Contemporain

Covid-19, surging dramatically around the world in the first half of 2020, categorically impacted Turkey in many regards, not the least of which being its already frail economy. Despite various negative occurrences and political actors’ curious professions of the nation’s dearth of assistance for its own citizens Turkey offered support for numerous countries. It supplies healthcare to more than 70 foreign countries through its own hyperactive transnational state apparatuses. Notable among the institutions providing the assistance are the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, Diyanet), Turkey’s domestically and internationally controversial religious institution, and the Turkish Diyanet Foundation (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, TDV), the Diyanet’s branch tasked with distributing foreign aid. The Diyanet and the TDV delivered this assistance with written materials from the president of Turkey to Muslim countries such as Bangladesh, Mauritania, and Yemen, and to Muslim-majority countries with which Turkey shares historical bonds in the Balkans and North Africa. From these activities of Turkey, one should ask these questions; what is the role of religion in these humanitarian aid activities? Can we read all of these activities as a religious soft power or are they serving another multidimensional leadership desire for the New Turkey?

Biography: Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is lecturer of politics and international relations at London Metropolitan University. Between 2021-2023 he will work as Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Coventry University in the UK and GIGA in Germany. He was a Swedish Institute Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellow at Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), at Linköping University, Scholar in Residence at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is the author of more than 20 articles, co-editor of four special issues and two books on religion and politics and Turkish politics. He is a regular contributor to media outlets such as Open Democracy, The Conversation, Huffington Post and France 24.

Covid-19 en Turquie : quels impacts sur sa politique étrangère ?

Bayram Balcı, directeur de l'IFEA

le 12 juin 2020 à 18h30 (Paris)

Les Webinars du CAREP

Vural Genç (Associate Professor of History of Early Modern Era)

A bureaucrat and historian of Iranian provenance, Idris-i Bidlīsī is undoubtedly one of the most original and important intellectual figures in the 16th-century Ottoman-Iranian world. He lived in a very turbulent period of the Ottoman-Aqquyunlu, Ottoman-Mamluk and Ottoman-Safavid rivalry [rivalries] and established different relationships with these dynasties at the end of the 15th century and at the begining of the 16th century. He and his work have been the focus of long-standing historical debates that have continued till the present day. His active role in the Battle of Chaldiran (1514), sectarian belongings and Machiavellian patronage relations established with different dynasties are among these. Until now, the focus of most modern scholarly works on Bidlīsī has usually been romantic and heroic without providing a proper, in-depth textual, historiographic, or historical analysis. As a result, such modern works have come to present a skewed, romanticized image of Bidlīsī, which has been largely detached from the nature and dynamics of the historical context in which Bidlīsī evolved as an intellectual and writer.

In this conference I am going to portray Bidlīsī’s realistic image by eliminating shortcomings in the modern historiography on him. By looking at Bidlīsī and his corpus, and more specifically at the ways in which the latter was shaped by Bidlīsī’s patronage relationships, this lecture aims to open up a window into Bidlīsī’s evolving mindset and worldview. On another plane, through an in-depth analysis of his corpus and new archival sources I am going to unveil intellectual life and career of an Iranian provenance bureaucrat and historian positioned between Ottoman-Iranian world and provide a glimpse into the nature of patronage and in the 16th century. In this context, I will touch upon his early education in Iran, the Sufi and bureaucratic circles he was in, bureaucratic years in the Aqquyunlu Tabriz, years of patronage in the Ottoman palace and the cultural and political projects he was involved in, patronage relations fostered with Shah Ismail during his sojurn in Istanbul, active roles in the Iran and Egypt expedition, and last years in Istanbul.

Ferenc Csirkes sera discutant.

Intervention en turc

Mitat Celikpala (Kadir Has University) and Soli Özel (Kadir Has University)

Turkish foreign policy appears to have been in a state of change. It was trying to rely more on soft power elements in the 2000s, radically shifted to a more aggressive position including sending troops to Syria and muscle flexing in high seas of the Mediterranean. In line with its new perception of its role in the world, Turkey has increasingly asserted itself as a rising actor that is determined to make a contribution to regional and global issues. In the process, Turkish foreign policy has been transformed, not only in its content, but also in the instruments and mechanisms for formulating and conducting foreign-policy agenda. Furthermore, Turkey developed a special dialogue with Russia and Iran while distancing itself from its Western allies.

Dr. Mitat Çelikpala is Professor of International Relations and Vice-rector at Kadir Has University, Istanbul. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Eurasian security, energy and critical infrastructure security/protection, Turkish foreign and domestic policy and the Caucasus. Prof. Çelikpala is the board member of the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), the International Relations Council of Turkey and the Managing Editor of the Journal of International Relations: Academic Journal. He previously served as an academic advisor to NATO’s Center of Excellence Defense against Terrorism in Ankara (2009-2012), especially on the regional security and the critical infrastructure protection; and was the board member to the Strategic Research and Study Center (SAREM), Turkish General Staff (2005-2011); Academic Adviser to the Center for Strategic Research (SAM), Turkish Foreign Ministry (2002-2010) and Caspian Strategy Institute, Istanbul Turkey (2012–2013). He was a Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford University, UK (2005-2006). He has written for a number of academic publications including Middle Eastern Studies, International Journal of Turkish Studies, Insight Turkey and Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. He also contributed many conference papers on Turkish foreign policy, Turkish-Russian relations, Eurasianism and Turkish geopolitics.

