Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ) Spring 2008 is out!!
"State, Religion, Identity, and Politics: Turkey Updated"
"Conspiracy theories have always been rampant in Turkey, but one has become so widely disseminated and thoroughly accepted that it has completely undermined Turkish-American relations. The gist is this: Beginning with the "New World Order" of the first President Bush and ranging through the "Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative" of the current President Bush, the United States has sought to use Turkey as a model of a moderate Islamic state for the Islamic countries of the Middle East...In the past, no matter how tense the issues may have become in Turkish-American relations, the two militaries maintained close and mutually supportive ties. That is no longer the case, and the following chain of events is cited in Turkey today as "proof" of American military enmity."
- David Arnett, Former U.S. Consul General in Istanbul.
Folllowing a series of events ranging from the Ergenekon investigation to the AKP's closure case, increasing terrorist activities to social polarization, the year 2008 has become a milestone in Turkish politics. In its Spring 2008 edition, Turkish Policy Quarterly aims to shed light on the past couple of months through the analyses from experts and decision makers from both Turkey and abroad. This edition of TPQ thus covers a broad range of topics that have constantly been brought up by politicians, academicians, journalists, civil society leaders, businessmen and diplomats.
David Arnett, former U.S. Consul General of Istanbul, in his article challenges the claim that political Islam is a U.S. fabricated project and adds that such a groundless belief comes with the cost of agitating Turkish-American relations and harms Turkish democracy. Arguing that the exacerbating perception of the Turkish public towards the U.S. is "the triumph of conspiracy theory over rationality" , Arnett moreover nuances the undeniable role that the Turkish army has in Turkish society and analyses recent developments from political, military and social perspectives.
Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Turkey and board member of the ARI Movement, Cem Toker focuses on the internal political atmosphere by picking up on the Political Parties Law and explains how structural problems that are inherent in Turkish politics leads to corruption and other anti-democratic means of doing politics in Turkey. Going over highly debated issues such as the 10 percent threshold, financing of political parties, bureaucratic and organizational drawbacks on establishing new political parties, corruption and procurement laws, non-democratic processes within political parties, Toker stresses upon the fact that "for Turkey to be considered a serious and viable candidate country for membership in The European Union, she urgently needs to reprioritize, draft and implement her fundamental laws regulating civic participation in the democratic process."
Driven by the question, "by observing the attitude taken by the state and the society towards foreigners in a country, could we know whether we truly live in an 'open society'?" Robert Johnson begins his answer in his article by mentioning that Turkey does not have a clean record in terms of its attitude towards foreigners and adds that there is not any positive development in this aspect either. As a "foreign" businessman living in Turkey, Johnson shares some of his experiences of doing business in Turkey as a foreigner. In his article, which at times is written in a quiet ironic tone, Johnson overall aims to explain the "foreigner" policy of a liberalizing Turkey and tries to overcome prejudices lying under claims such as "the foreigners are taking our jobs!"
An article that extensively deals with the notion of philanthropy in the context of a progressive Turkish civil society comes from the Director of TUSEV (Turkish Third Sector Foundation) Filiz Bikmen. In the gist of her article, Bikmen argues that NGO's in Turkey have to prioritize three things in order to cope with "the changing structure of the society and to reach goals for creating more grantmaking organizations, promoting philanthropy and better policies for giving: visibility, investment in strategy and finally, policy change."
Sharing the findings of a research conducted on conservatism in Turkey, Bogazici University Professor Hakan Yýlmaz categorizes different themes and groups of conservatism. Haluk Önen, former ARI Movement chairman, focuses on Turkey's integration with the world. Turkish Daily News Associate Editor Mustafa Akyol problematizes liberal Islam in his essay and discusses how liberal Islam came to be. W.J Korab Karpowicz, Bilkent University associate professor approaches the same topic from a contradictory point of view and reads the secular-Islamist debate by critically focusing on the policies of the AKP. European Stability Initiative (ESI) analyst Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere deals with the way that the Kurdish question has been handled by the AKP in the past couple of years. Daniel Grütjen compares and contrasts the South European Welfare Model with the Turkish model. And finally, Ruari Patterson provides the reader with a compact analysis of Turkish nationalism.
TPQ Spring 2008 List of Articles:
State, Religion, Identity, and Politics: Turkey Updated
Problems of Perception and Vision: Turkey and the U.S.
David Arnett
Why is Turkey Bogged Down?
Cem Toker
Driving Towards the EU Using its Rear-view Mirror: Turkey's "Foreigner" Policy
Robert Johnson
From Hardware to Software, Charity to Strategy: A Roadmap for Progressive Philanthropy in Turkey
Filiz Bikmen
Conservatism in Turkey
Hakan Yýlmaz
The Long Path Ahead in Turkey's Integration with the World
Haluk Önen
Turkey's Liberal Islam and How it Came to Be
Mustafa Akyol
Turkey under Challenge: Conflicting Ideas and Forces
W. J. Korab Karpowicz
Was there, is there, will there be a Kurdish Plan?
Ekrem Güzeldere
The Turkish Welfare Regime: An Example of the Southern European Model? The Role of the State, Market and Family in Welfare Provision
Daniel Grütjen
Rising Nationalism and the EU Accession Process
Ruari Patterson
For more information on Turkish Policy Quarterly, please contact ARI Movement by phone:
+90 212 211 9071 or visit us at www.turkishpolicy. com
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