Twenty years in the Turkic world N & P

Sunday, September 23, 2012 Up here at the Borderlands Lodge we're celebrating 20 years of life in the Turkic World. It was twenty years ago this weekend that I flew out to Turkey to begin what I thought would be just a year or two before I found something better to do. Twenty years later, Turkey and the Turkic World are still a huge part of my life. Go figure. How did it all begin? Well, if you've read by bio you probably know most of the details. I had been traveling around southeastern Europe in the Spring of 1992, fresh out of college and trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. The plan, to the extent that I had one, was to find a job teaching English somewhere. Turkey was far from my mind, though. Instead, I was hoping to find work in some of the newly opened-up parts of Eastern Europe, someplace like Prague or Budapest. Istanbul was supposed to just be a quick stop between Greece and Bulgaria. It didn't quite work out that way. Traveling in to Istanbul I met a Turkish kid who would end up helping out a group of foreigners from the train I'd taken, myself included. One thing led to another, and I ended up getting a job at Marmara University. I tell the story here, if you're interested. The carefree days of 1992

Ne zaman? Bo-zaman! Photos from Bozeman

Monday, June 4, 2012 Up here at the Borderlands Lodge, the weather is still gorgeous. This is the latest I've stayed in Bozeman during the summer. It's a damn shame I haven't spent more of the warm-weather part of the year here because I live in an incredibly gorgeous part of the world. But it's not always ideal for someone working on the Russian-Turkic borderlands to get away in the winter--especially if you want to work someplace like Georgia or the Crimea, where it's not only cold but also very dark in the archives and everywhere else.

Erdogan and abortion, part deux

Friday, June 1, 2012 Regarding my post from a couple of days ago, another point regarding this issue that I wish I'd made above: Erdogan is also speaking out against caesarean births. This strikes me as an attempt to discuss a cultural/class issue, rather than a strictly religious one. Caesarean births also seem quite common in Turkey. The attitude among the middle class people I knew--men and women--struck me as interesting when I first started living in Istanbul. Having a c-section, whether it was medically necessary or not, appeared to be a lot more accepted and normal-seeming than it was in the US. That's the way it seemed, at any rate, based on the attitudes of the people I knew. I taught private lessons to practically an entire (and entirely male) test-tube baby team at the German Hospital back in the 1990s, and it was interesting hearing their attitudes regarding c-sections. As was the case with the moms and single women I knew, the doctors talked about scheduling c-sections in terms of their predictability. In a city with Istanbul's traffic, people tell me, it would be too dangerous to leave things to chance. What if you got caught in rush hour traffic?

Erdogan: abortion is murder

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 According to the Turkish Daily Bugle, Prime Minister Erdogan has made some strong statements against abortion. Here is a small excerpt:  Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he considered abortion as "murder." "I am a prime minister who is against Caesarean births. I consider abortion as murder," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency. Erdogan further stated that "every abortion is Uludere", referring to the botched air raid that had claimed 34 lives. "Nobody should have the right to allow this. You either kill a baby in mother's womb or you kill it after birth. There's no difference." In Turkey, abortion is legal during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The woman's consent is required but if the woman is married, the husband's consent is also required. The New York Times also covered this story, going into some more detail: Calling abortion an act of murder and an insidious plan to reduce the Turkish population, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Tuesday for legislation to restrict women’s access to the procedure. Since 1983, abortion has been legal in Turkey for up to 10 weeks after conception, with emergency abortions allowed for medical reasons after that.Mr. Erdogan proposed outlawing all abortions that are not medically necessary, and limiting medically necessary abortions to the first eight weeks after conception, according to NTV, a private television news network. “There is no difference in killing the fetus in a mother’s womb or killing a person after birth,” Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday, echoing comments he made Friday at the opening of a hospital in Istanbul and on Saturday to a group of female politicians in Ankara, the capital.

