VOYVODA STREET LECTURES
APRIL – JUNE 2008

A. POLITICAL ECONOMY LECTURES

First Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The theme is, "Understanding 'New' Turkey."

1. RETURN MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF ENFORCED MIGRATION

The project "Current Internal Migration in Turkey: Return or Integration?" is supported by TÜBİTAK and conducted through in-depth interviews with the victims of enforced migration in Diyarbakır, Mersin and Istanbul. This lecture will share the results for Diyarbakır, and present some of the evaluations of the research team concerning Diyarbakır's changing socio-economic structure, the seasonal migration towards western and northern provinces, the reactions of women face to domestic violence, and the failure of return migration.
"Victims of enforced migration choose the place they will relocate in terms of both their financial and social capital. Our research reveals that similar processes have occurred in Southeastern Turkey. According to the social and economic capital they possess, the region's inhabitants, especially those living in the mountainous areas, migrate to Diyarbakır city center, to Mersin or to Istanbul. Although the people remaining in Diyarbakır are the most deprived, current developments in the region are increasingly fading from the habitat of meaning of the majority society in Turkey, indicating an actual and symbolic break. The rejections that migrant workers seeking seasonal jobs in western and northern Anatolia encounter in their everyday lives, the alienation of the women, the tensions between the village guards and the villagers, the fact that these migrants' return to their village has become impossible not only because of continuing tensions but due to globalization are all important indicators that these victims of enforced migration should be integrated into the urban life of the areas in which they find themselves."

Assoc. Prof. Ayhan Kaya /April 2, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

1. WHAT DOES THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY IMPLY?

In the1980s, the dominant belief was that with a free market economy there would be no need for additional social intervention and poverty would be eradicated along with other social issues. Yet a short while after, this premise became dubious as poverty attained huge dimensions the world over. In the second half of the 1990s, the current view was that instead of a welfare state a new model for "welfare administration" should be developed. The general consensus on the necessity for less state intervention continued but the stress was now on new methods for fighting poverty that gave a central role to the private sector in cooperation with the state, to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and to benevolent fundraising initiatives. The lecture will investigate the problems that arise from this new model especially in Turkey's case.

Prof. Ayşe Buğra / May 7, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

2. TURKEY AND CHANGE

The lecture examines the state of Turkey's labor market and the changes it has undergone. At the same time, Karakaş will explain the concept of new modernity shaped by foreign demand and consider the topics of "unchanging financial demography" and "unchanging factors in times of change."

Prof. Eser Karakaş / June 4, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

B. ISTANBUL LECTURES

Second Wednesday of each month from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Discussions on "Everyday Lifestyle Culture in Istanbul."

1. OTTOMAN GASTRONOMICAL CULTURE
IN THE LATE OTTOMAN PERIOD

The 19th century brought about significant changes in the political, military, institutional and economic spheres of the Ottoman Empire but did these transformations also affect the gastronomical culture of the capital Istanbul? To what extent did the "alafranga" or European lifestyle, which the Ottoman elite was gradually becoming familiar with and starting to adopt from the second half of the century on, also modify eating habits and preferences?

Through these questions the lecture examines 19th century Istanbul gastronomical culture a sits main theme. Sub-themes addressed include the main elements that make up gastronomical culture, the choice of ingredients, the various dishes, cooking techniques, and table etiquette.

In addition to Turkish cookbooks printed in Istanbul between 1844 and 1900, the lecture uses as source materials account books from the Imperial kitchens kept during the same period and the magazine Revue Commerciale du Levant published by the French Chamber of Commerce, which also contained information about everyday life in Istanbul at the end of the century.

Dr. Özge Samancı / April 9, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

3. THE ICONOGRAPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE:
ISTANBUL AS AN ANTIQUE SHOP

Istanbul's everyday life is an archeological labyrinth made up of various cultural layers piled up one on top of the other. This complex urban iconography of objects and images has shaped Istanbul's historical identity. The repertoire of iconographic values inherited from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations have engraved the image that the world has of Istanbul as an imperial city onto the collective unconscious. The "Antique Shop" metaphor is a reflection of this image in everyday life. The historian wandering among lifestyles, tastes and fashions is actually like a client searching for his social identity in the disorder of the antique shop.

