England took action to shake the prestige of Türkiye in the world public opinion by exaggerating some of the events experienced during the evacuation of the Greek forces.
 The Turkish government’s attitude towards the English government in return for England’s attitude towards Türkiye after the winning of the Great Offensive make it essential to evaluate the English prestige factor. The research evaluated the reasons of why the English prestige factor was shaken, the impact of the winning the Great Offensive, and the effect of the winning of the Great Offensive on England’s power in the region. Moreover, it assessed the diplomatic attitude undertaken by England to prevent its prestige from being shaken and differences of opinion that England had with its allies after the Great Offensive. The article benefited basically from English periodicals of the period including The Daily Herald, Daily News, Evening Telegraph, The Westminster Gazette, Sunday Mirror, and The New Statesman and the documents of the Ottoman Archive of the Presidency.