Coups, Constitutions and the 27th of May

Sunday, May 27, 2012 It's May 27, and Spring has arrived at the Borderlands Lodge! Okay, maybe not. I even had to shovel snow off of the Bordermobile in order to go buy some eggs this morning. I was wearing shorts and flip-flops, though, so at least it felt somewhat Spring-like. It's the day before Memorial Day in the USA but in Turkey they're marking a different kind of memory. On this date in 1960, Turkey would experience the first of a series of military interventions, when Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was overthrown in a coup.

Remember Ergenekon?

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: TDT: Give us a summary of your findings. Gürsoy: The Ergenekon investigation and trials are a double-edge sword for Turkish democracy. They are good in a sense that it’s possible to observe that with these trials, public attitudes toward the military have began to change. People have less confidence in the Turkish military. But it is also possible to observe that they are leading to polarization in Turkish politics, especially between supporters of political parties, and that’s not good for Turkish democratic consolidation. TDT: Your study also suggests that there is also a negative consequence of Ergenekon case.Gürsoy: It leads to polarization. When you investigate which groups believe the Ergenekon terrorist organization exists, you can see a sharp difference between political party supporters. Those who voted for the AKP [Justice and Development Party] in the 2011 elections overwhelmingly think that the Ergenekon terror organization exists. Most of those who voted CHP [Republican People’s Party] think that Ergenekon does not exist and that the case rests on fabricated evidence. There is a sharp polarization between CHP and AKP supporters. Read the whole interview for context, but I found it interesting that the "negative" potential of Ergenekon was that it leads to "polarization!"

Menderes thesis: still around today

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 memory or sensation. Speaking of hard drives getting blasted, that is exactly what happened to me one evening back in Azerbaijan in 2004. On my computer that night were a number of files--including my Princeton MA Thesis--which were never completely recovered, despite the best efforts of the crack team of computer forensics experts I assembled over there. Fast-forward to a snowy morning in Bozeman, Montana not too long ago. The hard copy of my thesis is unearthed from storage while I'm looking for something else. It sits around on the bed in my guest bedroom for a few weeks before I decide to take it into the office, where I scanned it onto a pdf file.  The thesis is about the political rehabilitation of Adnan Menderes in the 1980s. Menderes had been Prime Minister of Turkey from 1950 to 1960, before he was removed in a coup on May 27th, 1960. He was executed a year later, following a brief imprisonment and trial on İmralı Island, in the Marmara Sea.

A new article: "The Economics of Muslim Cultural Reform"

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 Reform: Money, Power, and Muslim Communities in Late Imperial Russia."   The article is about the issue of Muslim educational reform in late imperial Russia, a topic that is generally treated within the realm of ideas. Rather than look at 'debates' or 'arguments' about reforms, I zero in on a subject close to the heart of all teachers: cold hard cash.

Borderland ski report

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.  Finally, though, we had a good dumping of snow on Monday and Tuesday. I was itching to hit the slopes. Unfortunately, time would be tight. I had a meeting in the morning and would be participating on a panel in the evening. Nevertheless, I managed a quick drive up to Bridger. I skied Alpine, the easiest slope, which is still sunny in the early afternoon (parts of Bridger get dark a bit early). True confession: I'd always considered skiing a bit decadent. A bit like golf. Yes, you're in the great outdoors but you're getting in a car and driving in order to go down a hill they've developed. Expensive gear is important. I get it. But I'd skied as a kid, and have fond memories of ending a day at Boyne Mountain in northern Michigan, following my Dad down an empty tree-lined trail back to the hotel. I think this is one reason why I like skiing the Alpine lift at Bridger.

Losing the liberal autocrat

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. One point that I was looking to see brought up was what might transpire if Putin were to be driven out of power at some point. My sense is that most people in the US think that this would be a good thing.  Without question, Putin is an autocrat. But while his background is that of the KGB, it's also that of St. Petersburg and late-era Soviet liberalism. While Putin is hardly cuddly and nice, he was by no means the most odious political figure to emerge in Russia in the 1990s. Is Putin a liberal? Not really, under most people's definition of the term. But he's an institutional man, a complete non-populist. He's like David Stern today or Mintemir Shaimiev circa 2000, someone who's been around so long that he's mostly interested in preserving the status quo at this point. Staying in power. Increasingly predictable. In other words: Putin might not care much about little Central Asian girls getting beaten up in St. Petersburg, but he's no fascist. No radical. But that old guard is slipping away. First Rakhimov. Then Shaimiev. And then?  Where have you gone, Mintemir?

