Turkey Media Roundup (October 28)

[A view of Kobanê during the bombardment of ISIL targets by US-led forces. Photo by M. Akhavan / Persian Dutch Network, via Wikimedia Commons.] [A view of Kobanê during the bombardment of ISIL targets by US-led forces. Photo by M. Akhavan / Persian Dutch Network, via Wikimedia Commons.]

Turkey Media Roundup (October 28)

By : Turkey Page Media Roundup Editors

[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on Turkey and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Turkey Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week`s roundup to turkey@jadaliyya.com by Sunday night of every week.]

English

Kobane, ISIS, Turkey-US Relations in the Wake of Kobane

Kobane Battle: A Summary for Beginners and/or the Confused “Just a small note written by a revolutionary to other revolutionaries, that summarizes the minimum information about the acute situation in Kobane and describes what actions to take.”

Stateless Democracy: The Revolution in Rojava Kurdistan (1)-(2) Livestream recording of the “Stateless Democracy” conference, which discusses the Kurdish resistance in Kobane against ISIS, as well as the politics and culture of Rojava and the formation and growth of ISIS.

Turkey NATO Ambassador in the BBC Hot Seat over Kobane / ISIS In an interview with the BBC, the Turkish Ambassador to NATO, Mehmet Fatih Ceylan, explains why Turkey refuses to join the international coalition to stop ISIS.

Turkey to Let Iraqi Kurds Cross to Syria to Fight ISIS Kareem Fahim and Karam Shoumali relay that Turkey will allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, to cross its border with Syria to fight with ISIS.

Ankara Struggles to Maintain Bearings in Kobani Fehim Taştekin argues that the AKP has been compelled to change its approach towards Kobane and ISIS under US pressure.

Kobani and Turkish-American Relations Kılıç Buğra Kanat argues that the conflicting messages and ambivalent signals from Washington are confusing Turkey about the US strategy in Kobane.

What Do Kobani Airdrops Mean for Regional Politics? Analyzing US bombings of ISIS positions around Kobane, Amberin Zaman argues that the US is likely to use its new leverage on the PYD to goad it into opposing Assad.

Tensions Over IS Resurface in Turkish-US Ties Semih İdiz comments that Turkey opposes US-supplied weapons going to Syrian Kurds, but has no power to prevent it and has failed to convince Washington that Kobani is of no strategic value.

Facing the Causes of ISIS Key to Strategy “Considering that the Western campaign against al-Qaida has led to the organization`s geographical expansion, rather than curbing its influence—what the world needs to do to reach different results is to adopt structural policies,” writes Taha Özhan.

Turkey Pays Huge Price because of Erdoğan`s Obsessions According to Cafer Solgun, “it once again became clear during the Kobani crisis that the government does not have a realistic and operational Syria policy.”

Turkish Foreign Policy Hits Another Cul-de-Sac Suat Kınıklıoğlu suggests that Turkey’s foreign policy in Kobane “was untenable from the beginning,” and has only gone on to alienate virtually all of Turkey’s allies.

Turkey`s War of Perception Robert Ellis comments on Turkey’s aims to replace its negative perception in international public opinion in the wake of ISIS crisis with a “healthy perception.”

Erdoğan`s Two-Faced Game Plan Şahin Alpay suggests that the inconsistencies of the current government’s approach to Kobane are part of a “two-faced” election strategy, wherein President Erdoğan condemns Kurdish politics in order to win Turkish nationalist votes while PM Davutoğlu continues peace talks with the PKK in order to win Kurdish votes.

Who Is in Charge, and How? According to Yavuz Baydar, the crisis in leadership over Kobane—not only in Turkey and in Syria, but in the international coalition and NATO as well—has distracted us from the escalation of the Assad regime’s brutal campaign.

The US and Turkey: An Alliance of Necessities Gökhan Bacık claims that the growing rift between the US and Turkey over issues like Syria and Turkey’s increasing authoritarianism is only being held together by the pressing crisis of Kobane.

A Loneliness that Isn`t Worth Much Examining the discrepancies between Turkish and American intervention (or lack thereof) in Kobane, Cengiz Aktar suggests that the US will step up its support for Kurdish fighters and Erdoğan’s estrangement from the rest of the world will only grow deeper.

