Turkish Territory Research Articles

New LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon dating for Strandja granitoids (SE Bulgaria): evidence for two-stage late Variscan magmatism in the internal Balkanides

The Strandja Massif (Sakar-Strandja Zone) forms an important link between the Balkan Zone (external Balkanides) of Bulgaria, which is commonly correlated with the Variscan orogen in Central Europe, and the Western Pontides of Turkey. The Bulgarian part of the massif is composed of a metamorphic basement (various granite gneisses, paragneisses, and schists) traditionally interpreted as having Precambrian age, Triassic-Jurassic metasedimentary cover, and Upper Cretaceous volcanosedimentary sequences. The basement is intruded by large granitic plutons of Variscan age that are widespread mostly across Turkish territory. New LA-ICP-MS data support the suggestion of Variscan granitoid magmatism in the studied area but do not confirm the presence of Precambrian rocks. Furthermore, two stages of magmatism are determined in relation to the Variscan metamorphism and deformation. The first one (301.9 ± 1.1 Ma) is represented by strongly deformed metagranites and thus is interpreted as syntectonic, while the second one is relatively younger (293.5 ± 1.7 Ma) and postmetamorphic.

Visual material evidence of viking presence in the Balkans

The Swedish and Norwegian Vikings were present in the Balkans including in Bulgaria. The archaeological and visual materials found on the Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish territory support this statement. The majority of the objects constitute parts of weapons and tools related to the Scandinavian warfare. Most of these artifacts were discovered in North East of Bulgaria close to the Romanian border. They can be attributed to the Rus princes (father and son) : Igor I (912-945) and Svyatoslav I Igorevich (942-972) who passed by the Bulgarian lands in the 10-th century and the Norwegian prince Harald who supported the Byzantine Empire to cause the downfall of the First Bulgarian kingdom at the beginning of the next century. Despite this sorrowful reputation, though, the Viking material culture in Bulgaria, Romania and Istanbul gives evidence to the multicultural mosaic of our region. It also enriches the Balkan history and culture. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to outline the Viking objects discovered in the Balkans.

Transboundary river basin flood forecasting and early warning system experience in Maritza River basin between Bulgaria and Turkey

This paper describes the main outcomes of the first operational flood forecasting and early warning system (FFEWS) implemented in Turkey across a transboundary river basin system, Maritza–Tundja–Arda, which is crossing the borders of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. The floods experienced within Turkish territory (mainly the city of Edirne) necessitated integration of advanced technological tools into the site works implemented by administrators and decision makers in Bulgaria and Turkey. As such, FFEWS has been integrated into the decision processes of the General Directorate of State Hydraulics Works of Turkey, who is the main regulatory government agency in charge of flood planning and management services and solutions in Turkey. A close technical and administrative collaboration basis was also established with the counterpart organization in Bulgaria, National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology. This paper further defines a structured mechanism for estimation of extreme discharges for different exceedance probabilities at various locations along the Maritza River and the tributaries of Tundja and Arda Rivers. The estimated discharges were used to define and evaluate alarm levels at water-level forecast locations in the Maritza River FFEWS.

Afghan Heroin and Turkey: Ramifications of an International Security Threat

Afghanistan has been the global epicenter of heroin production for the past decade. Heroin networks and drug lords present a principal impediment to security, state building, and democratic governance. Beyond the national boundaries, Afghan-originated heroin creates enormous challenges for international security by financing terrorism, instigating corruption, killing nearly 100,000 users worldwide every year, undermining public order, and debilitating economic development. The devastating impacts of the Afghan heroin trade have spilled over into Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Russia, China, the Balkans, and Europe. Because Turkey stands on the shortest transit pathway between Southwest Asia and Europe, it is intensively exposed to illicit flows of Afghan heroin along the Balkan Route. Transnational crime syndicates have been exploiting Turkish territories for decades for the purpose of trafficking heroin to European markets. This paper discusses Afghan heroin as an international security conundrum. It further seeks to explore the dimensions of the threat in Turkey, new patterns in heroin trafficking, and profiles and operation modes of transnational syndicates. The analyses are based upon the scrutiny of important case files, national seizure database, and annual KOM provincial questionnaires. In conclusion, the paper puts forward policy recommendations for security elites both in Turkey and in other states affected by the illicit trade of Afghan heroin.

