The Weight of the Past


Book Description

The 12 September 1980 coup represented a ""milestone"" in Turkey, the consequences of which have shadowed the lives of the peoples of Turkey for more than thirty years. The coup was instrumental in the profound economic, political and social transformation of the country, while, on the other hand, it aimed at destroying any public opposition deemed likely to jeopardise the course of this transformation. The remembrance of the period as laden with experiences of profound transformation, alongsid ...




Factories of Memory: Remembering the 12 September Military Coup in Beynelmilel and Bu Son Olsun


Book Description

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Film Science, grade: A, Lund University (Centre for European Studies), language: English, abstract: 12 September 1980, the third successful military coup in the history of Turkey, has had a debilitating impact on the social, political and cultural life of the country. This thesis examines the representations of the 12 September coup through the lens of film as memory. Based on content analysis of two films, Beynelmilel (2006) and Bu Son Olsun (2012) and their reception, this study examines the representations of the 12 September military coup by means of the concepts of cultural memory, communicative and material memory (memory of objects), and construes whether the reconstruction of this particular past event is challenged by the abovementioned cinematic products as a way to impinge upon the collective memories of this seminal event in Turkey. The results demonstrate that both cinematic products are reflective of multiple and fragmented memories of the 12 September, and that there is not a strong manifestation of remembering or references to memories of this event as the interpretation of online reviews of both products puts forward.




Factories of Memory: Cinematic Representations of the 12 September Military Coup


Book Description

12 September 1980, the third successful military coup in the history of Turkey has had a debilitating impact on the social, political and cultural life of the country. This study examines the representations of the 12 September coup through the lens of film as memory. Based on the content analysis of the two films, Beynelmilel (2006) and Bu Son Olsun (2012), and their reception, this study examines the representations of the 12 September military coup by means of the concepts of cultural memory, communicative and material memory (memory of objects), and construes whether the reconstruction of this particular past event is challenged by the abovementioned cinematic products as a way to impinge upon the collective memories of this seminal event in Turkey.




Red Star Over the Black Sea


Book Description

Nâzım Hikmet is Turkey's best-known poet and one of their most recognizable historical figures. James H. Meyer situates Nâzim's fascinating international life story within the context of his border-crossing generation of Turkish communist contemporaries, addressing changing attitudes in the 20th century toward borders and the people who cross them.




Excavating Memory


Book Description

In this compelling study, Maria Theresia Starzmann and John Roby bring together an international cast of experts who move beyond the traditional framework of the "constructed past" to look at not only how the past is remembered but also who remembers it. They convincingly argue that memory is a complex process, shaped by remembering and forgetting, inscription and erasure, presence and absence. Collective memory influences which stories are told over others, ultimately shaping narratives about identity, family, and culture. This interdisciplinary volume--melding anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, philosophy, literature, and archival studies--explores such diverse arenas as archaeological objects, human remains, colonial landscapes, public protests, national memorials, art installations, testimonies, and even digital space as places of memory. Examining important sites of memory, including the Victory Memorial to Soviet Army, Blair Mountain, Spanish penitentiaries, African shrines, and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, the contributors highlight the myriad ways communities reinforce or reinterpret their pasts.




The Kurdish Issue in Turkey


Book Description

This volume gives a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the Kurdish issue in Turkey from a spatial perspective that takes into account geographical variations in identity formation, exclusion and political mobilisation. Although analysis of Turkey’s Kurdish issue from a spatial perspective is not new, spatial analyses are still relatively scarce. More often than not, Kurdish studies consist of time-centred work. In this book, the attention is shifted from outcome-oriented analysis of transformation in time towards a spatial analysis. The authors in this book discuss the spatial production of home, identity, work, in short, of being in the world. The contributions are based on the tacit avowal that the Kurdish question, in addition to being a question of group rights, is also one of spatial relations. By asking a different set of questions, this book examines; which spatial strategies have been employed to deal with Kurds? Which spatial strategies are developed by Kurds to deal with state, and with the neo-liberal turn? How are these strategies absorbed and what counter-strategies are developed, both in cities populated by the Kurds in south-eastern Turkey and in other regions? Emphasizing that identity or place, its particularity or uniqueness, arises from social practices and social relations, this book is essential reading for scholars and researchers working in Kurdish and Turkish Studies, Urban and Rural Studies and Politics more broadly.