Who Prefers ISIL to Kurds? Mustafa Akyol claims that the deep-seated aversion to the PKK (and by extension, the Kurds) has led both secular and Islamic Turkish nationalists to have a rather ambivalent view on ISIL and the siege of Kobane.

Is Kobane a Trojan Horse for Turks? Commenting on Turkey’s ambivalence toward Kurds and the peace process, Güven Sak wonders whether we should see the siege on Kobane as a Trojan horse aimed at Turkey for “when it brings its guard down.”

Peace and Reconciliation Process

Öcalan: There Is a Need for Courageous Political Steps Abdullah Öcalan declared that, far from the resolution process “dying and ending,” it has actually entered a brand new and a more hopeful stage as of 15 October.

Have the Kurds Played Their Cards Wrong on Kobani Protests? According to Tülin Daloğlu, the fragile atmosphere between the Turkish government and the Kurdish movement has fractured again in the wake of Kobane.

The State’s Responsibilities During the Crisis… Ali Bayramoğlu argues that the government’s allowing for the Peshmerga to cross into Kobane will provide an opportunity for the partial easing of the bottleneck of the peace process.

What’s Happening in the Resolution Process and at Kobani? Abdülkadir Selvi suggests that Prime Minister Davutoglu believes that they will reach success in the peace and resolution process.

Something`s Wrong with Turkey’s Kurdish Peace Bid Although both the Turkish government and the Kurdish movement reflect an optimism about the future of the peace process, there are too many “ifs” in their statements, writes Murat Yetkin.

Is There Consensus on the Peace Process "Road Map" or Not? Analyzing Öcalan’s and Erdoğan’s recent statements about the peace process, Ismet Berkan argues that peace process has been put back on track.

Erdoğan and the Peace Process Emre Uslu argues that Erdoğan deceived the public about the peace process in order to gain some time for the AKP’s victory before the next elections.

Kobani and the Solution Process Orhan Miroğlu is afraid that the Kurdish movement would tie the future of the peace process to Kobane.

AKP`s Shortsighted Approach to Kurdish Question Orhan Kemal Cengiz argues that the AKP does not adopt the peace process to swiftly changing circumstances.

Domestic Politics: Closing the Corruption Files, Erdoğan-Gülen Struggle, Latest Judicial Reform Package

Implementing the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in Turkey OECD’s report on “Implementing the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in Turkey” is “seriously concerned” about Turkey’s ability to detect and investigate foreign bribery.

Closing the Corruption Files Günal Kurşun comments on the public prosecutor’s decision to drop all charges of the 17 December corruption and bribery case.

Caricature of Justice and the EU “Exactly when the prosecutors were closing down the corruption file, police officers, some of whom were on the investigation team into the corruption scandal, were being transferred to a maximum-security prison in Silivri,” writes Orhan Kemal Cengiz.

Erdoğan Angles to Tag Gülenists as a National Security Threat Metin Turcan relays that the President Erdoğan wants to include the Gülenist movement as a national security threat to Turkey.

Gülen Community Should Return to Civil Society “The Gülen community today must acknowledge that its strategy has backfired and proved counterproductive, jeopardizing the very civil society realm it intended to ‘safeguard,’” writes Mustafa Akyol.  

Turkish Government Aims to Restructure Military Police Commenting on the AKP’s new bill aiming at putting gendarmerie under civilian control, Tülin Daloğlu argues that it might be linked to the ongoing peace process or to preventing the gendarmerie from helping law enforcement pursue corruption charges against the government.

AKP Proposes "German Model" for Turkish Police According to Pınar Tremblay, Turkey`s latest judicial reform package is an open-ended extension of law enforcement powers, indicating further erosion of the rule of law.

Turkish Navy Sails through Rough Seas According to Metin Turcan, after the Sledgehammer trials saw many naval officers detained and forcibly retired, Turkey is now displaying its navy to bolster the “New Turkey” vision in both the domestic and global scene.

Other Pertinent Pieces

Declaration by Scholars for Peace in Solidarity with the Saturday Mothers of Turkey “On 25 October 2014, the Saturday Mothers will remind us for the five hundredth time of the daughters and sons they have lost due to the forced disappearances on the part of the state, mostly in the Kurdish region.”

On the Occasion of the Saturday Mother’s 500th Vigil for the Disappeared Nancy Kricorian relays her firsthand observations from the five hundredth vigil of the Saturday Mothers in Istanbul for their disappeared relatives.