The Macedonian Question in the Light of the Documents of the Serbian Diplomacy 1903–1914

In the early 20th century Macedonia became the focus of the political activity of the Balkan states, interested in partitioning this Turkish territory. From the Serbian perspective, Bulgaria emerged as the main rival of Serbia, its aspirations to the Macedonian territory rooted in Bulgarian national mythology. Hence the Bulgarian government’s actions and activities were closely watched by Serbian diplomats. They viewed Bulgarian politics as a complex, ambiguous game. The Bulgarians simultaneously made preparations for a war with Turkey and tried to keep the appearances of friendly relations with Turkey and Bulgaria’s neighbors: Serbia and Greece. Initially, Bulgaria intended to incorporate the whole of Macedonia but soon realized its own weakness and the determination of its neighbors. Thus, the Bulgarian prime minister made an offer to Serbia, proposing an alliance and participation in the partition of Macedonia of whose territory Bulgaria would get a bigger share. Serbia did not want to accept this offer but at the same time it was afraid of the hostile reaction of Austro‑Hungary to its own aspirations, involving even Austro‑Hungary entering into some secret alliance with Bulgaria. Consequently, Serbian politicians decided to seek a compromise. An analysis of Serbian diplomatic documents has shown that from 1911 a slow process continued of Bulgaria and Serbia coming to the conclusion that a consent concerning the future of Macedonia had to be reached but there was no agreement as how to divide up the Macedonian territory between the two sides. Arguments continued on how to define the Serbian and Bulgarian zones, the demarcation line, etc. Each side formulated its boundary conditions and there was little progress in negotiations. In the end, the prospective Serbian and Bulgarian zones were defined and also the so‑called “disputed territory” whose status would be decided through arbitration by the Tsar of Russia. However, Bulgaria and Serbia remained deeply distrustful of one another and the course of the first Balkan War in 1912 would soon demonstrate that Bulgaria, Serbia, and also Greece had each an intention to incorporate the largest possible part of Macedonian territory with no regard for any earlier treaties.

Environmetric data interpretation to assess the water quality of Maritsa River catchment

Maritsa River is one of the largest rivers flowing on Bulgarian territory. The quality of its waters is of substantial importance for irrigation, industrial, recreation and domestic use. Besides, part of the river is flowing on Turkish territory and the control and management of the Maritsa catchment is of mutual interst for the neighboring countires. Thus, performing interpretation and modeling of the river water quality is a major environmetric problem. Two multivariate statstical methods (Cluster analysis/CA/and Principal components analysis/PCA/) were applied for model assessment of the water quality of Maritsa River on Bulgarian territory. The study used long-term monitoring data from 21 sampling sites characterized by 8 surface water quality indicators. The application of CA to the indicators results in 3 significant clusters showing the impact of biological, anthropogenic and eutrophication sources. For further assessment of the monitoring data, PCA was implemented, which identified, again,three latent factors confirming, in principle, the clustering output. The latent factors were conditionally named “biologic”, “anthropogenic” and “eutrophication” source. Their identification coinside correctly to the location of real pollution sources along the Maritsa River catchment. The linkage of the sampling sites along the river flow by CA identified four special patterns separated by specific tracers levels: biological and anthropogenic major impact for pattern 1, euthrophication major impact for pattern 2, background levels for pattern 3 and eutrophication and agricultural major impact for pattern 4. The apportionment models of the pollution determined the contribution of each one of identified pollution factors to the total concentration of each one of the water quality parameters. Thus, a better risk management of the surface water quality is achieved both on local and national level.

