Browsing by Author "Criss, Nur Bilge"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11

Open Access
Epiloque
(Brill, 2009) Criss, Nur Bilge; Harris, G. S.; Criss, Nur Bilge
Open Access
Europe and Turkey: Does religion matter?
(Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2008) Criss, Nur Bilge; Jung, D.; Raudvere, C.
Ever since Claude Lévi-Strauss, a social anthropologist, introduced the term “l’égo et l’autre” it has become very fashionable to apply the “Self” and the “Other” to international affairs as well as to history. Shortly thereafter, concepts such as “identity politics” or the “politics of identity” began to fill research agendas. Although there is nothing wrong with mapping identities, it has certain methodological drawbacks for scholarship. Many times overemphasizing identities, in an effort to neatly categorize them, results in defining peoples and events based solely on ethnic/racial, national, or religious straitjackets. This is not very different from applying the principles of classifying botanical fauna to the human fora, which does not necessarily contribute to our knowledge, especially in geographies where religious/linguistic/ethnic identities overlap. Cosimo de Medici (“The Great,” Duke of Florence, banker, 1519–1603), one of the great men of the Renaissance once said, “I am human, so nothing about humanity is alien to me” (quoted in Çaykara 2005: 373). His statement makes sense today only if we remember the connection between the word “other” and its Latin version “alienus.” Today, despite all the hype of globalization, humanistic and political cosmopolitanism is absent. The fast pace of our world also brings about simplistic and categorical sociopolitical descriptions that are often hostile and divisive.
Open Access
International Institutions and European Security: a Turkish perspective
(Palgrave Macmillan, 1995) Criss, Nur Bilge; Carnovale, M.
The world order is increasingly being reshaped along the lines of the classical system of balance of power and concomitant spheres of influence. While the merits of this are debatable, it is indisputable that no clear modus vivendi has been established in international relations. During the euphoria connected with the collapse of communist systems, expectations ran high. Some even welcomed ‘the end of history’: liberalism had triumphed. But subsequent events indicated that liberalism had only begun to penetrate societies where it had previously been repressed. Meanwhile, history has reasserted itself with a vengeance, and the question of how to manage international security remains open.
Open Access
Istanbul: Die Russischen Fluechtlinge am Bosporus
(Verlag, C.H. Beck, 1994) Criss, Nur Bilge; Schlögel, K.
Open Access
The Last Ottoman Wars: The Human Cost, 1877–1923, by Salt Jeremy. University of Utah Press, 2019. 432 pages. $40, hardcover.
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2022-09-12) Criss, Nur Bilge
Open Access
The nature of PKK terrorism in Turkey
(Taylor & Francis, 1995) Criss, Nur Bilge
This study is undertaken to evaluate the profile of the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) and Kurdish political behavior separately in an attempt to distinguish the Kurdish issue from terrorism. PKK's profile has changed between 1978, when it was founded and now, depending on Turkey's internal politics as well as the changing international environment. Basically, it started out as a Marxist‐Leninist separatist organization, but by 1990 switched to demanding a federation of Kurds and Turks, and simultaneously bidding for a role in an independent Kurdestan comprising southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. PKK's only consistent policy is to have remained a Marxist‐Leninist organization so far. The first part of this article addresses the roots, objectives, and methods of the PKK. The second part assesses the problem within Turkey's domestic environment, with a focus on whether PKK truly represents Turkey's Kurds. The third section tries to answer the question of who provides the logistical and financial support for PKK, thereby exploring the issue's international dimensions. The last section evaluates prospects regarding a “political solution” to the problems of the southeast, which is now being voiced in both Turkey and Western capitals.
Open Access
Shades of diplomatic recognition: American encounters with Turkey (1923–1937)
(Brill, 2009) Criss, Nur Bilge; Harris, G. S.; Criss, Nur Bilge
Open Access
A Short history of anti-americanism and terrorism: The Turkish case
(Temple University Press, 2003) Criss, Nur Bilge; Meyerowitz, J.
Open Access
Turkey's relations with the west, 1908-1945
(Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2008) Criss, Nur Bilge; Zurcher, E. J.
Open Access
Turkish foreign policy and the west (1946-1999): change and continuity in Turkish foreign policy
(Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2008) Criss, Nur Bilge; Zurcher, E. J.
Open Access
Turkish perceptions of the United States
(Princeton University Press, 2007) Criss, Nur Bilge; Farber, D.
In Turkey, when people look at the American government’s so-called war of preemption in Iraq and the Bush administration’s errant confidence in its right to make the world over in its own image, power management becomes an issue of importance. At some emotional level, some members of the political and intellectual elite can vaguely relate to the temptation, the peril, and the grandiosity of the dream of a vast order crafted in one’s own image and controlled by one’s own interests. But the long-gone Ottoman imperial reach also reminds that an empire’s longevity depends not just on the power of its military but on the quality of its statesmanship and its ability to disseminate among less powerful peoples at least the appearance of justice. Military power has to withstand the test of moral authority to insure that bloody conflict does not turn the complex pleasures and responsibilities of an empire into a nightmare of endless rebellion and resistance. Turks, today, from across the political spectrum fear that the United States, the contemporary aspirant to world hegemon, has lost its moral authority as it dispenses its own unacceptable brand of vigilante justice. Everyone registers America’s military might, its ability to “shock and awe” both its allies and its enemies. People do not, however, trust that the United States has the moral and political capacity to use that power wisely to safeguard its friends, eliminate its enemies, or manage the complexities of a world in which no nation is simply “with” the United States or “against” the United States. In particular, Turkish policy elites are frustrated by the American government’s failures to respect Turkey’s own geopolitical concerns and to understand how Turkey seeks to balance its secular raison d’etre with its religious cultural needs. And as the war in Iraq drags on and grows more horrific, the people of Turkey turn away in greater numbers from the United States. Distrust of the American government’s motives has created a popular, often hyperbolic, if also fashionable anti-Americanism in Turkey. This essay presents a tour of the horizon of Turkish perspectives on America. First it will provide a historical perspective that explores how culture, politics, and security issues created bonds between Turkey and the United States. Then, it will examine why elites’ acceptance of American alliance and a general admiration of American culture have not produced support of current U.S. foreign policies or a more stable basis for a pro-American public opinion in Turkey.