Anatolian Express IV: Thinking Beyond Erdoğan

Monday, May 19, 2014 Well, it's certainly been an interesting first several days in Turkey this year. As was the case last year, when my arrival in Turkey coincided with the explosion of a peaceful sit-in at Gezi Park into a nationwide series of protests, my visit this year has been met by yet another instance in which the Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdoğan, appears to be coming apart at the seams. So much drama, so much unnecessary strife. Now, not only has an aide of Erdoğan been photographed kicking a protester in Soma just days after the mine disaster there, but the good Prime Minister himself has also been accused of punching a protester in, of all places, Soma.

Anatolian Express V: Ankara Getaway

Monday, May 19, 2014  It's been a fun first week back in Turkey, with the first four days spent in Istanbul. But as great as Istanbul is, I also needed to get away from there. One thing I really wanted to do this summer was travel, rather than just hang out in one place the way I usually do when I'm researching. After the last eighteen months or so, I'm interested in catching my breath and spending a bit of time by myself thinking about what to do next. So, after passing a bit of time in the City by the Bos, I decided to head east, to Ankara. Ankara? Really? Yes, really. Greetings from Sunny Ankara!

Anatolian Express III: Istanbul Shotz

Sunday, May 18, 2014 This is the first time since 1997 that I've actually paid my own plane fare across the Atlantic. Everything else over the years that have passed has been covered courtesy of whatever university I was affiliated with at the time, or else by organizations like Fulbright, ARIT, IREX, NCEEER and other institutions whose funding has been slashed in recent years and no longer give out money the way that they used to. I'd actually applied for some grants earlier this year, and have still yet to hear from a couple. But I couldn't wait any longer. I had about a month between sending off my manuscript and getting it back from my copyeditor. I really felt that I needed a holiday, but wasn't sure about where I should go. It seemed kind of silly, at first, coming to Turkey for a vacation. After all, I come here every year. Wouldn't it make more sense to go someplace like Vietnam or Costa Rica?

Anatolian Express II: Soma and Toma

Saturday, May 17, 2014  It's been a busy few days in Istanbul since I arrived on Wednesday afternoon. I haven't been doing anything particularly touristic, at least with respect to sightseeing. Basically, I've been seeing my friends, people I've known, in some instances, for over twenty years. Others are folks I've met along the way during the course of all the trips I've taken back to Turkey since returning to live in the US in 1999--I think I've come to Turkey every year since then. Some people, meanwhile, are new friends, as it seems like every time I come here I meet someone new that I end up keeping in touch with. Almost all of my friends--and particularly the ones I've been hanging out with this week--despise the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan. Like many other people in Turkey and elsewhere, they're appalled by Erdogan's reaction to the Soma mining disaster.

Anatolian Express: Back in Istanbul

Thursday, May 15, 2014 I arrived in Istanbul yesterday after a long flight from Bozeman, with stops in Chicago and Frankfurt en route. It was a good trip, and it's great to be back in the TC. The trip was exhausting, of course, but even on the final leg I was chatting away a mile a minute with Alp, a dude I met on the plane to Istanbul. I had meant to sleep, but frankly was too excited. It's exhilarating to be here on vacation, rather than having to work. This is the first trans-Atlantic plane ticket I've actually had to pay for myself since 1997, and I'd forgotten how liberating it can feel to actually pay your own way once in a while. Not that I'm against receiving free airfare for research, mind you.

Getting Ready to Roll

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 Lately, the Borderlands Lounge has been a hotbed of activity. Now that most of the work related to my book has been finished and the semester is over, I've been able to turn to other things. For one thing, I've managed to spruce up the Borderlands a little bit. During my earlier years at MSU, and especially over the past year and a half or so, it's been hard for me to write much. Unless there was something more pressing going on, I felt like I couldn't really justify writing stuff online when I had a book to write. That was an unfortunate decision, I think, because it's good to have hobbies, and this is something I like doing. Nevertheless, I found it hard to justify spending a lot of time in the Borderlands, so I mainly just pounded away at the book. I think that's probably one reason behind the recent blast of activity that's been coming from these parts.

Referenda Day

Sunday, May 11, 2014 Today, separatists in eastern Ukraine are holding referenda in a number of cities asking about something... “Do you support the People’s Republic of Donetsk?” You mean financially? Are you asking for money? It seems pretty understandable that people would be confused.

The Big V-D

Thursday, May 8, 2014 May 9 is Victory Day, people, exciting times in former Soviet Space!  The chatter today is about the rebels in eastern Ukraine, who are apparently defying Russian President Vladimir Putin's public suggestion that the separatists call off Sunday's planned referendum on autonomy. Some have already raised the idea that this might all be a ploy, specially designed to take the heat off Putin. After all, if he claims that he has no control over the separatists, then he can't be blamed for their actions, right?

