Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Debreafing of Returning Ambassador to Turkey - Institute for Turkish Studies
Join us at the Stockholm University Institue for Turkish Studies (SUITS) for a "Debreafing" of the returning Swedish Ambassador to Turkey, H.E. Ambassador Håkan Åkesson. The ambassador will reflect on his time in Turkey and take questions.
Debriefing on Turkey - Institute for Turkish Studies
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Media coverage of our event: The Global Turkish Wave in TV Drama
We held the event at what I believe is the oldest movie theatre in Stockholm, Biograf Zita. The panelists included top TV producer Kerem Catay, media scholars Melis Behlil (Kadir Has U. and Affiliated Researcher at SUITS) and Eylem Yanardagoglu (Kadir Has U.), as well as the Swedish distributor of many of the Turkish shows - Fredrik af Malmborg - and Magdalena Löfström from Swedish Television (SVT), who is responsible for the Turkish market and for the decision to air the Turkish show Son (The End, or Lögnen, as it was called in Sweden) on prime time. Yours truly served as moderator.
The event was covered by several Swedish and Turkish media, including the large Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet and the news show Kulturnytt on Swedish Radio P1. Below a list of links to some of the coverage in Turkish media.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-dramas-discussed-in-sweden.aspx?pageID=238&nID=56984&NewsCatID=381
http://www.haberler.com/turk-dizileri-isvec-te-tartisildi-5219538-haberi/
http://www.isvecpostasi.com/haber/380/ortadogu-da-turk-dizileri-cinsiyet-rollerini-degistiriyor.html
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
The EU, the Kurdish question, and democratic reforms
Arboga - a small Swedish town an hour and half outside Stockholm is passing outside the train windows. I am on my way back from having commented on a draft Doctoral thesis on Kurdish ethnopolitical mobilization in Turkey, at Örebro University.
In Swedish, the discussant is called the "opponent" but I hope that I wasn't very hostile. In fact, there were a lot of interesting material in the thesis that got me thinking.
Among other things, the interviews that the author had conducted with pro-kurdish elite activists in parties, media organizations, unions and other civil society organizations, showed how important the EU has been for the Turkish reform process. Most of the interviewees appeared to credit the EU for the (limited but yet) opening up of political space that most of the respondents had noticed by 2005.
But they also faulted the union for its lack of involvement in the question of minority rights and the situation of Kurds in the years before 2008, when the study ended. And the danger is clear that this is set to continue.
The lingering Eurozone troubles, the problematic aftermath of the Gezi Park demonstrations, and now the interpretation given to the Egyptian crisis by the dominant AKP leaders, all of these are reason for concern regarding the EU's continued "normative power"to propel a continued Turkish reform process.
Some of this is the AKP leadership's own fault (especially with respect to the state of the independence of media and the harsh response to the Gezi protests). Some of it - arguably the tragic developments in Egypt and Syria (pace the conspiratorial interpretations emanating from Ankara) - is largely out of the hands of both the EU and Turkey.
But the almost impressive mismanagement in the EU's response to the Great Recession can be blamed on no one else. And the decreasing credibility with which the union has been able to present itself as a fair adjudicator of developments in Turkey has to do with the fact that it has opened itself up to the accusation of having hidden culturalist or religious standards when judging Turkey. And the same reason undermines the credibility with the which it can put forth a full membership offer as an incentive for reform.
That's a real shame. The important post-Gezi lesson for the EU that I draw from the thesis I just read, is that failure to credibly engage is not a strategy that is likely to boost democratic reforms in Turkey.
In Swedish, the discussant is called the "opponent" but I hope that I wasn't very hostile. In fact, there were a lot of interesting material in the thesis that got me thinking.
Among other things, the interviews that the author had conducted with pro-kurdish elite activists in parties, media organizations, unions and other civil society organizations, showed how important the EU has been for the Turkish reform process. Most of the interviewees appeared to credit the EU for the (limited but yet) opening up of political space that most of the respondents had noticed by 2005.
But they also faulted the union for its lack of involvement in the question of minority rights and the situation of Kurds in the years before 2008, when the study ended. And the danger is clear that this is set to continue.
The lingering Eurozone troubles, the problematic aftermath of the Gezi Park demonstrations, and now the interpretation given to the Egyptian crisis by the dominant AKP leaders, all of these are reason for concern regarding the EU's continued "normative power"to propel a continued Turkish reform process.
Some of this is the AKP leadership's own fault (especially with respect to the state of the independence of media and the harsh response to the Gezi protests). Some of it - arguably the tragic developments in Egypt and Syria (pace the conspiratorial interpretations emanating from Ankara) - is largely out of the hands of both the EU and Turkey.
But the almost impressive mismanagement in the EU's response to the Great Recession can be blamed on no one else. And the decreasing credibility with which the union has been able to present itself as a fair adjudicator of developments in Turkey has to do with the fact that it has opened itself up to the accusation of having hidden culturalist or religious standards when judging Turkey. And the same reason undermines the credibility with the which it can put forth a full membership offer as an incentive for reform.
That's a real shame. The important post-Gezi lesson for the EU that I draw from the thesis I just read, is that failure to credibly engage is not a strategy that is likely to boost democratic reforms in Turkey.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Interviewed by "Zaman" newspaper about the Gezi protests (in Turkish)
The Turkish daily newspaper Zaman published an interview with me today. In it, I address questions about the consequences of the Gezi Park protests, about Prime Minister Erdoğan, and about Turkey's relations with the EU. You can find the interview here (note that it is in Turkish).
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
On my way to Istanbul...
On my way to the airport and Istanbul. I'm going there to take part in a workshop organized by the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, which is located in the lovely "Swedish palace" on Istiklal street, which ends in Taksim square.
My flight is schedules to arrive at 4:15 pm. That would be precisely 15 minutes after the planned start of two major rallies to be held simultaneously in the city: one in support of the AKP and the other in support of the Gezi Park demonstrators. Let's hope for the best.
To be continued.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Video: Discussing the Gezi Protests On "Gomorron Sverige" This Morning
 |
| Gomorron Sverige this morning |
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Angry Protests Grow in Turkey as Police Continue Crackdown | NYTimes.com
The NYT reports:
Violent protests against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan engulfed this city on Saturday, as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets and alleyways in a second day of civil unrest and faced the tear gas and water cannons of a harsh police crackdown.The police has now pulled out of Taksim Square and let protestors in. Prime Minister Erdoğan has admitted that the security forces made errors, especially with regard to their use of tear gas. Judging from the picture below, their errors do not exactly seem limited to the use of tear gas...
 |
| Picture courtesy of http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/ |
Angry Protests Grow in Turkey as Police Continue Crackdown - NYTimes.com
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Israel + Turkey = true (again)
Cease fire with PKK and now making friends with Israel - Erdoğan is on a roll.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/israel-pm-apologized-to-turkey-pm-over-flotilla-deaths.aspx?pageID=238&nID=43445&NewsCatID=352
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/israel-pm-apologized-to-turkey-pm-over-flotilla-deaths.aspx?pageID=238&nID=43445&NewsCatID=352
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)