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Now showing 1 - 10 of 87
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 5
    Citation - Scopus: 7
    Emulating Erasmus? Turkey's Mevlana Exchange Program in Higher Education
    (Springer Heidelberg, 2019) Yilmaz, Gozde
    In today's world, globalization and internationalization of education necessitate new initiatives to catch the new era. Turkey, as a country in between the east and the west, attempts to do so through its recent exchange program in higher education. Interestingly, Turkey's Mevlana exchange program as an ambitious project in higher education denotes an instance of policy transfer: taking the EU model (i.e., Erasmus) and slightly adjusting it to the national circumstances. This article unpacks Turkey's Mevlana program to demonstrate the process of policy transfer by focusing on different questions posed within the policy transfer literature. It argues that Mevlana is drawn from Erasmus, and it is created as a tool of soft power that is increasingly exercised by Turkey due to its changing focus within the Turkish foreign policy of 2000s.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 22
    Citation - Scopus: 26
    An Empirical Analysis of Household Education Expenditures in Turkey
    (Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, 2016) Acar, Elif Oznur; Gunalp, Burak; Cilasun, Seyit Mumin
    Using Turkish Household Budget Surveys from 2003, 2007 and 2012, this paper investigates the determinants of household education expenditures within an Engel curve framework. In particular, we estimate Tobit regressions of real educational expenditures by income groups using a number of household characteristics (i.e. rural residence, employment status, age, educational attainment of the household head, household size, share of female students and primary school students in the household, and total number of students in the household) to examine if and to what extent the determinants of educational expenditures differ by income groups; income elasticities of educational spending evolves over time; and children from middle-class and poor families can benefit enough from educational opportunities. The estimated expenditure elasticities have lower values for the top- and the bottom income quartiles while they have larger values for the middle-income quartiles. The results also show that for all income groups the expenditure elasticity of education increases over time, indicating that Turkish households allocates greater share of their budgets to education expenditures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Article
    A Factory in a Time of Turmoil: The Establishment and Engineering of the Büyükdere Match Factory in 1930s Istanbul
    (MDPI, 2025) Tunc, Gokhan; Tunc, Tanfer Emin
    The Republic of Turkey established its first match factory in Sinop in 1929 but had to relocate it even before it was in operation due to severe structural damage caused by ground settlement. In July 1930, through his US-based firm the American-Turkish Investment Corporation (ATIC), the Swedish "Match King" Ivar Kreuger signed a contract with the Republic of Turkey to build and operate a factory in B & uuml;y & uuml;kdere, Istanbul. By 1930, Kreuger had already established a match production monopoly in nearly every country in Europe and that year created a similar financial system for Turkey, gaining control of match production for 25 years. This article explains the events surrounding the establishment of his modern production facility in Turkey, with a particular focus on its engineering aspects. It details the strategically chosen location, the engineering solutions for the factory's construction, its production lines, and what the country gained and lost from it. In order to determine the establishment and production processes of the facility, the authors examined domestic and foreign archival documents, firsthand news reports from the period, articles and theses, and all other available documents. After the contract was terminated by both parties, the Turkish government and ATIC, in May 1943, the factory continued its production and storage activities until May 1989. At that point, the factory and all its equipment were integrated into another existing facility in the & Idot;neg & ouml;l district of Bursa province. Almost all the buildings of the B & uuml;y & uuml;kdere Match Factory were demolished, and the land was repurposed for a 450-bed regional hospital in 2012. In short, this article deploys the B & uuml;y & uuml;kdere Match Factory as a case study to examine what Turkey gained and lost from the establishment and production processes of a modern industrial factory, enabled by US-Turkish collaboration, and equipped with the most advanced manufacturing and engineering technologies of the time.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 2
    Citation - Scopus: 2
    Legislative Committees in the Turkish Parliament: Performing Procedural Minimum or Effective Scrutiny?
    (Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2023) Bektas, Eda; Political Science and Public Administration
    This study examines committee influence on government bills during the AKP's 2011-2015 majority government term in Turkey, an era characterised by democratic backsliding. It explores whether committees introduce more substantial amendments to government bills when they draw on their scrutiny powers (i.e. hearing sponsoring ministers, hearing stakeholders, forming subcommittees, secondary committee review) providing them diverse information and policy expertise. I hypothesise and test under what conditions committees use these competencies to initiate substantial changes. Overall findings based on a novel dataset indicate that legislative committees introduce more substantial amendments to government bills when they consult with sponsoring ministers and stakeholders. These findings suggest that the formal capabilities of legislative committees provide opportunities for legislators to influence government legislation even in adverse political contexts, as these mechanisms limit the government's ability to impose its legislative agenda unilaterally. It contributes to the debates on strengthening legislatures for effective government scrutiny.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 6
    Citation - Scopus: 6
    On Social Integration Process With Refugees in Turkey: How Can Ngos Be More Effective?
