Transnational citizenship: German-Turks and liberalizing citizenship regimes

This article studies the multiple connections between contemporary structures of German and Turkish citizenship, and German-Turkish migrants' own practices of citizenship transcending national borders. Hence, the citizenship structures of the two countries and the ways in which they shape and are shaped by the migrants' civic activism shall be exposed in a dialogical way. It will be argued that German-Turks constitute a transnational space, making it imperative that the existing institutions of citizenship in both countries respond to their globalized and transnationalized experiences. Addressing the literature on transnational space, citizenship studies, diaspora studies and cultural studies, and referring to a survey conducted among German-Turks, this work will briefly refer to the production of transnational space by immigrants of Turkish origin and their descendants in Germany and the use they make of the means of globalization, which provide them with a set of diversified habitats of meaning away from their country of origin. Subsequently, it will claim that the traditional framework of national citizenship has been superseded as transmigrants have become mobile between their countries of origin and of settlement in a way that may require dual citizenship as well as dual loyalty, allegiance and orientation.     

Effects of acute cold exposure on blood-brain barrier permeability in acute and chronic hyperglycemic rats

These experiments were carried out to study, the effects of cold exposure on the permeability of blood-brain barrier (BBB) in hyperglycemic rats. The integrity of the BBB was investigated using Evans blue albumin (EBA) extravasation. Serum glucose levels in hyperglycemic rats were significantly higher than that obtained from normoglycemic rats (P < 0.05). Mean arterial blood pressure in hypothermic groups significantly dropped into lower levels, than that obtained in normothermic groups (P < 0.05). The EBA extravasation to the cerebellum in the group of cold exposure+acute hyperglycemia significantly increased compared with the values obtained from the cold exposure group (P < 0.05). The EBA extravasation to the brain regions of diabetic rats exposed to cold increased more than that in normotermic control rats (P < 0.05), but did not exceed the levels in cold controls. The result of this study suggests that, acute hyperglycemia superimposed upon the permeability of BBB in the rat exposed to cold, only in selected regions of the brain, especially the cerebellum, and this result could be an important factor to explain the mechanisms of death related with hyperglycemia+cold exposure in forensic medicine.     

A fissure in ‘unanimous democracy’: parliamentary contestations over property rights on land in early Republican Turkey

The parliamentary politics of Turkey's one-party regime (1925–1946) has been described as a ‘unanimous democracy’, particularly on account of the absence of a voting opposition. Many scholars consider the Law for Providing Land to Farmers of 1945 as the first instance of parliamentary opposition in the one-party legislature. The current article challenges this widespread view and argues that property rights on land tended to provoke backlashes even before 1945. It examines the making of the deportation, land distribution and settlement laws of the 1920s and 1930s, all of which sanctioned intervention into property relations on land in the form of the expropriation of landowners. Going beyond an exclusive focus on voting patterns, this article traces parliamentary resistance by examining how government bills changed as they proceeded through both the reviewing committees and the general assembly. It links the birth of a full-fledged parliamentary opposition in 1945 to the previous waves of discontent and shows that property rights on land was a constant fissure in the early Republic's unanimous democracy.     

An evaluation of the outsourcing IS/ICT activities in Turkish ministerial computer departments

Outsourcing an IS/ICT function has become fashionable in public administration reform. Through this modality, many organisations are cutting staff costs and increasing efficiency. Financial benefits can be great, public organisations can in fact expand IT usage and hence avoid obsolescence. Despite the benefits of outsourcing IT, there are risks involved. Public organisations need to weigh the benefits, risks and costs involved before making decisions to outsource. Recently, Turkish public organisations have been increasingly outsourcing functions such as facilities maintenance, catering, security and IS/ICT activities. This article, based on a field study, undertakes an evaluation of the experience of Chief Information Officers (CIO's) in outsourcing of IS/ICT activities in ministerial computer departments. The findings provide important lessons for outsourcing in Turkey and elsewhere. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The potentials and challenges of left populism in Turkey: the case of the peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

ABSTRACT

In spring 2015, Turkey witnessed the unexpected rise of the HDP, founded by the Kurdish Liberation Movement together with the Turkish radical left, against President Erdo?an’s authoritarian rule. In this article, I will employ contemporary literature on left populism to explain the HDP’s rise as an alternative left hegemonic project against the neoliberal authoritarianism that Erdo?an represents. After discussing the historical context from which the HDP emerged and grew, I will evaluate its discourse and strategies based on a conceptualization of left-wing populism. Lastly, I will discuss the challenges that the HDP confronted after the June 2015 elections and the differences between the Turkish and Western European contexts for a left-wing populist strategy.     

The Alevi-Bektashi order in Turkey: syncreticism transcending national borders

This article aims to shed light upon the ways of how the Europeanization of Turkey and the Balkans has so far led the Alevi-Bektashi order to revitalize its transnational and heterodox stand, which actually originates from the early encounters of the Turkish tribes with the Christian natives in Anatolia and the Balkans. The main premise of this work is that the Alevi-Bektashi communities residing in Turkey have recently reconnected themselves with their relational communities residing in the European Union and the Balkans through various layers of social learning and interaction provided by the process of European integration offering subordinated groups opportunity structures to transcend the hegemony of their nation states and to revitalize their transnational characteristics.