MEAS2003 E-Portfolio Grace King by https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw en-us 2023-04-17 02:42:36 UTC 2023-05-15 02:10:10 UTC hello@padlet.com Week 7 u7115835 https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2556271791 This counterargument by an anonymous Turk exemplifies Baris Ünlü’s arguments about Turkishness. The commentor’s disparaging comments about Kurds illustrates the relationship between their Turkish ethnicity and their privileged ways of “not seeing, not hearing, not feeling and not knowing”.[1] The commentator argues that Kurds migrate from Kurdish-majority areas because they refuse to “live with their culture”.[2] Rather than acknowledge the systemic oppression and governments policies of economic and geographical disparity, the commentor only chooses to ‘see’ Kurds’ inferiority and primitivity. The commentor’s incest rate whataboutism in retort to the rewriting of history textbooks exemplifies Ünlü’s argument that Turks use “strategies of escape [to] protect the individual from feeling potentially dangerous moral emotions”.[3] An analysis of this comment is highly relevant and supportive of Ünlü’s piece because the commentor responds to the epistemological challenge in the way that Ünlü suggests is common of Turks. The commentor maintains their active ignorance by drawing on “the abstract universalisms of major ideologies in Turkey”.[4] The commentor can blame and dismiss the Kurds’ oppression on Kurds’ apparent Islamism, extremism, and feudalism.[5] They are therefore able to avoid engaging with their privilege, forging Kurdish solidarity or any other upheaval to their “treasured narrative of official ideology and to the knowledge repertoire of Turkishness”.[6]

Word count: 207

[1] Barış Ünlü, “The Kurdish Struggle and the Crisis of the Turkishness Contract,” Philosophy & Social Criticism 42, no. 4-5 (2016): 398, https://doi-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/10.1177/0191453715625715.
[2] u/Business_Speed1658, “Question about Kurdish People in Turkey,” Reddit (blog), January 20, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/r/Turkey/comments/10gur5x/question_about_kurdish_people_in_turkey/.
[3] Barış Ünlü, “The Kurdish Struggle and the Crisis of the Turkishness Contract,” Philosophy & Social Criticism 42, no. 4-5 (2016): 400, https://doi-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/10.1177/0191453715625715.
[4] Ibid.
[5] u/Business_Speed1658, “Question about Kurdish People in Turkey,” Reddit (blog), January 20, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/r/Turkey/comments/10gur5x/question_about_kurdish_people_in_turkey/.
[6] Barış Ünlü, “The Kurdish Struggle and the Crisis of the Turkishness Contract,” Philosophy & Social Criticism 42, no. 4-5 (2016): 403, https://doi-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/10.1177/0191453715625715.

Bibliography

u/Business_Speed1658. “Question about Kurdish People in Turkey.” Reddit (blog), January 20, 2023. https://www.reddit.com/r/Turkey/comments/10gur5x/question_about_kurdish_people_in_turkey/.

Ünlü, Barış. “The Kurdish Struggle and the Crisis of the Turkishness Contract.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 42, no. 4-5 (2016): 398–403. https://doi-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/10.1177/0191453715625715.
]]> 2023-04-17 02:57:05 UTC https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2556271791 Week 8 u7115835 https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2562912983 The interview with Filiz Ayla makes strikingly similar findings to that of Tahire Erman’s qualitative interview analysis published some 20 years prior. Chain migration continues to characterise rural-to-urban migration. Ayla’s characterisation of internal migrants as uncertain and insecure without “their social protection networks” lends itself to Erman’s findings.[1] Erman argues that internal migrants tend to respond to this insecurity “by clinging together with their hemsehris and kin”.[2] Both pieces emphasise the tendency for some internal migrants to “otherise” themselves.[3] Erman quotes an interviewee — “we cannot live a free life like urbanites. We are conservative in our looks, in our behaviour” — sentiment that indicates a dichotomy of internal migrants and urbanites.[4]Ayla argues that this self-isolation and stronghold on traditions results from a perceived need to “protect and maintain their identity” in the new place.[5] While Ayla shares a similar perspective on Turkey’s internal migrants, her analysis generalises internal migrants and assumes that the behaviour she describes is undesirable and damaging.[6] Both pieces discuss ‘integration’ in detail, but what is left purposefully unclear by Erman, and unsaid by Ayla, is what internal migrants are ‘integrating to’. An analysis of both pieces suggests that the rapid changes to Turkish society mean that defining integration into urban life is no longer possible — if it ever was.