Turkey's Place in the ‘Missile Shield’

The critical decision to share the advanced missile defence capabilities of the USA, also known as the ‘Missile Shield’, was taken at the Lisbon Summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in November 2010. Turkey had concerns about the Missile Shield project, which constituted an important item on the summit agenda. Turkey's concerns were addressed properly by the allies, and a key component of the project, namely, the radar site in eastern Turkey was activated in May 2012 at the time of the Chicago Summit of the Alliance. This paper aims to shed light on the background of the development and expansion of the missile defence project of the USA both at national and global scales. In the same vein, technological characteristics and operational principles of air defence systems as well as the reactions coming from other countries, such as Russia, China, Iran and the European allies will be presented. The paper will highlight the deliberations between Turkey and the USA since the 1990s with respect to the deployment of air defence systems on Turkish territory. Finally, Turkey's place in the debate concerning the deployment of the Missile Shield in NATO countries will be discussed with specific references to the role that Turkey could play in enhancing the defensive as well as deterrent capability of the Alliance and itself.

Carmelites and Crusading in the Later Middle Ages

In contrast with their larger competitors, the Franciscans and Dominicans, the Carmelites seemed to eschew the Holy Land after its loss to the Mamluks in 1291. At first sight, the apparent lack of interest on the part of Carmelites in crusading and the Holy Land is surprising. Founded on Mount Carmel as an eremitical and contemplative community in the first decade of the thirteenth century, by the 1240s the Carmelites had begun to spread westward via Cyprus to England, France and Sicily, where they adapted their original Rule in order to become mendicants. In 1291 they left the Holy Land altogether, but unlike the Franciscans, who negotiated a return in the 1330s through their custody of the Holy Places, and the Dominicans, who maintained missions in Mongol and Turkish territories, the Carmelites seemed to show little interest in returning to their original homeland. Nor have they been generally associated with preaching the crusade in the systematic fashion of the larger mendicant orders. In fact, one could be excused for assuming that the order willingly lost touch with its geographical roots.

Spectral evaluation of Earth geopotential models and an experiment on its regional improvement for geoid modelling

As the number of Earth geopotential models (EGM) grows with the increasing number of data collected by dedicated satellite gravity missions, CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE, measuring the differences among the models and monitoring the improvements in gravity field recovery are required. This study assesses the performance of recent EGMs derived from CHAMP, GRACE, and other data in comparison to the earlier two models in Turkish territory. Also the improvement capacities of these EGMs using local terrestrial data are inspected with two different approaches. In the first approach, the spherical harmonic coefficients of EGMs are modified depending on the local gravity data. In the second part, the original EGMs with their maximum harmonic expansions are employed in Remove Compute Restore algorithm for high resolution local geoid modelling. The assessment results with the local terrestrial data exhibited large disagreements among the models in Turkey. The outputs from regional improvements of EGMs using the gravity observations clarified the important role of the ground truth data contribution in geopotential models. The validations of the computed high resolution geoids rely on the EGMs at the GNSS/levelling networks, having 451 and 309 benchmarks, provided an absolute accuracy by means of standard deviations of the geoid height differences around 20 cm. These results from the final stage of the case study provide a comparison among the EGMs by means of their fit to the local gravity field.

A Divided Government, an Ideological Parliament, and an Insecure Leader: Turkey's Indecision about Joining the Iraq War*

ObjectivesOn March 1, 2003, the Turkish parliament rejected a government motion that would involve Turkey in the Iraq war and allow U.S. forces to use Turkish territory in an offensive against Iraq. This decision has been considered as a significant departure from traditional Western‐oriented Turkish foreign policy. We investigate the reasons behind this rather unexpected foreign policy decision.MethodTo systematically examine the decision‐making process and the outcome, we utilize the “decision‐units framework.” We present primary and secondary evidence from government and media sources and utilize interviews conducted with some of the high‐level decisionmakers that were involved in decision making at the time. This article combines traditional methodological tools, such as elite interviews and process tracing, with novel approaches in foreign policy analysis studies.ResultsThe nature of the decision‐unit, decision‐making rules, the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the AKP (Adalet and Kalkinma Partisi—Justice and Development Party) leadership, and the absence of a strong and decisive leader shaped the outcome.ConclusionThe Turkish parliament's decision on its role in the Iraq war is an interesting and informative case for foreign policy studies. It challenges the conventional wisdom on parliamentary influence in foreign policy making in parliamentary regimes. Under certain circumstances—even when a single‐party enjoys parliamentary majority—parliaments can be major players in foreign policy decision making.

