Turkey Media Roundup (November 11)

[Turkish soldiers at the Syrian border, 21 September 2014. Image by fpolat69 / Shutterstock.com] [Turkish soldiers at the Syrian border, 21 September 2014. Image by fpolat69 / Shutterstock.com]

Turkey Media Roundup (November 11)

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

Blame Washington for Continuing Crisis in Syria Merve Şebnem Oruç claims that American ambivalence in the Syrian war is preventing Turkey from achieving a lasting solution to the geopolitical and humanitarian crisis.

Bayık: No Solution Without Kurds in Middle East KCK Executive Council Co-President Cemil Bayık describes the Kobane resistance and the need for the international community to support the Kurds in the fight against ISIS in the region.

Kobanê Resists Islamic State—But Turkey Still Can`t Get Kurdish Question Right Cengiz Güneş asserts that the narrow priorities of the Turkish state in the fight against ISIS are generating tension with the newly-empowered Kurdish militia groups like the PKK.

Collaboration with Turkey Is the Solution to End Terrorism Ozan Ceyhun speculates that the best way for the international community to fight the threat of ISIS is to empower Turkey against it.

The Kurds` Visualization and the New Equilibrium Ali Bayramoğlu examines the shift in the government’s stance toward Kurdish groups like the PYD in Kobane that are leading the resistance against ISIS.

Kobane and Sykes-Picot: Who Will Draw the Borders This Time? İbrahim Karagül speculates that western discourse around the possibility of shifting borders in the Middle East is at the expense of Turkey achieving its full potential on the world stage.

Reflections on the Psychology of ISIL Mustafa Akyol writes that ISIL’s ability to recruit new members is based upon the social order it promises through notions of masculinity.

Étienne Balibar: For the Resistance in Kobane A short piece by Étienne Balibar in which he praises the solidarity around Kobane and its resonance with other struggles in the region.

Kobane Is Not a Kurdish Issue Stephen Smellie, of the Peace in Kurdistan campaign, writes his observations from on the ground in Suruç overlooking Kobane.

Arguing Against ISIS İbrahim Kalın highlights the importance of making religious-based claims against ISIS’ politics and practices.

Time to Leave the Lies Aside Etyen Mahçupyan claims that the PYD and the PKK are trying to take over Kobane to use it “to negotiate as the only power in this land.”

ISIL: Restless Spirit in Pursuit of a Body Doğu Ergil asserts that political Islam “is the search of the wandering Muslim spirit for the organic unity of state and law.”

A Barrel of `ISIL Oil` for $25 Klaus Jurgens attempts to trace the flow of money into ISIS’ hands through the oil trade.

Turkish Official: Syrian Refugees Are Here to Stay Semih İdiz explains the untenable nature of the Turkish state’s policies toward Syrian refugees.

Peace and Reconciliation Process

On the Reconciliation Process Kılıç Buğra Kanat claims that although prospects for peace have been threatened by Kobani and the solidarity protests in Turkey, the Kurdish leadership will ultimately need to trust the AKP if peace is ever to be achieved.

Economics of the Reconciliation Process Sadık Ünay speculates that the peace process will only be successful if it is accompanied by continued economic growth and development.

The Future of Turkey`s Reconciliation Process Hatem Ete wonders whether the resurgence of violence and the PKK in the wake of Kobane threatens the peace process.

Ankara Is Determined for Peace Despite Everything Melih Altınok claims that the PKK has manipulated the west in order to stymie peace talks.

Sırrı Süreyya and Hatip Dicle Don`t Make Good Secretaries for Öcalan Ali Yurttagül claims that Sırrı Süreyya and Hatip Dicle are using their role as intermediaries to manipulate and skew the peace talks for a “preordained political mission.”

Problems Emerge in Turkey`s Kurdish Bid Murat Yetkin examines the frustration of leaders on both sides of the peace talks and the obstacles created by Kobane, ISIS, and the solidarity protests in Turkey.

The Reconciliation Process Is Undergoing a Stress Test… Abdülkadir Selvi says that effort by the PKK and the Kurdish leadership in Turkey to challenge the government on the peace process has not tempered the government’s commitment to reconciliation.

Who Will Lose If Kurdish Peace Process Fails? Serkan Demirtaş claims that the clumsy handling of the peace talks by the government and the Kurdish leadership will ultimately be most detrimental to Turkish society.

