Minorities in Turkey

Ayhan Aktar has been working on anti-minority policies in modern Turkey since 1991. In the Ottoman Empire’s final decade (in 1906), non-Muslims constituted 20% of the population; by 1927, they were reduced to 2.5% and, nowadays, they make up less than 0.02% of the population of Modern Turkey. Armenians were subjected to deportations (1915), Greeks were ‘exchanged’ (1922–1924) and Jews were forced to migrate abroad (after 1945). Like many other nation-states in the Near East, Turkey has been able to homogenize its population on religious grounds. This book is a collection of Aktar's articles about this transformation.

Aktar criticises nationalist historiographies and argues "For instance, a scholar conducting research on the Jewish community during the republican period could easily come to the conclusion that only Jews were discriminated against by the Turkish state. However, this is only partially true! All non-Muslim minorities were discriminated against and their stories cannot be understood unless the Turkish state and its policies are placed at centre stage. Utilizing diplomatic correspondence in the British and US National Archives has enabled me to understand anti-minority policies as a whole and to treat the subject within a totality."

This book will interest scholars and students of nationalism, minority studies and Turkish history and politics.

This paper explores the constraints created by Turkish asylum policy as a form of population control that is contested and negotiated by the individuals that fall within the category of asylum-seeker. Using the theoretical frameworks of spatial governance and dynamic nominalism,  I argue that ‘asylum-seeker’ is a category constructed as a space governed through official policies.

The book focuses on the significance of the concept of minority in international law together with the legal norms and principles emerged in the periods following the two world wars. The first chapter focuses on the discussions in the legal literature concerning the definability of the concept of minority. The second chapter presents the main bodies and procedures of minority rights protection under the rubric of the international organisations. The main objective of this chapter is to provide new interpretations of international minority in relationship with the legal instruments and the decisions of the relevant monitoring organs working under the UN and COE. The last chapter discusses whether there exists a direct link between the protection of minority rights and internal as well as external forms of self-determination.

The study argues that a relatively non-assertive language adopted in international minority rights instruments gives a large margin of appreciation for states and international monitoring organs in promoting and protecting minority rights. In addition, the work places the issues surrounding minority protection in the larger political context of creating a new platform for real equality and non-discrimination discourse.

The start of the Great War and the tumult it generated continued until the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Among the tragedies that happened in Turkish regions, that of Pontus, was characterised by massive killings, deportations, ethnic cleansings and other atrocities, which resulted in the disappearance of Christians without distinction to race, sect or nationality.

On top of that tragedy and for a different point of view in the study of those years, the testimony of Cirillo Giovanni Zohrabiàn is a valuable contribution. Born in Erzurum in 1881, Zohrabiàn was an Armenian Catholic of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. The records of his life between Erzurum and Trabzon in the years 1919-1923 were collected by him and published in Italian by Capuchins of Palermo in 1965 as his memories in Minor Asia.

In march 1923, the friar because of his assistance to Greeks of Pontus in terms of financial and humanitarian aid, was accused by Turkish authorities of being one of the leaders of Pontic Greek Committee, "the revolutionary Mesrob Sarkys". For that reason, he was expelled from Trabzon and sent by ship to Constantinople, where he was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death by hanging. Accused by the Turks, he sought for the help of the Dominican Order of the Church of SS Peter and Paul in Galata in order to prove his identity as friar. However, he was condemned to exile for helping the Greeks.

The aim of this paper is to expose the memories of Zorhabiàn. This would be the beginning of a research project on the Pontus tragedy based on Catholic archival and bibliography resources.

Bu yazı Şule GÖKÇENAY’ın (2009) Lozan Antlaşması’dan AB Sürecine Türkiye’de Azınlık Hakları başlıklı yazısı okunduktan sonra “konsept maping” çalışması yapmak amacı ile yazılmıştır.