Borderlands week in review: low ski N & P

Sunday, January 22, 2012 

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.

One thing I haven't been spending much time lately has been skiing. You heard me right, Borderlanders. The skiing has been really pitiful this year, it's been really frustrating. Loyal readers will remember that I took a couple of trips up to the mountaintop in late December, but since that time it's been nothing going on. First, I was researching in Istanbul, and ever since my return there hasn't been much snow at all.

Actually, we had a really nice dump of snow last Sunday night. On MLK day I briefly entertained the idea of heading up the mountain, but I figured who needs it? I was still recovering from my Freezing Delta Flight-inspired flu, the ski hill was going to be mobbed with people who only get to ski on weekends and holidays, and in any case the weather report said not to worry, Borderlanders, we've got you covered, it will snow every day this week.

What happened instead was on Tuesday we had wild winds--40 mph--which literally blew all of the snow off the ground. There were a couple of dustings later in the week, but then the weather turned warmed. Yesterday, my friends, third week of January, up here at the Borderlands Lodge we had...rain.

That rain turned to snow overnight, but it's still pretty paltry. I'm losing my patience--pretty soon I think I'll just hit the slopes regardless of what's beneath me. 

Bummer!

Back from Sultan City N & P

Tuesday, January 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! Mutlu Yıllar, my friends!

Starting to feel a little borderlandy...

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 "book," and hoping very much to one day remove those quotation marks for good. Something had to give, so between classes and research, I've been scaling back my time in the Borderlands. But then again, as they say up here at the Lodge: you're always in the Borderlands somewhere. Today was fun because I skied for the first time since the Borderland New Year's Blowout Party, held last year at Big Sky last year (I didn't bother skiing while in DC). I had a great time skiing today, even if the snow has been a bit of a disappointment so far this season. Big Sky is the greatest

Turkey Week coming to Montana State

Thursday, November 11, 2010  Guess what, everybody--Turkey week is coming to Bozeman! Yes, it's true: for one glorious week, this university will be spangled and bedangled with all things Turkish. In previous years MSU's Office of International Programs would devote a week every Fall semester to the principle of international study more generally. Starting a couple of years ago, however, the OIP decided instead to focus upon just one country each year. And this year, that country is Turkey! So all sorts of exciting things are taking place. As you can tell from the list of events below, there will be plenty of food, frolicking, fanfare, and fun for everybody. There will also be several speakers, including Stephen Kinzer and myself. The choice to focus on Turkey is in some ways a natural for MSU. In recent years, the school has done a lot to promote exchange programs with Turkish universities. This year, there are approximately 40 Turkish undergrads studying here as part of joint-degree programs between MSU, Istanbul Technical University, and Selcuk University in Konya. All in all, it should be a pretty good show. Almost all of the events are free and open to the public, so anyone in the neighborhood is encouraged to stop by.

9/12

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. Why write about 9/12? Because, while Americans have tended to remember 9/11 in terms of American victimization and American loss, a lot of the rest of the world remembers 9/11 for what came later. Yes, we lost 3,000 people in an unspeakable act of violence. But, in our grief, we allowed our military to be used to attack and occupy a country that had nothing to do with the attacks. Estimates at Iraqi casualties stemming from our invasion range between the low hundreds of thousands to over one million. Americans remembered 9/11 at football games and elsewhere this weekend, but how selective was this memory?

And now what happens in Libya?

Thursday, August 25, 2011  Well, it looks like the moment folks have been waiting for has finally arrived: Muammar Qadaffi appears to have left Tripoli, and perhaps right now is hiding in a spider-hole somewhere. Who knows? It wasn't long ago that the US government was trumpeting Qadaffi as a success story in the war on terrorism In a post put up yesterday, Juan Cole--someone whose views I have a lot of respect for despite Cole's consistent support for the Libya war--discusses how to avoid the mistakes of Iraq in Libya.