Soli Özel holds a BA in Economics from Benningon College (1981) and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS-1983).

He is currently a senior lecturer at Istanbul Kadir Has University. He was a Bernstein Fellow at the Schell Center for Human Rights at Yale Law School and a visiting lecturer in the Political Science Department of Yale. He has been a columnist at Nokta magazine and GazetePazar, Yeni Binyıl, Habertürk and Sabah newspapers. Currently he writes for T24, DuvarEnglish and Yetkin Report as well as the blog of Institut Montaigne. He held fellowships at Oxford, the EU Institute of Strategic Studies and was a Fisher Family Fellow of the “Future of Diplomacy Program” at the Belfer Center of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He taught at SAIS, University of Washington, Northwestern University and Hebrew University. He was a Richard von Weizsacker fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin between 2015-2017 and a visiting fellow at Institut Montaigne in Paris in 2018.

Most recently he published “US-Turkey Relations since WWII: From Alliance to Transactionalism”, The Oxford Handbook of Turkish Politics co-authored with Serhat Güvenç and “The Economics of Turkey-Russia relations” co-authored with Gökçe Uçar for EDAM, “How the Syrian Civil War shifted the balance of power in Turkish-Israeli relations”, co-authored with Selin Nasi, “The Transatlantic Drift and the Waning of Turkey’s 'Strategic Westernness’ for Heinrich Böll Stiftung, co-authored POLITICS OF POPULISM: POWER AND PROTEST IN THE GLOBAL AGE” with Evren Balta The Crisis in Turkish-Russian Relations, “The Kurds in the Middle East” with Arzu Yılmaz, in SIPRI Yearbook 2017.  An article co-authored with Serhat Güvenç, “US-Turkey relations 1945-2020: From alliance to transactionalism” will be published in an edited book on Turkey by Oxford University Press. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Séminaire « enjeux actuels des migrations »
Organisé par l’Axe AMiMo de l'IFEA en collaboration avec l’Association pour les recherches sur les migrations (GAR).

Polat S. Alpman

En raison de la pandémie, les séminaires sur les enjeux actuels de la migration, organisés en collaboration avec l’Axe AMiMo de l’IFEA et l’association pour les recherches sur les migrations (GAR), reprendront en ligne à partir de l'automne 2020. Le premier séminaire, celui de Polat Alpman, est intitulé “ «Laissez-le mourir dans sa ville natale!»: la place des immigrés dans le système de santé à Istanbul. ”

Ce séminaire est basé sur les résultats de la recherche soutenue par l'Association des citoyens, Yurttaşlar Derneği «Comprendre les barrières sociales et juridiques et les facilitateurs des migrants face aux services de santé à Istanbul» menée par Polat Alpman et son assistante Eda Sevinin (le rapport de la recherche sera disponible très prochainement sur le site internet de l’association GAR en anglais et en turc).  

Nous vous attendons donc à ce séminaire, qui traitera de la question de « l’accès aux soins des réfugiés et des migrants vivant à Istanbul. Un grand nombre parmi eux bénéficient de droits sous le statut de «protection temporaire», et d’autres sont complétement ignorés voir même laissés à mort.

Polat S. Alpman qui est l'un des membres fondateurs de l’association pour les recherches sur les migrations (GAR), travaille principalement sur les questions de l'immigration, des inégalités sociales, de la discrimination, de la ville, de la politique et de l'identité.

Intervention en turc

AYAK est un collectif de chercheur.e.s francophones à Istanbul basé sur l’entraide et la pluridisciplinarité initié sur la volonté de pouvoir échanger scientifiquement sans frontières institutionnelles. Cette journée d’étude constitue un temps d’échanges sur les difficultés rencontrées sur le terrain. Au terme de réflexions collectives, nous chercherons à développer des stratégies, alternatives et méthodes pour palier à ces difficultés.

Événement fermé au public

Mustafa Aydın (Kadir Has University) and Dimitrios Triantaphyllou (Kadir Has University)

The relations between Greece and Turkey find themselves in a state of increased tensions for most of 2020 with no end in sight regarding their alleviation. The two nations sharing a common geography, a flank state mentality, and complex historical relations, have been facing the challenge of addressing their outstanding differences at a time when the regional and global order is undergoing systemic change. The delicate status quo that has shaped the relations between the two countries since 1999, with the beginning of a rapprochement process predicated on the jumpstarting of Turkey’s accession process to the European Union, been challenged in recent years due to a number of reasons. Some of these include the stalling of Turkey’s EU bid, the ownership of possible fossil fuels located in disputed waters, the continued inability to resolve the Cyprus governance context, and the ongoing structural administrative changes in Turkey accompanied by a more coercive foreign policy approach. The objective is a peaceful resolution of their differences where the option of a status quo ante situation is not sustainable anymore while a further militarization of the crisis both between Turkey and Greece and in Cyprus could potentially lead to an armed conflict. The path chosen by both countries to resolve their differences could have fundamental implications for Turkey’s foreign policy in terms of how closely it remains aligned with or how it irrevocably disengages from that of its European and western partners. 