How a Turkish Leftist Gave His Life to Save Kurdish Kobane “All I wanted to do is bring some spark to the lives of unlofty people, to a world without a spark, to a world which has been reified,” writes Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı, who died while defending Kobane against ISIS.

After Gezi: Erdoğan and Political Struggle in Turkey The recent Global Uprisings documentary chronicles a year of resistance and repression that has left Turkey profoundly divided in the wake of the Gezi uprising.

Forbidden Fruit: Censorship at Antalya Golden Orange 2014 Kaya Genç comments on the controversies and censorship aroused around Love Will Change the Earth (Yeryüzü Aşkın Yüzü Oluncaya Dek), a documentary on last year`s Gezi Park uprisings.

"When Greeks and Turks Meet: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Relationship Since 1923" William Eichler’s book review for When Greeks and Turks Meet, edited by Vally Lytra, demonstrates the long history of coexistence between Turks and Greeks.

Israel Accuses Turkey of Aiding Hamas Coup Plan Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon accused Turkey of being indifferent to the preparations of Hamas` Istanbul office to attempt a coup against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, writes Tülin Daloğlu.

Turkish Central Bank Fails to Combat Inflation The governor of Turkey`s Central Bank has done well in financial stability, but time is running out for him to control inflation, writes Mehmet Çetingüleç.

Turkish Government Aims to "Save" Marriages Turkey’s government has launched a drive to curb the divorce rate, up thirty-eight percent over the past decade, but the services it has offered have come under criticism as meddling in citizens’ private lives, writes Tülay Çetingüleç.

Judicial Regulation Grip on FoE According to BIA Media Monitoring Report, nineteen journalists were arrested in October, whereas twenty-one journalists were exposed to violence.

Turkish

Kobane, ISIS, Turkey-US Relations in the Wake of Kobane

Kobanê`de Kürtler, sosyalistler, ve emperyalistler İrfan Aktan analyzes the ambivalent political stance of the Turkish left toward the Kurdish movement, asserting that “the greatest possible resistance against the AKP’s attempts to establish a more authoritarian, fascist system with every passing day might be to strengthen the Kurdish movement at the negotiating table.”

Gelinen nokta… Cengiz Çandar suggests that the emerging relationship of the US with Kurds outside of Iraqi Kurdistan—namely, the PYD—has opened the way for American diplomatic relations with the PKK, indicating a new era of US foreign policy and the “bankruptcy” of the AKP regime’s foreign policy.

Erdoğan`ın Kobani`de anlayamadığı, göremediği According to Cengiz Çandar, Erdoğan fails to see how Kobane is understood by the world, and his approach to the issue—that is, managing the Turkish public opinion—is not productive.

Kobani`den bir mektup! Fahmi Taştekin lists Salih Müslim’s requests from the Turkish government and argues that the demands for “safe borders, peace, and humanity” are not too much.

Yeni bir Maan mı bekliyorsunuz? Hasan Sivri highlights the situation in Hama, a cosmopolitan Syrian village under ISIS attack, warning against a possible massacre against Alevis.

Rojava devrimini içten yıkmak Mahir Sayın deciphers the shift in Turkey’s politics regarding Kobane, in light of the government’s general stance towards Kurdish cantons in Syria.

Erdoğan Kürtlere neden kılıç çekti? Hadi Muhammedi traces Turkey’s political strategy about Syria and speculates about the consequences of the controversial relationship between ISIS and Turkey for the country and the region.

Kobane maskeleri düşürüyor Hüseyin Ali remarks that the Turkish government`s stance towards Kobane reflects an inherent animosity to Kurds, and the continuation of this stance would block the peace process.

Erdoğan, Kürt milliyetçiliği kartına oynuyor Abbas Vali expresses his views on the reasons for the attack by ISIS on Kobani, the contradictions in the Turkish government’s policies in the peace process, and the current situation in Syria.

Kobanê ve ABD: “Emperyalist haydutlardan patates ve silah almak" Foti Benlisoy addresses the controversy around the US help to Kobane, arguing for a nuanced political perspective and a balanced stance between ideological determinism and absolute pragmatism.

Beş soruda Kobani’ye askeri yardım Ruşen Çakır’s answers critical questions regarding the military help to Kobane.

