Ophiolitic mélanges in Anatolia represent Mesozoic subduction-accretion complexes, which are unusually poor in land-derived coarse-clastic rocks. A segment of the ophiolitic mélange in the Beynam region south of Ankara was studied. The ophiolitic mélange consists of three accretionary units (AUs), which are distinguished by lithology, structure, age and geochemistry. At the base there is a serpentinite mélange, which is overlain by a semi-intact Upper Jurassic ophiolite with boninite geochemistry. The topmost AU consists of ocean-island-like alkali basalts with seamount-derived Triassic shallow-marine limestones and Jurassic radiolarian cherts, which are stratigraphically overlain by Upper Cretaceous fore-arc turbidites. The base of the fore-arc sequence is palaeontologically and isotopically dated to the early to middle Campanian (c. 81 Ma). Detrital zircons from the fore-arc sequence indicate a Late Cretaceous (87–81 Ma) magmatic arc as a source. The formation of the subduction-accretion complex was a two-stage process. The first stage took place during the Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous, when supra-subduction type oceanic crust was generated, and subduction accretion was intra-oceanic. In the second stage during the Late Cretaceous the subduction jumped inboard, creating an Andean-type convergent margin, and the Jurassic oceanic crust was incorporated in the subduction-accretion complex. The lack of land-derived sandstones in the ophiolitic mélange can be attributed to the intra-oceanic subduction and to the limestone deposition in the upper plate during the main phase of subduction accretion in the Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous.

Image and reputation are key factors in how nations are perceived by global audiences. Current and historical issues can pose as challenges to a nation’s reputation prompting the need to save face. The Armenian genocide is one of the most critical issues the Republic of Turkey has had to manage in terms of its global image and reputation. While the vast body of literature on the subject borrows from history and political science focusing on the mechanism of denial, this paper offers a communication framework to understand the rhetoric of Turkey’s image repair. Turkey’s crisis communication strategies vis-à-vis the centennial of the Armenian genocide are analyzed by employing Benoit’s image repair theory through a content analysis of official statements and declarations by the heads of state given in 2014 and 2015. In response to the emerging political crisis, the Turkish government primarily employed image repair strategies of evading responsibility and reducing offensiveness with the aim to appeal to international audiences.

The Çanakkale-Balıkesir Coastline Palaeolithic Survey Project covers the Çanakkale and Balıkesir coastlines of the Aegean. It aims to reveal Palaeolithic assemblages and their connection to the surrounding islands—primarily Lesbos. In 2021, four important findspots were detected on the Çanakkale coastline, and more than 500 lithics were uncovered, exhibiting the characteristics of large cutting tools, as well as pebble and prepared core technologies. These tools attest to the presence of hominins along the Çanakkale coastline during the Lower Palaeolithic.

This article analyses the Erdoğan government's policy response to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the abundant use of moral antagonisms in his discourse, Erdoğan did not attempt to politicize the pandemic, instead framing it as a global health crisis and presenting the government's public health policies as expert-driven and competent. However, this expert-driven approach was largely a performance. Without a system of democratic oversight or a free media to scrutinize government policies, the Erdoğan government could systematically undercount COVID-19 cases and disregard its own public health restrictions, all the while spreading its narrative of competence and success. Competitive policymaking by opposition-controlled municipalities and criticism from a strong doctors' association had relatively limited ability to discredit the government. The public opinion data we present reveal broad-based support for the government's COVID policies. Our article highlights how authoritarian institutions allow governments to sustain a gap between performance and actuality, granting their leaders greater possibilities to claim policy success.

This study takes a critical perspective on the making of sectarian difference and Alevi precarity in contemporary Turkey. Drawing on our research from 2013 to 2016, we present an analysis of stories and conversations that took place amongst Alevi and Sunni focus group participants, primarily in Istanbul. These conversations illustrate how sectarian difference can be made in the relations between neighbors as differences become coded as sectarian and taken up within systems of power and domination. At the same time, our research also shows how, in the entangled relations between neighbors, questions of ethics and mutual responsibility arise, though these relations sometimes become uneasy or even unbearable. Finally, we show how the question of “knowing” difference is taken up within a power-laden discourse of sectarianism, one that is tied to the history of Alevis (and others) in Turkey while also extending well beyond this context.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire of the early first millennium BC ruled over the ancient Near East. South-eastern Anatolia was controlled through vassal city-states and provincial structures. Assyrian governors and local elites expressed their power through elements of Assyrian courtly style. Here, the authors report a rare processional panel recently discovered at Başbük in south-eastern Turkey. Incised on the rock wall of a subterranean complex, the panel features eight deities, three with associated Aramaic inscriptions. The iconographic details and Syro-Anatolian religious themes illustrate the adaptation of Neo-Assyrian art in a provincial context. The panel, which appears to have been left unfinished, is the earliest-known regional attestation of Atargatis, the principal goddess of Syria c. 300 BC–AD 200.