Barzani or Öcalan? Mahmut Övür claims that the two differing approaches of the KRG and the PKK to the strife in Kobane is generating tension, and that Barzani should win out because he “always produces solutions” while Öcalan “always creates problems.”

“Erdoğan as President”

Turkey`s Image Cafer Solgun claims that Erdoğan’s hostility toward criticisms is an issue not just for democracy in Turkey but also for perceptions of Turkey around the world.

Will Davutoğlu Ever Emerge from Erdoğan`s Shadow? Commenting on the irony that Davutoğlu’s role as Prime Minister is to diminish the importance of his office, Semih İdiz wonders whether Davutoğlu will continue to defer to Erdoğan’s supremacy.

Turkey`s Presidential Palace Debate and What You`re Not Supposed to Know Taha Meli Arvas claims that the international press coverage of the new Presidential Palace has been an attempt to smear President Erdoğan and his successes as a leader.

Hands of Learning from the Naked King Arzu Kaya Uranlı describes the frustrations of many people in Turkey with the ongoing impositions of the AKP and of Erdoğan on their everyday lives.

Domestic Politics

Two Challenges for the Secularists Doğan Eşkinat claims that internal strife within the CHP, and its struggles to attract voters from broad segments of society, pose problems for the CHP’s future electoral prospects.

Overall Picture Not Good Ali Bulaç appraises the state of democracy in Turkey, saying that the deep-seated problems within the Turkish political system are completely unrelated to Islamism and political Islam.

AKP`s War Against `Internal Enemies` According to Orhan Kemal Cengiz, the AKP is replicating the discourse of ‘internal enemies’ used by the military juntas in order to quash dissent.

Şafak Pavey is Both Right and Wrong Analyzing a speech by Şafak Pavey to illustrate the flaws in the opposition party’s efforts to mobilize against the AKP, Joost Lagendijk claims that the opposition should instead target “crony capitalism and an illiberal understanding of democracy.”

Why Are They Afraid of Criticism? Cafer Solgun claims that the AKP’s resistance to criticism is a symptom of its growing authoritarian rule.

Turkey Adds Entry to Book of Enemies Mustafa Akyol discusses the National Security Policy document, known infamously as the “Red Book,” which Erdoğan is currently trying to amend to include the “parallel structure” as an internal enemy.

Splitting Gendarmerie from Turkish Army: Reform or Bad Timing? Metin Turcan wonders about the consequences of the proposed restructuring of the gendarmerie that would put it under the purview of the Interior Ministry.

Can Turkish Opposition Write New Chapter? Tülin Daloğlu appraises the CHP opposition to the government in the wake of Emine Ülker Tarhan’s strongly-worded resignation from her position as MP.

A Guide Through Turkey for the Armenian Diaspora According to Markar Esayan, the AKP government has made a “good-willed effort” in the past twelve years to remedy the histories of violence and denial that characterize the Armenian issue.

The General Staff`s View of the Parallel Structure Nagehan Alçı claims that the General Staff regards the Gülen movement as the “parallel structure” that was recently added to the “Red Book” as an enemy of Turkey.

The Paradox of Secularism and Democracy Osman Can speculates that the ideologies of Kemalism as well as the Kurdish movement, driven by secularism, aim to ideologically and culturally cleanse their lands of others.

Former Commanders Have Memory Problems Lale Kemal evaluates the retrial of the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup suspects and the changes in their testimonies.

Freedom of Press in `New Turkey` Yusuf Kanlı argues that despite the seemingly positive transformations of the cabinet under Davutoğlu, press freedom is still severely circumscribed by the government.

Ak Saray `Culture` Ali Yurttagül comments upon the violent exorbitance of the AKP’s efforts to usher in a "New Turkey" through dispossession and destruction.

Creating an `AK-Turkey` Examining the weak government response to the Soma mining disaster, Murat Aksoy describes the way in which the AKP has worked to equate itself with Turkey to quash dissent.

Foreign Policy

Turkey`s NATO Membership Hits the Headlines Once Again Merve Şebnem Oruç criticizes the NATO response to Turkey’s actions in Syria and Kobane.

Why Does Germany Not Want Peace in the Middle East? According to Cemil Ertem, Germany wants to undermine peace in the Middle East because it would be threatened by the economic dominance of a stable Turkey.