PKK ile PYD aynı mı Amberin Zaman argues that the president’s equation of the PKK with the PYD is problematic and limits opportunities to address problems with regards to both domestic and regional politics.

Kötü haber: Kürtler kahraman oluyor! Esra Arsan gives an account of how the Turkish media portrayed the Kobane protests in Turkey, detailing the strategies used to create consent for the government`s policies.

İktidarın, ‘’Kobanê Çelişkileri’’ Mehmet Boran addresses the contradictions in the government`s statements regarding Kobane and questions the initial reluctance to intervene.

Sınırdaki, hatta içimizdeki tehlike: Peşaver sendromu Mete Çubukçu discusses in detail the potential repercussions of training a “new oppositional force” against ISIS in Turkey.

Devlet olmayan devlet Burhan Ekinci’s impressions on social, political, and cultural life in Erbil.

PYD emperyalizmle işbirliği mi yapıyor? Commenting on the recent debates among the Turkish left about the US bombing of ISID and support for the PYD, Ridvan Turan rhetorically asks “Is the PYD collaborating with imperialism?”

National Security Bill

Güvenlik reformunun mantığı: Almanya’nın polisini alalım, yargısını almayalım According to Berke Özenç, Turkey adopted German security regulations without incorporating the judicial measures to prevent human rights abuses.

Dr. Gülşah Kurt: Bunlar dudak uçuklatan düzenlemeler; güvenlik devletine gidiyoruz Gülşah Kurt points out the problem of impunity in the Turkish judicial system, and warns against the consequences of the security discourse.

Bir savaş hazırlığı olarak "Güvenlik" Paketi Kemal Göktaş details the “real” motivations behind the Security Bill.

Ne mutlu polisim diyene: Artık ‘akla’ değil ‘kafaları’na göre arama yapabilecekler! Ali Topuz scrutinizes the Security Bill proposal, citing possible undemocratic practices that might spring from the regulation.

İç güvenlik paketi ve otoriterleşme Analyzing the content of the Security Bill, Mehmet Karlı argues that the AKP government is moving towards an authoritarian regime.

The Saturday Mothers’ 500th Vigil for the Disappeared

Cumartesi Anneleri/İnsanları 19 yaşında Bianet gives a list of news covering 2009-2014 for the Saturday Mothers’ long struggle in search for their loved ones.

Rosa Arjantin`den Cumartesi`yi selamlıyor Rosa Tarlovsky from Plaza de Mayo talks about her struggle to find her children who were kidnapped by the military regime and recounts her visit to the Saturday Mothers in 1998.

500 haftadır adalet aranıyor A. Hicri İzgören marks the significance of the Saturday Mothers’ struggle in keeping the history of state violence alive in Turkey.

Arjantin’den 500. haftaya kayıplar ve hakikat mücadelesi Hülya Dinçer gives a history of Plaza de Mayo`s thirty seven-year old struggle for truth, and draws lessons for the struggle in Turkey.

Video-haber: Dört dakikada 500 hafta A four-minute video depicting the five-hundred-week-old struggle of the Saturday Mothers.

Peace and Reconciliation Process

Öcalan: Süreci sabote etmek isteyenler fırsat kolluyor A summary of Abdullah Öcalan’s most recent comments about the ongoing peace process and the events in Kobane, as related by the HDP delegation.

Öcalan, tavşana kaç tazıya tut mu dedi? Abdülkadir Selvi claims that Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish movement have taken advantage of events like the Gezi protests and the 17 December “coup” to avoid keeping their word in the peace process.

Nereye kadar? Çandar continues to criticize Erdoğan’s take on the PYD as an obstacle to the peace process and questions the sustainability of equating ISIS with the PKK.

Dolmabahçe`de konuşulanlar Ali Bayramoğlu analyzes a recent meeting of the “Wise People Committee” (Akil İnsanlar Heyeti) with the Prime Minister and his cabinet, arguing that the meeting proves the dynamism of the Committee as well as the government’s commitment to the peace process.

AKP ve süreç Examining the AKP government’s discourse on the peace process in relation to the new security bill, Beşê Hozat says that “the AKP’s roadmap is not a map for the solution; it is a dead-end.”

