Jim Meyer's Borderlands

Remember Ergenekon?

Jim Meyer — Sat, 26 May 2012 13:59:00 GMT

Saturday, May 26, 2012

I saw something about Ergenekon in the Turkish Daily Tattler yesterday. It seemed so quaint: so people are still talking about Ergenekon!

The piece involved an interview with Yaprak Gürsoy from Istanbul's Bilgi University. Here are some of the things she had to say:
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Back in Bozeman

Jim Meyer — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:30:43 GMT

Glacier is Awesome

Jim Meyer — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:21:37 GMT

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Last week I celebrated the end of the semester by heading up to Glacier with the Bordergirl. First we drove over to Missoula, home of the hated Grizz, then traveled up past Flathead Lake in the northwest part of the state. Our destination: Glacier National Park...

Shots from Bozeman

Jim Meyer — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:49:26 GMT

Thursday, May 10, 2012

I woke up this morning to snowfall outside. Just the day before, I'd been riding my bike in seventy-degree weather. It stopped snowing by late morning, and by late afternoon today it had been replaced by sunshine and warm temperatures...

Goodbye

Jim Meyer — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:58:22 GMT

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

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Copyright 2008-2012 jhmeyer.net

Menderes Thesis: Still around today

Jim Meyer — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:08:00 GMT

Monday, April 16, 2012

Back before I began lurking in the shadows of the Russian-Turkic borderlands, I was an MA student at Princeton's department of Near Eastern Studies. And though I've tried my hardest to repress those years, they continue to come back to me on occasion, blasting my hard drive with the occasional ...

Shameless Self Promotion Dept: A New Article

Jim Meyer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:05:00 GMT

Friday, March 9, 2012

Well folks, I've got a new article out. It's a chapter in an edited volume put together by the folks at the Slavic Research Center in Hokkaido. The volume is entitled Asiatic Russia: Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts and my piece is called "The Economics of Muslim Cultural ...

Borderland Ski Report

Jim Meyer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:02:30 GMT

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Well folks, up here at the Borderlands Lodge we've had, of course, very little snow this winter. That sucks, from a skiing standpoint, even if that has made it easier for me to continue tooling around town by bike.

Losing the Liberal Autocrat

Jim Meyer — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:06:36 GMT

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

I read an interesting set of editorials in the NYT today about Russia, Putin, and the latest elections. Interesting stuff, but maybe I'm just saying that because I'm still a Russia geek, even after all these years.

Borderlands Week in Review

Jim Meyer — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:28:40 GMT

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Well folks, these have been some pretty busy times up at the Borderlands Lodge. The new semester started a couple of weeks ago, and the two classes I've been teaching--"The Making of Modern Turkey" and "Eurasian Borderlands"--have gotten off to a fast start. Writing, too, has kept me pretty busy.
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Back from Sultan City N & P

Jim Meyer — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:55:50 GMT

Tuesday, December 10, 2012

Happy New Year! I don’t know about you folks, but I had a pretty great New Year’s break...and I think that means it's time for some New Year's N & P ...

Goodbye, New Jersey!

Jim Meyer — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:30:00 GMT

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

When I came back to the US in 1999 to begin an MA at Princeton, I didn't have a fellowship. Instead, I used my savings at the time and took out $28,000 in student loans. Fortunately, I was given a fellowship for my second year and never had to take out a student loan again. ...

Starting to feel a bit Borderlandy...

Jim Meyer — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:36:07 GMT

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Up here at the Borderlands Lodge, this week has provided a welcome respite. This semester has been a busy one, of course. As many of you know, I spent the spring semester and summer in DC, and ever since my return to the land of the mountains in ...

Lost Shots from 2011!

Jim Meyer — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:38:00 GMT

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Up here at the Borderlands Lodge, this week has provided a welcome respite. This semester has been a busy one, of course. As many of you know, I spent the spring semester and summer in DC, and ever since my return to the land of the mountains in August I've been working hard on the ...

The Islamophobic GOP

Jim Meyer — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:31:52 GMT

Thursday, October 13, 2011

In case you missed it, the so-called "Value Voters Summit" took place this past weekend in Washington, DC. Ron Paul won the straw poll that was conducted at the end of the convention, beating out fellow GOP candidates who had likewise come to DC to speak at the VVS and attempt ...