Obama's Afghanistan Speech

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 but bothered me in others. On the one hand, I appreciate Obama's efforts to place emphasis upon the theme of withdrawal. He's setting expectations for continued withdrawal, rather than continued occupation, and that's a good thing. Tonight, I can tell you that we are fulfilling that commitment. Thanks to our men and women in uniform, our civilian personnel, and our many coalition partners, we are meeting our goals. As a result, starting next month, we will be able to remove 10,000 of our troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and we will bring home a total of 33,000 troops by next summer, fully recovering the surge I announced at West Point. After this initial reduction, our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan Security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security. Okay, good. No one expects the US to leave tomorrow. Personally, I was upset by the surge and wished, at the time it was announced, that Obama had instead focused on withdrawal. But what's done is done. While it's too bad that so many Americans seem to think that Osama bin Laden's death is the difference-maker with regard to whether or not the US should be occupying Afghanistan, at this point I welcome any pressure that Obama might put on his administration to get 'combat troops' out of there.

NATO money and the Libya war

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 is part of what Gates said:

"The blunt reality," he continued, "is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the US Congress – and in the American body politic writ large – to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense - nations apparently willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets."

The funny part of this, of course, is that the money that NATO countries have been spending lately has absolutely nothing to do with "their own defense," but rather has gone towards a seemingly endless occupation of Afghanistan and a war against Libya, a country which had attacked no one. So yeah, it does seem strange that American officials would seriously expect anyone to follow their lead.

Pass the Kleenex...

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, New York Times, and elsewhere. Here is an excerpt from a recent piece in Today's Zaman: ...the style and the content of these reports and pieces gives a repugnant impression and the feeling that they do not even consider these priorities and benefits. The authors of these pieces are either unaware of the realities of the country they are reviewing or they are governed by the same center. The second option seems to be more relevant and valid, given that they are repeating the same arguments. It is impossible to conclude that these articles do not have any prior concerns, considering that they are written as if Turkey is not witnessing a bitter struggle against gangs, military juntas and deep state structures whose extensions can be found in politics, civil society and the media.

The other side of Turkey's economic boom...

Thursday, June 9, 2011 I saw a semi-interesting Reuters story a couple of days ago (Facebook Borderlanders may have already seen it) about the apparently growing wealth gap in Turkey.  Much of the article is made up of rather empty fluff about a couple of individuals the journalist happens to talk to, but there were some statistics thrown out which surprised me a bit. This is what the Reuters piece sez: The gulf between Turkey's rich and poor regions is vast, with its western provinces, Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines enjoying a per capita income more than twice that of the interior and the east. The ruling AK Party, poised to win a third term in an election on June 12, has presided over an unprecedented period of economic prosperity for Turkey. Per capita income rose from $3,492 (2,124 pounds) in 2002, the year it took power, to $10,079 in 2010. But according to a 2008 study Turkey's rich-poor divide is the highest among OECD countries after Mexico, and looks likely to remain so.  Latest Turkish data from 2009 showed income inequality rose that year and that the richest 20 percent of the population had a household income 8.5 times higher than the bottom 20 percent, up from 8.1 times in 2007. I'll be honest, I should know a lot more about the Turkish economy than I do. But one thing I do know is that, since so much of the Turkish economy is under the table, economic statistics like this should probably be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Long NYT piece on Gulen schools in USA

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, who was forced out of Turkey in 1999, is the center of a large network of schools, businesses, and media holdings (including Today's Zaman) located in Turkey and in other countries. Fethullah Gulen

Turkey's 1980 coup leaders feeling some heat...

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. (Here is Today's Zaman take on the story). Kenan Evren in 1980

Islamic finance coming to Russia?

