Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Aydın Babuna
14 theses · Boğaziçi University
Morality, loyalty and citizenship: Youth organization in interwar Albania
This study explores the interwar Albanian state youth organizations, the National Entity "The Albanian Youth" and the Federation of Artistic and Sports Associations "The Albanian Brotherhood." They constitute the first examples of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports that we find in present day Albania. These institutions, which related youth, education, sports and culture to a patriotic platform that deeply affected the political culture in the country, become for the first time the subject of a particular socio-historical research. This study proposes that these institutions advanced a project of citizenship for Albanian society. This project consists in the organization of national society through the youth and by projecting onto the city youth the good citizenship. Approaching national citizenship as being political this study suggests that the city emerges at the same time as a space of subversion of and compliance to power. This works stands in the intersection of education, citizenship, and youth studies and it is based on the examination of many original documents that were not explored previously. Youth represents its key concept and term. The other dimensions, loyalty and morality, emerged as key elements in understanding diverse aspects of the good citizenship. The idea that intellectual elites could shape society according to what they regarded as "developed," "western," and "civilized," patterned the state's and regime's logics of creating the good citizen. Nevertheless, this study shows that the values the state youth organizations promoted and the practices they advanced cannot be simply regarded as state or elite projects. On the contrary, they were the product of the interaction of multiple actors and dynamics that founded and shaped the state itself.
In the shadow of nuclear arms: The Middle East and Turkey in the 1950s
This study examines Turkey's Middle East policy in the 1950s, which was the most problematic and conflictual decade of the Cold War. The dynamics of the great power global politics and regional politics will provide the context of this analysis. In this context, the developments in the region, i.e., the Middle East Command, the Turkish-Pakistani Pact, the Baghdad Pact, the Suez Crisis and the Arab-Israeli War, the Turkish-Syrian Crisis, the United Arab Republic, the coup d'etat in Iraq and the crises in Lebanon and Jordan, and the policies of both Turkey and the states in the region regarding these developments will be examined. The approaches of the opposition in the Turkish parliament and the press will also be discussed to reflect the positions of these domestic actors regarding Democrat Party's Middle East policy. Moreover, as political relations, Turkey's economic and military relations with the Middle East states will be analyzed. The analysis will mainly be based on archival documents, i.e., the archives of the United Kingdom, the United States, the archives of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, and the newspapers and journals. This study attempts to make a contribution to the literature with its content and different approach. After these analyses this study concludes that Turkey's Middle East policy and the developments in the region can not be understood only from the perspective of the great powers because all the individual states in the region had their country-specific dynamics and interests that they sought to maximize. In addition to providing security, to provide economic development and social support were the main inseparable motives of the states in the region. Thus, throughout the 1950s, the states in the region, including Turkey, tried to harmonize their foreign and domestic policies.
Turkey's asylum policy towards Syrians
Since 2011, following the crossing of the first Syrians into Turkey, the number of displaced Syrians has risen dramatically. Turkey's management of this migration flow has raised debates surrounding this issue. With the aim of contributing to these debates, this thesis examines the peculiarities of Turkey's asylum policy towards Syrians. The characteristics of this policy are analyzed through a comparison with Turkey's previous policy practices in responding to asylum en masse as well as the current legal and the political framework. In that regard, the legal context is examined through the analysis of current asylum-related legislation and the political context is evaluated through the revision of the parliamentary questions and discussions of the past two years. These examinations and comparisons with the past practices show the procedures and measures to be applied in the face of asylum en masse are always left at the discretion of the ruling governments and hence they are prone to the arbitrariness. This thesis contends that following this prevailing policy practice, Turkey's asylum policy towards Syrians is also built on an ad hoc basis and is dependent on the government's perception of Syrians.