Turkey Is Not a Problem for the EU Emre Gönen asserts that Turkey’s introduction into the EU would not weaken the EU, especially given that it is already having its own political and economic difficulties.

The Failing Strategy of the US Etyen Mahçupyan argues that the obstacles facing the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East is preventing it from contributing to the end of terror in the region.

Obama Cannot Risk Turkey and Erdoğan Knows That Murat Yetkin wonders whether the change in the American political order will endanger Obama’s strategic alliances in the Middle East, particularly with Turkey.

Turkey in Pursuit of Stability, West Opts for Chaos According to İhsan Aktaş, Turkey’s efforts to be a force of stability in the Middle East are threatened by the war-mongering policies of the Western countries.

Turks Shocked by Al-Aqsa Mosque Clashes Tülin Daloğlu appraises the Turkish government’s response to the Israeli attack on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Economy

Are We Making "Doing Business" an Uphill Task? Hatice Karahan speculates that Turkey’s rise in the rankings of the World Bank have not done enough to entice the population of Turkey to start businesses.

I See Debt People Emre Deliveli analyzes the rise in debt across sectors in the past several years in Turkey.

Structural Transformation and the New Reform Package Sadık Ünay praises the new structural transformation policies that aim to stimulate continued economic growth, development, and expansion in Turkey.

France and Turkey Talk Syria Amanda Paul claims that Turkey is working with France to address the crisis in Syria in the wake of frustrations with other western powers.

Other Pertinent Pieces

At Least 14,555 Workers Die on the Job Under AKP Rule An analysis of the statistics regarding workers’ deaths in the twelve years of the AKP government.

Nobody Flees without a Reason, We are all Migrants! A statement in solidarity with migrants, in the wake of the sinking of a boat of refugees in the Black Sea near Istanbul in which more than twenty Afghan and Syrian refugees died.

Turkish Boat Disaster Reveals New Route for Migrants Thomas Seibert claims that the tragedy of the sinking of a refugee boat shows that refugee smuggling routes are changing.

Race and Racism in Modern Turkey Bülent Gökay examines the enduring legacy of Turkish ethnic supremacism in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Work Slows at the Ilısu Dam Site, But Hasankeyf Residents Have Agreed to Go A summary of the latest developments concerning the redevelopment of the historic city of Hasankeyf into a dam.

Green Istanbul? Not a Joke: Sad But True Facts Pelin Cengiz surmises the environmental consequences of the AKP’s urban development projects in Istanbul following a bid by the city to become the Green Capital of Europe in 2017.

Turkish

Kobane / ISIS

Kobani ve Sykes-Picot: Bu sefer sınırları kim çizecek? Noting the shift in how Turkey is being portrayed in the foreign press, İbrahim Karagül suspects an international resistance against Turkey’s rising profile.

6-7 Ekim ile 1 Kasım’ı karşılaştırınca… Ruşen Çakır compares eventful Kobane protests to “International Kobane Day” demonstrations that went by without an incident.

Arap orta sınıfı ve IŞİD Serdar Turgut advocates for founding an Arab middle class against the currents that feed ISIS in the Middle East, given that ISIS might be a permanent problem in the region.

Kobani küçük oyun büyük According to Abdulkadir Selvi, the PKK is trying to vindicate itself over the clashes in Kobane, and the US is trying to shape the region in partial alliance with the Kurds.

ABD, Batı ve Kürtler Türkiye`yi ve Ortadoğu`yu parcalayacaklar mi? (1) - (2) Cengiz Çandar discusses the Turkish government’s Kobane and ISIS policy, the notorious “grand scheme” scenario, and the foreseeable changes in the future of the region.

Erbil`den Ankara`ya bakış: Hayal kırıklığı (1) - (2) Reporting from a conference in Erbil, Çandar provides a picture for Kurdish politicians’ views on Turkey’s recent foreign relation choices, relations between Kurdish cantons and Iraq`s central government, and the fight against ISIS.  

Kobani’de kaybeden Ankara’da kazanabilir mi? Seyfi Öngider depicts Kobani resistance as a turning point in the history of the Kurdish, comparing it to the Turkish War of Independence in terms of national, political, and historical context.

4 metrekarelik çadırda hayat Yılmaz Bilgen reports from refugee camps in Turkey about the difficult conditions that Syrian families have to endure.

