An evaluation of local policies and actions that address climate change in Turkish metropolitan cities

As sites of climatic impacts, cities have become key players in climate policy-making in order to reduce GHG emissions and vulnerabilities of settlements. They started taking actions in various fields such as built environment, water and waste management, transportation and urban greenery. However, the involvement of cities in climate policy-making varies over countries and regions; the extent of involvement differentiates even among the cities of the same country. This paper focuses on the Turkish case and elaborates the current status of climate policy-making in Turkish metropolitan cities. It aims at identifying achievements at the local level and pointing to challenges for an effective local climate action, which can be helpful for other contexts, too. Having conducted both desk-based and questionnaire surveys, it examines and categorizes climate-related actions in metropolitan municipalities, and highlights varying levels of achievements in terms of sectors and innovativeness. The study concludes with analysing the motives behind varying achievements of municipalities as well as the main challenges for local action and discussing policy implications to overcome them.     

Public Policy Issues and Campaign Strategies: Examining Rationality and the Role of Social Media in a Legislative Election Within a Middle Eastern Context

While most studies from western countries emphasize rationality in electoral behavior, the present study proposes that rationality is also a driver of candidates’ behavior in a non‐Western context. The purpose of the present study is to map campaign content as well as campaign strategies of 214 candidates in the 2015 United Arab Emirates legislative elections. The qualitative analysis showed rational consideration drove the selection of both campaign strategies and public policy positions. Candidates decided to include patriotism and social and economic policy issues in their campaigns to attract votes. In addition, while candidates utilized social meda in their campaigns hoping to maximize their voter outreach, doing so was not necessarily decisive in garnering more votes. Thus, juxtaposed with social meda channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, and GooglePlus, traditional campaigning strategies remained very potent.     

Site Management: An Application to Wadilmeluk (the Valley of the Kings)

‘Value has always been the reason underlying heritage conservation. It is self‐evident that no society makes an effort to conserve what it does not value.’ ¹ 1. de la Torre and Mason, Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage, 3–4. However, assessing the value of a cultural heritage asset as a representative sample of our tangible and intangible heritage for present and future generations is a difficult concept to deal with. It is, therefore, the aim of the researchers to help the conservation decision process by attempting to make an assessment of the values attributed to the cultural heritage assets of one of the most notable heritage sites in Egypt: the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.     

Foundations of Tolerance in Turkish Culture

Turkish culture is based on tolerance, the product of the unique Islam–Turkish synthesis. This synthesis is crucial today for a more balanced perception of Islam because it opposes extremism and the terror that is associated with it. The Turkish–Ottoman Empire followed earlier traditions and set up a system based on tolerance towards its ethnically diverse subjects. It was due to this exceptional system assuring stability and freedom of conscience that the Empire was able to hold together people of different religions, languages and races, and to protect and preserve different cultures and languages. This tradition of tolerance and harmony lives on in modern Turkey. Although today there are bound to be certain misinterpretations of Islam, the majority of Turks firmly oppose intolerance and terrorism.     

Ascetic And Devotional Elements In The Mu‘tazilite Tradition: The Suf? Mu‘tazilites

Abstract: The Mutazilite thinkers are most often defined as rationalist, individualist, liberal and eccentric figures. To the above qualities, one should add ascetic and devotional aspects. Among the Mutazilite famous ascetics are Abū Mūsā al‐Murdar and his followers, Ja‘far b. Harb, Ja‘far b. Mubashshir and ‘?sā b. al‐Haytham. The accounts about these figures vigorously reflect the Mutazilite outlook of the ascetic life and practices. As a matter of fact, one can see the ascetic propensities in all the sects and schools of the early Islamic period. In view of their emphasis upon the love for God, they placed piety and austerity at the center of the relationship between the servant and God. In this context, this article attempts to provide insights into the pietistic dimension of the Mutazilite tradition.     

Mawdūdī's Contribution to the Development of Modern Islamic Thinking in the Arabic-Speaking World

Sayyid Abu al-A'la Mawdūdī (1903–1979) was one of the most influential and prolific of contemporary Muslim thinkers. His interpretive reading of Islam has contributed greatly to the articulation of Islamic revivalist thought and has influenced Muslim thinkers and activists from Morocco to Indonesia. His impact is evident in the exegesis of Sayyid Qu⃛b of Egypt, as well as in the ideas and actions of Algerian, Iranian, Malaysian and Sudanese revivalist activists.     

On the origins of the name for the ‘Black Sea’

The name ‘Black Sea’ is widely attributed to the Anatolian Turks, due to their habit of referring to the South as ‘white’ and North as ‘black’. However, the appellation first appeared in a Hungarian document and later in sources originating further to the North, including Icelandic sagas and other Nordic narratives. The Turks themselves have a small and secondary role in using and spreading the name. Some scholars have suggested that the Cumans, a Turkic people once occupying regions to the North of the Black Sea, are the likely source. However, in medieval times Khazarian traditions seem to have used the term ‘Black Sea’ as well as ‘Great Sea’, though the relationships between the two terms require clarification. This essay seeks to reconcile these two traditions, and offers a conjectural Bulgar source for the Black Sea denomination.