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 guarantee sukuk bonds for the construction of a new finance center. Sukuk don't pay interest, but rather give the owner a share of the enterprise. Here's what the article says: "Russia will show that it can be interesting for Muslim countries," one of the project's backers, Linar Yakupov told AFP. "Right now Islamic banks cannot work in Russia, because our legislation does not take into account the Koran's restrictions." Islam forbids borrowing or paying with interest, and sukuk (the plural of the Arabic word for a financial deed) are not based on debt like traditional bonds. Instead, buying the bonds secures partial ownership in a concrete asset like land or a building, and investors are guaranteed a part of the profits generated by this asset. The first sukuk to be issued in Tatarstan's capital Kazan on June 20 will be going toward financing a major business centre in the city whose construction will cost $200 million. "Sukuk are guaranteed by the Tatarstan government, the operator will be based in Luxembourg, and we know that the international market is ready to buy," Yakupov said. Rustam Minikhanov According to the article, Tatar president Rustam Minikhanov has called bringing Islamic banks to Russia "possible and even necessary."

On the upcoming Turkish elections

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 on the upcoming Turkish elections. Actually, Taraf's headline is (predictably) misleading, since the Economist piece (which can be compared to a similar editorial in the New York Times) doesn't call the AKP government the best in 66 years. But the piece does praise Erdogan and his government:

Shameless self-promotion: DC events

Sunday, May 8, 2011 It's been a busy time in the imperial metropole lately. On Friday I gave a talk at Georgetown University in front of a small group of DC-based scholars, including much of the Russian history ulema of the region. I presented an article I've been working on lately entitled "Politicizing Islam: Muslim Protesters, Tsarist Officials, and the Crisis of State Sharia in Late Imperial Russia.” Hopefully this piece will emerge somewhere in print before too long and I'll be able to share it with a broader audience. Looking rough but feeling ready

More thoughts on OBL killing...

Tuesday, May 3, 2011  The WAPO sez: OBL unarmed when shot.  In a White House news briefing, press secretary Jay Carney said bin Laden “resisted” when at least one member of the raiding party entered his third-floor room, but he declined to say how the long-hunted al-Qaeda leader had done so.  A woman described as one of bin Laden’s wives “rushed the assaulter” and was shot and wounded in the leg, Carney said. Bin Laden was killed with shots to the head and chest, leaving him with gory wounds that have made U.S. officials reluctant to release a photograph of the body, Carney said. “It’s fair to say it’s a gruesome photograph,” he said, adding that “it could be inflammatory.” In his speech the other night, President Obama said that bin Laden had been "brought to justice." I disagree. Bin Laden wasn't brought to justice, he was shot dead. One can argue that this is what he deserved, but shooting an unarmed person in this way only constitutes bringing someone to justice if you mean cowboy justice, not the sort of justice that is dispensed through a court of law.

Nothing to celebrate

Monday, May 2, 2011 So the CIA finally managed to kill Osama bin Laden and, predictably, yahoos from across the country are celebrating as if we've won something. Indeed, the fact that thousands of Americans would celebrate the killing of an individual like bin Laden is indicative of the degree to which our country has been weakened over the past ten years.  This makes us all look stupid

Stanford workshop...

Saturday, April 9, 2011 Bay area Borderlanders were treated to a workshop this week at Stanford University entitled "Muslim Identities and Imperial Spaces: Networks, Mobility, and the Geopolitics of Empire and Nation." It was a really enjoyable workshop, and not only because it had the longest title ever.  The workshop brought together scholars working on Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and SW Asia to talk about issues cross-secting mobility, human mobility, and transnationalism. On Thursday and Friday we met all day and were treated to presentations from ten scholars coming from as far afield as Pakistan, Holland, Paris, Japan, DC, and other parts of the worldwide borderland community.  Since it wasn't a public conference I'm unfortunately not at liberty to print the program of speakers and talks, but for those of us who attended it was a marvelous experience.  Stanford was lots of fun as well, and the workshop organizers took care of our every need. Many thanks to all for the good times and stimulating conversations!  Here are a couple of shots from my time in Palo Alto. If you're interested in seeing more, check them out on JMB's brand new facebook page. Stanford has a beautiful campus