Ülkemizde Azınlık Hak ve Hukuku çalışmalarının Lozan Antlaşması ile başlaması ve bu gün bile geçerli temel üzerine oturmuş olması her yönü ile bizim için onur vesilesidir.
Azınlık kavramının 19.yy büyük Avrupa Devletleri’nin zihinlerindeki yeri siyasi hayatta Balkan Savaşları ve mübadelelerin sonucunda oluşuyor. Hatta Balkan Savaşları’nın nedenleri arasında sayılır.
Yapılan her düzenlemenin bir bütünlük arzetmesi için Avrupa Konseyi’nin Türkiye Raporları’nın yalnız iki başlık altında; Medeni ve Siyasi Haklar ile Ekonomik, Sosyal ve Kültürel Haklar başlıkları altında toplanması gerektiğine inanıyorum.
Kürt insanlarımızın İstiklal Savaşı’na katılmış olmaları ülkemizde egemen unsur olduklarına delildir. Medeni ve Siyasi Haklar başlığı altında resmileşen son çalışmalarla yönetime katkıları artmaktadır. Henüz imzalanmamış Ulusal Azınlıkların Korunmasına İlişkin Çerçeve Sözleşme ve Avrupa Bölgesel veya Azınlık Dilleri Şartı ülkemizin Lozan Antlaşması ile oluşturduğu zeminde yerini bulan ve fakat uygulama yönü ile Kıbrıs için Birliğin önünde duran zor sınavlar gibi anlaşılmaktadır.
Avrupa Birliği açısından örnek alınabilecek benzer uygulamanın, Türkiye’nin uzun zamandır beraber çalıştığı Amerika’nın Pakistan- Afganistan bölgesindeki tasarruflarında görüleceği düşünülebilir.

غالباً ما تُؤخذ التجربة التركية كمثل حيّ لتأكيد تعايش الإسلام مع الحداثة من ناحية، ولإمكانية صوغ علاقة إيجابية تفاعلية بين الإسلام والديمقراطية ودولة القانون من ناحية أخرى. باستثناء تجربتي ماليزيا وتونس، لم تلقَ معظم التجارب الأخرى الكثير من الإهتمام لدراسة علاقة الفكر الإسلامي بمفاهيم الدولة الحديثة، فيما بقيت التجربة التركية الأكثر شهرة عند البحث عن تلك العلاقة الشائكة بين الإسلام والدولة. ويعود قسم كبير من هذا الإهتمام بهذه التجربة إلى ظهور بعض دلالات نجاح ما اعتبره الكثيرون غير ممكن، بالإضافة طبعاً إلى ظرف تركيا التاريخية والمحلية الخاصة، إذ أنها وريثة الخلافة العثمانية، وفيها طُبقت العلمانية لعقود، وتعيش اليوم إعادة إحياء للفكر الإسلامي في الدولة والسياسة والمجتمع.

تحوّلت تركيا في السنوات الأخيرة إلى قبلة الكثير من الحالمين بتعميم تجربتها الناجحة، فيما رآها البعض طوق نجاة للعالم الإسلامي الضائع بين قيود أفكار الماضي ومتطلبات الحداثة. البعض الآخر رآها تجربة فاشلة، فيما راح آخرون يفصّلون التجربة التركية ويقيسون نجاحها وفشلها في كل مجال على حدى.

For a country that was never colonized, the title of the present article is greatly preoccupying; and indeed, what happens in today’s Turkey should consume much thought and analysis among not only Turks but also Russians, Chinese, Persians, Mexicans, Indians, Brazilians, Japanese, and useless to add it, Africans.

Having been formed in the nucleus part of the Ottoman Empire that constituted an uninterrupted continuity of more than 600 years, Turkey was first constrained to fight against all sorts of colonials: the Russians had been defeated in the North-East by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later known as Ataturk) already before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. But there were French in the South, Italians in the South-East, English in Istanbul, and in the West, the Greeks were incited by the colonial powers to expand around Izmir. After the liberation of these territories, foreigners were not allowed to move through Turkey – except in rare cases and in custody. Thanks to Kemal Ataturk, Turkey was not colonized.
First published in AfroArticles, American Chronicle, and Buzzle on 23rd February 2009
Republished in Illyria Proboards on 29th January 2010

SYNOPSIS
The epic journey of women survivors of the Armenian Genocide and the odyssey of the relentless American and European human rights advocates who empowered them.

FILM FESTIVALS
Awards-Best Documentary, Audience Choice, Golden Pom Achievement: Pomegranate Film
Festival. Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award: ARPA Film Festival. Opening Sequence
Nominee: NATAs Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards.

THEATRICAL
Limited Theatrical Release: United States Boca Raton, San Francisco, Berkeley, Phoenix,
Los Angeles, Hollywood, Chicago, Orange County, Santa Ana, Glendale, Ronhert Park, Detroit, Sonoma, Tempe, Paramus, Manhattan, Cambridge, St. Louis, Galloway, Providence, Douglaston, Fair Lawn, Houston, Dallas, Montebello, Worcester, Racine, Fresno, Edwardsville, Pasadena, Granite City, Boston, Arlington.
Canada: Toronto, Mississauga, Vancouver, Montreal, Oakville, Cambridge Australia: Sydney, Melbourne
United Kingdom:  London
France: Marseilles, Paris, Valence, Alfortville, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Decines
Belgium: Brussels
Lebanon: Beirut

PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Director/Producer: Bared Maronian
Writer: Jackie Abramian
Narrator: Gloria Sanders
Production Companies: Armenoid Productions
Score: C-Rouj, Hooshere, Diana Sanders

This new series provides a forum for exchange on a myriad of alternative histories of marginalized communities and individuals in the Near and Middle East and Mediterranean, and those of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean heritage. It will highlight thematic issues relating to various native peoples and their narratives and – with particular contemporary relevance – explore encounters with the notion of ‘other’ within various societies. Often moving beyond the conventional state-centred and dominant monolithic approach, or reinterpreting previously accepted stories, books in the series examine and explain themes from inter-communal relations, environment, health and society, and will explore ethnic, communal, racial, linguistic and religious developments that go beyond geopolitical compositions.

Building on the foundations of scholarship within an interdisciplinary framework, this series spans the continuum of Near Eastern and Mediterranean traditions extending from the fourth millennium B.C. to the present – bridging previous fields which originally had little connection with each other. The aim is to enhance perspectives by applying various methodological approaches to dilemmas that have in the past been treated as the exclusive concern of a single given discipline.

Key Features

Creates a forum for marginalized and/or indigenous communities to engage with the ‘accepted past and present’ and to challenge previously accepted truths
Opens a dialogue for alternative intellectual histories/narratives
The first series to focus on indigenous and minoritized related narratives from the understudied and often marginal perspective
Covers cultural, linguistic, ethnic, gendered, political, numerical and economic communities in the Near and Middle East, the Mediterranean and its extended environs
Engages with all periods of history from the ancient world to the present day, especially in terms of continuity of culture, cultural heritage and heritage preservation
Communities studied may include Alawites, Alevis, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Copts, Druze, Jews, Mandaens, Maronites, Palestinians, Pontian/ Anatolian Greeks, Samaritans, Shabbaks, Yezidis and Zoroastrians among others

Up to this day, the Ossetian diaspora that had left their homeland in the second half of the 19th century managed to keep their language alive. A part of this diaspora is settled in today’s Turkey and passed their language orally since they have no writing tradition. Ossetic speakers are usually bilingual; speakers of Anatolian Ossetic have been influenced by Turkish whereas Ossetic speakers from the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania have been influenced by Russian. This influence includes e.g. borrowed words, mainly those designating inventions of the past century. Except for borrowed words, there are also slight grammatical differences between Anatolian Ossetic and Caucasian Ossetic. In spite of the differences, Ossetian speakers from these two regions can still communicate with each other and the varieties are mutually intelligible. This paper will discuss my observations of the differences and similarities of Anatolian and Caucasian Ossetic. Further, it will provide information about the less studied Anatolian Ossetic varieties.

This paper deals with the situation of the Caucasian-origined population of Tukey. It focuses on three aspects: the difficult, controversial shaping of its own identity; the experience of the review Jıneps, which aims at connecting the struggle for the recognizing of the Caucasian identities with a a more general struggle for the democratization of the Turkish society; and the Abkhazians, who, contrarily to the other sides of the Caucasian diaspora, look at Russia as a worthwhile ally.

Commentators, including myself, forecast a deepening crisis in Turkey and the wider Kurdish region-unless 'peace' talks resume and the sustained assault on the pro-Kurdish HDP's members and supporters cease. Conversely, the Turkish government appears to have little will to backtrack to the sunnier climes of diplomacy and instead emphasises intensified military action. Following the Ankara bombing attack on 17 February, Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, claimed that a member of the PKK's sister organisation, the PYD (Democratic Union Party) had been responsible for the fatal explosion. 1 Salih Muslim, the party's leader rejected the accusation and the 'evidence' of a Syrian ID card found at the scene. Two days later, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) a PKK splinter group, is said to have claimed responsibility. Reuters reported: " The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said the bombing was in response to the policies of President Tayyip Erdoğan and said it would continue its attacks. It said the bomber was a 26-year old Turkish national born in the eastern city of Van. 2 The attack that left twenty-eight people dead was carried out just two days after the 17 th anniversary of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's capture and can be understood to be part of the message to the Turkish state from the militants responsible. In their own words their website announces in broken English, " The attempts and eternal self-sacrificing efforts to solve the Kurdish problem with democratic and peaceful methods which had been unilaterally carried on for seven years by our leader have had no response… Because we are a people, which have a risk of destruction and we are in a war. TAK's call for youths: You can do all kind of big or small actions of burning and destruction. You must do Turkey worse than France. We are giving initiative to you. You are free. We call brave and heroic Kurdish youths for the more. Struggle together. Our number had been increased three times than last. Our people have hugged us. Since last year, a lot of person had joined our organization from HPG and different segment… 3 Clashes occurred between Turkish security services and ordinary Kurdish demonstrators in numerous locations as happens annually in commemoration of Öcalan's capture and continued imprisonment. 15,000 Kurds demonstrated in Strasbourg calling for him to be freed. Meanwhile, recruitment to the PKK and PYD, in Syria, is enjoying new levels of Kurdish support and by their own account, also to TAK. The youth response can be directly linked to the upsurge in Turkish military action against the PKK since Turkey's bombing campaign of PKK bases in both Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan since August 2015. Ömer Önen, head of the HDP's Diyarbakir branch, asserted " We refuse to let [Erdoğan] drag us into a war for his own politics…There's collective punishment and psychological warfare against Kurds, and the people are scared. " 4 1 http://www.turkeyanalyst.org/publications/turkey-analyst-articles/item/510-terror-likely-to-strengthen-turkish-militarism.html 2

