Turkish National Research Articles

A Critical Analysis of Ümit Özdağ's X Posts within the Framework of the General Discourse of the Populist Radical Right

The aim of this study is to analyse the posts made by Zafer Party (ZP) leader Ümit Özdağ from his personal account on the X platform with reference to some of the concepts that populist radical right ideology produces discourse around. In this context, the analysis of Özdağ's X posts within the framework of the general discourse of the populist radical right is important for understanding how the populist radical right discourse is reproduced locally. In this study, the method of critical discourse analysis was applied to discuss the ideological meaning of the discourses formed around the concepts. In particular, the concepts of immigrants/refugees, Islam and nation have been selected with reference to the discourses put forward by the populist radical right-wing movements on the rise in Europe, and Özdağ's X posts have been analysed through these concepts. The analysis has been conducted on the concepts of immigrants/refugees, Islam and nation. Özdağ's discourses largely overlap with the populist radical right ideology on migrants and refugees. However, Özdağ's discourse differs from the general discourse of the populist radical right on Islam and the nation at certain points. On the issue of Islam, Özdağ, unlike Western right-wing populists, criticises the cultural practices of Muslims rather than categorically rejecting Islam. By highlighting Turkish nationalism, Özdağ reproduces anti-immigrant discourses within this framework. While the populist radical right has recently produced discourse through civic nationalism rather than discourse based on ethnicity, some of Özdağ's X posts evoke ethnic nationalism.

The Diversity among the Reason and Purpose Denoting Wh-Adverbs in Turkish

The study was carried out to determine the contexts in which the single word reason and purpose denoting wh-adverbs in Turkish are used more frequently than one another. The target wh-adverbs are neden, niye and niçin, all of which are translated into English as why. It is argued here that niçin and niye focus on the goal of the target event which will take place in the future while neden focuses on the cause of the target event that took place in the past. Another argument was that the preference over niye and niçin also varies in accordance with the given context. A gap filling task (n-82; 49 female, 33 male; age: 19.5), a wh-question formation task (n-63; 42 female, 21 male, age: 20,7) and a corpus based analysis (Turkish National Corpus, 1157 interrogative sentence) were carried out to test the arguments. The obtained results supported the hypotheses of the study. Niçin and niye are more prominent in denoting purpose while neden is more preferable in expressing reason. It was also observed that the frequencies for niye and niçin vary with the given contexts. The existence of the other adverbs in the target context influences the preference over them.

Social cohesion among Syrian and Turkish children, adolescents, and young adults in Turkey

AbstractTurkey has received a large influx of Syrian refugees since the start of Syrian civil war in 2011. Integration and social cohesion have become important issues for public policy in Turkey. We study social cohesion among young Turkish nationals and Syrian refugees. Our study sample comprises of adolescents and young adults (12–30 years), and children (6–11 years) who participated in events of the “Education Program for Syrian Refugees and Host Communities” (BILSY) program conducted by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). Social cohesion among adolescents and young adults is measured along three dimensions: sense of belonging, trust, and relational capacity. For children, we use behavioural games to measure two dimensions of social cohesion – altruism and trust. Our results show high social cohesion for both age groups, though lack of trust among Turkish nationals towards Syrian nationals is an area of concern. We also evaluate the impact of participation in BILSY program events using a randomised design and find that it had no impact on social cohesion. Our article adds to the limited literature on social cohesion among children and youths in countries affected by forced displacement.

