On the borders of the Turkish and Iranian nation-states: the story of Ferzende and Besra

Following the First World War, empires were replaced with nation-states for good and the map of the Middle East was redrawn. Traced back to the final decades of the nineteenth century, Kurdish nationalism did not result in a nation-state in the modern Middle East. Therefore, the Kurds inhabiting the borderlands of the four nation-states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria came to be perceived as ‘trouble’ by these nation-states. Through the use of a wide array of published and unpublished Kurdish, Turkish, Persian and French archival documents, memoirs and oral and written literary pieces, this article unearths the role of a Kurdish tribal chief by the name of Ferzende in Mount Ararat Revolt in the late 1920s and early 1930s against the Turkish and Iranian nation-states. An exceptional contribution of this study is its exploration of the petition submitted to the Iranian Parliament by Ferzende's wife Besra. This study thus is a fresh contribution to the study of social history of the Middle East from the margins.     

Authoritarian legitimation: assessing discourses of legitimacy in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT

What are the sources of authoritarian persistence in Central Asia? This study explores the argument that authoritarian regimes persist through effective authoritarian legitimation. Drawing on the theory and analysis of discourse, it develops an approach to authoritarian legitimation and examines discursive appeals to legitimacy by the Kazakh and Uzbek presidents. The study also assesses the effectiveness of the presidential discourses of legitimacy for public perception of the governing regimes in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. This research shows that by defining what constitutes legitimate power and presenting political rule as consistent with this definition, authoritarian governments can foster certain modes of reasoning and evaluation among citizens, and create possibilities for their acceptance of the regime as ‘right’ or ‘proper’.     

Evaluation of the Postmortem Glucose and Glycogen Levels in Hepatic,Renal, Muscle,and Brain Tissues: Is It Possible to Estimate Postmortem Interval Using These Parameters?

The aim of our study was to investigate the postmortem levels of glucose and glycogen in hepatic, renal, muscle, and brain tissues and then examine the changes in those levels that could be useful for estimating postmortem interval. We established an animal model. Seventy female BALB/c albino mice were used in this study. After being sacrificed, the mice were randomly divided into six groups according to time elapsed since death (Group 1: 0 h; Group 2: 12 h; Group 3: 24 h; Group 4: 36 h; Group 5: 48 h; and Group 6: 60 h). Glucose levels were significantly different between groups for all tissues studied. Slope of the change per unit time was higher for the hepatic glucose levels. Based on these results, it is possible to estimate postmortem interval using postmortem glucose levels in hepatic tissue. Tissue‐specific assessment may contribute valuable information to postmortem interval studies.     

A Comparison of Dental Chartings Performed at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory and the Kokura Central Identification Unit on Remains Identified from the Korean War

During the Korean War, the Office of the Quartermaster General's Graves Registration Service (GRS) was responsible for the recovery, processing, identification, and repatriation of US remains. In January 1951, the GRS established a Central Identification Unit (CIU) at Kokura, Japan. At the Kokura CIU, postmortem dental examinations were performed by the dental technicians. Thirty‐nine postmortem dental examinations performed at the CIU were compared to the findings documented in the Forensic Odontology Reports written at the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory (CIL). Differences were noted in 20 comparisons (51%). The majority of the discrepancies was considered negligible and would not alter the JPAC decision to disinter a set of unknown remains. Charting discrepancies that were considered significant included the occasional failure of the Kokura technicians to identify teeth with inter‐proximal or esthetic restorations and the misidentification of a mechanically prepared tooth (i.e., tooth prepared for a restoration) as a carious surface.     

Partner Violence Entrapment Scale: Development and Psychometric Testing

This article describes the development and testing of the psychometric properties of the Partner Violence Entrapment Scale (PVES), an instrument that evaluates the women’s perceived reasons for staying in violent partner relationships. After initial pilot testing, the scale was administered to 213 Spanish women who were victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). An exploratory factor analysis identified six factors: Socio-Economic Problems, Attachment and Fear of Loneliness, Blaming Oneself and Resignation, Impact on Children, Fear of Harm and Worry for the Partner, and Feelings of Confusion. Discriminant validity was established by demonstrating associations between PVES factors and socio-demographic, clinical and abuse variables. The scale appears to be a useful assessment tool for social and clinical settings. Its factor structure, reliability, and validity need to be replicated in other populations and samples.     

Simultaneous determination of trace benzodiazepines from drinks by using direct electrospray probe/mass spectrometry (DEP/MS).

This study presents a novel means of rapidly determining benzodiazepines in various drinks. Electrospray mass spectrometry with a direct probe design is used as the analytical instrument. Samples are treated only by a simple liquid-liquid extraction prior to direct electrospray probe/mass spectrometry (DEP/MS) analysis. The proposed method provides a relatively easy and efficient means of identifying the drugs in a very short time interval. On average, sample analysis is completed in less than five minutes including sample pretreatment. It is especially useful in forensic science since the technology can provide a rapid identification for unknown samples. Thus, the method proposed herein is highly appropriate for rapidly screening a large number of samples.     

Confessions: a Model of Officials' Perspectives on Accepting Gifts from Clients in Post-communist Europe

There is widespread criticism of the behaviour of junior officials in post-communist Europe where they are often accused of treating citizens unfairly and soliciting presents or bribes to solve citizens' problems. To get the perspective of officials themselves we interviewed 1307 junior officials and state employees in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This paper focuses on their willingness to accept gifts from clients, their confessions to having done so, and the factors that lead some officials to accept gifts while others do not – factors such as occupational bargaining power and the (related) frequency of offers from clients, economic pressures, national and institutional cultures, fear of punishment, and moral perspectives on charging clients for favours. Economic pressures make officials more inclined to feel that they 'could not afford to refuse' gifts, but this motivation is only weakly related to actual behaviour. Occupational bargaining power and the frequency of offers from clients make them more likely to 'welcome' gifts or accept them 'out of politeness'– and these less excusable motivations are more strongly related to actual gift-taking.