Ekrem Işın / May 14, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

4. THE CHANGE OF MUSIC AND THE MUSIC OF CHANGE IN ISTANBUL

Istanbul is a city that has accumulated just about everything that comes to the mind. It houses both its own urban esthetic heritage and that of other regions and identities. The result is an immense wealth and an immense chaos.

Istanbul is also the core of a rich culture-music heritage. There is the music in itself as well as the ways in which it reaches the general public – this in turn dependent upon the added impetus that new technologies bring to the pace of change. It is a long and winding adventure. In fact, music is a means of communication that emerges from a creative source and brings with it a great many of the characterisitics of the setting in which it was created.

Thus we have, on the one hand, a collection of works that cannot retain the features they possessed when they were first produced and which, as they are transmitted, gradually undergo a series of changes in form and style; on the other hand, a dynamic and engaged social environment that contributes to these changes.

Gönül Paçacı / June11, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

C. ENLIGHTENMENT LECTURES

Third Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
"The Role of the Enlightenment in Shaping Turkey"

1. POLITICAL ECONOMY FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO OUR DAY

When it appeared in 1776, Adam Smith's classic The Wealth of Nations represented the first comprehensive defense of the advantages of a free market, and the social order he advocated was offered as an alternative to mercantilism. In light of the evolution his ideas have undergone since then and the critiques directed towards his economic theory, the lecture examines the stance taken by contemporary political economy models towards the social, political and economic issues that emerge in our current global system, in a 'free market' that allows the free flow of capital across the borders.

Prof. Galip Yalman / April 16, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

2. THE ENLIGHTENMENT SEEN FROM AN 'EDUCATIONAL' PERSPECTIVE

The modernization of the educational system witnessed in the second half of the 19th century, led both to an increase in the rate of scholarization and to the heightening of the controversy surrounding the required attributes of schooling. This in turn, made the "School" an important institution in the enlightenment discourses of the populations of the Ottoman Empire. Examining educational movements overlooked by mainstream collections on the history of education in the Ottoman Empire, the lecture evaluates them in terms of their contribution to the creation of the modern individual and the process of nation-state building.

Prof. Füsun Üstel / May 21, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

D. OBJECTS AND RITUALS

Fourth Wednesday of each month from 6:30-8:30 p.m., talks on the involvement of art in everyday life and the interaction of culture with perceived reality."

1. MID EUPHRATES FROM THE AIR

In the Old Testament, the Euphrates and the Tigris are mentioned as two of the rivers that watered the Garden of Eden (Genesis, 2.10-14). The area between the two rivers is also remembered in world history as the cradle of civilization. In effect, no other region has contributed as much to the history of civilization as the Euphrates and Tigris river basins. Many of the major discoveries that form the foundation of modern civilization – writing, calculus, mining, domesticating plants and animals, mass production, organized trade, the first cities and the first states originated from this region and from there spread to the rest of the world.
The archeological digs undertaken from 1967 on in the lake areas of the Keban, Karakaya, Atatürk, Birecik and Kargamış dams constructed on the Euphrates as part of the GAP regional development project have yielded extremely important findings of that reshape the history of civilization. Unfortunately, once the dam construction is completed, the Euphrates, one of the rivers that was the birthplace of civilization, will no longer flow within the boundaries of Turkey.
Before the lecture, Nezih Başgelen will share with us and comment on the striking air and land photographs he took in the area of the Birecik and Kargamış dams before the Mid Euphrates basin was turned into a lake. The lecture will focus on the rescue excavations at the site, the archaeological remains that were submerged, those that have been rescued from the Birecik and Zeugma flood, the remarkable discoveries at Halfeti, Kalemeydanı and Rumkale, Vespasiyanus's Latin inscription on the banks of the Euphrates, traces of the Roman legions, the ancient Sesonk ("three columns") tomb, and other fascinating vestiges.

Nezih Başgelen / April 30, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

2. UNCOVERED BY THE MARMARAY-ÜSKÜDAR PROJECT: THE ANTIQUE CITY OF CHRYSOPOLIS

The archaeological excavations of the Marmaray project in Üsküdar began in 2004 and are still going on today. The excavation works have uncovered remains from the antique city of Chrysopolis, whose name until now only appeared in ancient sources. The findings, which go back to the 7th century B.C., verify the historic past of Chrysopolis and are proof of the legendary city's reality. The remains uncovered by the excavations reveal that Chrysopolis was an important harbor city in antiquity – just as it is documented that the cities of Byzantion (as Istanbul was formerly known) and Khalkedon (today's Kadıköy) were founded in the Archaic period.
In antiquity, the Bülbül and Çavuş streams – both highly frequented today – flowed into the square at Üsküdar, which in the 7th to 6th centuryB.C. was a deep cove. At different periods, this bay filled up and, due to political and natural events, became usable, so that the site at Üsküdar has yielded findings from various antique civilizations. The lecture will present an evaluation of the very interesting and archaeologically significant results from these excavations.