Putin's Gambit

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 The big news today is that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on separatists in eastern Ukraine to hold off on their referendum, scheduled for May 11. Putin also reportedly said that the expected presidential voting in Ukraine, set for May 25, was a 'step in the right direction.' This is interesting because he had previously been opposed to the voting. Naturally, people are excited. Here's the Washington Post's take on the developments: Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to take conciliatory steps Wednesday to ease tensions in Ukraine, calling for pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country to postpone a planned Sunday referendum that could exacerbate violence and saying that a May 25 presidential election whose legitimacy the Kremlin had previously questioned was now “a movement in the right direction.” The remarks marked a significant shift in tone from the hard line that Putin and other top Russian officials had taken for weeks toward the acting government in Kiev, which took power after pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled in February in the face of popular protests.

Local and Global N & P

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 Well folks, there's a lot going on these days, both at the Borderlands Lodge and in the world more generally. Locally, there's a flurry of activity taking place in anticipation of upcoming travels. Globally, meanwhile, things are going to hell as usual. Whether you like it local or global, here is your N & P! *** Some news from Montana: the horrid killing of a Turkish-German youth named Diren Dede. Diren was an exchange student at a high school in Missoula, a city about four hours west of Bozeman and home to the University of Montana. He was shot by a man who had set up a video feed to catch burglars, who'd apparently been breaking into the garage recently.

Next stop, Kyiv?

Friday, May 2, 2014 I listened to an interesting interview on NPR today with Alexander Vershbow, the deputy secretary-general of NATO. Vesrhbow mentioned that Russia is now an 'adversary' of the United States, and delivered a measured discussion of current events, I thought. One point that Vershbow seemed to be implying was that the Kremlin's goal is Ukraine, not just eastern Ukraine. If that's what he was saying, I agree. My guess is that, if Putin could have any result he wanted at this point, it would be to bring to power a pro-Russian government in Kyiv. What Putin desires even more than the factories of eastern Ukraine are friendly satellites. He’d like to install a stooge government in Kyiv, and make sure as many of the non-NATO countries are as friendly as possible. I don’t think the goal is necessarily to conquer and incorporate, but rather to develop a coterie of like-minded authoritarian allies. Belarus has, for the most part, had that relationship with Russia for all of Putin’s time in politics. As Vershbow points out, Central Asia is also a possibility. This expanded influence in the available (ie, non-NATO) territories of the former USSR, I think, is more valuable to Russia than eastern Ukraine.

May Day Mayhem in Turkey

Thursday, May 1, 2014 Unsurprisingly, this year's May 1 is proving to be a contested one in Turkey. As I'd speculated elsewhere, the government of Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan appeared to be viewing May 1 as a litmus test of sorts for this year's protest season. Given last year's May 1 conflict in Turkey, and the fact that Turkish police spent most of the summer fighting protesters with tear gas and water cannon, my sense was that the people in charge of the security services in Turkey were hoping for a relatively quiet day. After all, the protest season is still only in spring training.

Erdoğan's interview with Charlie Rose

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan had an hour-long interview on Charlie Rose the other night. I found it pretty riveting. Then again, my taste in entertainment isn't always so great. A lot of the questions that Charlie asked him were pretty classic. The Kurds. The Armenians. A sleepy-looking Rose (did the slip him something beforehand?) perked up for a brief moment when he actually thought he might get Erdoğan to issue a sort of apology for the Armenian genocide on live TV. It didn't happen, but I was nevertheless surprised to see the Prime Minister indicate, after providing a series of qualifications, that he might be open to doing something like that in the future.

Special Springtime N & P

Friday, April 25, 2014 Well folks, it's been a long time since I've done an N & P. Now that the semester is ending and spring is finally coming to the northern Rockies, I think it's time to reflect and think about the news and propaganda that's been on our plate most recently.  A big question that people have been asking lately is whether the 'little green men' in eastern Ukraine are tied to Russia. It seems like there's a pretty good chance that there is, even if some of the photographic evidence connecting Russia to the developments has been challenged.

Turks Across Empires

Thursday, April 24, 2014 Up here at the Borderlands Lodge, it's been a pretty busy year--one reason why I wasn't able to post very regularly. Mainly, my time has been spent working on a book. It's been crazy. As I've mentioned elsewhere, writing a book has been the most humbling and humiliating process I've ever been through. Part of the problem was, once I'd finished my dissertation, there were basically three directions that I thought I could take the book. As of February of last year, I'd cycled through two of those options, and had received nothing but rejections from the publishers I'd contacted. I really felt like I was down to my last strike, so (to continue with the sports analogies) I swung for the seats. I ended up writing on a topic that I'd earlier dismissed, one that I thought was too hackneyed or silly to write about. Wouldn't you know it? Of course, that was the very idea that people ended up finding interesting. It might sound strange to hear that I had three basic ideas for the book, but 85% of each of these projects was based upon the same material. The difference occurred mainly in the big-picture elements.