Muslim Turcophobia: A Study of Two Missionary Authors

Among Turks, major religions with universal messages have always been tolerated. The fact that Turks generally did not convert to religions other than Islam led to the interpretation of Islam as “the most suitable religion for the character and national culture of the Turks”; therefore, Turks accepted Islam voluntarily, not by force. Among all these belief systems and religions, Islam was based on the belief in “Gök Tengri”. The proximity of the Turks to the Muslim Regions made it easier for the Turks to become Muslims and they became Muslims in groups. The statement in the Quranic Ayat al-Kursi (Al-Baqarah, 255); “His pulpit has encompassed the heavens and the earth كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَالْاَرْضَۚ وَلَََا يَؤُ۫دُهُ حِفْظُهُمَاۚ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظ۪يمُ” The similarity in the fact that “Gök Tengri”, which they have believed in since the beginning of their existence, is both in the sky and much closer to them (closer than their jugular veins) has facilitated the change of belief in the Turks. The seven stories of the sky, which their ancestors saw as “Uçmak”, the fact that hell is seven stories below the earth, free thought and tolerance in both religions, and the fact that there is only one God religion. The compatibility of the belief in God with hundreds of years of customs and traditions facilitated the acceptance of the idea that Islam was a suitable religion for them. The enmity against Muslim Turks, which started in the Christian world with the progress of Turkish tribes towards the West after the adoption of Islam, has increased the efforts of fanatical missionary Christian writers to create prejudice with their publications, which are far from historical facts, to demonize Turks in the Western public opinion. The common characteristics of these writers are that they fictionalize alleged inhumane crimes against Christians and present them as if they were true, and that they unconditionally support Greeks and Armenians, whom they see as the real owners of Anatolia. In this way, they accelerated the spread of "Islamophobia" in Western public opinion, and the persecution and massacres of Muslims were ignored. However, neither the Holy Quran, nor the Turks, nor the Prophet Muhammad deserve these accusations and slanders. After Afet Inan shared with Atatürk a history book that disparaged the Turks during her studies at the French Notre Dame de Sion High School in Istanbul, the struggle against the unchanging mentality of the West was turned into a state policy, and the Turkish Historical Society was established after April 15, 1931, to rescue Turkish history from the prejudiced views of Western states through scientific studies. The aim of the study is to investigate the publications of two of the dozens of missionaries (George Horton, Sir Edwin Pears) who saw Muslims as a threat to Christianity in the Turkish nation as an example from the publications of works written by missionary writers and containing insults, slander and attacks against Islam.

“We're tired of this Weber guy!”—Force experts, police reforms, and the violence of standardization

AbstractSince the mid‐2000s, the use‐of‐force continuum—a global standard for providing law enforcement with guidelines on the proportionate use of force—has been central in Turkish police training and reporting practices. Liberal police accountability tools, like the use‐of‐force continuum, rely on standardization to prevent police violence. Yet these techniques still result in maimed bodies and psyches and police impunity. Rather than taking the standardization of police force simply as a failed project, a sham, or a mere techno‐fix, I examine how powerful actors like police align with such standards and how they start thinking and acting through them while repurposing them. Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork between 2015 and 2017 among the Turkish National Police, I show how the transnational standardization of police force has in fact enabled police in Turkey to redefine and ultimately reclaim the violence they are professionalized in as what I call “force experts.” Force defies standardization in both theory and practice; however, what sanctions police violence now is not just technical standardization but the expert framing of the democratically reformed police force. This is the violence of standardization, especially in contexts where governments retool reforms to criminalize suspect Others whom they perceive as a “threat” to their rule.

Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis of a Turkish Sadness Verb Hüzünlen-

This study provides a semantic and pragmatic analysis of the Turkish verb "hüzünlen-" which conveys the meaning of sadness. Following a corpus-driven approach, query sequences from the Turkish National Corpus (TNC) were analysed according to the Extended Lexical Units model proposed by Stubbs (2005). In this context, 284 query sequences found in real spoken and written language samples were examined to determine the lexical profile of the verb "hüzünlen-." The aim of the study is to reveal the semantic and pragmatic usage differences of the verb "hüzünlen-" compared to other verbs expressing sadness. In this regard, the syntactic features, collocational tendencies, and context-dependent semantic and pragmatic characteristics of the verb "hüzünlen-" were thoroughly investigated. As a corpus-driven study, this research is the result of an inductive examination. The study demonstrated that the lexical framework of the verb "hüzünlen-" implies a sudden, intense sadness often related to past events and circumstances. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the cultural and linguistic features of expressing sadness in Turkish, as well as to comprehending the cognitive aspects of the emotion of sadness. Furthermore, the results of the study offer significant insights into how expressions of sadness are shaped in linguistic and cultural contexts in Turkish, allowing for a broader perspective on the linguistic representation of sadness. This research suggests that the verb "hüzünlen-" should be examined not only in Turkish but also in comparison with similar emotional expressions in other languages. Thus, it can contribute to understanding the universal and culture-specific features of language and emotion.

