Mukerrem Miftah

Ethio-turkish relations have gained momentum over the past few years. the first important point that demands meaningful discussion concerns the temporal genesis and contours of this momentum. the article argues that although ethio-turkish relations can be traced back to the sixteenth century, momentum has started to take effect since 2002. the second equally important point concerns the manner in which this momentum is expressed. By thoroughly analyzing pertinent publications and official reports, this article explains how ethio-turkish relations have transformed in the fields of humanitarian aid and development assistance, as well as bilateral trade and investment. however, inter alia, the study found that turkey's humanitarian aid and development assistance to ethiopia do not seem to show any predictable pattern. another critical issue worth attention is the growing challenges that have the potential to undo this momentum.

The article engages closely with Marshall G. Hodgson's view of Islam in his theory of Islamicate civilization. Despite his methodological consciousness and various revisions he introduced in the study of Islamic civilization, he failed to do the same in his conception of Islam. This contribution looks at three relevant aspects of Hodgson's take on Islam. Apart from explaining problems inherent in his conception of Islam, I examine the relative efficacy of the view shared in some important ways between Hodgson and Smith. To this end, first, I argue that Hodgson's every allusion of Islam breathes dualism. Even though he was indeed well aware of this dualism, he barely succeeded in accounting for it, either historically or in Islamic tradition. Second, I try to make a theoretical link between this view of Hodgson and Wilfred C. Smith. I also compliment this with a review of some of the key counter arguments posited. Third, the article ends with a brief comparative assessment of W. C. Smith's cumulative tradition, Talal Asad's discursive tradition, and Shahab Ahmed's " coherence " in the face of " outright contradictions " thesis.

The article comparatively analyzes two major aspects of Islamic civilization in the writings of Allawi and Nadwi. Apart from broadly introducing Nadwi as one competent theoretician of civilization studies in general and Islamic civilization, in particular, it analyzes the crisis and revival of Islamic civilization along intellectual, institutional and political domains. To this end, I argue, firstly, that Allawi's appraisal of the crisis of Islamic civilization lacks holism both in his articulation of crisis and potentials for possible revival; secondly, Nadwi presents a relatively realistic, multilevel, and solution focused diagnosis of Islamic civilization; and finally, unlike Allawi, Nadwi's extensive engagement with Islamic civilization allowed him to envisage the actuality of revival in Islamic civilization. He believed that reform efforts directed at education, finance, industry and military can potentially pave the way for the revival of Islamic civilization. However, Allawi's imagination of the future of Islamic civilization is overtly melancholic and colored by pessimism. The article concludes by pointing out the importance of intellectual, institutional and political factors in the study of both crisis and revival potentialities in Islamic civilization.

IntroductionIn the middle of the 16th century, an unprecedented development threatens one of the ancient kingdoms in the world, the Abyssinian Christian Kingdom. Thousands of years-old traditional establishment, religious, cultural and political, was tested by the unwavering rise of various Islamic sultanates in-and-around Abyssinia. The most aggressive move, however, came from the Sultanate of Adal. Under the leadership of Imam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi, the Adal sultanate by organizing the already resentful Islamic sultanates in-and-around Abyssinia, made the first of its kind move that had devastated the Christian establishment in Abyssinia.Consequently, the war that broke out had more fundamental implications than simply a civil or internal friction between groups in a country but, equally, international. In fact, each of these sides has had a direct strategic and military support from foreign powers. The Christian kingdom was supported by the Portuguese and the Islamic Sultana...

The “Muslims in Ethiopia complex” envelops three interrelated fundamental dimensions in the relation between Muslims and Ethiopia. The first is viewing it as a discourse among academics in “Ethiopian Studies.” Utilizing the broader rubric of “Hi/storying,”the present article argues that, except for a few lately emerging counteractive discourses, it has largely remained unabated. The second view is that of it as the policy and praxis of many of the ruling elites in Ethiopian history. The article argues that although the expressions of this policy and practice have been changing over time, there are still instances of its continuation as policy to this day. Third, and related closely to the above dimensions, is the view of this complex as the actual marginalized lived experiences and the associated self-perception of Muslims. However, as the unintended outcome of this policy, the article argues for the progressively developing “Ethiopian Muslims” consciousness and identity. It conclud...