"İmralı iyi, Kandil kötü" diye diye… According to Ruşen Çakır, the government has an imbalanced approach to the peace process that privileges negotiations with Öcalan and sees Cemil Bayık as trying to sabotage the process.

Barış süreci, iktidar ve ilahi Sırrı! (1)-(2) Nuray Mert accuses Kurdish politicians, especially Sırrı Sureyya Önder, of omitting the AKP’s ever-increasing authoritarian moves for the sake of the peace process.

Ne iyi bir savaş vardır ne de kötü bir barış Sırrı Süreyya Önder’s answer to Nuray Mert’s controversial article.

‘Çözüm süreci’ anlayışları Ahmet Selim argues that both parties are waiting for a compromise in order to reach the peace in their own imaginations.

Nerdesin ‘kardeş’! Özgür Güven argues that Kobane has become a litmus test for the “brotherhood” rhetoric that has been deployed by the Turkish public for decades.  

Other Pertinent Pieces

Karanlık kuytularda birbirimize fener olalım! Müştereklerimiz (Our Commons) initiative analyzes the parallels between the struggle in Kobane and the Gezi/post-Gezi resistance, describing the geopolitical significance of Kobane and the revolutionary potential of the Rojava governmental structure.

Gezi sanatının direnişi ve Sema Yayla As a result of a public protest at the trial of Ethem Sarısülük’s murderer, in which she threw red paint on the front door of the Ankara courthouse, Sema Yayla was sentenced to six years in prison; this blog post calls on the public to protest at her court hearing, which took place last week.

Görevine son verilen Prof. Ökçesiz: Akademide ağalar ve marabalar var In an interview with Olga Ünaydın Azizoğlu, Hayrettin Ökçesiz discusses his termination from the position of Rector at İstanbul Aydın University and remarks upon the limits on academic freedom and the cronyism of private education.

Şüpheli kaza, kaçırma girişimi, suikast; Türkiye`de neler oluyor? Ümit Kıvanç describes the suspicious accident that killed Press TV reporter Serena Shim in Suruç, the attempted kidnapping of a commander in Urfa by a Syrian opposition group, and the assassination of the former Suruç mayor and his son.

"Ölü Kadınlar Memleketi" çıktı Burçe Bahadır introduces her new book, Ölü Kadınlar Memleketi, about femicide and gender-based murders in Turkey.

İnsanlık suçu işleniyor In an interview, architect Doğan Hasol names ongoing construction/development projects in Istanbul as “crimes against humanity.”

İmre Azem’in kamerasından Validebağ direnişi İmre Azem’s video recording of Validebağ resistance against the government’s attempts to demolish the grove for the construction of a mosque.  

Validebağ’da belediyeden parsel cinliği: Numara değiştirilip yargı baypas ediliyor Nur Banu Kocaaslan condemns Üsküdar Municipality for demolishing Validebağ Grove for making profit.

Published on Jadaliyya

Erdogan, Turk milliyetciligi kartina oynuyor

Declaration by Scholars for Peace in Solidarity with the Saturday Mothers of Turkey

Liberalizmin tasfiyesi ve Ortadogu`da alacakaranlik

In Memory of Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı

Evden Emlağa Fikirtepe: Rant ve Spekülasyon Ekseninde Kentsel Dönüşüm

Turkey’s New Migration Policy: Control Through Bureaucratization

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The Chronicle of Higher Education Interviews Jadaliyya Co-Founder Bassam Haddad

The following interview was conducted by Ursula Lindsey with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Bassam Haddad in preparation for a feature about Jadaliyya for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The feature was published on 29 September 2014 and can be accessed by clicking here.

Ursula Lindsey (UL): Could you send me any statistics on the readership of Jadaliyya? I would like to get a sense of the overall size of the readership, and how it is geographically distributed.