Economic burden of short-acting beta-2 agonist (SABA) overuse among asthma patients in Türkiye: a cost analysis with respect to the updated GINA treatment recommendations.

This cost of illness study aimed to determine economic burden of short-acting β2-agonist (SABA) overuse in Türkiye from payer perspective with respect to the updated GINA 2022 treatment recommendations. A total of 3,034,879 asthma patients comprised the study population, via estimations extrapolated from the Türkiye arm of the global SABINA III study. The economic burden (costs related to the drug use and severe exacerbations) was compared in subgroups of overall (≥ 0 canisters/year) vs. GINA-recommended (0-2 canisters/year, hypothetical population) SABA use and in subgroups of appropriate use (0-2 canisters/year, real population) vs. overuse (≥ 3 canisters/year) of SABA with extrapolation of SABINA Türkiye data to the Türkiye asthma population. Recommended SABA use was predicted to prevent 127,505 of 157,512 severe exacerbations per year in mild asthma patients and 2,668,916 of 3,262,800 severe exacerbations per year in moderate-severe asthma patients. Annual cost burden of not applying recommended SABA use (overall [≥ 0 canisters/year] vs. GINA-recommended [0-2 canisters/year] SABA use) in mild asthma and moderate-severe asthma patients was calculated to be €20.43 million and €427.65 million in terms of severe exacerbations, and to be €829,352 and €7.20 million in terms of drug costs, respectively. The total annual economic burden arising from not applying recommended SABA use was estimated to be €456.11 million. Appropriate use (0-2 canisters/year) vs. overuse (≥ 3 canisters/year) of SABA was associated with decreased frequency of severe exacerbations per year in mild asthma (from 129,878 to 27,634) and moderate-severe asthma (from 2,834,611 to 428,189) patients. SABA overuse in mild and moderate-severe asthma patients was estimated to yield an additional annual cost of €16.38 million and €385.59 million, respectively in terms of severe exacerbations, and a total €11.30 million additional drug cost. The overall annual economic burden arising from SABA overuse was estimated to be €413.27 million. The estimated annual total economic burden arising from not applying recommended SABA use (€456.11 million) and SABA overuse (€413.27 million) with respect to the updated GINA 2022 treatment recommendations indicates the substantial cost burden of SABA overuse to the Turkish National Health System, corresponding up to 26% of the total direct cost of asthma reported in our country.

Child health in the first 100 years of Republic of Türkiye: a story of hope, labor and success.

The Republic of Türkiye commemorated its 100th year in 2023. Within one century, a battle weary, poor country has changed into a powerful, game changing leader in the world. This was accomplished by the motivation and overwork of the Turkish nation and a great leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The status of child health in 1923 can be summarized as high infant and under-five mortality rates, epidemic diseases and hardly any healthcare facilities and health-care professionals. Since a healthy, well educated workforce was one of the main requirements for the development of the young republic, child health was given a great emphasis. With the efforts of the whole nation, many children's hospitals were established, infant mortality decreased, and malaria, neonatal tetanus, polio and diphtheria were eradicated. In this article, the progression of child health in the first 100 years of the Republic of Türkiye will be reviewed.

Turkish National Security Strategy Towards Iraq after 2011

Turkish National Security Strategy Towards Iraq after 2011

Turkish Public Diplomacy in the Minutes of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (1931-1938)

For the young Republic of Turkey, the 1930s were a test of international public diplomacy. Turkey, which based its domestic and foreign policy on the principle of “Peace at home, peace in the world!”, was also concerned about its own future with the dictatorial regimes of Germany, Russia and Italy, which had distanced themselves from democratic governance and entered into an arms race with a sense of revenge, as well as the public diplomacy it would conduct and the measures it would take with the countries in its region. During the First World War, the country had suffered great devastation. The Turkish nation had spent everything it had in the struggle for liberation and was almost exhausted. However, it had managed to build a democratic state based on “National Sovereignty” despite the great economic depression that engulfed the world. However, the political developments in Europe and the possibility of the Republic of Turkey entering into a new chaos with the approaching World War could have destroyed all the gains and the future of the country. The task of protecting Turkey from this impending danger and keeping it safe could only be possible with the rational policies pursued by President Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the correct decisions taken by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in line with these policies. The aim of this study is to examine the Turkish public diplomacy as reflected in the minutes of the Turkish Grand National Assembly of Turkey between 1932 and 1938 in order to prevent Turkey's involvement in the upcoming great war and to secure its gains with measures to ensure its security in the region.