Dr. Şehrazat Karagöz / May 28, 2008 / 6:30-8:30 p.m.

THE MAKING OF MODERN TURKEY SEMINARS

THE 1908 YOUNG TURK REVOLUTION AND THE SECOND CONSTITUTION

To mark the 100th anniversary, in 2008, of the Young Turk Revolution and the 1908 Constitution, the Making of Modern Turkey Seminars are making this their topic of discussion.The 1908 Constitution was a turning point in Turkish politics. 'Political' life in the current sense of the word began with the 1908 Constitution; politics became public property and, gradually, political parties grew inseparable from political life. Ottoman public opinion is a product of just such a development. However, these decades also determined the fate of the Ottoman Empire. It was during these years that the process of transition from empire to nation-state first burgeoned and a number of social groups living on Ottoman soil entered into a search for identity. In this sense, the second Constitutional period served as a laboratory for Republican Turkey.

1. WHY DID EUROPE'S LEADING NATIONS DISLIKE THE COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS?

"There are bound to be some who will immediately object to this question. In the March 31 incident, Germany stood by the Committee of Union and Progress. Later, when the Unionists came to power, they accepted the Ottoman State as their ally during World War I. Nevertheless, it can be said that Germany didn't really like the Committee of Union and Progress 'all that much.' The main topic of the seminar will be of course why Europe's leading nations disliked the Unionists."

Prof. Sina Akşin / April 19, 2008 / 2:30-5:00 p.m.

2. WINDS OF WAR IN ISTANBUL

Despite Mustafa Kemal's claim in his Nutuk – a claim that Ahmet Emin Yalman reitarated in his Turkey in the World War – it is not true that Turkey entered World War I under the coercion of a small minority group. A great majority of the Ottomans, be it for different reasons, were in favor of the war that began in the summer of 1914. For a number of reasons – the fear that Russia inspired, the wish to put an end to the capitulations, the desire to avenge the Balkan Wars, and Nationalist (Turancı)expansionist dreams – this war seemed a good option for the Ottomans. In effect, even when Turkey still remained neutral, plans were being made with Bulgaria to attack Greece. The lecture focuses on how this hostile atmosphere developed and on various of its aspects.

Assist. Prof. Ahmet Kuyaş / May 24, 2008 / 2:30-5:00 p.m.

III. ENLIGHTENMENT SYMPOSIUM

The Enlightenment and Citizenship – Modernization, Citizenship and Democratization in Turkey
April 11, 2008 9:00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
April 12, 2008 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

A continuation of the previous Enlightenment Symposiums, this third symposium will be held April 11 and April 12, 2008, on the topic "The Enlightenment and Citizenship – Modernization, Citizenship and Democratization in Turkey."

Organized by Prof. Fuat Keyman from the Department of International Relations at Koç University, the symposium addresses "the concept of citizenship as legal status, identity and social practice."

The symposium will bring together academics from various universities and offer a critical survey of modernization and democratization history in Turkey. The discussion will center on a conception of "citizenship" that recognizes cultural plurality and differences, creates a common idiom and provides constitutional guarantee of basic rights and liberties.

FILM AT THE OTTOMAN BANK MUSEUM - DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENINGS
THE OTTOMAN BANK MUSEUM - DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS ASSOCIATION

APRIL

April 10, 2008
"Time, Place and Life Stories"

BORN TO BE BLIND / A PESSOA É PARA O QUE NASCE
Roberto Berliner
Brazil / 2004 / 83 mins.

