Turkey Now!
In addition to our monthly W’OTSAp meetings, OTSA is launching an occasional Zoom event series that is meant to address current affairs in Turkey.
Upcoming Meetings
Past Meetings
Turkey after the Local Elections
April 9, 2024 12PM (CST)
Join OTSA and guest speakers Sinem Adar, Associate at SWP Centre for Applied Turkish Studies and Selim Koru, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
From the Earthquakes to the Disaster: Understanding February 6 in Context
March 3, 2023 9 AM (PST)
At OTSA’s ninth Turkey Now! session, we will focus on the Turkey-Syria earthquakes of February 6 that claimed the lives of more than 45,000 people (as of February 17). There are no words to express the sorrow of the millions of people in Syria and Turkey who lost their loved ones, homes, and belongings. We will explore such issues as the history of earthquakes in Turkey, the impact of amnesties issued on faulty buildings, the problems in enforcing newer building regulations, the political obstacles that stopped the Turkish parliament from passing legislation that would outlaw building on top of fault lines, the problems encountered in rescue efforts after the earthquakes, the effectiveness of the government’s initial response, and the impact of all of this on the–hopefully still–upcoming elections. We will also share some of the experiences of Turkish-Americans who went to the earthquake zone to help their families, touch upon the Syrian experience both in Syria and Turkey, discuss the impact of the earthquake on cultural heritage, including archaeological sites, manuscript collections, and libraries, and highlight the work done by our colleagues in Research Institute on Turkey in fundraising. Our panelists include (in alphabetical order of their last names) Yusuf Atay (a Turkish-American who went to Samandağ to help his family right after the earthquake), Metin Atmaca (Social Sciences University of Ankara), Bülent Batuman (Bilkent University), Eylem Delikanlı (Research Institute on Turkey), Fahri Dikkaya (TED University), Caroline Finkel (the author of, among many other titles, The seismicity of Turkey and adjacent areas: a historical review, 1500-1800), Ayfer Karakaya (William & Mary), and Cihan Tuğal (University of California, Berkeley). Garo Paylan (Member of Parliament for HDP, representing Diyarbakır) is expected to make a guest appearance as well.
100 Years 100 Objects: An Alternative History of Turkey in the Centennial of the Republic
October 28, 2022 9 AM (PDT)
Come and get to know a truly collaborative project on Turkish republican history by academics from Turkey many of whom were subjected to a purge for their signatures on a petition for peace. Created by a partnership between Kültürhane (https://www.kulturhane.org/) and the Centre for Democracy and Peace Research (http://cdpr.org.uk/), “100 Years 100 Objects” will be an open access online encyclopedia that is going to represent the history of the first hundred years of republican Turkey through one hundred objects. The Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association (JOTSA) will publish a selection of these articles in English translation.
Panelists include Ulaş Bayraktar (the co-founder of Kültürhane), Hümeyra Gülmez (one of the members of the translation team), Noémi Lévy-Aksu (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg / Hafıza Merkezi), Tülin Ural (Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi, one of the contributors to the online encyclopedia), Zeynep Yelçe (Sabancı University, the coordinator of the translation team), and Bediz Yılmaz (the coordinator of the encyclopedia project). Meral Camcı (an Academic for Peace) will moderate the panel.
The Ongoing Struggle for Academic Freedom and Autonomy at Boğaziçi University
September 23, 2022 9 AM (PDT)
Boğaziçi University faculty members and instructors Can Candan, Mine Eder, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Cengiz Kırlı, and Ünal Zenginobuz will provide an update on the recent developments that threaten academic freedom and autonomy at Boğaziçi University. Laurie Brand, the chair of the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom (MESA CAF), will be the moderator.
If you would like to familiarize yourself with the history of these developments, you may watch our first Turkey Now! dedicated to the threats to academic freedom and autonomy at Boğaziçi University at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDbf7yI1X5w.
The Grey Zones of Suspended Sovereignty: Turkey and the Rise of ‘Wild Capitalism’ in Cyprus
April 18, 2022 9 AM (PDT)
At this session of Turkey Now!, which will be moderated by Reşat Kasaba (University of Washington) and George Kyris (University of Birmingham), the discussion will draw on insights from Rebecca Bryant (Utrecht University) and Mete Hatay’s (Peace Research Institute Oslo, Cyprus Centre) recently published book, Sovereignty Suspended: Building the So-Called State (U Penn Press, 2020), to explore two parallel phenomena: the Turkish government’s increasing intervention in Cyprus’ north and the growth of mafia capitalism there. Bryant and Hatay will trace the current conjuncture to post-1974 state-building in north Cyprus and show how, in the context of a frozen conflict, Turkish Cypriots’ attempts to circumvent non-recognition have created irreconcilable paradoxes that undermine their so-called statehood rather than strengthen it.
Who Rules Erdoğan’s Turkey? Business Power and the Rise of Authoritarian Populism
February 21, 2022 9 AM (PST)
The Interuniversity Board of Turkey (Üniversitelerarası Kurul, ÜAK) denied Dr. Mehmet Deniz’s application to have his PhD in Sociology (SUNY Binghamton, 2019) recognized in Turkey based on “the topic of the dissertation and its content.” At this TURKEY NOW! session, he will present a summary of his dissertation. Cihan Tuğal (Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley) will be the discussant.