Word count: 213

[1] Filiz Ayla, Feelings of insecurity “a main problem among Turkish kids,” interview by Barçın Yinanç, Hurriyet Daily News, November 19, 2018, https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/feelings-of-insecurity-a-main-problem-among-turkish-kids-138980.
[2] Tahire Erman, “Becoming ‘Urban’ or Remaining ‘Rural’: The Views of Turkish Rural-To-Urban Migrants on the ‘Integration’ Question,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30, no. 4 (November 1998): 556, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020743800052557.
[3] Filiz Ayla, Feelings of insecurity “a main problem among Turkish kids,” interview by Barçın Yinanç, Hurriyet Daily News, November 19, 2018, https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/feelings-of-insecurity-a-main-problem-among-turkish-kids-138980.
[4] Tahire Erman, “Becoming ‘Urban’ or Remaining ‘Rural’: The Views of Turkish Rural-To-Urban Migrants on the ‘Integration’ Question,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30, no. 4 (November 1998): 548, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020743800052557.
[5] Filiz Ayla, Feelings of insecurity “a main problem among Turkish kids,” interview by Barçın Yinanç, Hurriyet Daily News, November 19, 2018, https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/feelings-of-insecurity-a-main-problem-among-turkish-kids-138980.
[6] Ibid.

Bibliography
 
Ayla, Filiz . Feelings of insecurity “a main problem among Turkish kids.” Interview by Barçın Yinanç. Hurriyet Daily News, November 19, 2018. https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/feelings-of-insecurity-a-main-problem-among-turkish-kids-138980.

Erman, Tahire. “Becoming ‘Urban’ or Remaining ‘Rural’: The Views of Turkish Rural-To-Urban Migrants on the ‘Integration’ Question.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30, no. 4 (November 1998): 548–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020743800052557.
]]> 2023-04-21 07:06:49 UTC https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2562912983 Week 9 u7115835 https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2568459587 An analysis of Karademir Hazır’s article and Betül Altinova in The New York Times photo-essay reveals comparable understandings of women’s fashion as it relates to religion and modernity. Betül’s description of how she “tie[s] up [her] hijab differently based on what [she] is wearing” and matches its colour with her western-style outfits illustrates Karademir Hazır’s analysis of the rise of the Islamic consumption market.[1] As veiling has become more fashionable, Betül is empowered to “mark [her] identity in consistency with the particulars of fine urban taste”.[2] Betül’s choice to “tie the hijab tight to prevent it from being the main element of [her] outfit” is interesting in the context of the Islamic culture industry.[3] Karademir Hazır’s interview analysis describes how “the new pious female embodiment styles” enable women to differentiate themselves from other Muslim identities.[4] Muslim identities that are considered conservative, traditional or rural are further marginalised by being incompatible with fashionable veiling aesthetics.[5] If Betül considers it fashionable to match the colour, style and prominence of her hijab with her outfit, it would be interesting to know if she considers the inverse unfashionable, and why. As Karademir Hazır argues, the fashionable blurring of Islamic-secular and East-West dichotomies evident in Betül’s clothing is reflective of Turkish modernisation — including its exclusion of those who cannot or will not conform with it.[6]

Word count: 220


[1] Betül Altinova, Cosmopolitan Style in Turkey, interview by Lauren Fleishman and Elizabeth Bristow, The New York Times, November 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/style/cosmopolitan-style-in-turkey.html.
[2] Irmak Karademir Hazır, “Wearing Class: A Study on Clothes, Bodies and Emotions in Turkey,” Journal of Consumer Culture 17, no. 2 (July 2017): 418, https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540516631152.
[3] Betül Altinova, Cosmopolitan Style in Turkey, interview by Lauren Fleishman and Elizabeth Bristow, The New York Times, November 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/style/cosmopolitan-style-in-turkey.html.
[4] Irmak Karademir Hazır, “Wearing Class: A Study on Clothes, Bodies and Emotions in Turkey,” Journal of Consumer Culture 17, no. 2 (July 2017): 428, https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540516631152.
[5] Ibid., 425.
[6] Ibid., 417.

Bibliography

Altinova Betül. Cosmopolitan Style in Turkey. Interview by Lauren Fleishman and Elizabeth Bristow. The New York Times, November 13, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/style/cosmopolitan-style-in-turkey.html.