Understanding the diplomatic ability and influence of a regional power in a time of conflict: Turkish foreign policy during the Yugoslav wars
This thesis examines the diplomatic capacities of regional powers in their respective regions during the times of conflict and crisis. It has been widely argued within the International Relations scholarship that the influence of regional powers has been increasing both at the global and regional levels since the end of the Cold War. Considering the increasing diplomatic attention brought to a particular region by the international community, times of conflicts and crises serve us better to capture the true nature of diplomatic influence of a regional power. In order to analyze this issue, the thesis concentrates on the Turkish foreign policy towards the Yugoslav wars, analyzing in depth the diplomatic initiatives taken by Turkey during the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Through this analysis, this thesis aims at developing an understanding on the role of regional powers during the conflicts in their respective regions.
War or peace? The dodecanese islands in Turkish foreign and security policy (1923-1947)
This study is essentially based on documents from the Italian, British, Turkish, and American archives. In the light of these documents and other resources, this work argues that the Dodecanese constituted a problematic area for Turkey throughout the period. It shows that these islands were one of the most dominant elements in shaping Turkish foreign and security policy during the interwar period. It also says that they continued to occupy a place in Turkish diplomacy and strategy besides other issues during the Second World War. It is emphasized that the "war" theme was usually on the agenda in the relationship of Turkey with the region: although no clash occurred, Turkey never made real peace with the area either. In addition, this dissertation designates that some problems in the Aegean Archipelago, such as the determination of the maritime boundaries or the sovereignty of the islets, which remain current issues resulting in occasional tension in the region, date back to 1923, exceeding beyond the Turkish-Greek relations of the post-1950s. Likewise, it emphasizes that the process that paved the way for the transfer of the islands to Greece in the postwar period could be analyzed only in reference to the multi-faceted concerns of Turkish foreign policy of the time, while arguing that the dominant discourses on the issue are open to critique and questioning.
The first five-year industrial plan: Discussions on Turkish industrialization during the great depression
This work treats the background of the decision to implement the First Five-Year Industrial Plan in Turkey in 1934. The originality of the research relies on its perspective focusing on foreign policy, in a way that has generally been underestimated in most of the academic works on the subject matter. While arguing that Turkish industrialization of the 1930s was carried out despite the West, this research also shows that the conjunctural rapprochement between Turkey and the Soviet Union did not last long. After a general presentation of developmentalist ideas in Turkish political tradition and related practices in economy, a large section is dedicated to the contemporary discussions in a world staggered by the Depression of 1929. Findings show how remedies that Western experts had drawn for Turkish economic development concentrated solely on agricultural production and financial reforms. The Soviet Union appeared in this context as an ally in diplomacy with a bold anti-imperialist discourse and a viable assistant in economy with her model of five-year plans. Thus, there developed a deep collaboration between the revolutionary governments in Ankara and Moscow. However, as World War II approached, priorities began to change rapidly, which had dramatic effects on the existing collaboration in economy. An essential part of the thesis is reserved for explaining the story of Turkish industrialization of the 1930s in relation with Ankara's foreign policy.
Russian-Turkish relations in the era of Vladimir Putin
This thesis focuses on the Turkish-Russian relations from the year of 2000 to 2019. In this 19-year period, the Turkish-Russian relations went through different stages due to the conflict of interests between the global powers in the major international incidents of the early 21st Century such as the Russo-Georgian War, the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution, the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War. The thesis aims at analyzing these changing relations between the two states through the perspective of the Neorealist Theory of International Relations which puts emphasis on power politics. In the thesis, the Turkish foreign policy is explained according to the positions of the two great powers, the United States and Russia, concerning the Turkish national security. The thesis looks at the major global incidents of the first two decades of the 2000s in order to provide a better understanding of how unexpected changes were caused in the Turkish foreign policy by these events.
