Rare and Severe Maxillofacial Injury Due to Tear Gas Capsules: Report of Three Cases

Tear gases are used by police or armed forces for control of riots or social events or by the general population for private self‐defense. These agents are used widely throughout the world, but some harmful effects have reported. In addition, despite well‐defined chemical side effects documented in the literature, data are insufficient regarding mechanical injury due to tear gas capsules. We report three cases of severe maxillofacial injury in patients who had these capsules fired from tear gas guns directly to their faces. The capsules penetrated the patients' faces, causing potentially fatal injuries. To our knowledge, reports of this kind of injury related to tear gas capsules are very rare in the literature. In conclusion, tear gas guns may be very dangerous in terms of human health and they may cause severe injuries, especially when they are not used according to strict guidelines.     

Is Toxoplasma gondii a potential risk for traffic accidents in Turkey?

In Turkey, traffic accidents are the major causes of mortality and morbidity. According to the statistics made by Turkish Security Headquarters in the year 2000, 7500 people are killed in the traffic accidents every year. Drivers are mostly blamed for the traffic accidents. Tired, weary, sleepy and absentminded driving are common reasons for traffic accidents due to many reasons. Among these reasons mental and reflex conditions of drivers are significant. Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common zoonoses throughout the world. In immunocomponent adults, toxoplasmosis has no clinical signs or symptoms and infection in such people can only be detected by serological examinations. This kind of latent or dormant toxoplasmosis can be located in neural or muscular tissues and cause prolonged reaction times of the muscles. Extended reaction times also lead to deceleration of the reflexes which could be a major cause of the traffic accidents. By the light of this situation, the incidence of Toxoplasma gondii is investigated among the population who were involved in a traffic accident while driving. A total of 185 people (100 men and 85 women), aged between 21 and 40 years, living in Izmir and Manisa cities, were enrolled in the study group (SG) during a period of 6 months time. Their informed consents were taken initially and the laboratory tests of all these individuals related to blood alcohol levels after the accidents were found negative. The control group (CG) were also consisted 185 people (95 men and 90 women), residents of the same region, in same age group. The people in CG had no clinical signs or symptoms concerning toxoplasmosis. All collected sera were examined using a commercial IgG and IgM ELISA kit. According to the results of serological tests of the SG, 45 (24.32%) sera were IgG positive, six (3.24%) were IgM positive and 10 (5.40%) were both IgG and IgM positive. On the other hand in CG, 12 (6.48%) people found IgG positive, one (0.54%) found IgM positive and three (1.62%) found both IgG and IgM positive. This data was considered as statistically significant by Yates corrected chi2-test. (p < 0.05). In conclusion, there is an increased risk for traffic accidents for drivers owing to these high seroprevalence of latent toxoplasmosis. Prospective studies are still necessary on this subject but latent toxoplasmosis of drivers should be taken into account while developing strategies to prevent traffic accidents in Turkey.     

Estimation of sex by 3D CT measurements of the foramen magnum

The purpose of this prospective study is to investigate the value and accuracy of the measurements of the foramen magnum (FM) by using three-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT). Cases were randomly selected among 100 patients (48 males, 52 females) who had temporal CT in the Radiology Department. Seven measurements of the foramen magnum on 3D images, modified from the nine lines previously defined by Giles and Elliot were made. Using Fisher's linear discriminant functions test, the length and width of right condyle and width of FM diameters were found to be statistically different in each sex (p < 0.001) with 81% accuracy. To our best knowledge, this is the first report studying 3DCT measurements of FM, resulting with a sex determination accuracy rate of 81%. CT/3DCT can be reliably used in further investigations to provide basis for anthropometric and forensic issues.     

The state and the stray dogs in late Ottoman Istanbul: from unruly subjects to servile friends

The present article situates the systemic efforts to annihilate stray dogs within the wider picture of Ottoman modernizing reforms in the nineteenth century. The period under investigation witnessed an increasing desire on the part of the modern Ottoman state to control and reform disenfranchised human and animal groups, which were believed to jeopardize public order, security and hygiene. These groups – beggars, orphans and the unemployed – were identified as actors irreconcilable with the modern image that the reforming bureaucracy and modernizing elites sought to project. In the face of increasing challenges from European powers, they were the epitome of underdevelopment and backwardness. Ottoman elites and official authorities therefore proposed and implemented institutional measures in the form of forced labor, reformatories or deportation to reform the conditions of these groups, segregate them from the greater public and discipline them. In the modern period, along with the proposals that called for the removal of dogs, modernizing intellectuals and professionals proposed alternative plans to render non-human animals beneficial to human needs and the modern state's expectations.     