Interventions en anglais

Alors que les dynamiques urbaines actuelles donnent à voir le quartier par projets de grandes envergures, l’Observatoire Urbain d’Istanbul cherche, pour son nouveau cycle d’excursions urbaines, à questionner la production du quartier par les individus qui le traversent et l’habitent. Aussi, parce que les processus de production urbaine à Istanbul qualifiés de néolibéraux s’appuient sur un rapport descendant, les individus sont écartés des processus de discussion. C’est donc la production matérielle, symbolique et sociale par les habitant.e.s que les excursions urbaines de 2021 chercheront à comprendre à la croisée de la sociologie, de la géographie et de l’urbanisme. Plus précisément, les quartiers sélectionnés ont pour objet commun qu’ils apparaissent comme le fruit de certaines migrations (internes ou externes) contemporaines. Populations réfugiées, migrants économiques, externes ou internes, comment ces communautés participent-elles à inscrire et à fabriquer de nouvelles urbanités ?

Première excursion: Les quartiers d'Emniyet et de Kumkapı avec le réalisateur Malaz Usta

Les excursions ouvertes au public débuteront en janvier 2021.

Séminaire « enjeux actuels des migrations »
Organisé par l’Axe AMiMo de l'IFEA en collaboration avec l’Association pour les recherches sur les migrations (GAR).
Uğur Yıldız (université d'Aksaray)

Ce séminaire présentera certains résultats de la recherche publiée par Routledge Publishing House en septembre 2019 sous le nom de Tracing Asylum Journeys. Cette étude analysera les « voyages d’asile » transnationaux des personnes de provenance de pays hors européens ayant réussi à s’installer au Canada après leur demande d’asile depuis la Turquie. L'étude, basée sur des recherches ethnographiques menées auprès de citoyens syriens, afghans, érythréens, éthiopiens, irakiens, iraniens, somaliens, soudanais et congolais, examine les interactions entre le Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés (HCR) et le programme canadien de placement des réfugiés, chargé du processus de détermination du statut de réfugié à l'époque.

L'analyse montre que le voyage d'asile implique à la fois la mobilité et l’immobilité en se basant sur les expériences et les pratiques des demandeurs d'asile. Cela permet de constituer une image micropolitique de la fluidité et de la relativité de l'identité et des étiquettes attribuées aux demandeurs d'asile dans les systèmes de migration des États. L'ethnographie multi-site adoptée comme méthode conforme à l'approche du voyage souligne que le phénomène du voyage d'asile consiste en des voyages multicouches, non linéaires et hétérogènes. Cette approche et ce travail de terrain ethnographique créent des réseaux sociaux transnationaux entre les voyageurs d'asile d'hier, d'aujourd'hui et de demain. Elle  permet également la production et la reproduction d'informations parmi les réfugiés d'hier, d'aujourd'hui et de demain, tout en créant des “habitus d’asile” pour ces derniers.

Biographie: Dr. Uğur Yıldız a obtenu sa maîtrise au Département des relations internationales de l'Université Koç en 2012 et son doctorat au Département de science politique de l'Université Carleton au Canada en 2017. Ses intérêts incluent les frontières et l'immigration, les réfugiés, la gouvernance et la citoyenneté. Il a également été impliqué dans divers projets liés aux réfugiés. Yıldız est membre du corps professoral du Département des relations internationales de l'Université d'Aksaray.

Intervention en turc

Mitat Çelikpala (Kadir Has University) and Bayram Balcı (IFEA)

After forty-four days of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Karabakh, parties have signed a ceasefire agreement which has ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and Russian troops have been deployed in the conflict zone. The fighting was the worst it has been since 1992 and encompassed the entire scope of interaction, with artillery, missile, and drone strikes deep past the Armenian lines. This war featured modern weaponry, representing a large-scale conventional conflict between these two states which has changed the long-standing delicate status quo. Due to its recent regional protocol driven by assertive policies, Turkey has been recognised as an influence looking to realise its interests through involvement in this conflict. Turkey is backing Azerbaijan and has reiterated its support to Azerbaijan against Armenia. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory, and called on Armenia to stop its aggression and withdraw from the land it is occupying in Azerbaijan. There is a feeling that Turkey, together with Russia have benefited from the conflict and the resolution effort. This seminar aims to analyse the new security dynamics in the Caucasus, centering on Turkey’s role and interest, as well as the potential of Turkey as a regional power, to ensure security and stability in the region.