This is the story of three sisters bound together by a strange twist of fate; all three are blind from birth and eke out a living singing and playing the "ganza" on the streets and market places of Campina Grande in northeast Brazil. The documentary observes these three women in the hardship of their daily routines. Then all at once, the making of the film itself transforms their lives and for a short while they become celebrities. On another level, the film portrays the director's commitment to his subjects and how the women come to terms with the ties that bind them to each other.
Discussion: "The Documentary as an Encounter Space"
Can Candan (Documentary Filmmaker, Department of Western Languages and Literatures, Boğaziçi University)

April 17, 2008
"Natural-Urban Environment"

BİR YUDUM BEKLEYİŞ / ANTICIPATION
İlkay Nişancı
Turkey / 2006 / 80 mins.

Bir Yudum Bekleyiş [Anticipation] is a documentary that relates the impact of tea growing on the culture of the Laz people. Shot in Artvin's Arhavi district, the film takes us on a journey from the green fields where the tea is grown, to sipping tea from a glass. It depicts Laz culture, the means of livelihood in the region before tea cultivation, what tea growing brought to the Laz people and what it took away from them. As villages were vacated one after the other, we see this migration not only through the eyes of those who left the region but through the eyes of those remaining behind who long for the happy days spent together in the past. The documentary is also noteworthy for being the first and only ethnographic study of the Laz people.
Discussion: "A Little Discussion, a Little Music"
Birol Topaloğlu (Musician, film score composer for Bir Yudum Bekleyiş)

April 24, 2008
"Of Countries and the World"

3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA
Piryo Honkasalo
Finland / 2004 / 106 mins.

The 3 Rooms of Melancholia is an outstanding film that adopts a different viewpoint in denouncing war and revealing the human devastation it causes. By training her lens on the children of the Chechen war, filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo offers an impartial and compassionate meditation on the violent conflict she explores from their eyes. As a woman and a mother, Honkasolo's approach to war is highly moral while as a new coming director, her film attests to superior cinematic skills and a perfect artistic vision. Divided into three episodes or "rooms," the film exposes the devastating psychological impact the Chechen war has had on the children of both sides as well as some of its consequences for women. It shows us the military school where young Russian boys – most of them from broken or dysfunctional families – are trained to fight in Chechnya; the destruction in Grozny, and a woman who single-handedly cares for 63 Chechen children. The three rooms named "Longing," "Breathing" and "Remembering," draw the viewers into a cinematic atmosphere both hypnotic and melancholic, which perfecly conveys the intolerable desolation that the loss of future and reality brings.

Discussion: "Being a Child during War"
Seda Yakınol (Campaign and Activism Coordinator at Amnesty International)

MAY

May 1, 2008
"Economics"

TRİK TRAK
Özgür Yaren, Bilinç Çilingiroğlu
Turkey / 1998 / 12 mins.

The film presents segments from the daily work routines of workers at a tractor factory in the light of modern day concepts such as Fordism and alienation.

YAPICILAR/ CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
Mesopotamian Cinema Collective
Turkey / 1999 / 23 mins.

The documentary focuses on guest workers from different countries employed on construction sites outside of Istanbul and thus socially isolated, who spend a short time in the modern buildings they are constructing and in which they will never live again.

ALIN TERİ / HARDWORK
Aygün Filiz
Turkey/ 2005/ 15 mins.

Prepared as a 13-episode series for television, the documentary focuses on the life stories of master craftsmen and other workers working at jobs that generally require physical strength rather than education; these are the iron craftsmen, cleaning employees, road workers, and waiters.
One of the episodes of the series tells the story of Yaşar Usta who, at 73, still works in an iron foundry shop. Set in a workshop in the village of Habibler, the film relates how he started working as an iron craftsman and the difficulties involved in this job.

TEK BAŞINA / ON YOUR OWN
Cüneyt Karaahmetoğlu, Devrim Taban, Ülkü Güzel, Yasemin Kırmış
Turkey / 2002 / 12 mins.

The film centers on the lives of railroad track workers who walk 23 kms every day to inspect and maintain the railroad tracks.
Discussion: "'Beasts of Burden' or Borrowed Lives"
Prof. Yüksel Akkaya (Writer, Journalist, Faculty Member Faculty of Communication, Gazi University)

May 8, 2008
"Time, Place and Life Stories"

THE ENIGMA OF SLEEP
Enrico Cerasuolo, Sergio Fergnachino
Italy / 2004 / 60 mins.
Though sleep disorders radically affect the lives of a great many people, very little is known about them. Shot in sleep laboratories in France, Israel, Italy and Sweden where doctors attempt to solve the secrets of the human brain, the documentary explores extreme examples of insomnia and the suffering they can bring to patients.