The Not-So Great Game: The US and Russia in Post-Soviet Space

Tuesday, April 22, 2014 Lots of people have been asking lately if the recent developments in Ukraine signify a return to a Cold War between the United States and Russia. I would say no. This is why: The Cold War was fought on ideological grounds. This is not the case with the US and Russia today, who battle mainly over commercial interests and political influence. In this respect, American-Russian relations over the past two decades remind me much more of Russian-British relations during the late nineteenth century. The 'Great Game,' as people call it, led to a series of proxy battles between the two empires across the Balkans, Middle East and Eurasia. So great they named a game after it

Ukraine Deal: Unrealistic Expectations

Sunday, April 20, 2014 On Thursday in Geneva, representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the US and the EU worked out an agreement to bring separatists and authorities back from the brink of war in eastern Ukraine. Here's a summary of the deal: The US, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union have reached agreement on a series of immediate steps aimed at pulling eastern Ukraine back from the brink of war. The deal, clinched after a dramatic extended meeting in Geneva, calls for the disarming of all illegal groups. In the next few days they would have to vacate all the government buildings and public spaces they have occupied over the course of the crisis.

Turkey: On to the next crusade

Saturday, April 19, 2014 It was an arresting headline: "Turkey mulls leaving World Wide Web." No, it wasn't from the Onion. Apparently, the article was real: During an informal meeting with journalists in the Parliament on April 19, Elvan argued that not only Turkey, but also several European Union countries mull to establish "their own national Internet protocols." "Instead of www, a ttt system can be formed. Turkey and other countries can establish their own domains. Such a move would detach the Internet systems from each other. This is a controversial issue," Elvan said. Elvan also called for an "international convention" to cope with the "the lack of control over social media."  Those of you who follow the news in Turkey have no doubt heard about recent efforts in that country to block YouTube and Twitter, while rumors had been running wild earlier this year about the imminent closure of Facebook.

Will he or won't he? Putin and eastern Ukraine

Saturday, April 12, 2014 That's the big question this weekend, isn't it? Will Russia attack eastern Ukraine, splitting off still more territory from that country? For the Putin of ten years ago, I'd say no way. That Putin was much too smart to do something like this. For Putin 2014, however, I can't say I'm sure. As Angela Merkel seemed to imply in her account of her telephone discussion with Putin the weekend of the Crimea takeover, the Russian president may well be living in an alternate reality. Bill Simmons, meanwhile, would probably say that Putin is just having his "I'm Keith Hernandez" moment. "I'm Keith Hernandez, I can invade any country I want"

Ron LeFlore

Saturday, April 5, 2014 A couple of weeks ago, I received a Ron LeFlore Montreal Expos jersey in the mail. I'd ordered it on the spur of the moment a week earlier, but had long been considering the move.  Why Ron LeFlore? Good question. LeFlore played for the Detroit Tigers in the second half of the 1970s, when I was a kid. He made the All-Star team in 1976. In 1980, LeFlore was traded to the Montreal Expos (Ron Lafleur!) in exchange for pitcher Dan Schatzeder. Altogether, he played nine years in the major leagues.

Crimea and eastern Ukraine: Things can always get worse

Thursday, March 6, 2014 While things in the Crimea are bad, it could always get worse. Conflict between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine would make the events taking place in the Crimea look relatively simple by comparison. While there are ethnic Russians in both the Crimea and eastern Ukraine, the situations in the two regions are different. The Crimea, unlike eastern Ukraine, is a republic. It is in fact a ‘mini-republic,’ one of the smaller entities within the fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics that became independent during the time that the USSR was breaking up in 1991. I’ve written a lot about ‘mini-republics,’ a term I’ve used to describe the smaller entities that were within the Fab 15 republics of the USSR. The Fab 15 all became independent during the time that the USSR was breaking up in 1991. Since then, most of the major confrontations taking place in post-Soviet space have resulted from disputes over the borders of these mini-republics. Such has been the case with Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, Southern Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and now the Crimea as well.

Crimea: tough options

Wednesday, March 5, 2014 One thing that I’ve been struck by with regard to the events relating to the Crimea is how little people in the US seem to care. I guess this shouldn’t be a big surprise—since when do Americans care much about foreign policy? Compared, say, to the ways in which ordinary people in the US became agitated about Kuwait in the aftermath of Iraq's invasion in 1991, American interest in Russia and the Crimea has been very tepid this week.  The reason, I think, is because Americans take their cues on matters like this from the President. Americans cared about Iraq in 1990 because they understood that Bush was going to do something. People realize, I think, that Obama will do nothing exciting regarding the Crimea so their concentration is elsewhere.