9/12

Jim Meyer — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:03:28 GMT

Monday, September 12, 2011

Amid all of the commentary that has come out over the past week or so about remembering the 9/11 attacks, I thought I'd write about 9/12.

And now what happens in Libya?

Jim Meyer — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:06:39 GMT

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Well, it looks like the moment folks have been waiting for has finally arrived: Muammar Gadaffi appears to have left Tripoli, and perhaps right now is hiding in a spider-hole somewhere. Who knows?

In a post put up yesterday, Juan Cole--someone whose views I have a ...

A manufactured crisis...

Jim Meyer — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:13:17 GMT

Friday, July 29, 2011

Pardon me if I haven't been posting much lately--I've been too busy burying gold bars and non-perishable food items in my backyard.

Seriously, though, these are ugly times here in the imperial metropole. What's most frustrating of all, however, is how completely unnecessary this crisis is.

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Obama's Afghanistan Speech

Jim Meyer — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:39:00 GMT

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I was driving through southern Pennsylvania, watching the sun set over West Virginia to my right, while I listened to President Obama's speech on Afghanistan over the radio.

The speech appealed to me in some ways and bothered me in others. On the one hand, ...

Ex-CIA official alleges Juan Cole target of Bush White House

Jim Meyer — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:02:00 GMT

Friday, June 17, 2011

Wow--some pretty disturbing news:

Thousands pouring into Turkey from Syria

Jim Meyer — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 06:07:00 GMT

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Fresh off new elections that saw the AKP returned to power with another majority government, Turkey's government is facing an onslaught of thousands of refugees from Syria.

Al-Jazeera reports that the Syrian Army is "splitting apart." Also alleging that Iranian snipers are being ...

NATO Money and the Libya War

Jim Meyer — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:36:00 GMT

Monday, June 13, 2011

I saw an interesting piece in Juan Cole's Informed Comment yesterday. Cole wrote a really sensible response to Robert Gates' recent speech, in which Gates criticized NATO allies for not emulating the United States in spending lavish sums on defense.

This ...

Turkish election results...

Jim Meyer — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:46:00 GMT

Sunday, June 12, 2011

No surprise here. As everyone has been predicting for weeks, it looks like the AKP will have a big majority, but not enough seats (367) to write a new constitution unilaterally (i.e., without putting it up to a referendum)...

Pass the Kleenex...

Jim Meyer — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 12:54:17 GMT

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The AKP and Today's Zaman sound like spurned lovers the way they're griping over recent editorials criticizing the AKP in the Economist, ...

No $$$ for education, but plenty for war and occupation

Jim Meyer — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:29:00 GMT

Friday, June 10, 2011

There was a thought-provoking and depressing piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education the other day. It was written by Tom Lutz, a professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside. The piece ...

The other side of Turkey's economic boom

Jim Meyer — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:47:00 GMT

Thursday, June 9, 2011

I saw a semi-interesting Reuters story a couple of days ago about the apparently growing wealth gap in Turkey...

Long NYT piece on Gulen schools in America

Jim Meyer — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:17:00 GMT

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

There was a quite long piece in the New York Times a couple of days ago on American charter schools, particularly in Texas, that are associated with the Turkish religious figure Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, ...

Turkey's 1980 coup leaders starting to feel some heat

Jim Meyer — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:14:00 GMT

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Former coup leader and Turkish president Kenan Evren gave testimony to a prosecutor yesterday regarding, apparently, the 1980 coup. Claiming ill health, Evren managed to have the interview take place at his house, rather than at the prosecutor's office.
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Islamic finance coming to Russia?

Jim Meyer — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:06:00 GMT

Monday, June 6, 2011

According to this Agence France-Presse piece, Russia is to "enter the world of Islamic finance."

Actually what appears to be happening is that the Republic of Tatarstan, which is a republic within the Russian Federation, will ...

On the upcoming Turkish elections...

Jim Meyer — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:50:00 GMT

Sunday, June 5, 2011

"Don't vote for the best government in 66 years."

This is how Taraf newspaper sarcastically sums up the logic of recent editorial in the Economist ...