From Mosaic to Ebru: Conviviality in Multi-ethnic,Multi-faith Burgazadası, Istanbul

This paper provides an understanding of changing diversity in Burgazadas? within the post-Ottoman, homogenising context of Turkey. It critiques conceptualisations of ‘culture as difference’ within the multiculturalism discourse in Europe and of coexistence as the reduction of differences and identities to pre-existing categories of the Ottoman millet system. Instead, it presents post-Ottoman conviviality as a lived practice and grassroots representation of recognised and unrecognised diversities by contextualising the production of differences and changing discourses of pluralism. The article demonstrates that individuals belonging to different groups can come to share similar values based on longstanding attachment to place and everyday practices, thereby representing themselves, in this case, as ‘Burgazl?’.     

Microcycles of Terrorist Violence in Turkey: a Spatio-temporal Analysis of the PKK Attacks

Asian Journal of Criminology - Geography and time are the two constraints on illegal acts. The extant research on terrorism suggests that terrorists make an expected cost-benefit analysis, and thus...     

Profile and Life Span of the PKK Guerillas

This study attempts to explore the span of a life in a specific terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). It suggests the following: The average lifespan of a person in the PKK is about two-and-a-half years (i.e., not a very long one). Females join the PKK at a younger age (about 1.4 years) and die at a younger age (about 1.4 years) compared to males, but their lifespan is not any different than that of males. The age at which a PKK member joins the organization, and the age at which (s)he dies varies by year. The age at which a PKK member joins the organization, and the age at which (s)he dies varies by where (s)he comes from. Still, another interesting observation is that the average lifespan of a PKK member varies by where (s)he comes from.     

The Resurgence of the Niger Delta Militants and the Survival of the Nigerian State

The 2016 resumption of hostilities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region that is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, in a dwindling international oil price, has become a subject of controversy. This analysis, which is based on empirical evidence from primary and secondary sources, shows a group of militants—the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), selective anti-corruption crusade, the clamp down on federal government structure in the Niger Delta, amnesty time limit to Niger Delta ex-militants, self–determination and the attempt to single out former President Goodluck Jonathan from Niger Delta, among other former presidents for prosecution, as the core drivers of insecurity in the oil-rich region. It is suggested that the Nigerian government should embrace the power of dialogue that has brought relative peace in the Niger Delta region from 2009 to 2015, as a veritable tool to stop the ongoing hostilities.     

The ‘European Turks’: identities of high-skilled Turkish migrants in Europe

Using exceptionally rich qualitative data coming from the FP7 EUCROSS project on the ‘Europeanization of the Everyday Life’, this paper focuses on high-skilled and highly transnational Turkish migrants who reside in the UK, Romania and Italy. The article analyses participants’ discursive constructions of Europe and Europeanness and shows how specific images and symbols of Europe and Turkey influence their own relationship to Europe. We argue that understanding Turkish migrants’ identification with Europe requires a comprehensive analysis of the development of a Westernization discourse in Turkey that has framed people’s identities. This discourse symbolizes the desire for being part of the Western world, and especially Western Europe, but, at the same time, the fear of being dominated by the very same world. We show that we need to grasp the values, images, symbols and discourses that underline transnational practices to understand the making of European identity among migrants.