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A Life Dedicated to the Arts, Democracy, and Peace: A Tribute for Osman Kavala for His 64th Birthday
October 1, 2021 9 AM (PDT)
We will present a brief summary of the achievements of the Turkish businessperson, activist, philanthropist, and political prisoner Osman Kavala, focus on the history of the cases brought against him since his detention in 2017, and also discuss what Turkey and the world are missing as long as he is kept in a Turkish prison in defiance of the European Court of Human Rights. Contributors to the event (in alphabetical order of their last names) include Anthony Barnett, Milena Büyüm, Zeynep Çelik, Murat Çelikkan, Asena Günal, Cemal Kafadar, Nigel Osborne, Carsten Paludan-Müller, Jennifer Robinson, Sona Tatoyan, Emma Sinclair-Webb, and Thomas de Waal. Two members of the European Parliament, Sergey Lagodinsky and Nacho Sánchez Amor, are also expected to make guest appearances in the first hour.
Reckoning the Cold War’s Legacy in Turkey with Behlül Özkan and Mehmet Ali Tuğtan
May 4, 2021 11 AM (PDT)
Co-organized with the Stanford Program on Turkey, this conversation with Behlül Özkan (Marmara University) and Mehmet Ali Tuğtan (Bilgi University) will examine the adverse and long-lasting impact of the US-led anti-communism on Turkish democracy. We will trace the roots of current authoritarianism in the top-down Islamization of society and institutions since the 1950s, paying special attention to the role of the military — an institution often regarded as the protector of secularism.
Behlül Özkan received his PhD from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in 2009. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Marmara University, Istanbul. Özkan is the author of From the Abode of Islam to the Turkish Vatan: Making of a National Homeland in Turkey (Yale University Press, 2012). He also contributed op-eds to New York Times, Huffington Post, Open Democracy. Özkan is also a board member of European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). In recent years his academic studies has been focused on Political Islam in Turkey and Europe.
Mehmet Ali Tuğtan majored in international relations and political science at Marmara University; he has completed his MA in 2000 with the dissertation titled Emergence of A Post Cold War European Security Architecture and his PhD in 2007 with the dissertation titled Turkish-US Security Relations 1945-2003: A Game-Theoretical Analysis of the Institutional Effect in Boğaziçi University Political Science program. He has been a member of İstanbul Bilgi University Department of International Relations since 2008. Mehmet Ali Tuğtan has been the Chair of Bilgi Distance Education Center (UZEM) since August 2017. Dr. Tugtan’s areas of study include Turkish-American Relations, Contemporary World Politics and Security Studies. In addition to several book chapters and articles on these subjects, Dr. Tugtan has edited a book on the Turkish involvement in the Korean War (Kore Savaşı: Uzak Savaşın Askerleri) published in 2013. For Massive online open course projects of Dr Tugtan on his areas of study, see: EdX Contemporary Issues in World Politics (with Prof. Ilter Turan) https://www.edx.org/course/contemporary-issues-in-world-politics FlipEU: A Flipped Course on EU (with Ast. Prof. Özge Onursal Beşgül) https://flipeu.bilgi.edu.tr/
Supported by OTES (Ottoman and Turkey Encounters @Stanford)
The Judicial Coup against the HDP: Authoritarianism and the Law in Turkey
March 29, 2021, 12 PM EDT
How can we make sense of the constitutional closure case initiated against the third largest party in the Turkish parliament, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) last week? This panel includes eminent experts whose scholarship examines the relationship between authoritarianism and the law in the Ottoman Empire and in modern Turkey. Focusing on the ways in which law has been deployed in the case of the Kurdish community in particular, the panel began with comments by Hişyar Özsoy, PhD (HDP co-spokesperson for Foreign Affairs; Member of Parliament, representing Diyarbakır; former Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Michigan-Flint) followed by brief presentations by the panelists.
Our panelists, in alphabetical order of their last names, were:
Bilgin Ayata; Professor for Southeastern European Studies, University of Graz
Mücahit Bilici; Associate Professor of Sociology, John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center
Serra Hakyemez; Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
Dilek Kurban; Fellow and Lecturer, Hertie School
Nilay Özok-Gündoğan; Assistant Professor of History, Florida State University
Güneş Murat Tezcür; Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies, University of Central Florida
After the initial panel presentations in the first hour, we will open the floor for a moderated question and answer session in the second hour.
Meeting Recording / Poster.
Higher Education and Academic Freedom in Turkey:
Boğaziçi Yesterday and Today
As told by former and current Boğaziçi professors
February 15, 2021, 12 pm EST
Former and current Boğaziçi professors discussed the state of higher education and academic freedom in Turkey by reflecting on the past of Boğaziçi University and analyzing the recent events that had been unfolding since the appointment of a new university president on January 1 and the establishment of two new colleges on February 5, both by unilateral midnight decrees issued by President Erdoğan without any consultation.
Our panelists, in alphabetical order of their last names are:
Mert Arslanalp (Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University)
Zeynep Atay (Professor of Chemistry, Boğaziçi University)
Mine Eder (Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University)
Edhem Eldem (Professor of History, Boğaziçi University)
Üstün Ergüder (President Emeritus, Boğaziçi University; Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University and Sabancı University)
Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University and Sabancı University)
Kemal Kirişci (Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University)
Binnaz Toprak (Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University and Bahçeşehir University; Member of Parliament, 2011-15)
We are grateful to the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), both for its co-sponsorship of this event and for the attention its Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) pays to Turkey.