Russia and the politics of citizenship

Tuesday, March 4, 2014 One less-noted aspect regarding the events taking place in the Crimea is the role that citizenship has played in the conflict. In the Washington Post this morning, there's a small piece by Eric Lohr on a phenomenon that I've mentioned a couple of times in this blog: According to existing Russian law and generally accepted international practice, citizenship is normally granted only to individuals residing within the country. However, the Russian Federation has waived the normal residence requirements and waiting periods before to naturalize populations outside its borders. In the Georgian territories Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia allowed thousands of natives of the region to naturalize by expedited procedures during a controversial naturalization drive in the summer of 2002 and sporadically afterwards, then expanded this program during and after the war. According to the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, this provided a justification for intervention (to protect “Russian citizens”) and a legal means to meld the regions into the Russian sphere after Russia recognized the two areas as independent states (a recognition that the rest of the world has not endorsed). It's an interesting issue, and there now are indeed reports that, as was the case with Abkhazia, Russian officials have been distributing passports in Ukraine for some time. These reports correspond with older rumors that such a practice was indeed taking place.

Crimea: More than just a war

Sunday, March 2, 2014 These are pretty old, but I wanted to put up some photographs documenting what a special and beautiful place the Crimea is. I've made two trips to the Crimea in my life. The first time was in 1994, a couple of years after I'd started living in Istanbul. It was part of a ten-week trip that I took through Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova, but unfortunately my camera was stolen in Varna, Bulgaria on my way back to Istanbul and with it all of my undeveloped film.

More thoughts on Crimea

Saturday, March 1, 2014 There's a piece I noticed yesterday in the Washington Post on the Crimea--it turns out that to 'understand' Crimea, you have to at least take a look at its history.It's nice to know that the Crimea is understandable, but it is kind of a bummer to think that I'd have to go through the trouble of 'taking a look at its history' first.1  More seriously, there is a problem in the piece (or at least something I don't understand). The piece’s author, Adam Taylor, writes "[w]hen Ukraine held a referendum on independence in December 1991, 54 percent of Crimean voters favored independence from Russia." That would be independence from the USSR, not Russia. The quotation links to a 2002 book by Mark Beissinger, an expert on the region and a political scientist from Princeton. But Beissinger’s point is that, because of the large Russian population in the Crimea, there was less support for independence from the USSR. In other words, little enthusiasm for Ukrainian independence. But there's a huge difference between favoring, in 1991, 'independence from Russia' and preferring to break away from the USSR. *

Crimea on the Brink: What's Going On?

Friday, February 28, 2014 Visitors to the Borderlands Lounge know that I have been linking to news events in the Crimea all week. And now, things seem to be getting much, much worse.

So watcha want? Choices re Syria

Sunday, September 15 Now that the US and Russia have reached an agreement to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stocks, the Obama administration needs to take this opportunity to figure out what it really wants in Syria.  A while ago I posted a set of ten questions that I'd like to hear the Obama administration answer. There was particular love for #9, which was nice to see. But the big question facing the Obama administration right now is: should the goal in Syria be regime change or ending the conflict? Obama & Co. seem unsure on this point, and it is for this reason that policy towards Syria has been, to put it charitably, somewhat less than coherent. So far, regime change appears to have been the goal, but the administration doesn't give the impression of having a clear idea about what Syria should ultimately look like (question #2 from last week). More than anything, administration's sabre-rattling seems to have thus far been mainly about 'maintaining credibility.'

10 Questions regarding Syria

Tuesday, September 3, 2013 The following are some questions I hope congressional leaders ask the Obama administration regarding Syria:  1. Wait--why is this a good idea again?     This question always seems worth asking, especially when someone is     trying to convince you that we suddenly need to go to war.  2. What, if any, idea do you have regarding how you want Syria to       look when this conflict is over?       If the Assad regime falls, there is potential for Syria breaking apart.        Does the Obama administration view the current borders of Syria as         sacred? What about the Kurdish region of northern Syria?

New article: Speaking Sharia to the State in Imperial Russia

Thursday, August 22 

Greetings from the friendly confines of the Borderlands Lodge! Montana is a bit smoky right now, with regional forest fires mucking up the otherwise pristine nature of Gallatin County.

I wanted to mention that a new article of mine is now out in the journal Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History.

 The piece is called "Speaking Sharia to the State: Muslim Protesters, Tsarist Officials, and the Islamic Discourses of Late Imperial Russia." It tells the story of nearly three decades of protests taking place among Muslim communities in the Volga-Ural region of late imperial Russia. How, I ask, does a series of conflicts relating to economics, law, and administration end up getting articulated, by Muslim protesters and Tsarist officials alike, in terms of Islam?