This article aims to tackle three fundamental dimensions in Abyssinia-Ottoman friction in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. First, whether the sixteenth-century friction was the product of Ottomans and/ or Portuguese involvement induced or not; second regarding the binary opposition that framed this friction as foreign vs. indigenous or as a Christian Abyssinians vs. Muslim outsiders discourse; and third, whether behind the success of Muslims' conquest was local resource and strong leadership or external support. Utilizing Turkish, Arabic, and other pertinent sources, the article concludes the war was the product of historically evolved frictions sustained over time between Christian rulers and Muslims in Abyssinia and the Ottomans which helped to restore a relative peace and stability in Abyssinia.

Despite some progress in these two years, unpredictability, in almost all possible fathomable ways, remains as the single most powerful threat Ethiopia faces. Whilst this may characterize the overall condition of Ethiopia, there is hardly any contribution that asked how this critical condition has specifically and squarely confronted Ethiopia’s youth in many and different fronts and levels, not only in these two years but also throughout the last three decades in Ethiopia. The nature of this unpredictability has long been wrapped up with such hurdles as unemployment, emigration, juvenile delinquency and violence, drug addiction, and reproductive health issues. In the following paragraphs, an attempt has been made, first, to deal with some of the major challenges facing Ethiopia’s youth, and second, outline the underlying structural conditions behind almost all youth related crisis in Ethiopia.

April 2019 represents something significant in the modern political history of Sudan. It was in the early days of this month that decades-long popular discontents against al-Bashir’s rule suddenly moved from fragmented and less sustainable protests to more protracted and systematic nationwide protest, resulting in the ousting of al-Bashir. Although there have been some commentators who would simply-and-solely credit the protestors (and the opposition) for what had actually happened on April 11, 2019, there were important conditions that cannot just simply be downplayed.

The recently aborted coup attempt in Turkey has been the currency of many discussions and debates in the mass media for a quiet sometime, a discussion that, time and again, resurrected and, in some important ways also, paralleled the unsuccessful popular resistance to the military takeover of Egyptian's blood-earned democracy. While the Egyptian military-led coup appears to have fundamentally exploited both internal and external bystanders and supporters, the same thing cannot be said for the aborted Gulen-backed military coup attempt in Turkey. Although, undeniably, the Gulen movement might have possibly amassed a huge popular base through various arrangements, it has nevertheless miserably failed to channel it along military coup, or more generally, for political purposes. This, unlike a significant proportion of the Egyptian mass, vividly unveiled the level of the culture of politics and democracy among Turkish citizens. The successful confrontation of almost all Turkish citizens against the military coup plotters can be taken as one of a kind-an impeccable move ever in the history of coup in Turkey. Put in yet other words, a military coup attempt to overturn democracy was successfully neutralized by the decisive move of Turkish citizens and thereby further cementing the foundation of realistic democracy in Turkey.

Sociologically speaking, one of the most powerful social institutions in modern society is media. It affects and defines society's culture, family structure, politics, history, religion, identity, and normative orders. Of its various forms, these two centuries can provide us with clear and relevant researches, testimonies, pieces of evidence, and experiences showing the undisputed role that is being played by mass media. Broadly encompassing newspapers, radios, televisions and others, mass media continues to unpack its unsettling shock waves day in, day out. Of these, again, the role of television is much more important than others, simply because it promises to offer no platform for interaction. On top of this, motion pictures coupled with sounds, compared to other means of communication, make television a power weapon for good use or misuse. One of the rarely diagnosed effects of mass media is its negative consequence in the form of mass hypnosis. Although, arguably, this could potentially produce a positively functional outcome to those who control the media (that is, the state, political, religious, or economic-based interest groups), approached from the consumers' perspective, the effect would be much less helpful and attractive. As its purposely induced intervention, hypnosis entails a state of human consciousness drawing its existential energy from human being's focused attention and controlled-reduction of environmental awareness. This way, hypnosis serves to exploit human beings' susceptibility to responses to presented stimuli (in our case mass media materials such as political, economic, and/or religious). Ethiopia has been, for quite some time, struck by the meagerness of mass media alternatives. The public sphere only entertained the Ethiopian Radio and Television broadcasts, state-owned media outlets. This was accompanied by state and privately-owned newspapers and magazines, the number of which, though, remains highly unreliable. There is a good reason underpinning this. Whenever some sort of public outcry causes inconvenience to the status quo, experiences and testimonies show, the quantity of privately run newspapers and magazines go south. Drawing from global experiences, we may claim that the presence of some degree of democracy ushers an increase in the relative fertile ground for alternative voices. Unfortunately, this rarely happens in Ethiopia. Probably since the first-half of EPRDF's (Ethiopian Peoples Republic Democratic Front) a quarter of a century plus rule, a new trend is emerging in Ethiopia. The number of so called " privately-owned " radios and TV stations reached an all-time high in the country. As of 2017, there were ten public radio stations, six globally transmitted public television stations, and nine public satellite television stations. On the other hand, there were ten private radio stations (the lion's share is taken by Fana Broadcasting Corporation,

