southeastern europe

Originally published in openDemocracy #RethinkingPopulism by Spyros A. Sofos RETHINKING POPULISM.; At a time when new political actors are mounting electoral and increasingly systemic challenges to contemporary democracies in the name of the people, there is little consensus in what the phenomenon is among academics, political activists and citizens alike. openDemocracy has been featuring articles on populist phenomena for some years (Mudde, Rovira Kaltwasser, Mouffe, Marlière, Pappas, Skodo, Sofos, Stavrakakis and Katsambekis, Gerbaudo, Gandesha, Tamás to name but a few) and has been successful in stimulating a recurring interest. But despite or perhaps because of the extensive and thought-provoking research on populism, the term has come to denote a range of widely diverse phenomena. Our aim is to bring together voices that don’t often interact, either because they belong to different fields of work, or as a result of geographical distance, to contribute to a vigorous and co...

Academics, journalists, activists and public intellectuals issue a call for justice and respect. The initiative stresses the need for mutual understanding and dialogue as a way out of the political polarization that threatens the very fabric of Turkish society in the wake of Gezi protests. Unlike its predecessors, the inititative reaches out to various segments of the  society, from pious intellectuals to democratic left, the LGBT to Kurds and Alevis, and attemtps to propose a brief list of democratic measures that can be adopted quickly, to alleviate the ongoing tensions and make space for the discussion of more fundmental problems, notably the Kurdish peace process. The call will be made public in a meeting that will take place on  Thursday   11 July 2013 at 11.00, in Aynali Gecit (see below for details). You are all welcome! Address: Meşrutiyet Cad. Avrupa Pasajı No:8 K.2 Galatasaray / Beyoğlu/Istanbul Emine Tarhan Email: emitarhan@gmail.com

This is a second effort to comment on the recent protest in Turkey. This 'second take' is informed by having had the opportunity to talk  over the past couple of days  to a number of people  in Istanbul  with diverse opinions on the situation  . In an article  I wrote back in 2007 on the events of the summer of that year in Turkey, I had tried to develop a reasoning that countered the way in which the military-bureaucratic establishment in Turkey framed Islamism in general, and the AKP in particular, as the ‘Other’, as an outsider to the Turkish body politic that threatened to destroy the achievements of the secular, modernizing forces that had built the Republic. I was arguing then it is evident that, contrary to the attempted simplification of the current political situation into one characterized by the irreconcilable conflict between a monolithic and fundamentalist Islamist camp bent on introducing Şeriat (sharia law) and Turkey’s secular for...

The protests that spread from the relatively small and rather underused Gezi park in Istanbul to a host of cities and towns throughout Turkey are not likely to overthrow the AKP government. As I was pointing out in another note , the demonstrations had a dual effect. On the one hand they were an indictment of the the arrogance and contempt for dissenting opinion displayed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and an expression of increasing unease at the way the party has been introducing issues of public morality in the political agenda as new alcohol regulations and the Ankara Metro protests indicate. And, it is becoming increasingly clear that they constituted a condemnation of the alliance of the AKP with particular corporate elites that seem to benefit from the capitalist development model the party has promoted. On the other hand, they inadvertently exposed the irrelevance and lack of vision of the opposition parties. The protests are likely to fizzle out, the AKP will probably stay on ...

Taksim Meydanı has been a focal point of political protest in Turkey for the best part of the last one hundred years. It has also seen its fair share of violence and destruction: the Kanlı Pazar (Bloody Sunday) of February 1969, the Kanlı 1 Mayıs (First of May massacre) of 1977 are the most well known such examples. Traditionally the location of choice for the celebration of the 1st of May for the Left, it was off limits this year as the May Day events were not allowed to take place there. As a result, small scale skirmishes between Left-wing activists and the police took place in the surrounding streets a month ago but the area was soon back to normality.  So, earlier last month, no one would have imagined that Taksim would once more become the arena of the violent events of the past few days. The few protesters that started gathering and organized a sit-in at the site of Gezi Park in the run-up to 26 May to protest against the destruction of Gezi Park and the rebuilding ...

English translation of an article originally published in  http://www.sydsvenskan.se/opinion/aktuella-fragor/tala-om-modeller/ IN SEARCH OF A MODEL FOR THE MIDDLE EAST: RETHINKING THE TURKISH AND NORDIC EXPERIENCES På Spaning Efter En Modell För Mellanöstern: … Av Turkiska Och Nordiska Erfarenheter Umut Ozkirimli är professor i samtida Turkietstudier och verksam vid Centrum för Mellanösternstudier vid Lunds universitet. Spyros A. Sofos är gästforskare vid Centrum för Mellanösternstudier vid Lunds universitet. The “Arab Spring” caught everybody off guard. Almost overnight, autocratic regimes have been toppled, social and ideological fissures have emerged, and conflict has become the order of the day, sometimes crashing hopes for freedom, democracy and dignity. But political change is like the Swedish winter, long and replete with challenges. Transition to democracy requires a national consensus and a new social contract based on respect for human rights,...

Over the past year or so 'something' has been happening in Turkey. After the spectacular showdown between the military and judiciary on the one hand and the AKP government on the other, after the survival of the latter in the face of a Supreme Court case that could have entailed the closure of the party, a series of conspiracies to destabilize the government, or to create a 'hot' incident with Greece have been seeing the light of publicity ( Balyoz ( Sledgehammer) plot ). The erstwhile untouchable army has had to endure intense and unrelenting adverse publicity and to witness a litany of middle and high-ranking officers being implicated in these cases or even investigated. Allegations of plots ranging from the childish to the sinister (both of which, incidentally, the military has been proven to excel in) are now part of the staple daily media diet of a Turkish public hooked on the suspense and excitement these provide.  At the same time, the  Erdoğan government is prop...

The Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew has been critical of the stance of the Turkish government towards the Patriarchate and the country's remnants of its once large and vibrant Christian Orthodox community in an interview with CBS television. Watch CBS News Videos Online Patriarch Bartholomew said Turkey’s Greek Orthodox community does not feel that they enjoy full freedoms as Turkish citizens and that they are treated as “second-class citizens.” Referring to circles within the Turkish establishment, the Patriarch said “[They] would be happy to see the patriarchate extinguished or moving abroad, but our belief is that it will never happen”. “I have visited the prime minister, many ministers, submitting our problems … asking [them] to help us,” with no success. The European Union and the US have frequently criticized Turkey for not reopening the Halki Greek Orthodox seminary closed in 1971 and not taking measures to pr...