Mosque Construction as Nation-Building: The case of Turkey

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the question of mosque construction and its interrelationship vis-à-vis nation-building in contemporary Turkey. The dynamics of a secular state ruling over a conservative society have always been conflictual in republican Turkey, and this ever since the modern state began initiating a number of radical secular reforms in the 1920s and the 1930s. Among those reforms, disruptive in a previously conservative society, were the dissolution of the caliphate and dismemberment of religious institutions, coupled with widespread Westernizing policies including the adoption of Western sartorial habits, emphasis on science and technology, and changing the alphabet from the traditional Arabic to the current modern (romanized) Turkish script. On the other hand, the advent of democracy and changeover of government in 1950 brought with it the emergence of a renewed religious discourse and a desire for more mosque construction in order to accentuate the Islamic facet of Turkish culture. Therefore, the religious dimension of Turkish identity has increasingly been buttressed by mosque construction by right-wing governments, reaching its zenith with the current Justice and Development Party (JDP) government (beginning in 2002). Coupled with the emergence of an illiberal democracy bolstered by Turkish populism, this article proposes to analyze the linkage between mosque construction and the building of an Islamic conservative Turkish nation contrasting the secular Turkish identity of the ancien régime.

Aerobic capacity and respiratory indices of junior cross-country skiers and biathletes during incremental exercise testing.

The present study compared the isocapnic buffering phase (ICB), hypocapnic hyperventilation phase, ventilatory threshold (VT), respiratory compensation point (RCP), and maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) among biathlon and cross-country ski athletes during an incremental exercise test. 37 male and 33 female Turkish National Team athletes volunteered to participate in the research. Body fat percentage, lean mass, and fat mass values of athletes were measured using the bioelectrical impedance analysis method, and oxygen consumption (VO2) was measured with a portable cardiopulmonary exercise test system with a ramp protocol on the treadmill. In VT, RCP, and VO2max phases, male athletes had higher VO2 and speed values than female athletes (p < 0.05). In contrast, they had similar values across different categories of sports (biathlon and cross-country skiing) (p > 0.05). Additionally, XC skiers and males had higher absolute (Abs) VO2 and mass-normalized (Rel) VO2 values than biathletes and females in exhaustion times and ICBs (p < 0.05). In contrast, they had similar Abs VO2 and Rel VO2 values in hypocapnic hyperventilation phases (p > 0.05). In addition, XC skiers and males had higher absolute (Abs) VO2 and relative (Rel) VO2 values than biathletes and females in exhaustion times and ICBs (p < 0.05). In contrast, they had similar Abs VO2 and Rel VO2 values in hypocapnic hyperventilation phases (p > 0.05). These results indicate significant differences in physiological profiles between male and female athletes and between XC skiers and biathletes.

Colonial sovereignty and religious necropolitics: The sacred victimization of infidel Kurds in the Middle East