Questioning the ‘immortal state’: the Gezi protests and the short-lived human security moment in Turkey

This article has three interrelated objectives: firstly, it challenges monolithic depictions of the 2013 Gezi protests and conceptualizes the so-called ‘Spirit of Gezi’ as a highly influential—albeit temporary—power in the politics of Turkey. Secondly, it traces the success of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) in the 7 June 2015 parliamentary election back to Gezi while acknowledging the roots of the party within the Kurdish political movement. Thirdly, it examines the manifestation and subsequent decline of what is termed the human security moment in Turkey. The arguments of the work are mostly based on interviews with Gezi activists. It is argued that Gezi produced a discursive challenge to the national security-oriented understanding of the ‘Kurdish question’. Yet, even though the human security-oriented Gezi discourse had brought the Kurdish political movement and the Turkish left together, it ultimately failed to permanently transform Turkish politics due to the collapse of the peace process in June 2015. In addition to contributing to the literature on Gezi, the article also draws insights for security studies. It concludes that alternative discourses to the state-centric securitization approach to conflicts such as the Kurdish question can only have a lasting effect under conditions of ceasefire.     

Two elections and a political regime in crisis: Turkish politics at the crossroads

Turkey had its fourth National Assembly elections on 7 June 2015 in the twenty-first century and this time they resulted in a hung parliament. The efforts at establishing a coalition government failed and the country moved to a snap, ‘repeat’ election on 1 November 2015. This paper focuses on how the voters registered their party preferences almost 5 months apart in the same legislative general elections and why. Using the same sample and interviewing those who lived at the same addresses as those in the ISSP Citizenship survey conducted February to April 2015 and again in October 2015, a panel data-set was constructed. A theoretical framework for voting behaviour that uses party identification, political ideology, ethnic, religious, social class identities and perceptions of the performance of the economy of the respondents to understand what factors help to influence the party preferences of the same respondents 5 months apart. A multivariate (binary logistic regression) analysis of the pre-June and October 2015 data sets revealed that economic voting had been the predominant factor in the June elections, but security concerns also interacted with popular economic evaluations in the November 2015 elections to reinstall the AKP to power.     

Social Classes and the Neo-Liberal Poverty Regime in Turkey, 2002–2011

The Justice and Development Party (or AKP) era in Turkey has witnessed the emergence of a new welfare regime resting on voluntary public and private transfers. This system has been replacing the former welfare system in which the right to social welfare benefits was constitutionally guaranteed. The new welfare system has tended to distribute transfers on a selective and unequal basis. This article analyses the size and effects of this system using a social class-based analytical framework. In explaining class structure in Turkey, we use the official Household Budget Survey database. The results indicate a massive process of proletarianisation has taken place. Our results indicate that the working classes have constituted the majority of the poor. In this environment, the shares of voluntary public and private transfers in the incomes of households have been rising. For some classes, like rural unemployed, urban unemployed and agricultural labourers, these transfers have captured a very high share of the incomes. These transfers have also been distributed very unequally. Their share in the central budget has also been rising. All these point to the emergence of a new neo-liberal welfare (poverty) regime as part of a new labour control regime.     

Taking Sides: Determinants of Support for a Presidential System in Turkey*

A key issue on the Turkish political agenda concerns a transition to presidentialism, with a constitutional amendment proposal submitted in December 2016. While the positions of political elites are well known, we lack a detailed analysis of the electorate’s views on such a transition. To fill this gap, we present cross-sectional and panel data collected over the period from spring 2015 to winter 2015–16. Partisanship emerges as the key factor shaping views on presidentialism, and reflections of the centre–periphery cleavage in Turkish politics are also visible. The shift of the Turkish nationalist constituency’s views in favour of presidentialism has been a significant trend in the aftermath of the June 2015 general election.     

Islamic Law in Action: A Historical Discussion

This review essay engages Kristen Stilt's recent book, Islamic Law in Action: Authority, Discretion, and Everyday Experiences in Mamluk Egypt (2011), in a fashion that highlights its contributions to the study of Islamic law. In particular, it underlines the methodological arguments made in the book that might help us think about Islamic legal practice in sophisticated and historically grounded ways. As elaborated in the article, these arguments have important implications for modern as well historical settings. Specifically, Stilt's discussion of “Islamic law in action” reveals the inherent flexibility of Islamic legal practice to accommodate political change. The article also discusses how further research on the topic could benefit from specific approaches and orientations.     

Intergenerational mobility in the Ottoman Empire: Observations from eighteenth-century Kastamonu

Based on probate estate inventories from eighteenth-century Kastamonu in north Anatolia, this study examines intergenerational mobility patterns in one Ottoman provincial town. Although the topic is well-studied in many Western contexts, historical and contemporary, we still know little about the ways in which socioeconomic disparities and class identities were transmitted across subsequent generations of parents and children in the Ottoman Empire. In order to explore this issue in a sophisticated fashion, this article introduces quantitative techniques and categories of analysis tailored specifically for Ottoman sources. In addition to other findings, our analysis suggests that Kastamonu in the eighteenth century was vertically and horizontally segmented: Not only were there significant impediments to intergenerational mobility across privileged and underprivileged sectors of the society, such transitions were also infrequent across sub-groups within upper and lower classes. Despite a general lack of intergenerational fluidity at all socioeconomic levels, however, our calculations also reveal that the provincial elite were particularly immobile.