Türkiye’nin Kobanê politikası Seydi Fırat discusses Turkey’s Kobane politics.

Duhok Anlaşması ne anlama geliyor? Yakup Nuhomo discusses the meaning of the Duhok agreement made between Syrian Kurdish leaders for other peoples in the region.

Kürtlerin dostları kimlerdir? Sungur Savran gives an account of various approaches to the alleged alliance between Kurdish forces in Syria and the US, and offers a comradely warning for the possibility of losing the progressive spirit of the Rojava revolution.

Genç bir kadındı, vurdular onu Ferhat Tunç narrates his meeting with sociologist Kader Ortakaya right before she was killed by Turkish soldiers on the border this week.

Peace and Reconciliation Process

Bayık: `Hükümet şimdi ordu vesayetine sığınıyor` KCK co-chairman Cemil Bayık comments on important political issues ranging from the Turkish government’s perspective on Kobane, the peace process, and Turkey’s domestic politics.

Çözüm süreci stres testinde According to Selvi, the peace process is going through a “stress test,” pressured by internal fractures within the AKP and challenges related to domestic politics.

PKK ne yapmak istiyor? Oral Çalışlar evaluates the frequently voiced “end of the peace process” discourse by tracing the PKK and Öcalan’s current stance on the issue.  

AKP eski oyunları kabul ettirmek istiyor Hüseyin Ali argues that the AKP government is aiming to stall the steps to be taken in the peace process and that this approach is well-recognized by the Kurdish movement.

Kürt sorununun yeni katmanları… (1) - (2)  Ali Bayramoğlu argues for four layers that should be examined in relation to the Kurdish issue and peace process, and discusses the importance of Rojava for Kurds.

Çözüm süreci yok da çatışmasızlık var (mı?) Veysi Sarıözen aims to decipher the Turkish government’s position towards the Kurdish presence in Syria and the peace process in Turkey.

Öcalan tarihi kararın eşiğinde (1) - (2) In the light of Cemil Bayık’s proposal of a third party involvement in the peace process, Markar Esayan discusses the important decision Öcalan will make for the next phase of peace talks.

Kaybedilen her gün Çözüm Süreci`nde zorlukları çoğaltıyor Bekir Ağırdır’s reading of the problems of the peace talks up to this point.

Aysel Tuğluk ‘karar verilmeli’ diyor: Ya gericilik, ya özgürlük After her controversial statements on the peace process, Aysel Tuğluk answers questions about the criticisms she faced, issues on both domestic politics and Rojava.

İşte tartışılan Kürt çözümü yol haritası taslağı Murat Yetkin lays out the items on the unofficial yet widely-discussed road map for the Kurdish issue.

AK Parti milletvekilleri en çok neyi sordu? Abdulkadir Selvi reports from the AKP’s party convention, listing the critical points discussed, some of which imply dissenting voices within the party ranks with regards to the peace process.

İktidar partisinin Kürt sorunu Accoring to Ruşen Çakır, in order to continue the peace process, the AKP needs to involve its Kurdish politicians in the process to avoid the growing discontent in the party.

Kendimizi kandırmayalım, böyle barış olmaz! Murat Paker reports the results of a recent survey on attitudes towards the Kurdish issue and the peace process, and encourages politicians to make sense of these findings in going forward.

Savaşı seyretmek—Nejat Ağırnaslı`nın anısına Nükhet Sirman writes her experiences of being on the border and the puzzling effects of war on people’s lives.

‘Süreç’ krizde!.. Vedat İlbeyoğlu deconstructs the government’s security discourse around the peace talks by discussing the meaning of the “public order” requirement put forth by Davutoğlu.

Sokak `süreci` anlatıyor Al-Jazeera asks people from different cities in Turkey their views on the peace process.

Ermenek Mine Accident

İşçilerimiz neden ölüyor... According to Markar Esayan, the question of why there is so much occupational death in Turkey should be answered by economic preferences, not by attudinal tendencies of policy makers.  

Madenlerde robotlaşmanın fıtratı Pınar Öğünç provides an ironic glimpse into how government officials approach mining accidents.

Yeni(k) Türkiye... The Ermenek disaster represents a side of Turkey that the government likes to hide with the more polished “new Turkey” discourse, says Mustafa Paçal.