This article critically explores the intersection of colonial narratives and religious necropolitics in the systematic oppression of the Kurdish nation across the Middle East. From the latter half of the 20th century, governments representing Iranian, Turkish, and Arab nationalisms, alongside non-state actors like ISIS and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, have employed demagogic religious policies to legitimize the persecution and mass killings of the Kurds. These regimes and groups brand the Kurds as infidels, subjecting them to a continuous state of war and dehumanization, while positioning themselves as defenders of Islam to quash Kurdish demands for national rights and autonomy. The article explores how these religious necropolitics policies have fuelled genocidal massacres, such as Khomeini’s fatwas in Iran, Erdoğan’s rhetoric in Turkey, the Anfal genocide in Iraq, Yazidi genocide by ISIS, and the dehumanization of Yarsans by Islamic Shia authorities in Iran. The systematic de-Kurdification of regions like Afrin in Syria further exemplifies the lethal consequences of conflating religious ideology with noo-state sovereignty. Through this analysis, the article underscores the profound impact of religious necropolitics on the Kurdish struggle, revealing how these policies have not only dehumanized the Kurds but also framed their aspirations for freedom as existential threats. The article concludes by highlighting how the interplay of colonial sovereignty and religious necropolitics has perpetuated the sacred victimization of Kurds in the Middle East, framing them as infidels to justify their ongoing oppression and marginalization. Through this lens, the study reveals the deep-seated mechanisms of control and violence that have been used to maintain power over the Kurdish nation, emphasizing the critical need to understand these dynamics within the broader context of Middle Eastern geopolitics.

Crafting a national identity: The role of geography textbooks in 1930s Turkey's nation‐building project

AbstractThis paper investigates geography textbooks of the 1930s in Turkey, contending that geographical knowledge played a pivotal role in shaping nationhood within a modernising state. This study's critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the early republican geography textbooks showcases how (1) Turkey's spatial formation was reimagined in 1930s; (2) defining markers of Turkishness and the Turkish nation were forged through erasures and breakups of minority groups, and (3) the new national identity was “bridged” to the geography of the newly founded Republic. This paper posits that a nation's portrayal of its geography and global positioning is not merely a factual recording, but also a reflection of ideological and political choices. Such portrayals are complete social constructs, inherently influenced by power dynamics and disputes. Beneath the ostensibly impartial depictions of space and spatial relations, invisible power dynamics and assertions underlie the assignments of specific meanings to geographic areas.

Management of Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia: Turkish Modified Delphi-Based Consensus Statement for Special Considerations

Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired disorder of platelets with a complex and unclear mechanism of increased immune destruction or impaired production of platelets. While the management of ITP is evolving, there is still a need for guidance, particularly in certain circumstances such as pregnancy, emergencies, or patients requiring co-medications. We aimed to determine the tendencies of hematologists in Türkiye in the event of such special considerations. Applying a modified Delphi method, the Turkish National ITP Working Group, founded under the auspices of the Turkish Society of Hematology, developed a questionnaire consisting of statements regarding pregnancy, emergencies, and circumstances requiring co-treatment with antiaggregants or anticoagulants. A total of 107 hematologists working in university or state hospitals voted for their agreement or disagreement with the statements for two sequential rounds. The participating hematologists reached an agreement on starting treatment for pregnant patients with platelets of less than 30x109/L and delivery either vaginally or by cesarean section being safe at platelet counts above 50x109/L. For emergencies and the rescue management of ITP, the panel agreed against the use of high-dose corticosteroids alone, preferring combinations with transfusions or intravenous immunoglobulin. For patients who require interventions, platelet counts of >50x109/L were regarded as safe for low-risk procedures as well as co-treatment with antiplatelets or anticoagulants. As the National ITP Study Group, we have observed the need to increase the practice guidance regarding patients with primary ITP requiring additional treatments including invasive interventions and co-treatments for coagulation. Decisions on the management of ITP during pregnancy should be individualized. There is a lack of consensus on the thresholds of platelet counts as well as co-morbidities and co-medications. This lack of consensus may be due to variations in practices.

Consumption of tobacco products and associated factors among outpatient visitors of two healthcare facilities in Northern Cyprus: a descriptive cross-sectional study

Background Tobacco use is one of the leading causes of preventable mortality and morbidity. Although Cyprus is considered a developed country, the tobacco prevalence and related issues have not been explored sufficiently in the general population of North Cyprus. Objective The objective of this study is to determine the rate of tobacco product consumption and related factors among the visitors of a community health center and a university hospital in Northern Cyprus. Methods The study was designed as a cross-sectional study The data were collected using a questionnaire developed in compliance with WHO guidelines. The data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS18.0 with p < 0.05 evaluated as significant. Results Out of a total of 635 individuals approached, 615 provided responses. The participation rate was 96%. The frequency of male smokers was 47.2%, while the frequency of female smokers was 34.0%, with a total smoking rate of 40.7%, much higher than world averages. The survey identified friendship influence as the primary reason for starting tobacco use, accounting for 42%, followed by being stressed at 34.6%. Male gender, being single, having no children, Turkish nationality were predictors of smoking, while financial status was not. The participants indicated a high frequency regarding exposure to passive smoke (51.1%). More than half of the respondents thought tobacco control in Northern Cyprus is not satisfactory. Conclusion More research needs to be done to determine the exact overall prevalence of tobacco consumption in the population, which was found high in this study. Moreover, implementation of comprehensive tobacco control strategies is essential to control the prevalent tobacco dependence.