Bassam Haddad (BH): We have become much less interested in numbers after having passed an important threshold in 2013, but we do not totally ignore them! Unfortunately (because one would like to see an alternative), the best indicator of the growth and expansion of readership has been “Facebook Reach,” which increased from around fifty thousand per week during the first six months in 2010–2011, to one million in 2012–2013, and surpassed 2.3 million in 2014. We actually stopped monitoring such numbers as closely, but know that our social media and classroom presence continues to increase steadily as our Facebook followers have surpassed 130,000. These followers are pretty active in circulating our content, and constitute a large part of how Jadaliyya content is disseminated. Twitter is another indicator. However, we refrain from tweeting too much, as shown by our tweets-to-followers ratio—which is perhaps among the highest (9900 tweets and twenty-seven thousand followers), at about thirty percent. The closest we have seen in our field is about forty-five to fifty percent. This reflects the extent to which each post/article, and/or tweet, is generating interest. It is important to note that our Arabic reading audience, world-wide but mainly in the region itself, has quadrupled since 2011, and now constitutes almost thirty to thirty-five percent of our readership, a testimony to how local informed readers elect to turn to Jadaliyya frequently—largely because our writers on local matters are either writing from the region or are intimately connected with the region.

As to other forms of tracing numbers, such as unique visitors, they seem quite inconsistent because the extent to which Jadaliyya is read not only via Android, iPhone, and iPad apps, but also because of the unusually large level of circulation of PDFs via huge email lists (which we are on and we see!) and, most importantly, its ubiquitous presence on syllabi (for instance, our unique visitors to the site hover around 500,000 a month, while most read Jadaliyya off line via email, PDF, or apps). Our Middle East scholars/educators/researchers list, now combined with that of Tadween Publishing, our sister organization, tops eight thousand engaged Jadaliyya readers who are increasingly assigning material from Jadaliyya.

The reason this happens is not only because we have good content. There is plenty good content if one searches the net carefully. Rather, it because of four very specific reasons: first, our good content has a long shelf-life, an outcome that is built into the editorial process; second, Jadaliyya content serves as an explicit resource or reference, through twelve topical and country/region-specific Media Roundups, profiles and archival posts for reference use, as well as weekly pedagogical reviews of new books, films, documentaries, art exhibits, and relevant social media items; third, Jadaliyya, in conjunction with Tadween’s blog, has become the space that most educators/researchers constantly visit for matters related to academic freedom, publishing, and higher education in the region as well as the United States and Europe; finally, our Jadaliyya content is selectively tapped to produce books and pedagogical publications that are published by Tadween Publishing and other publishers like Palgrave and Pluto Press, giving more gravity, and more longevity, to Jadaliyya content. One important source of such readers is JADMAG, of which we have so far produced five issues geared to educators, and chock-full of resources that are compiled and categorized at the end of each issue. (see www.JadMag.org or www.TadweenPublishing.com for more information). 

This source of readership is constantly expanding as Jadaliyya seems to be the only available site for such content (now quadro-lingual), and is our litmus test and what keeps us on our toes from day to day. The reason we emphasize this source in relation to numbers and quality is because the population of students reading Jadaliyya material based on educators’ choices is increasing exponentially at times, and serves as our most consistent source of readership with time especially that newcomers from that sphere become loyal readers. 

It is no surprise that the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) consistently sends us their critical public letters to publish when they want to reach the broader academic and research/journalist communities, including beyond the United States. It is not something you see consistently on any other website. And this applies to various other organizations that would like to reach the same expansive cohort (based in the United States, Europe, or the Middle East), including the new Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS).

Our colleague and professor of Arabic literature at Brown University, Elias Muhanna, who also runs his own popular blog, Qifa Nabki, commented openly at a conference that he does not know a professor teaching the modern Middle East who does not have a variety of Jadaliyya articles on their syllabi—an honor that ranges from rare to unique when it comes to similar online publications. 

UL: We discussed stories that caused particularly strong debates, and you mentioned the critique of DAM`s video. Are there any other pieces that sparked debates?    

BH: Just to clarify, this last piece sparked more than a debate, as some folks where actually unhappy with the approach—though we are still in good communication with the concerned parties (e.g., DAM) given our approach to the matter. The pieces that sparked debate, discussion, and the like are actually many, and I am not sure it would be fair to single out a handful. However, the notable pieces that drew heated debates and attention revolve around the July coup in Egypt, or around the nature of the Syrian uprising. But this is almost a continuous variable, and still sparks heated discussions that reflect the polarization on these matters among concerned publics. Nonetheless, we continue to get serious engagement—even if sometimes a bit over the top—from detractors on various topics, from Palestine and Syria, to articles on sexuality, Islam, and even literature and film. The fact that detractors of the entire publication continue to engage and critique reveals a sense of legitimacy that even this cohort associate with Jadaliyya. For a critical publication, this is priceless, and we think we will fail if we do not maintain that level of quality and legitimacy.