The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Politics


Book Description

The study of politics in Turkey : new horizons and perennial pitfalls / Güneş Murat Tezcür -- Democratization theories and Turkey / Ekrem Karakoç -- Ruling ideologies in modern Turkey / Kerem Öktem -- Constitutionalism in Turkey / Aslı Ü. Bâli -- Civil-military relations and the demise of Turkish democracy / Nil S. Satana and Burak Bilgehan Özpek -- Capturing secularism in Turkey : the ease of comparison / Murat Akan -- The political economy of Turkey since the end of World War II / Şevket Pamuk -- Neoliberal politics in Turkey / Sinan Erensü and Yahya M. Madra -- The politics of welfare in Turkey / Erdem Yörük -- The political economy of environmental policymaking in Turkey : a vicious cycle / Fikret Adaman, Bengi Akbulut, and Murat Arsel -- The politics of energy in Turkey : running engines on geopolitical, discursive, and coercive power / Begüm Özkaynak, Ethemcan Turhan, and Cem İskender Aydın -- The contemporary politics of health in Turkey : diverse actors, competing frames, and uneven policies / Volkan Yılmaz -- Populism in Turkey : historical and contemporary patterns / Yüksel Taşkın -- Old and new polarizations and failed democratizations in Turkey / Murat Somer -- Economic voting during the AKP era in Turkey / S. Erdem Aytaç -- Party organizations in Turkey and their consequences for democracy / Melis G. Laebens -- The evolution of conventional political participation in Turkey / Ersin Kalaycıoğlu -- Symbolic politics and contention in the Turkish Republic / Senem Aslan -- Islamist activism in Turkey / Menderes Çınar -- The Kurdish movement in Turkey : understanding everyday perceptions and experiences / Dilan Okcuoglu -- The Transnational Mobilization of the Alevis of Turkey : from invisibility to the struggle for equality / Ceren Lord -- Politics of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey : limits and prospects of populism / Fatih Resul Kılınç and Şule Toktaş -- A theoretical account of Turkish foreign policy under the AKP / Tarık Oğuzlu -- US-Turkey relations since WWII : from alliance to transactionalism / Serhat Güvenç and Soli Özel -- Turkey and Europe : historical asynchronicities and perceptual asymmetries / Hakan Yılmaz -- Turkey's foreign policy in the Middle East : an identity perspective / Lisel Hintz -- Turkey and Russia : historical patterns and contemporary trends in bilateral relations / Evren Balta and Mitat Çelikpala -- Citizenship and protest behavior in Turkey / Ayhan Kaya -- Gender politics and the struggle for equality in Turkey / Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat -- Human rights organizations in Turkey / Başak Çalı -- Truth, justice, and commemoration initiatives in Turkey / Onur Bakiner -- The politics of media in Turkey : chronicle of a stillborn media system / Sarphan Uzunoğlu -- The AKP's rhetoric of rule in Turkey : political melodramas of conspiracy from "ergenekon" to "mastermind" / Erdağ Göknar -- The transformation of political cinema in Turkey since the 1960s : a change of discourse / Zeynep Çetin-Erus and M. Elif Demoğlu -- Political music in Turkey : the birth and diversification of dissident and conformist music (1920-2000) / Mustafa Avcı.




Erdoğan’s Turkey


Book Description

This book explores the role of religion in the transformation of Turkey under the reign of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP). It attempts to come to terms with the current political crisis in Turkey and the government’s move toward authoritarianism. The chapters included in this book examine various ideological, political and social factors that have driven the transformation of the AKP. The book seeks to answer questions about how and in what direction have the AKP’s objectives and strategies changed in the last two decades the party has been in power, and the divergence between professed ideals and practices. The book also focuses on the major repercussions that the 15 July 2016 coup d'état attempt has had on key Turkish state institutions and policies, and how it has also affected Turkish foreign policy toward regional and international powers. The book addresses the many gaps and omissions in earlier studies of the AKP, and posits that there have been a more complex set of circumstances impacting Turkish politics since 2002 and that it makes little sense to continue to view Turkish politics as just a clash between Islam and secularism. Erdoğan’s Turkey is a significant new contribution to the study of Turkish politics and politics in general, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers and advanced students of Political Science, International Relations, History, Geography and Sociology. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Middle East Critique.




Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence, Horror, and Power


Book Description

Individuals seek ways to repress the sense of violence within themselves and often resort to medial channels. The hunger of the individual for violence is a trigger for the generation of violent content by media, owners of political power, owners of religious power, etc. However, this content is produced considering the individual’s sensitivities. Thus, violence is aestheticized. Aesthetics of violence appear in different fields and in different forms. In order to analyze it, an interdisciplinary perspective is required. The Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence, Horror, and Power brings together two different concepts that seem incompatible—aesthetics and violence—and focuses on the basic motives of aestheticizing and presenting violence in different fields and genres, as well as the role of audience reception. Seeking to reveal this togetherness with different methods, research, analyses, and findings in different fields that include media, urban design, art, and mythology, the book covers the aestheticization of fear, power, and violence in such mediums as public relations, digital games, and performance art. This comprehensive reference is an ideal source for researchers, academicians, and students working in the fields of media, culture, art, politics, architecture, aesthetics, history, cultural anthropology, and more.