Yeraltından notlar Ülker Sarı points out the systemic factors involved in the Ermenek mining disaster, and mentions the media’s role in concealing the real questions that should be asked, like which groups benefit from these deaths.

Hükümetin `büyüme` politikası iş cinayeti! According to an attorney, the responsibility for the disaster rests on the government’s economic development politics, and the officials who circumvent the law for their benefit.

İşçi cinayetlerine karşı mücadele, ama nasıl? Özgür Müftüoğlu claims that in order to build a movement against worker fatalities, political actors should be reminded of the class roots of the problem.

Soma karartılacak mı? Aziz Çelik fears that the Soma massacre will be swept under the rug, and workers will continue to die in Turkey unless the responsible politicians resign and are brought to account.

Katil aynı bildik katil! İhsan Çaralan points to the connection between the Soma massacre and the unlawful slaughter of olive trees in Yırca.

AKP’li 12 yılda en az 14 bin 455 işçi, Ekim ayında ise en az 160 işçi yaşamını yitirdi... İSİG’s report on worker fatalities grouped by month and line of work during the twelve year rule of the AKP.

“Erdoğan as President”

Erdoğan, bölünme paranoyasını, Sevr söylemini canlandırıyor! Hasan Cemal parallels Erdoğan’s “grand scheme” scenario regarding the region to a long tradition of Turkish politicians who kept the fear of separation alive, underlying the dangers of such a nationalist perspective.

Sigara da içerim, içki de, sana ne! Hasan Cemal criticizes Erdoğan’s insistent involvement in the citizens’ life style choices, exemplified by his recent public warning to a smoker.

"Yeni Türkiye": Sivil Org. R. T. Erdoğan ile emekli Org. K. Evren Comparing Erdoğan to Kenan Evren, the retired military officer who led the 1980 military coup, Baskın Oran lists public statements from both figures that share many ideas in common.

‘Erdoğan’ın ‘olağanüstü lider’ fantezisinin bedeli çok ağır olabilir’ Elif Key’s interview with İştar Gözaydın on topics ranging from authoritarian intervention in daily life, corruption allegations, worker fatalities, and public tolerance for the style of governing.

Saraylardaki akıl Mümtaze Türköne ties the logic of Erdoğan’s presidential palace to economic and political choices preferred by the government.

Ak Saray ‘kültürü’ According to Ali Yurttagül, the new presidential place represents a new culture that replaces the old without much consideration other than building something new.

Tarihten kopuş Sezin Öney points out the discrepancy between the AKP’s discursive ties to the past (such as Seljuk and the Ottoman Empire), and the lack of humility displayed in the construction of the Presidential Palace, which is not a typical characteristic of the claimed ancestors.

Domestic Politics

Güvenlik Devleti ihya edilirken Ahmet İnsel points to the discrepancy between the AKP’s former stance in decreasing the influence of the security forces in politics and the utilization of the National Security Council today as the defender of the status quo.

Legal görünümlü `vatandaş` Mehmet Baransu parallels the government`s conceptualization of the enemy with those of previous governments and marks the new version a threat for all religious groups in the society.

En uzun MGK toplantısında alınan kararlar ve bunların Gülen cemaatine muhtemel yansımaları (1) - (2) Ruşen Çakır discusses the longest MGK meeting and its implications for the Gülen movement.

Paralel örgütün legal görünümlü yapıları da bitecek According to Cem Küçük, after the inclusion of the Gülen movement in the “red book” as a national threat, the next steps should aim for the complete eradication of its sympathizers from the media and its effect from the public domain.

Dış gözle Türkiye’nin gidişatı According to Abdulhamit Bilici, Turkey’s international image is deteriorating, and coming to be discussed in the framework of “democracy-autocracy” rather than the previous “secularism-political Islam” dichotomy.

Demokraside, sorgulanamayan iktidar gayrimeşrudur Namık Çınar foresees the downfall of the current governing style due to its loss of legitimacy and lack of accountability.

40 soruda Balyoz davasında neler oldu, ne oluyor, ne olabilir? Doğan Akın discusses the details of the Sledgehammer coup plot case and future possibilities.

Paşa paşa darbe yapanlardan şaşa şaşa darbe yapanlara Paralleling the unlawful practices in the Sledgehammer case and the previous record of unjust convictions of military governments in Turkey, Oya Baydar invites everyone to be against authoritarian rule of any kind.