UL: What are the most common criticisms or suggestions for improvement your get? Do you think they are valid? Where do you see room for improvement? When I last saw Jadaliyya Co-Editor Sinan Antoon in Cairo, he said, for example, he thought the site might publish less so as to focus more on the quality of the writing. 

BH: Oh, dear, there are all kinds, and so many of which come from us, the editors, given that various page teams are relatively autonomous. Our position on critique is simple: we ignore any critique at our own peril. This does not mean that all criticisms are equally valid. They are not. It does, however, mean that we take them seriously and assume their validity until we can illustrate otherwise to ourselves and to others. In most instances, critiques do include a modicum of validity, and our responsiveness to nearly every single significant line of critiques (based on a compilation) is the reason we keep growing in quality and numbers. We surely miss some, and we surely make mistakes even in assessing critiques—but these represent a minority of cases within our practice. Based on what we have heard, we see room for improvement in soliciting even more writing from the region; in working harder to get more pieces from the scene, on intractably controversial matters, like Syria; and we agree that we, like any successful publication, can get too comfortable with its status quo of readership and contributors. But questions like yours, and internal discussions based on similar observations, push us on a quarterly basis to make a deliberate and explicit effort to reach out. This is in fact why we dramatically expanded the Arabic section (in terms of readership and contributors) during the past two years. 

All in all we operate on a five-year plan of sorts (despite the problematic association with five-year plans). At this point, as we are still in our fourth year, we are establishing ourselves as a serious and perhaps the go-to publication for informed readership. But you will soon see some changes that will expand our scope and spice things up a bit in a productive direction, at a time when we need not worry as much about the basics and daily operations. Our challenge, actually, is to maintain the essentially voluntary-based nature of Jadaliyya. Therefore, much of what we have focused on during the first years of establishment involves building the best team there is, or what we think is such, under these circumstances. It is a continuing challenge, but it has been working since 1992 when the parent organization, the Arab Studies Journal, started.

As to the question of quantity verses quality, we exercise a mean purge every quarter, precisely to avoid the false impression that quantity is synonymous with quality. Surely, we fail here and there. However, the one development since 2013 has been the reduction of the output rate—which we view as having been somewhat unavoidable as this is how you connect with new readership and contributors in the early stages—from about 175 pieces per month to about 110-120 (though this includes all posts and reports, etc.). But this challenge continues, and—frankly—we hold ourselves to standards that are not observed in comparable publications that either focus on one country, or one approach (e.g., Foreign Policy), or one audience, or one language, or one discipline, etc. So we have to make up our own standards for a new kind of publication. All this takes time, and we welcome any criticism that allows us to meat our challenge. We are not sensitive to productive critique at all! We will fail without it. 

UL: You mention detractors of the site—any examples?

BH: Every new initiative gives rise to critics, and that is a good thing. What is interesting about Jadaliyya’s critics, most of them at least, is that they critique and stick around for the most part—largely because of what they tell us verbatim at times: “We expect more from Jadaliyya,” or something of the sort. Now the question of who these critics are depends on the issue, and often our biggest critics on one topic are our biggest fans on another. Syria is a good example where we get flack from both pro-opposition corners and anti-opposition corners, but you would find avid readers of other Jadaliyya pages among both varieties. Do we have critics that do not think Jadaliyya is worth reading at all? You bet! There is very little we can do to convince those voices otherwise. Having said all of that, the fact is that Jadaliyya has filled a gap and presented a centrifugal force around which critics of mainstream discourse on the region in the United State and beyond hover. That in and of itself has generated detractors. 

UL: It seems to me that Jadaliyya has a pretty clear, consistent identity, both in its politics and its theoretical orientations. The people who edit and write it are generally the same age and peer group, and many have known each other for a long time. Do you think you have a wide enough variety of views? Do you feel like Jadaliyya has been able to spark debates outside of a community of like-minded contributors and readers? 

BH: [One factual note: the editors and contributors are by no means of similar age or belong to similar social circles—not after 2011, regarding the latter comment, and have never been, regarding the former comment. We have had more than a thousand contributors and the Jadaliyya team surpasses eighty people living in different countries now. Any cursory view of any fifty consecutive posts reveals a variety that easily surpasses most comparable publications. As for views, it is a political challenge, not always a question of diversity. See below.]