In the present article the process of democratization is evalued on the basis of the Copenhagen criteria of the EU for Turkey, whereby their incorporation into national law, the National Program, and the various reform packages are examined. The EU accession bid has stimulated Turkey’s political and legal reforms and intensified the democratization process. The accession talks are overshadowed by the Kurdish question which illuminates the divergences in the bilateral relations considering Ankara’s maturity and its ability to accede.

Turkey is fast becoming one of the largest markets for the trafficking of women from nearby former Soviet states who are brought into the country and forced into prostitution, an international agency said in a report released this week. Profits from the illicit sex trade in Turkey were estimated to be about $3.6 billion (€3 billion) last year and growing, the report said. About 5,000 women, more than half from Moldova and Ukraine, are believed to be working as sex slaves across Turkey, said an agency official. The prostitution networks made about $150 (€124) from each customer, with each woman serving as many as 15 clients a day.

Bringing together scholarly discussions on heritage and state violence, this article analyzes the multilayered structure of dispossession in contemporary Turkey. Through a combination of archival and ethnographic material, it documents the journey of the Fabiato Mansion situated in Büyükada, Istanbul becoming first a ruin, then a state property, later a culture house run by the Touring Automobile Company, and now the local courthouse. It argues that, although heritage and waste have been conceptualized in opposition to one another, the case of the Fabiato Mansion reveals that ruins and heritage sites are deeply connected through practices of dispossession. Conceptualizing the layered modalities of dispossession that led to the transformation of the Fabiato Mansion into the Büyükada Culture House, it illustrates the experience of the dispossession of sense of belonging through the life story of Aurora Fabiato. Then, it analyzes the abandonment of the mansion as part of the process of elimination of possible inheritors and it illustrates how the Mansion's dilapidation was operationalized in the politics of redistribution. Focusing on Touring Company's practices of preservation and repurposing it puts forward that by obscuring property relationships, the Büyükada Culture House generates a nostalgic political ideology that operates as way to avoid reckoning the violent past. While civilizational discourses on culture facilitated justifications of contested regimes of inheritance, they could not successfully end the mansion's agonizing presence between heritagization and disinvestment.

The ongoing Syrian conflict is one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century with at least 5,5 million refugees displaced outside of Syria. According to UNHCR, the worst country hit by the refugee wave is Turkey, currently hosting more than 3,5 million refugees with temporary protection. Turkey initially applied Open Door Policy and welcomed refugees as guests, however, evidences of the shift from welcoming attitudes towards more unwelcoming attitudes are increasing, placing Ankara under a pressure. This article is identifying Turkish people’s perceptions on Syrian refugees residing in Turkey on a survey conducted on a sample of 161 respondents either pro-government or pro-opposition, the survey consists of two parts, the first one is including the total number of participants while the second part is dividing participants into two groups of voters (52 participants per one group). The outcome of the analysis is that significant differences can be observed between the voters of government alliance (Cumhur İttifakı) and voters of opposition alliance (Millet İttifakı). Voters of opposition alliance tended much more to negative attitudes, prejudices and discriminative opinions than voters of conservative government alliance. Government alliance voters turned out to be much more benevolent to the presence of refugees or their accepting and significantly less
concerned about the security situation or character of Turkey, while opposition alliance voters expressed stronger security concerns over the presence of Syrian refugees and they refer to them as a possible conservative threat to a secular character of Turkey. Negative attitudes together with closed borders during the alarming situation in Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Idlib might be a warning sign of a possible humanitarian catastrophe when hundreds of thousands of refugees currently trapped in Idlib will be denied from entering Turkey.