In recent years, studies show that obesity has become an important health condition, especially among adults. The first aim of this study is to examine socio-demographic and behavioural factors on body mass index distribution of male and female adults over 20 years old in Turkey. The second aim is to determine the body mass index disparity by gender and the socio-demographic and behavioural factors that might wider or narrow it. This study adopts unconditional quantile regression and decomposition methods, and the data set covers the Turkish Health Surveys for 2014, 2016, and 2019. The findings document that high level of body mass index are associated with being married, aging, and physical inactivity. Interestingly, employment status has different contributions on the body mass index of males and females. The results also claim a body mass index gap among males and females as a result of differences in some potential socio-demographic and behavioural factors, and the gap gets higher at the upper and lower quantiles of BMI distribution. This study may provide a clear understanding for policymakers on how to design efficacious obesity policies considering the differences in the effect of socio-demographic and behavioural factors on the distribution of body mass index across females and males. The results suggest that the Ministry of Health should specifically target different groups for males and females and should reduce the differences in socio-demographic and behavioural determinants between females and males to prevent and reduce obesity prevalence in Turkey.

Women with children, on average, earn lower wages than those who do not have children. This is called the “motherhood wage penalty”. This study provides estimates of the wage penalty for working mothers in Turkey using the Turkish Household Labor Force Survey (HLFS), 2014–2018. The gross wage penalty is 21.3 percent, but it is entirely explained by human capital variables: education, marital status, and potential experience in the pooled cross-section. The bulk of the gross penalty is attributable to the higher educational attainment of the subsample of non-mothers compared to mothers. When the wage-setting mechanisms in the public versus private sectors, and differences in fertility exposure by age cohort conditional on education are accounted for, a clearer picture emerges. Empirical findings indicate that the wage penalty does not exist for mothers employed in the public sector but that there is a 3 percent penalty for mothers working in the private sector, with the highest value being 6.1 percent for university-educated young mothers. In addition, wage losses are higher for the younger age cohort, presumably due to leaves of absence from work for time spent caring for young children, which lead to skill erosion.

The Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus, categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, comprises 600–700 individuals in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean. Habitat degradation is a severe threat to the species. In 2016 and 2017, coastline surveys were conducted in Gökova Bay, south-west Turkey, to identify suitable monk seal habitat. A significant factor hindering recovery of the monk seal population of this Turkish coast and the nearby Greek islands is the limited number of marine caves suitable for resting and/or pupping. We identified four caves as possible monk seal resting and pupping caves. An additional cave with all essential features for seal usage except a ledge was also identified. An artificial ledge was built in this cave in July 2019 and seal usage was monitored by camera trap until September 2020. A total of 405 camera-trap events were analysed to examine presence of any monk seals on the ledge, and to understand the purpose (resting and/or pupping), frequency of use, sex and age group of any individuals using the cave. One juvenile used the cave four times for resting (420 minutes in total), predominantly nocturnally. This is the first construction of a dry ledge in a cave of this kind for monk seals. The camera recordings suggest this approach could provide habitat for this species in areas where there is insufficient dry protected area on land.

This article contributes to the literature on rural politics in Turkey by investigating peasants’ land occupations between 1965 and 1980. We show that agricultural modernization after 1945 created the structural conditions for land conflicts by enabling the reaching of the frontier of cultivable land and facilitating landlords’ displacement of tenants. The 1961 Constitution’s promise of land reform and the rise of the center-left and socialist politics helped peasants press for land reform by combining direct action and legalistic discourse. Moreover, the vastness of state-owned land and the incompleteness of cadastral records allowed peasants to challenge landlords’ ownership claims. During land occupations, villagers often claimed that contested areas were public property illegally encroached upon by landlords, and that the state was constitutionally obliged to distribute it to peasants. Although successive right-wing governments decreed these actions to be intolerable violations of property rights, their practical approach was more flexible and conciliatory. Although nationwide land reform was never realized, land occupations extracted considerable concessions via the distribution of public land and inexpensive land sold by landlords.

Niyazi Sayın is an Istanbul-born ney (reed flute) virtuoso, and the most acclaimed musician of a musical tradition controversially called “Ottoman-Turkish classical music.” Now 94 years old, Sayın has been called insan-i kamil (a perfect human), kutb-ı nayi, (the musical spiritual axis of his age), and hezarfen (master of a thousand arts). What do such titles mean? Building upon the work of Martin Stokes on popular music and its fashioning of intimate publics, this paper explores Sayın's musical life. We argue that it provides an exemplary expression of cultural intimacy for listeners and students, one that (as reflected in his titles) demonstrates a particular way of becoming a person, a Muslim, and a model citizen. In contrast with more official constructions of citizenship, as well as with the political neo-Ottomanism of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Sayın's life and music open up alternative possibilities of self-alteration for those who engage with it.

This paper investigates the association between religion and female labor market outcomes using new micro-level data on two distinct Muslim denominations in Turkey: Sunni and Alevi Muslims. We find a positive and significant association between being an Alevi Muslim and female labor force participation and employment, whereas there are no significant differences in male labor market outcomes between the two denominations. We provide evidence that Alevi Muslims have more gender-equal views regarding the role of women in the labor market and consider themselves as more modern. Both Sunnis and Alevis consider themselves as believers in religion (Islam). However, Sunnis are more likely to abide by the rules of religion. We argue that differences in views on gender roles and self-identity regarding modernity between the two denominations drive the results on female labor market outcomes.