Soviet-Turkish rapprochement in the 1960s: Trade, aid and transfer of technology
After World War II, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Republic of Turkey entered a period of political estrangement. This thesis focuses on the reestablishment of relations between these two countries in the form of trade and economic cooperation in the 1960s. Drawing upon the Cold War context, the thesis initially provides the political background to the rapprochement, and continues to focus on the particular reasons for the types of economic transactions. In the 1960s, the Soviet Government agreed to assist Turkey's industrialization efforts by agreeing to export technology, machinery, equipment for the construction of several industrial plants. This study aims to evaluate the reasons for this unique cooperation between Turkey, a NATO member, and the Eastern Bloc superpower, the Soviet Union with references to primary sources from the Russian State Archive of the Economy. The main hypothesis of this thesis is that the rapprochement between the Soviet Union and Turkey in the 1960s coincides with a period of a rise in multilateralism in international politics within the context of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and Turkey were willing to cooperate with members of the opposing block in favor of their own economic interests. Turkey's industrialization efforts in the 1960s re-quired foreign assistance, which was partially met by the Soviet Union's financial and technical assistance. Regardless, Soviet influence over Turkey, along with the scope of Soviet-Turkish economic relations, remained limited due to various reasons.
The historical development of museology in Turkey
The historical development of Turkish museology after 1980 will be re-searched in this thesis. The changes that happened before and after 1980 will be examined. The legal arrangements made after 1980 constitute the turning point for Turkey's museology. Law no. 2863 Code of Protection of Cultural and Natural Properties marks a drastic change in Turkish museology. "Regulation on Private Muse-ums and Their Auditing", published in the Official Gazette (no. 18289, 22 January 1984) allowed for the establishment of private museums. The number and variety of private museums has in-creased considerably since 1980. In 2000, the development of modern museology has brought new museum practices that are open to scientific applications and research. The architectural structures of the museums, exhibition aspects, and technology and management models have changed. After 2010, the number of the city, science, and university museums has increased. In addition, international exhibitions and museum awards that came with the membership to international organizations have created new sources for the change in the museum culture. With advancing technology, the mu-seum exhibition and presentation techniques have become more visitor-oriented. The use of touch screens, simulators, robots and, holograms in the exhibition areas have supported the modern new museology. The number of digital, mobile, and visual museums has increased rapidly. The increasing interest in the muse-ology in the culture industry and creative industries has led to a change in per-ception in the society. However, this has caused a lot of controver-sies about the sustainability of the development of the museums in Turkey. This thesis tries to contribute to the ongoing discussions.
German soft power in Turkey and the Balkans in the interwar era, 1918-1939
This thesis examines German soft power policies in the Balkans and Turkey in the Interwar Era. How certain German non-state actors such as the Messeamt, the Leipzig Trade Fair, chambers of commerce, ete. took the initiative and reestablished German economic presence in certain Balkan countries in the mid-192os in the absence of the Weimar government's support is discussed. How German economic drive in the Balkans gained speed following the proclamation of the New Plan in 1934 and how the Balkans played a decisive role in realizing Hitler' s rearmament venture by supplying Germany with various raw materials needed by German war industry are also examined. Similarly, how Turkish-German political, economic, military and cultural relations were re-established and developed in the Weimar period and what kind of changes came out in the bilateral relations and Germany' s soft power practices with the emergence of the Nazi rule in Germany are also addressed. Certain German soft power practices such as investments, student exchange programs, supporting the enıployment of German specialists and academicians in Turkey, arms trade, and using well-established German institutions in Turkey to achieve imperialist aims, ete. are examined in the light ofa variety of primary and secondary sources.
Turkey's soft power and public diplomacy in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sandžak (2002–2017)
As an emerging regional power, Turkey's soft power and public diplomacy are attracting the attention of academia in recent years. One of the principal elements of Turkish soft power and public diplomacy are religious diplomacy run by Diyanet, today one of the strongest religious institutions in the Sunni World, student exchange diplomacy run by Turkiye Burslari, and a very vibrant city diplomacy run by the different municipalities and municipality unions, among which the most prominent is the Union of Turkish World Municipalities. For centuries Balkan peninsula was an area of interest for the Ottoman Empire and later for Turkey. The region serves Turkey as the only gateway to Europe. After a break during the Cold War, Turkey's active engagement in the region has been restored. Today it is possible to say that Turkey is back in the region. It is the soft power that has been the main tool of Ankara's influence in the region and public diplomacy lies at the core of that soft power. Public diplomacy institutions are serving as the visible face of Turkey's policies, ambitions, goals, and vision in the region. For that reason, analysis of the Turkish public diplomacy provides a clear insight into what Turkey's aims and potentials in the Balkans are.