Karademir Hazır, Irmak. “Wearing Class: A Study on Clothes, Bodies and Emotions in Turkey.” Journal of Consumer Culture 17, no. 2 (July 2017): 417–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540516631152.
]]> 2023-04-26 08:21:14 UTC https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2568459587 Week 10 u7115835 https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2580246537 The TikTok by gay Turkish man and social media influencer, Efe, echoes the sentiments of the parents in Benim çocuğum. Throughout the film, the parents note that effeminate gay men and transgender women experience particularly high rates of violence.[1] Efe lip-syncs to the lyrics “if I die tonight, I’ma make it look pretty”, from a popular song by queer group Coco & Clair Clair.[2] Efe’s literal interpretation of the lyrics is accompanied by Turkish and English comments urging Efe to stay safe and despairing over homophobia in Turkey.[3] Efe’s decision to wear makeup, like the decision of the children in Benim çocuğum to wear particular clothing and hairstyles, is to ‘out’ oneself as queer.[4] Turkish society is depicted in the film as having rigid and prescriptive gender roles centred on heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and the nuclear family.[5] To be publicly queer is thus seen as to be living in defiance to and threatening Turkish societal norms.[6] An analysis of the film and the TikTok reveals that the decision to be openly queer is often a dangerous one. The refusal to conform or disappear from the Turkish public eye is an act of resistance under a country and government that is regularly hostile to those who challenge its prized constructions of gender and sexuality. 
 
Word count: 212
 
[1] Benim Çocuğum, Documentary (Surela Film Production, 2013).
[2] Coco & Clair Clair, Pretty (Atlanta, Georgia: NoFace Records, 2020).
[3] @efethedemiurge, “Me When I Go out with Makeup as a Gay Male in Turkey,” Video, TikTok, 2021.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Benim Çocuğum, Documentary (Surela Film Production, 2013).
[6] Ibid.

Bibliography

@efethedemiurge. “Me When I Go out with Makeup as a Gay Male in Turkey.” Video. TikTok, 2021.

Benim Çocuğum. Documentary. Surela Film Production, 2013.

Coco & Clair Clair. Pretty. Atlanta, Georgia: NoFace Records, 2020.



]]> 2023-05-06 11:07:55 UTC https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2580246537 Week 11 u7115835 https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2590507647 The Turkish government’s video commemoration of the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople exemplifies the dialogue between the neo-Ottoman project and Ottomania as described by Murat Ergin and Yağmur Karakaya. The video reflects the “nationalistic, solemn and masculine inclinations” of neo-Ottomanism.[1] The dramatic production, in the style of an action movie, is reverent of militaristic masculinity. The narrator’s proclamation that Sultan Mehmet II “inspired the valiants after [him]” in tandem with clips of President Erdoğan is an attempt to associate the heroism, acclaim and nostalgia felt toward the Ottoman Empire with Erdoğan. He is a modern iteration of the legends of the Ottoman past.[2] The decision of the Turkish government to commemorate the 565th anniversary of the conquest with a video comparable to popular Ottomania media is notable. The video demonstrates how Ottomania manifests through “a decentralised but integrated network of images, symbols, and items”.[3] While it draws on Ottomania, it is a construction of ‘proper history’ rather than Ottomania media like The Magnificent Century, critiqued as false history by the government.[4] The video articulates the tensions surrounding Ottoman history and nostalgia for the government. Through representing and commemorating particular elements of Ottoman history, the government is simultaneously capitalising on Ottomania and trying to preserve and promote a strict, neo-Ottoman historical agenda.[5] 
 
Word count: 211

[1] Murat Ergin and Yağmur Karakaya, “Between Neo-Ottomanism and Ottomania: Navigating State-Led and Popular Cultural Representations of the Past,” New Perspectives on Turkey 56 (2017): 36, https://doi.org/10.1017/npt.2017.4.
[2] Government of the Republic of Türkiye, “Resurrection of Ottoman Empire: The Fall of Constantinople,” YouTube, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_yiJxSbSTI.
[3] Murat Ergin and Yağmur Karakaya, “Between Neo-Ottomanism and Ottomania: Navigating State-Led and Popular Cultural Representations of the Past,” New Perspectives on Turkey 56 (2017): 40, https://doi.org/10.1017/npt.2017.4.
[4] Ibid., 42.
[5] Government of the Republic of Türkiye, “Resurrection of Ottoman Empire: The Fall of Constantinople,” YouTube, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_yiJxSbSTI.

Bibliography

Ergin, Murat, and Yağmur Karakaya. “Between Neo-Ottomanism and Ottomania: Navigating State-Led and Popular Cultural Representations of the Past.” New Perspectives on Turkey 56 (2017): 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/npt.2017.4.

Government of the Republic of Türkiye. “Resurrection of Ottoman Empire: The Fall of Constantinople.” YouTube, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_yiJxSbSTI.
]]> 2023-05-15 02:10:10 UTC https://padlet.com/u7115835/gysehvmsf0e4g4fw/wish/2590507647