Makaleye başlamadan önce bahsedeceğim konunun daha iyi anlaşılabilmesi için birazdan belirteceğim soruyu sormanın faydalı olacağını düşünüyorum. Genel olarak Türkiye'de Afrika ne olarak biliniyor, anlatılıyor ve tartışılıyor? Aslında bu soruyu diğer ülkeler için de sormak gerekiyor:Dünya Afrika'yı nasıl görüyor? Bu sorular ışığında hazırlanan bu makalede iki temel konu üzerinde duracağım. Öncelikle, dünyanın Afrika'ya dair meseleleri nasıl ele aldığıve değerlendirdiği sorularını cevaplamaya çalışacağım. Bu bağlamda Afrika'nın " karanlık/kara kıta " olarak adlandırılmasının sebebinin Batı medeniyetinin sosyal bilimler anlayışının bir ürünü olduğu ve yine Batılılar tarafından yaygın bir şekilde desteklendiği konularına değineceğim. İkinci olarak ise, Afrika'yı " karanlık/kara kıta " olarak dünyaya tanıtan sosyal bilimcilerin, gazetecilerin, misyonerlerin, muvazzaf misyon subaylarının, çeşitli STK'ların ve Afrika ülkelerindeki iç karışıklığın bu alanda oynadıkları rolü ve etkilerini ele alacağım. Son olarak da bazı Afrikalı düşünürlerin bu konuyla ilgili bazı değerlendirmelerinden bahsedeceğim. Karanlık Kıta: Düşünce Yapısı Afrika kıtası 15. yüzyıldan itibaren yeni ve tehlikeli bir döneme girmiştir. Kıtanın yaklaşık son altı yüzyılını uluslararası köle ticareti başta olmak üzere sömürgecilik, iç karışıklıklar, iç savaşlar, etnik ayrılıklar, azgelişmişlik, kuraklık ve açlık, yoksulluk, diktatörlük, terörizm, rüşvetlik, din ve klan temelli ayrımcılık ve benzeriolumsuzluklar belirlemiştir. Afrika kıtasının neden böyle olduğunu açıklayan çeşitli teoriler ortadadır. Genel olarak bunları iki bölüme ayırarak yakından analiz edebiliriz. İlk olarak, insanların dışarıdan bu kıtaya nasıl baktıkları ve gördükleri, nasıl değerlendirdikleri üzerinde durmak gerekmektedir. Özellikle Batılı düşünürler, kâşif seyyahlar, filozoflar, tarihçiler, antropologlar başta olmak üzere sosyal bilimcilerin Afrika'yı dünyaya nasıl tanıttıkları değerlendirilmelidir Diğer bir ifadeyle " yabancılar/hâriçten gelenler " ,Afrika'nın karanlık/kara kıta söylemiyle vasıflandırılmasına sebep olarak hangi faktörleri öne sürmekte ve savunmaktadır? Değerlendirilmesi gereken ikinci nokta ise, Afrikalıların bu " karanlık/kara kıta " tartışmalarını nasıl analiz ettikleridir. Öncelikle, ilginçtir ki birçoğuBatılı düşünür, Afrika ve Afrikalıların geri kalmasına, kolonize edilmesine, uluslararası köle ticareti yoluyla satılmasına ve bu şekilde büyük bir 1 Afrika Araştırmacılar Derneği (AFAM): https://www.afam.org.tr/afrikayi-yeniden-dusunmek-beyin-firtinasi-notlari , Cuma, 02 Mart, 2018.