Türkiye'de, 1940 kuşağı öykücülüğünde Beyoğlu'nun temsili
This study focuses on the representation of Beyoğlu in short stories written between the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1950s by nine authors who were accepted as the representatives of the 1940s generation. Two developments marked the political history of this long decade: The Second World War and discussions about the transition to multi-party life. In these years, a radical change concurrently occurred in the positions of intellectuals in society and at the state level. The literary intellectual, who was a part of the bureaucracy in the early Republican period, became both excluded from the state elite and impoverished. In literature, as the little man became a common theme, the figure of the narrator who lived among the little men and narrated them rose to prominence. As story writing was poised for a rapid rise in the 50s during this period, literary modernism also became a major trend. The story writer began to focus more on his own individuality as the "loitering little man." The study reveals the relationship between the rise of literary modernism in Turkish short story writing and the increase of Beyoğlu representations in number and content. How the representations of Beyoğlu shaped the modernism of the 1940s and how the rise of modernism affected the literary representation of Beyoğlu are discussed.
Faith-based diplomacy of Turkey: Diyanet in Africa
The relationship between religion and foreign policy is a complex and controversial topic that has received attention from various academic theories. However, there are relatively few studies on the role of reli-gion in international relations. The purpose of this research is to exam-ine the implementation of faith-based diplomacy in Turkish foreign pol-icy, specifically focusing on the role of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in Turkey's Africa policy. The research will analyze how reli-gion has been used by the Turkish state in its relations with Africa, how non-official channels are involved in faith-based diplomacy, and the dy-namics that influence the cooperation between NGOs and state institu-tions in Turkish foreign policy. To do this, the research will analyze lit-erature on concepts such as soft power, public diplomacy, cultural di-plomacy, and faith-based diplomacy, as well as the historical back-ground of the relationship between Turkey and Africa. The research will also evaluate the official annual and regional reports on the activi-ties of Diyanet. The research aims to show that the activities of Diyanet can be seen as an example of faith-based diplomacy, and that Turkish faith-based diplomacy has played a critical role in highlighting Turkey's anti-colonial history in Africa, which has helped to increase its attrac-tion to the foreign public. The main argument of this thesis is that Turkish faith-based diplomacy differs from traditional faith-based di-plomacy in some ways. While traditional faith-based diplomacy typical-ly involves the state not actively participating in the field, in the Turkish case there has been cooperation between non-official channels and state institutions.
Tracing Euroscepticism back: Turkish public opinion and the left between 1963-1971
Turkey-European Economic Community (EEC) relations started with the Turkish application for association in 1959 and the signing of the Ankara Agreement in 1963. This thesis examines the early public discussions in Turkey on the nature and aims of European integration, the EEC, and the Turkey-EEC relations between the Ankara Agreement and the Additional Protocol, with a specific focus on Turkish leftist thought. It is found that apart from the milestones like the signing of the Ankara Agreement or the Additional Protocol, Turkish public opinion and politicians showed less interest in the EEC and Turkey-EEC relations. Turkey's rapprochement with the organization was usually welcomed based on identity-based views and the mentality of bloc politics of the Cold War. More nuanced and critical voices in mainstream public opinion began to be heard in the final years of the 1960s as Turkey and the EEC were negotiating the Additional Protocol. The leftist intellectuals, however, were vocal and critical about the EEC and Turkey's possible integration with the organization from the outset. The thesis aims to examine views of Turkish public opinion on Turkey's foreign policy and the country's place in the world by focusing on leftist periodicals and their views on the EEC and Turkey-EEC relations. As the Turkish left labelled the EEC as a Western-capitalist institution having imperialist, neo-colonialist, and monopolist agendas, it is demonstrated that leftist opposition to the EEC set one of the early examples of Euroscepticism in Turkey.