    (Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2021) Seyidov, Ilgar; Seyidov, Ilgar; Seyidov, Ilgar; Public Relations and Advertising; Public Relations and Advertising
    According to the statistics of UN, more than 6.5 million people have been internally displaced since the Syrian crisis in 2011. There are also more than 13.1 million people in need in Syria. Approximately 5.6 million people have become refugees in various countries, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. Among the countries welcoming displaced Syrians, Turkey is at the top, hosting over 3.5 million refugees. Governmental agencies, and I/NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are working together to meet the needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey. In this context, the social integration of refugees into the host community has become prominent. This study is focused on the positive and negative aspects of this social integration process in Turkey. By positive aspect, the positive contributions were meant, on the other hand, negative aspects are used to illustrate the shortcomings of the social integration process. In the research, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with the supervisors of refugee- oriented programmes implemented by NGOs. The focus is on the evaluation of social integration and the role of civil society organisations in this process. The main purpose is to discuss the current situation and to elicit different perspectives on the development of social integration process.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 38
    Citation - Scopus: 43
    An Unfinished Grassroots Populism: the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey and Their Aftermath
    (Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2015) Ozen, Hayriye
    Focusing on the Gezi protests, this study addresses two questions: How did a particular struggle against the demolition of a park spontaneously turn into nationwide mass protests? And why was this mobilisation unable to transform itself into a popular counter-hegemonic movement? Drawing on the Laclauian concept of populism, I demonstrate that Gezi mobilised various groups by turning into a symbol of the repressive responses of the hegemonic power to various social demands. This popular mobilisation could not go beyond a conjunctural experience due to its inability to unify heterogeneous protesters and to respond effectively to the counter-strategies of the hegemonic power.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 4
    Citation - Scopus: 9
    Post-Truth Politics in the 2017 Euro-Turkish Crisis
    (Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2019) Yilmaz, Gozde
    The year 2017 constituted a period of deep crisis and mutual distrust in relations between Turkey and Europe. During the referendum campaign on a proposed change to the constitution, the Turkish government reacted harshly to European countries that prohibited politicians campaigning in their territories. The key members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi - AKP) also met the European response with enmity. A detailed analysis of the discourse of the AKP's key cadre during the 2017 crisis reveals element of a new phenomenon which is emerging in the politics of many countries: post-truth.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 11
    Citation - Scopus: 14
    Informal Payments in Health Systems: Purpose and Occurrences in Turkey
    (Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2015) Tengilimoglu, Dilaver; Guzel, Alper; Toygar, Anil; Akinci, Fevzi; Dziegielewski, Sophia F.
    Informal payments constitute a significant portion of out-of-pocket payments in health systems, especially in developing countries. This study examined the current status of informal payments in Turkey and the opinions, attitudes, and behavior of individuals toward informal payments. To examine this concept, 1,033 residents in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, were surveyed. The 28-item questionnaire used in data collection was developed based on previous research and expert opinions. The data analysis revealed that approximately 29% of the study participants made informal payments in return for the medical service they received. Three out of 4 people who made informal payments were from a low-income group. Informal payments were made in the form of cash prior to medical procedures and also as gifts following the procedures. Future recommendations for health policymakers include designing a new patient copay mechanism where informal payments can be effectively incorporated into the formal payment system, assistance to low-income individuals, and improvement in current medical staff salaries that would discourage taking such payments.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 7
    Citation - Scopus: 8
    Transferring Technical Knowledge To Turkey: American Engineers, Scientific Experts, and the Erzincan Earthquake of 1939
    (Royal Society Publishing, 2022) Tunc,T.E.; Tunc,G.
    On 27 December 1939, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Erzincan, Turkey, claiming close to 33 000 lives, and leaving 100 000 injured and 250 000 homeless. World War II was in its initial stages, and the USA was particularly concerned about the vulnerable situation in Turkey, since there was a possibility that it would join forces with Germany, as the Ottoman Empire had done in World War I. Consequently, the Turkish request for information on 'a type of quake resistant concrete construction understood to have been developed in California', resulted in a flurry of correspondence between numerous Turkish and American actors, including the US State Department, which supplied this material with notable attentiveness. As this article will argue, this request not only represents an early critical juncture in the transfer of earthquake engineering knowledge from the USA to Turkey, but also illustrates how diplomacy and engineering can intersect at pivotal points in time. Engineers and other scientific experts strengthened the Turkish-American relationship during this period, thereby laying the foundation of the technical cooperation that would flourish during the Cold War. This watershed moment also resulted in immediate developments in Turkey, such as the development of a comprehensive national disaster management programme, a seismic zone map, and earthquake building codes. © 2021 The Author(s).
  • Article
    Workers' Rights in Turkish Law
    (inderscience Enterprises Ltd, 2014) Temel, Ali U.; Temel, Bulent
    With its young and growing population known with its competence, Turkey has been a major destination for global and domestic capital investments since the early 2000s when the country's European Union prospects have become a practical reality. This article presents Turkish workers' (non-collective) rights in the areas of compensation, work hours and conditions, and seeking employment for domestic and international investors that do or plan to do business in this OECD economy.