This article reviews recent government efforts to address the “Alevi issue” and identify their successes and failures. It demonstrates that the “Alevi openings” constituted paradoxical processes: tracing various components of the “openings” through news media, it shows that, on one hand, they enabled the “Alevi issue” to be brought to public attention. On the other hand, once Alevis were made more visible in public, non-sympathizers could mobilize their representation for their own ends. These empirical findings have profound theoretical implications. They prove that “discursive claims of democratization” at the state level do not necessarily result in democratic mechanisms, which can resolve the demands of a civil society. The author argues that what she calls the “tutelary secularism” in Turkey, in other words, the management and disciplining of religious groups, continues under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule. This model not only fails, but also produces new sources of conflict in Turkey.

Tarihyazımında Alevilerin yeri konusunda iki noktaya dikkat çekmek istiyorum: İlk olarak, Aleviler resmî tarihyazımı içinde neredeyse hiç yoktur; bu tarihyazımı, Türkiye'nin insani çeşitliliğini uzun süre nation-building ideolojisi altında gizlemiştir. Bu ünitarist görüş, Türkiye hakkındaki Batılı tarihyazımı tarafından da sıkça kullanılmış ve Alevi olgusunun yeterince bilinmemesine neden olmuştur. İkinci olarak da, 1980'lerden beri Aleviler kendi tarihlerini kendileri yazmaya girişmiştir. Bu tarih, çoğunlukta akademi dışında üretiliyor.
Bu bağlamda Alevilerin tarihlerini nasıl önermeli? Bu ‘varsayım-sonuç’ denkleminin kırılarak, bunların ampirik ve mantıki bir sorgulamaya tabi tutulması zorunlu görünmektedir. Bu sunumda, erken Cumhuriyet dönemindeki Aleviler konusuna ilişkin bilgiler, belirsizlikler ve tartışmalar hakkında bir durum saptaması yapmak istiyorum. Kaynakların azlığına ve kullanım güçlüklerine karşın, olabildiğince çok somut unsura dayanarak bu geçmişe eğilmeyi deneyeceğim.