LEXICAL PROFILE OF A TURKISH SADNESS VERB DERTLEN-: A CORPUS DRIVEN ANALYSIS

This Study employs a corpus driven approach to analyze the lexical profile of a Turkish verb that communicates sadness which is considered to be a negative emotion. The study focuses on the data obtained from Turkish National Corpus (TNC) within the framework of Extended Lexical Units offered by (Stubbs, 2005). Depending on the concordance lines of the verb dertlen- its syntactic properties, collocational tendencies, context dependent semantic and pragmatic qualifications were identified to understand the probable semantic value of it in terms of cognitive traits of sadness. It was found that dertlen- refers to a sadness which is derived from others’ troubles rather than self-related issues and this finding was discussed within the framework of empathy- altruism hypothesis (Batson,1991). From this respect, the verb gives some clues about the Turkish culture which is characterized with ‘altruistic’ behavior. The study also shows that dertlen- refers to past/present time negativities more frequently when compared to future related sadness concepts. Underlining the validity of corpus-driven approaches, the corpus data demonstrated that this sadness verb has its own cognitive patterns and this schematic nature of dertlen- dictates a particular linguistic environment which also shapes semantic and pragmatic load of the verb. Finally, thanks to this research, we were able to place dertlen- correctly inside Scherer's (2001) cognitive evaluation patterns for sadness.

Historisasi Kerajaan Turki Utsmani dan Simbol Kebangkitan Umat Islam

This research aims to reveal aspects of the historicization of the Ottoman Empire as an Islamic empire that once estabilished its glory in the 13century to the 20 century.Trough the historical method, this research uses a historical approach through heuristics (source collection), verification (source criticism), and interpretation (interpretation). The fingdins of this research show that the formation of the Ottoman Empire was rooted in the collapse of Abbasid power due to attacks by the Mongol army. The collapse of Abbasid power than had implications for the political power of Baghdad, wich was the epicenter of Islamic civilization at that time. Baghdad which wa the center of sciense, also collapsed caused (source) Muslims to fall into a deep sleep during yhat time. To awaken Muslims from their slumber, the Turkish nation through the Ottoman Empire began to emerge as a new Islamic power. The Ottoman Empire became the base of Muslim power in Eastern Europa. It can be said that the Ottoman Empire as a historical milestone in the revival of Muslims after the fall of Baghdad. The succes of the kindom was the territorial expansion carried out by the kindoms leaders and their successors. There were several advances in Ottoman Turkey, namely progress in the fields of culture, progress in the military and political fields, and progress achieved in the fields of Islam economic sector.

The future of Turkish Turism

Since the Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalist currents have tried to unite the Turkish race into an empire and later a new state, but these attempts failed to achieve their goals. Achieving the Turkish-Turanian dream of uniting those countries under its leadership so that the Turks would be a force on the international and regional levels.

Формирование имиджа Турции в Латинской Америке

Image is an important concept not only for the individuals, but also for the states, which have an inherent desire to create a favourable image in their relations with other countries, and international organisations and the international community as a whole. In the modern world, with more and more means and opportunities for interaction and communication, states develop and implement systematic public policies to further enhance their international image. The policy makers of the Turkısh Republıc are actively pursuing an image-buıldıng po-licy in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as well as in distant geographies such as La-tin America, in order to improve Turkey's image positively with arguments supported by Islamic identity, Turkish nationalism and the claim of an imperial heritage. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Turkey has paid great attention to the formation of its positive image in different regions of the world. This study focuses on Turkey's policy on its foreıgn image in Latin America.