This is the one-million dollar question. Yes, any good publication must struggle with this dialectic of building a readership based on a particular kind/nature of knowledge production, but then expanding it to attract new readership and contributors while retaining the reason for its success. Are we guilty of not doing this perfectly? Absolutely. Have we gone far beyond most other publications to allow for serious internal differences and reach out to new and alternative views? Absolutely. But that does not exhaust the question. As mentioned above, we are in the building stage, and we view a good part of the shortcomings as related byproducts. However, this is one of our fundamental goals as we enter and complete our fifth year, and it will not come without its risks, risks we are very happy to take. Most importantly in reference to sparking discussion or debates, Jadaliyya articles have been written about and discussed in conferences and in social media in ways that have actually jump-started broader research questions and helped set research agendas—not to mention the impact of Jadaliyya on the carriers of junior writers who make their debut there and then get picked up by other institutions who are hiring, paying, and producing knowledge. The list is pretty long.

Having said that, two comments are relevant here. First, we are not and do not pretend to be an open forum for all views. Though I suspect you recognize that and you are not asking about why we do not highlight and invite problematic (racist, sexist, classist, etc. writers), but rather, from within the perspective we support, we may still afford more variety—and that is totally fair, and the above addresses our need to meet this challenge in increasingly better ways.

The second comment is political, and refers to the context within which Jadaliyya and other publications emerged in recent years. We see ourselves as a counter-discourse in relation to the dominant and quite entrenched discourse on the Middle East in the United States primarily, but also beyond. We also see ourselves in the same manner in relation to the petro-media empire of some Arab states. In this context, we are trying to provide an alternative reference point for sound daily analysis on the region. To establish that difficult reality and standard, we have had to be more focused on consistency and quality, sometimes at the expense of maximum diversity. So, we are not, per se, seeking diversity of “views” in the absolute sense, which is a matter/goal that speaks more to liberal concerns that are often divorced from realities of power and its direct relation to dominant discourses. However, where we have room to improve on this particular point, which is how we understand your question, is to establish even more diversity “within” the “general” perspective we endorse. And, yes, we do have some work to do in that respect, but not always for lack of trying. We are fighting an uphill battle and we also have to pay attention to the challenge of dragging everyone along while expanding this spectrum (i.e., the million-dollar challenge/question above). The years ahead will speak louder than any words regarding our genuine interest in making this happen within the context of a counter-discourse movement.

Also, we do not pay our writers, and this restricts us by excluding many careerist writers who might have provided a diversity of sorts despite differing views.

Finally, it is important to note that beyond the essentials, we have ongoing viewpoint disagreements within Jadaliyya regarding content and particular pieces. We think it is a testament to the absence of a rigid conception regarding which particular views are welcome.

UL: Finally, there is an argument that young academics should focus on scholarly work and publication and not "waste" their ideas and time on writing for web sites and other venues. How do you respond to that? 

BH: We totally agree in principle, considering the kind of online publications and quality that proliferates. And whereas we would give the same advice, we cannot ignore the fact that the strategic position of Jadaliyya within the academic community can be a plus for rising academics who would like to be read and heard. Last year alone, several folks within and outside Jadaliyya remarked to us how valuable their Jadaliyya contributions were in capturing the attention of employers/academics in the hiring process. This semi-exception is borne out of the fact that Jadaliyya has indeed become the go-to place for academics generally, despite what this or that observer can say, sometimes legitimately, about the quality of this or that post. We just have to make sure that this continues to be kept to a minimum in the coming five, or ten, years!

So, in short, it depends. In the case of Jadaliyya, publishing there can be used strategically to enhance one’s chances of getting an academic job. We used to think that this was not the case before we were told otherwise by employers and during academic interviews. Used properly, it can be a plus, and this is not confined to Jadaliyya, as there are a number of quality publications out there. The world is changing, and the academic community is following suit, even if at a few steps behind.

UL: Are you planning on publishing anything soon on Obama`s war on ISIS?

BH: Yes, we have published a number of pieces addressing the rise and nature of ISIS, in both Arabic and English, and, beginning the week of 22 September, our fourth anniversary incidentally, we are publishing a regular media roundup specifically on ISIS-related articles. Stay tuned!