Agresif milliyetçilik ve devletçilik refleksinden sivil topluma Sümeyye Kocaman praises civil society as a way to escape the long-entrenched practices of “aggressive nationalism and statism reflexes.”

İtibar M. Nedim Hazar argues that the Turkish media is suffering from a lack of integrity more than ever, as many journalists’ main occupation is now supporting the government’s position on the Gülen movement.

Yeni mi? Ne yenisi? According to Nuriye Akman, AKP’s new Turkey discourse is meaningless as it fails to give a satisfying definition what is new about it.

AKP’nin HDP telaşı Ali Kenanoğlu analyzes the unfit reaction that the government gave to the public acts of violence against a Kurdish politician, a member of the oppositional party, and a politically-critical soccer player.

Yeni bir ırkçı dalganın sinyalleri İrfan Aktan argues that AKP policies are disseminating discriminatory sentiments, and the signs of an emerging racist current seem to be present.

Devlet, mafya, intikam Sibel Yerdeniz criticizes the lack of transparency surrounding the murder of two high-ranking police officers during the Kobane protests, and condemns the government’s cover-up of the issue.

Güçlükonak’tan Bingöl’e, ‘yeni Türkiye’den ‘yine Türkiye’ye! Cemal Başlangıç condemns the “unresolved” police murders in Bingöl in a “new Turkey” background, stressing the similarity to the practices of the “old Turkey.”

Ahmet Karataş’a saldırı ‘Milli Gladio’nun işidir Discussing the violent assault on a Kurdish politician, Hüseyin Ali claims that Turkey has formed itself a nationalized gladio force ready to be used in this kind of missions.

2007’ye dönüş According to Sezin Öney, the recent physical and verbal assaults on Kurdish politicians has a latent connection to the hostile political atmosphere and may be hinting at a new wave of violence.

Economy

Finansal kriz geliyor mu Süleyman Yaşar argues that a potential financial crises would seriously impact Turkey, unlike the last time.

Merkez Bankası üç ayda 1,2 milyar dolar zarar etti According to Yaşar, the Central Bank lost 1.2 billion dolars in three months, which could have been prevented with more careful handling of gold reserves.

Erdoğan ve Davutoğlu arasındaki fark ne Yaşar compares Erdoğan’s and Davutoğlu’s approaches to economy.

Ekonomi Yönetiminde Sıkışma-I: 2015 İçin Bir Düşünce Egzersizi Ümit Akçay’s predictions for the Turkish economy in 2015.

El kesesinden sultanım... Turhan Bozkurt criticizes the government for pursuing an unrealistic and unreliable economic policy.

‘Yeni’nin ekonomik anlamı According to Murat Belge, Turkey has seen many developments in its economy, but carrying this development to an even higher level would necessitate more advanced innovative steps.

Other Pertinent Pieces

Polis şiddeti A short clip from Fatif Pınar on police violence that protesters were exposed to in the last year.

Göçmendir, hükmü yoktur yeryüzünde… Hürrem Sönmez questions the boundaries of conscience with the untold stories of Jesica Nankabirwa, a refugee from Uganda raped and murdered, and forty Afghan refugees whose boat sank in the Bosphorus this week.  

İstanbul`un `yeşil kent` adaylığı: Aday kentlerin fotoğrafları İstanbul`u utandırır Turgut Yıldız discusses the ironic nature of nominating Istanbul for European Green Capital of 2017, following the Guardian piece that covered the nomination as being “a joke."

Prof. Abbas Vali İran Kürdistan’ını ve İran-Kürt ilişkilerini anlattı Abbas Vali talks about the social and political lives of Iranian Kurds, and their relation to Iran.

Yırca`da katliam nasıl yapıldı? A timeline of how six thousand olive trees were unlawfully cut down in Yırca.

Published on Jadaliyya

The Poverty of Moral Answers to Political Questions: On Perceptions of Islam in the Wake of ISIS

Epohi Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Ziad Abu-Rish on the Emergence of ISIS and Regional Ramifications

New Texts Out Now: Nazan Maksudyan, Orphans and Destitute Children in the Late Ottoman Empire

Erdoğan, Türk milliyetçiliği kartına oynuyor

After Gezi: Erdogan and Political Struggle in Turkey (Video)

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

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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!