Regional gravimetric quasi-geoid model and transformation surface to national height system for Turkey (THG-09)

Turkish regional geoid models have been developed by employing a reference earth gravitational model, surface gravity observations and digital terrain models. The gravimetric geoid models provide a ready transformation from ellipsoidal heights to the orthometric heights through the use of GPS/leveling geoid heights determined through the national geodetic networks. The recent gravimetric models for Turkish territory were computed depending on OSU91 (TG-91) and EGM96 (TG-03) earth gravitational models. The release of the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08), the collection of new surface gravity observations, the advanced satellite altimetry-derived gravity over the sea, and the availability of the high resolution digital terrain model have encouraged us to compute a new geoid model for Turkey. We used the Remove-Restore procedure based on EGM08 and applied Residual Terrain Model (RTM) reduction of the surface gravity data. Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) was then used to obtain the residual quasigeoid from the reduced gravity. We restored the individual contributions of EGM08 and RTM to the whole quasi-geoid height (TQG-09). Since the Helmert orthometric height system is adopted in Turkey, the quasi-geoid model (TQG-09) was then converted to the geoid model (TG-09) by making use of Bouguer gravity anomalies and digital terrain model. After all we combined a gravimetric geoid model with GPS/leveling geoid heights in order to obtain a hybrid geoid model (THG-09) (or a transformation surface) to be used in GPS applications. The RMS of the post-fit residuals after the combination was found to be ± 0.95 cm, which represents the internal precision of the final combination. And finally, we tested the hybrid geoid model with GPS/leveling data, which were not used in the combination, to assess the external accuracy. Results show that the external accuracy of the THG-09 model is ± 8.4 cm, a precision previously not achieved in Turkey until this study.

On global and regional spectral evaluation of global geopotential models

Spectral evaluation of global geopotential models (GGMs) is necessary to recognize the behaviour of gravity signal and its error recorded in spherical harmonic coefficients and associated standard deviations. Results put forward in this wise explain the whole contribution of gravity data in different kinds that represent various sections of the gravity spectrum. This method is more informative than accuracy assessment methods, which use external data such as GPS-levelling. Comparative spectral evaluation for more than one model can be performed both in global and local sense using many spectral tools. The number of GGMs has grown with the increasing number of data collected by the dedicated satellite gravity missions, CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE. This fact makes it necessary to measure the differences between models and to monitor the improvements in the gravity field recovery. In this paper, some of the satellite-only and combined models are examined in different scales, globally and regionally, in order to observe the advances in the modelling of GGMs and their strengths at various expansion degrees for geodetic and geophysical applications. The validation of the published errors of model coefficients is a part of this evaluation. All spectral tools explicitly reveal the superiority of the GRACE-based models when compared against the models that comprise the conventional satellite tracking data. The disagreement between models is large in local/regional areas if data sets are different, as seen from the example of the Turkish territory.

Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora under the conditions of Armenian-Turkish rapprochement

The Armenian Diaspora (Spyurq) is one of the oldest and skilled diasporas in the world. Armenian communities are present in practically all the corners of the globe and are distinguished both by uncommon abilities of adaptation and the preservation of their cultural specificity. Due to these features, Armenian diasporic communities possess solid development potential, ensuring their high status through an active penetration of Armenians into the elite of the accepting society and a stable character of their communal institutes. Recent Armenian-Turkish rapprochement to some extent brings into question the traditional unity of the Armenian Diaspora and its close relationship with the Republic of Armenia. Representatives of the Spyurq with a negative attitude towards rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey on existing terms can be conditionally divided into three categories: Romanticists (represented mainly by the Union of Armenians of Russia) believe in a certain 'mission' of the Armenian nation and the 'superiority' of Armenians over the Turkic nations. The Armenian people are, thus, viewed as an integral whole which is not divided into citizens of Armenia and representatives of the Diaspora. Therefore, the government in Yerevan has only a symbolic meaning and has no right to make any crucial decision on all-Armenian issues, in particular in the domain of relations between the Armenian and the Turkish people. Nationalists (mainly supporters of the Dashnaktsutyun party, from the USA and Lebanon, as well as natives of Nagorno-Karabakh and descendants of natives of Western Armenia, which is now Turkish territory) consider the rapprochement of the RA with Turkey as an actual rejection of the struggle for Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide, as well as a 'betrayal' of Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. Pragmatists understand international law, political science and history but, in their opinion, the signed Zurich protocols contain weakly reasoned formulations which are not in accordance with the interests of the RA and are, therefore, inefficient. These formulations 1. do not contain any guarantees of the protocols' observance on the part of Turkey, 2. recognize the existing configuration of the Armenian-Turkish borders, i.e. symbolize the refusal to return Western Armenia to the Armenian state, and 3. recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the existing states, which translates into a withholding of support for Nagorno-Karabakh, which was a part of AzSSR during the period of the USSR. Besides, Armenian-Turkish rapprochement is interpreted by members of this category as a result of external pressure on Armenia on the part of Russia and the USA. In signing the Zurich protocols, the leadership of the RA was guided, first of all, by the state interests of the RA. The Diaspora factor was in this case secondary, although it was taken into consideration. The split in the Armenian Diaspora, in the authors' opinion, will be short-lived, because, in the end, pragmatism will prevail. .