Prof. Dr. Neşet TOKU1 Fransız filozof J. J. Rousseau; "İnsanlar Arasındaki Eşitsizliğin Kaynağı" üzerine yaptığı incelemede, idealindeki ülkeyi tasvir ederken mealen şöyle diyor: "Seçecek durumda olsaydım, insanların özgürce yaşadığı; devletin ve halkın çıkarlarının aynı olduğu, hukuktan başka efendinin bulunmadığı, yalnızca kanunların otoritesiyle güvenliğin sağlandığı; yurt sevgisinin kuru toprak sevgisi olmaktan çıkarılıp, yurttaş sevgisi haline getirildiği, yönetime sadece yurttaşların en yetenekli, en dürüst ve en erdemli olanlarının seçildiği bir ülkede yaşamak isterdim. Bu ise ancak kanun yapma hususunda yurttaşların eşit hakka sahip olduğu, iktidarın yalnızca halkın iradesine ve rızasına dayandığı, hiç kimsenin kanunlara üstünlüğünden söz edilemediği bir cumhuriyet rejimiyle kabildir. Şüphe yok ki herhangi bir ülkede kanunlara tabi olmayan bir kişi (tek-adam) varsa geri kalan herkes zorbalıkla o kişinin keyfine ve insafına bağlanmış demektir. İnsanların değerden düşürüldüğü, angaryalarla aşağılanıp, köleleştirildiği böylesi şartlar altındaysa elbette hiç kimse için güvenlik yoktur. Binaenaleyh başkalarının tahakkümüne maruz kalmak da başkalarına tahakküm etmek de nefret edilesi bir durumdur. Nefret edilesi durumlardan kurtulmaya çalışmaksa insanın tabiatının gereğidir…" Rousseau'nun idealize ettiği rejim, siyasî eşitlik ekseninde toplum sözleşmesi ile kurulan cumhuriyet; karşı çıktığı rejimlerse eşitsizliği öngören otokratik, hiyerarşik rejimlerdir. Ona göre iki tür eşitsizlik vardır. İlki tabiat itibarıyla sahip olunan nitelikler; siyah ya da beyaz, sarışın ya da esmer, uzun ya da kısa, erkek ya da kadın gibi bir insanı diğerinden daha değerli kılmayan, bedensel ve zihinsel yetenekler arasındaki farklardan kaynaklanan "doğal eşitsizlik". Aslında doğal eşitsizlik, üzerinde durulması gereken bir eşitsizlik değildir. Çünkü eşitsizliğin sebebi "doğallık" kavramının tanımlamasında mevcuttur ve toplumsal statü sebebi de değildir. Zaten insanlar üç aşağı beş yukarı aynı veya benzer doğal niteliklere sahiptirler… Eşitsizliğin ikinci türüyse insanların şu ya da bu nedenden ötürü kabullenmek zorunda kaldığı "siyasî eşitsizlik"tir. Siyasî eşitsizlik; birilerinin, başkaları karşısında apriori, avantajlı konumunu ifade eder. Mesela birileri her nedense doğuştan daha çok mülkiyete ve itibara sahiptir ve dolayısıyla da başkalarına emretme yetkisini haizdir. Bu sebeple de onların, başkalarına boyun eğdirmiş olmak gibi muhtelif toplumsal ayrıcalıkları vardır. Gerçek eşitsizlik ve üzerinde durulması ve karşı çıkılması elzem olan eşitsizlik, şiddetin de başlıca kaynağını teşkil eden siyasî eşitsizliktir… Doğal eşitsizlikle siyasî eşitsizlik arasında korelatif bir bağ bulunup, bulunmadığını tartışmak abesle iştigaldir. Çünkü bu, emretme yetkisini haiz olduğu kabul edilenlerin itaat etmek zorunda kalanlardan daha değerli olmasının zorunlu olup olmadığını ve beden ya da akıl gücünün, bilgelik ya da erdemliliğin hep aynı kişilerde ve güçleri ya da zenginlikleri ile orantılı olarak bulunup, bulunmadığını sorgulamaya varacaktır ki böyle bir tartışma becerikli köleler arasında bahis mevzuu yapılabilir ise de hakikati arayan rasyonel ve özgür insanlara uygun düşmeyen bir kıyas-ı maal farıktır…2 Besbelli ki Rousseau; rasyonel ve özgür insanın tarih boyunca hep talep ettiği, insanca varoluşun da temelini oluşturan siyasî eşitliğin, cumhuriyet ideali için nihaî hedef olması gerektiğini vurgulayarak, ehemmiyetini gözler önüne serme çabasındadır. Açıkçası kayıtlı tarihin büyük bir bölümünde insanların siyasî eşitler olarak muamele görme hakkı talebi tehlikeli bulunmuş ve otokratik, hiyerarşik rejimler tarafından da yıkıcı bir düşünce gözüyle değerlendirilerek takibata ve cezaya uğratılmıştır. Bu talep, on sekizinci yüzyıla gelindiğinde ancak kamuoyu önünde normal karşılanmaya başlanmış ise de bugün dahi cumhuriyetçi ya da demokratik olduğu söylenen çoğu ülkede bir hedef olarak hâlâ hayata geçirilememiştir. Mesela; Türkiye'nin bugün dahi en önemli sorunlarından birini teşkil eden "Kürt meselesi", şüphe yok ki kaynağını Türk ve Kürt vatandaşların siyasî eşitsizliğine borçludur. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnporGO9MU0). Vicdanı bütün bütün sukut etmemişler için sormak lazım; Kürtlerin anadilde eğitim hakkı yoksunluğu eşitsizliğin yeterli delil değil midir? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD18bR-YAc4) / (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Q-5TGtDj7C0). Bir Türk olarak kendi anadilimle eğitim hususunda ısrarcı olmam benim için ne kadar tabii ise haysiyetli bir Kürt için de kendi anadili ile eğitim hususunda ısrarcı olması o kadar 1 Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi İTBB. / İSTANBUL 2 J. J. Rousseau, İnsanlar Arasındaki Eşitsizliğin Kaynağı, Çev. R. N. İleri, Say Yay., İstanbul, 1990.

Though Turkey has been a secular and democratic country for decades, the public
perception of Christians has been affected by rejection and prejudice. In the years
from 2001 to 2007, we saw a development from accusations by official institutions
and media against Christians actively propagating their faith to acts of violence
against Christians culminating in the murders of three Christians in Malatya/Turkey.
The study covers five Turkish daily newspapers and their perception of Christians at
the height of a media campaign in 2004/2005. It reveals that the different societal
groups in Turkey differ strongly in their view of Christians and their activities. Each
group, represented by one of the newspapers, tries to use the discussion for their
own political agenda. However, none of the newspapers leaves the opportunity
unused to instrumentalize words like “missionary” to arouse negative emotions.

"Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole." -- Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington

"In telling the story of modern Assyrian responses to a history of tragedy, Sargon Donabed helps us understand them as actors in their own right. He thereby rewrites Iraqi history from the perspective of the oppressed. No longer may we ignore the plight of this misunderstood minority." -- Paul S. Rowe, Trinity Western University

Mert Koçak “Türkiye’ye Göç Eden Kimlikler: Yerel ve Ulusaşırı Dinamiklerin Kesişiminde LGBT Mülteciliğin İnşası” isimli makalesinde mültecilere yönelik uluslararası koruma rejiminin cinsiyetlendirilmiş yapısını ‘kuir’ teorisini kullanarak eleştiriyor. Göç alanı uzun yıllar boyunca her göçmeni erkek saydığı gibi, her göçmenin heteroseksüel olduğu varsayımı üzerine kurulmuştur. Son yıllarda ise gerek devletlerin göç politikaları gerekse akademik araştırmalar nezdinde farklı cinsel yönelim ve cinsel kimlikler (CYCK) ile göç nedenleri ve deneyimleri arasındaki ilişkinin kabulü yaygınlaşmıştır. Koçak bu yeni düzenin yarattığı ve dayattığı yeni temsilleri ‘LGBT mültecilik’ ve ‘kuir mültecilik’ kavramlarını ayrıştırarak inceliyor. Türkiye’de mülteci statüsü belirleme sürecinde önemli bir rol ve yetkiye sahip Birleşmiş Milletler Mülteci Yüksek Komiserliği’nin pratikleri üzerinden incelediği LGBT mültecilik kavramını statik, homonormatif ve performe edilmesi gereken bir temsil olarak gören Koçak, Eskişehir ve Yalova’da yaptığı araştırmaya dayanarak kuir mültecilik kavramı çerçevesinde CYCK tanımlamalarının farklı zaman ve mekanlarda değişkenliğini göstererek bu göz ardı edilen varoluş biçimlerine vurgu yapıyor.

Will the PKK return to its original Manifesto endorsing a 'national liberation struggle' for a greater Kurdistan given Kurdish territorial gains beyond the watchtowers and the barbed wire in Rojava and the quasi-independent Kurdistan region of Iraq? Five young men wearing flared trousers and fitting shirts, in keeping with the fashions of the mid 1970s, walk side by side smoking cigarettes and discussing the goals of the Turkish left. Among them is Abdullah Öcalan, Apo, not yet envisioned as group 'leader'. (Apo the Kurdish abbreviation of the longer name Abdullah, like Memo for Mehmet and Hemo for Hamit). It did not mean 'Uncle' as some said much later.

Based on research in about fifty archives worldwide, Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust analyzes the minority politic of the Turkish republic and the country’s ambivalent policies regarding Jewish refugees and Turkish Jews living abroad. Although Turkey stayed neutral during World War II, the country’s policies proved crucial for many Turkish Jews living in various European countries, such as Jews in Eastern and Southeastern Europe facing Nazi persecution, seeking refuge or a route to Palestine, and the 75,000 Jews within Turkey. Through an examination of the fates of the 25,000 Jews who lived in Turkey before the war, Corry Guttstadt shows that Turkey was not as tolerant toward the Jewish people as the country is often portrayed.

Even though the challenges that Queer* employees face in the workplace because of their intersecting identities of gender, sexuality, race, and class continue to be one of the rarely studied topics in social sciences, there has been a resurgence of interest in recent years, concerning how Queer* teachers experience the conflation of their sexual and professional identities. Informed by the recognition that schools are one of the most representative prototypes of gendered organizations with their ever-adapting regimes of inequality, this study is motivated by the question of how Queer* teachers in İstanbul deal with the enduring institutionalized homophobia, which has only got worse in terms of its silencing and pathologizing mechanisms. Claiming one of the fundamental functions of schools to establish strictly heteronormative spaces of learning, where any form of gender nonconformity or sexual dissidence stands before disciplinary punishment or reprimand from other students and teachers, I have examined the current working conditions of Queer* teachers in İstanbul within the contexts of schools, which compel Queer* teachers to abide by their institutionalized rules and norms of compulsory heterosexuality. This study attempts to learn what kind of experiences Queer* teachers in İstanbul articulate regarding the conundrum of being forced into presenting themselves as non-sexualized and non-gendered professional figures, as neoliberal policies and capitalist expectations of a rigid separation between professional identities and personal lives of workers continue to negatively affect the occupational well-being of Queer* teachers. A careful analysis of the interviews has revealed that the Queer* teachers in İstanbul are burdened with the aesthetic labor they are constantly expected to perform due to the emergent neoliberal schemes of professionalism and that they suffer under closely monitoring mechanisms of heteronormative school policies and work climates.

