The literary history of the Turk is long: from the Shakespearean Turk to Turkish humanist Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar’s “dervish without the mantle”. But what exactly does it entail, to turn Turk? E. Khayyat traces an intellectual tradition that begins with the characters of Don Quixote.
As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall rapidly approaches, Thomas Rothschild draws attention to the growing gap between rich and poor in eastern Europe, and discrimination against minorities. The renaissance of nationalism in Hungary and elsewhere also requires urgent attention.
According to Fabrizio Gatti’s estimate, at least 268 refugees drowned in the Lampedusa shipwreck on 11 October 2013. A month later, Gatti established that the tragedy could have been avoided, had the vessels in the vicinity with resources to support every victim been allowed to respond according to common sense. But they were not. Referring to laws and regulations, Italian authorities passed the buck of responsibility to Malta.
No wonder Aleksandr Dugin, founder of Neo-Eurasianism, has caught the attention of western analysts of Russian foreign policy. Anton Shekhovtsov confirms that Dugin, among other far-right intellectuals, has made headway in his struggle for cultural hegemony in Russia.
An insidious obsession with ratings and the suppression of the opposition: this is all that Vladimir Putin’s rule hinges on now, writes Boris Dubin. However, right up until his recent death, the Russian sociologist continued to combine keen insights into Russia’s rotten political culture with a plea for a new, enlightened historical consciousness.
Boris Dubin died on 20 August 2014. This is the last article he wrote.
Two-thirds of Albanians had invested in the pyramid investment funds that collapsed in 1997, causing violent social unrest. Many fled to Italy and 83 perished en route in the sinking of the “Kateri I Rades”. But the memory of all this has been suppressed, writes Alessandro Leogrande.
International instability seems to increase with every passing day of the Ukrainian crisis, ushering in a new era of international relations. Slamming Russian studies scholar Stephen Cohen for misrepresenting the crisis, Nikolay Koposov urges the West to devise a completely new way of dealing with Russia.
It will soon be 500 years since the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia and the birth of a concept that has retained its grip on the imagination ever since. Matic Majcen turns to the small village of Marinaleda in Andalusia, Spain in search of a contemporary utopian project.
A ban on the burqa in a country such as France, if applied consistently and without bias, would lead to bans on numerous practices in the majority culture, insists Martha Nussbaum. But while tolerance is essential, what liberalism really needs right now is love and compassion.
Both parties in the debate surrounding France’s ban on wearing a full-face veil in public appeal to European values. It is this, writes Ivan Krastev, that makes the discussion between Martha Nussbaum and Alain Finkielkraut on the nature of tolerance so relevant.
There is no place for multiculturalism in France, says Alain Finkielkraut, let alone full-face veils; any concession that allows the Islamicization of Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods is a fatal mistake. What is required is a true and authentic, reflective and self-critical hospitality.
Stuart Hall’s model of culture as a site of struggle makes more sense than ever in an age of growing inequalities and iniquities, writes Caspar Melville. And the stakes in this struggle couldn’t be higher: nothing less than the conditions of possibility for human freedom.
For Vladimir Putin, the West’s tolerance is weakness and dialogue is failure to impose force. Because KGB-styled Russia believes that either you devour, or you are devoured. Europe’s “silence of the lambs”, writes Volodymyr Yermolenko, is not a proper response to Russia’s war.
On 2 May, clashes between anti-Maidan and Euromaidan activists claimed 48 lives in Odessa. The city is still in shock. Tanya Richardson reports on how Russian intervention in Crimea has made such questions as “Who am I?” and, “In which state will I be secure?” more pressing than ever.
As Russia becomes more and more isolated, the Russian government will need to provide for all those who support it. Maxim Trudolyubov explains why those who can provide for themselves will be the first victims of western sanctions and Russian countermeasures.
Sanctions on Russia may tip economic stagnation into recession and widen the country’s gap with western nations still further. This time Putin seems to be plying an isolationist course without regard for the consequences, writes Maria Lipman.