The Use of Hydrograph Analysis to Evaluate the Groundwater Contribution to Tigris River Flow at Mosul City

The flow regime of the River Tigris has been studied during ten successive years from 1975 - 1984. The annual hydrographs of the river were analyzed to determine the ground water components by considering the general form of the river regime, and the minimum flows during recession. Master recession curve was derived from the river flow records of the studied catchment area by combining the characteristics of various recession records, and used to check the separation of components contributing to the river flow and also indicate the number of aquifers involve in contributing the ground water to the river. Four major aquifers outside the study area and within the Turkish territory appeared from the analysis contributing ground water of about 58% to 75% percent of the total flow during the ten years period. The total volume of water in storage from the beginning of recession was also determined along the ten years and was varying between 1.0 x 109 – 6.0 x 10 9 m3/ year.

Reconstructing Turkish-American relations: Divergences versus convergences

AbstractThe Turkish-American relationship experienced the most difficult period of its history after the refusal of the Turkish Parliament on 1 March 2003 to allow US troops to open a northern front to Iraq from Turkish territory. By the time a new administration took power in Washington in early 2009, the badly damaged relationship had recovered somewhat and recently has even taken a positive turn. Although the parameters of the recovered relationship are not yet clear, by analyzing the intricacies of diverging and converging worldviews and interests of the two states in the post-Cold War era, one can understand what happened to the strategic partnership of the 1990s and how Turkish-American relations may develop in the future. Accordingly, this paper will first look at the constraints and limitations of the current relationship through diverging interests and contextual viewpoints in the post-Iraq War world. It will then highlight the areas of convergence that existed even during the lowest point of the relationship. Finally, I will argue that, while the strategic partnership may have ended, a strategic relationship between the two states will continue to exist and may even produce a newer form of connection and cooperation, the contours of which will also be outlined for the coming years, taking into account the opportunities and hurdles ahead.

Potential Threats from a Likely Nuclear Power Plant Accident: a Climatological Trajectory Analysis and Tracer Study

The legacy of Chernobyl is not the only nuclear accident likely to confront Turkish territory, which is not far from other insecure power plants, especially the Metsamor. The main purpose of this study was to examine the possible impacts to Turkish territory of a hypothetical accident at the Metsamor Nuclear Plant. The research was performed based on two different methodologies: First, a 10-day trajectory analysis was carried out a set of long-term (30 years) meteorological data; second, a tracer study was performed using the MM5T online model for the selected episode. Trajectory and tracer studies showed that an accident at the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant would influence all of Turkey. Furthermore, vulnerable regions in Turkey after the Chernobyl disaster were demonstrated as a new and first attempt in this study.