Dans cette recherche, nous avons tenté de dévoiler le lien entre les politiques de la turquification et de l'accumulation primitive des musulmans-turcs par
dépossession des minorités non musulmanes en focalisant sur le local d'Edirne à partir du début du XXè siècle aux années 1970 à Edirne. Ces processus qui se sont déroulés à Edirne au cours des soixante années étaient un petit exemple spécifique des politiques de l'identité et l'économie à l'échelle nationale et qu'il peut suivre ce processus sur la base d'exemple d2Edirne.
Le paradigme nationaliste et l'identité nationale turque qui ont commencé à se cristalliser à la suite des guerres balkaniques ont conduit à appliquer des politiques
anti-minoritaires. Notre étude souligne la continuité des politiques économiques, sociales et identitaires dans la transition de l'Empire ottoman à la République de
Turquie. Alors, les politiques de l'Etat turc sont fondés sur deux piliers au sujet de la création de l'État-nation capitaliste: L'un des piliers était de nettoyer les minoritaires non-musulmanes considérées comme des éléments « étrangers de l'intérieur » et « dangereux » du pays, en un mot, de la liquidation. L'autre pilier était de former une classe sur laquelle l'État turc pourrait compter, au besoin, et qui pourrait s'appuyer dans le domaine économique. Toutefois, puisqu'il n'y avait pas assez du capital afin de créer une classe de la bourgeoisie composant des musulmans-turcs, le trio local « bureaucratie-peuple-notable » musulman-turc ont tenté d'obtenir leur accumulation primitive par dépossession des minoritaires non-musulmanes tels que les Arméniens et les Rums et les Juifs. D'abord, « la déportation des Arméniens » et l'expulsion et la migration forcée des Rums ont eu lieu. Puis, l'Expulsion des Juifs de Thrace s'est déroulée. Ensuite, le processus de l‟accumulation primitive à nouveau des musulmans-turcs par dépossession des non musulmans et la turquification du capital ont été réalisé par l'application de l'Impôt sur la Fortune. Enfin, les activités de la branche d'Edirne de l'Association pour la Lutte contre le Sionisme de Turquie ont forcé les Juifs restants de quitter Edirne.

Bu çalışmanın odağında tarihi Trakya ve onun günümüz Türkiye’si içerisinde kalan küçük bir bölümünü teşkil eden “Bizim Trakya’da” yaşayan, pek çok açıdan bu coğrafyayla özdeşleşmiş peripatetik  kökenli bir toplum olan Romanlar var. On yılı aşan öz-bilinçli bir temas ve 35 yıllık ömrümün izin verdiği doğal birliktelik süreçlerinin sonucunda zihnimde kalanları kullanarak Trakya Romanları ile ilgili mekân ve çalışma ilişkilerini temel alan genel bir profil çizmeye gayret gösterdim. Okuyacağınız metnin Trakya Romanları ile ilgili her şeyi kuşatan eksiksiz bir sonsöz değil, olsa olsa alanla yeni tanışan okur için daha derinlikli okuma ve temas imkanlarını kolaylaştıracak bir girizgâh olduğuna inanıyorum.

1950-1980.  Political and Social background of the Thirty-Year Coups in Turkey. Political violence and terrorism during the decade of the 1970s.
Μία περιγραφή της πολιτικής βίας στην Τουρκία μέσω των πραξικοπημάτων που έγιναν και μέσω των ακραίων τρομοκρατικών ομάδων.

Depuis quelques années, le PKK turc et le PYD syrien sont au centre de l'attention des gauches mondiales. Certains observateurs, comme l'anthropologue David Graeber, l'historien Immanuel Wallerstein ou le linguiste Noam Chomsky les considèrent comme une des rares lueurs d'espoir dans le chaos moyen-oriental et comparent leurs expérimentations politiques à celles des zapatistes du Chiapas. En effet, ces organisations apparaissent comme un point de convergence de nombreuses luttes « nouvelles » : le combat militaire contre l'« obscurantisme » de Daech ; une forme avancée de féminisme contre le « patriarcat » islamiste et traditionaliste ; une volonté de promouvoir un « confédéralisme démocratique » postmarxiste et libertaire ; ou encore une manière renouvelée de contester le capitalisme et le culte de la croissance, au profit d'une écologie radicale. Pourtant, le PKK et ses organisations soeurs restent très méconnus. Fondé en 1978 et dirigé par son chef Abdullah Öcalan, emprisonné depuis 1999, ce parti radical, d'abord indépendantiste puis autonomiste, revendique s'être défait de ses oripeaux marxistes-léninistes pour développer une forme d'autogouvernement proche de la conception municipaliste de l'anarchiste américain Murray Bookchin. Qu'en est-il en vérité ?

სტატიაში მიმოხილულია თურქეთის მოქალაქე ეთნიკური ქართველების, ლაზებისა და აფხაზების ორგანიზაციები, ნაჩვენებია მათი საზოგადოებრივი და კულტურული საქმიანობა.
The article deals with Turkey's ethnic Georgians, Laz and Abkhaz communities and their cultural concerns.