Publication Series Perspectives Turkey

This issue features two special dossiers: the democracy dossier analyzes the current situation and strategies of significant political actors towards the Presidential elections. The second one is a gender and macroeconomy dossier, which hopefully would provide an introduction to a gendered reading of macroeconomic issues in Turkey, who will be hosting the G20 summit in 2015.

This issue opens with an article by Yunus Sözen that evaluates the local elections which were held on 30 March. Our special dossier is on capital and capitalists in Turkey. We analyze the varieties of business groups from Gülen community to capitalists of the Kurdish region. Democracy section features an article on recent internet censorship efforts by the government.

As Turkey enters into a period of elections, Perspectives analyzes the strategies of main political actors and emphasizes the role of urban politics for the municipal elections in March 2014. The Democracy section is supported by two extensive articles on the foreign policy of Turkey and cultural politics of the Gezi Protests.

We prepared this issue for highlighting ongoing reforms in the field of rural development and agriculture in Turkey. Gökhan Günaydın, Abdullah Aysu and Sibel Caşkurlu are some of the authors who contribute in our feature articles section.

The protests sprang from Gezi Park, and spread throughout Turkey in a short period of time, mark a historical turning point for Turkish democracy. Accounts and analyses of Gezi Protests are limited for foreign readers. Therefore, for this extraordinary occasion, we introduce a special cover story on Gezi Park Protests in our 5th issue.

The April issue of our Turkish "Perspectives" magazine portrays the environmental movement in Turkey and takes a closer look at its agenda, its protagonists, its biggest achievements and its relationship to the political sphere. Furthermore, it provides articles on the fields of democracy, culture, ecology and foreign policy.

A rich collection of articles on hot political issues, democracy as well as the political system, the environment, ecology, the arts and many other subjects. The highlight in this second issue will be on “The Turkish Question” with perspectives by Doğu Ergil, Ahmet İnsel, Evren Balta Paker, Mustafa Sönmez, and İnci Özkan Kerestecioğlu.

The second issue of our Turkish "Perspectives" magazine will not only analyze the shift in foreign policy and the impact of the “Arab spring” but also shed some light on the very recent developments in Syria from within. Finally, it will draw your attention on the impact of the crisis – especially in Syria – on the eastern part of Turkey, Antakya and the Kurdish regions.