The emergence, development and demilitarization of the military border of the Austrian Monarchy

Military border of the Austrian Monarchy was formed gradually in border areas for the purpose of defending the border from Turkish invasions. In time, as the international political circumstances have changed, the Border itself also modified its primary function. From the beginning of the 18th century soldiers of the Military Border together with the regular troops of Austrian army participate in all wars in which Austria took part. Thanks to those soldiers the military force of the Austrian Empire was significantly strengthened. Except for military tasks, the Military Border served to a great extent as a defensive corridor that stopped spreading infections diseases, invasions of robberies, smuggling goods from Turkey, as well as deserting and emigration to Turkish territory. Because of great importance that Military Border has had for the Austrian Monarchy, the author in this paper gives a summary review of its development in the military, territorial and administrative-political sense. Special attention was given to the administrative system that was introduced in Border in the second half of the 19th century.

POS-01.26: The first urological department in Russia

It is officially considered that in Russia, urology as an independent branch of surgery was singled out at the beginning of the 20th century. Nevertheless, some special urological instruments (urethral sounds and catheters) were manufactured as far back as the 18th century during the reign of Peter the Great. During the rule of Catherine the Second, Russia conquered Turkish territories which used to be the settlement of the Greek colonies in VIII-VI BC. It was there, between Tyra and Olvia, that Odessa was founded in 1797. In 1806, under the command of general governor of Odessa, a Frenchman by the name of Duke Rishelye built a hospital there. In the middle of the 19th century, world-famous Russian surgeons N. Pirogov and N. Sklyfosovsky worked there. It was at that very hospital where the first urological department in Russia (and the third in Europe after Paris and London) opened in 1863. Its creator was a Pole, T. Vdovikovskiy, who was taught urology by Prof. Civiale in Paris. He headed the Department for 26 years, during which time 6,700 patients were treated and 2,500 operations were conducted. From 1878 to 1895 the mayor of Odessa was Marazly, a Greek. At that time, the building of a new hospital by the newest German project was planned. From 1889 to1915 the Department was headed by Maryashes, a Jew. For the past 80 years, the Department has been part of the Odessa Regional Hospital, which serves 2.5M citizens over an area of 33.000 km2. It is easy to follow French, Polish, Greek, Jewish, German traces in the history of Russian Urology. Today again, it is international cooperation that can guarantee progress in our profession.

The Arbitral Award on Turkish-Armenian Boundary by Woodrow Wilson (Historical Background, Legal Aspects, and International Dimensions)

AbstractThe paper is a complex study of the history of the involvement of Woodrow Wilson (the 28th President of the USA, 1913-1921), in the fate of Armenian people after WWI and the Republic Armenia (1918-1920), especially in determining the boundary between Armenia and Turkey. It presents an analysis of Wilson's Arbitral Award according to the international law and the United Nation's official methodology. The article focuses on the historical background, legal aspects and political implications of Wilson's Arbitral Award (November 22, 1920), officially titled: Decision of the President of the United States of America respecting the Frontier between Turkey and Armenia, Access for Armenia to the Sea, and the Demilitarization of Turkish Territory adjacent to the Armenian Frontier. The Arbitration's significance goes beyond Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-US relations. Border conflicts are still relevant issues on the regional and international agenda. American involvement in the Middle East is one of the key components of the United States' present foreign policy. An accurate and a broad understanding of the nuances of the extremely complex legal situation in the region and the bases for the behaviour of the players can be vital for the security, political and economic interests of the region. Moreover, due to the active participation of the United States in the Armenian-Turkish relations through Wilson's Arbitration, the Arbitral Award becomes a logical starting point for a stronger historical, political, and legal understanding of the conflict-prone region. The article also contributes to the better understanding of President Wilson's policy towards the Middle East during the dramatic period of 1917-1921 and its possible consequences for critical relationships in the region today.

Claiming a Place Through Memories of Belonging: Politics of Recognition on the Island of Imbros

The establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923 marks the official construction of a new community and new forms of belonging that were expected to replace the communities and forms of belonging characteristic of the Ottoman Empire. The convention signed at the end of the First World War on January 30, 1923, concerning “the compulsory exchange of Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox Religion established in Turkish territory, and of Greek nationals of the Muslim religion established in Greek territory” can be seen as the hallmark of this republican attempt to create a new homogenized republican community called the nation. Exchanging populations meant the mutual exclusion of the largest ethnic and religious minority groups from the post-World War I nationalized lands of Greece and Turkey.