One patient is a narcoleptic who at every moment faces the risk of unwanted sleep attacks. Another is a sleepwalker whose life is half dream half reality. Another patient is the world's only documented case of sleep without REM, a woman unable to benefit from the relaxation that sleep provides. One patient's family has for generations been afflicted with a very rare and lethal form of insomnia; the patient recalls the incredibly damaging exhaustion suffered by relatives unable to sleep for months at a time. A lifeguard experiences sleep apnea 600 times during the night. The film shows that although science can provide a cure for some of these patients, it is unable to help others and thus in many cases sleep remains an enigma.

Discussion: "Sleep, One of the Three Indispensable Requirements for Human Life"
Dr. Sabri Derman (Clinical Director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic, American Hospital)

May 15, 2008
"Natural-Urban Environment"

KARGA / CROW
Esa Nissi
Finland / 2004 / 36 mins.

Crow is a humorous documentary about animal-human interaction that tells the story of a rural crow as it tries to adapt to modern city life. Winter is on its way and the countryside no longer provides enough food for the crow, which is forced to give up country life and change its lifestyle radically. At the very least, this does not mean the crow will have to migrate all the way to central Europe as its forefathers did; the nearest town can provide enough provisions to see it through the winter. But will the self-absorbed city dwellers help out? The documentary describes how an urban community adopts this migrant one autumn day.

Discussion: "Stranger"
Leyla Ruhan Okyay (Short Story Writer, Architect)

May 22, 2008
"Of Countries and the World"

KADINA AĞIT / REQUIEM FOR WOMEN
Berrin Balay Tuncer, Önder M. Özdem
Turkey / 2006 / 40 mins.

So-called 'honor killings' or crimes committed in the name of 'honor' are on the rise all over Turkey yet the incidents often go unreported. Due to migration, the killings, which at first mainly took place in cities of Southwestern Anatolia like Diyarbakır, Urfa, Mardin and Batman, have started to spread to Istanbul and other provinces such as Mersin and Adana and even to countries that accept Turkish immigrants like Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden.
The documentary looks at all aspects of the problem from the efforts led by NGOs, lawyers, and human rights groups, to the testimonies of the victims who have been threatened over family 'honor' and managed to stay alive.

Discussion: "Are Changes in Legislature Sufficient?"
Canan Arın (Lawyer)

May 29, 2008
"Social Memory / Documentary Cinema"

ÇIKMAZ / DEAD-END
Pınar Okan, Tuğba Karakaya
Turkey / 2003 / 26 mins.

The story revolves around the İçkalpakçılar dead-end street in Samatya (part of the Fatih district of Istanbul). Following the 6-7 September 1955 events during which non-Muslims suffered serious losses, the Greek and Armenian populations were forced to migrate and most left the country. After the departure of these non-Muslim communities and especially after 1980, an influx of people arriving from the east and the southeast of Turkey settled in the street. The film describes the alienation, isolation and deterioration that this great eruption of collective violence generated and shows how the dead-ends in these people's lives is replicated by the dead-end street where they live.

GEWOK / PIGEON
Meriç Ozan, Mutlu Karadoğan
Turkey / 2006 / 20 mins.

The village of Derik ("little church" in Kurdish) once possessed a large Armenian population but there are only three Armenians still living there today. Gewok describes the lives of Nurşalin, Kevork and Naif Kevork and draws parallels between their story and the myth of Noah's Flood. By presenting the two stories one after the other, the documentary highlights the similarities between them.

Discussion: "'Encounters' in a Dead-End": Is it Possible to Start Over?"
Markar Esayan (Writer, Editor of the newspaper Agos)

JUNE

June 5, 2008
"Time, Place and Life Stories"

KINDERGARTEN
Zhang Yiqing
China / 2003 / 70 mins.

A slice in time, any period in an individual's growing up process carries meaning. When we decide to subject our children to an experiment, we are actually testing ourselves and the rest of the world as well.

The documentary team spent 14 months documenting the lives of children in the first, second and third grades of a kindergarten boarding school in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Life in the kindergarten is always changing. As the children slowly grow day by day, the problems they face in their daily routines can either be very absurd or very important because these childhood experiences will have an impact on the rest of their lives.

Discussion: "Anecdotes from Volunteers in theYİBOs (Regional Primary Boarding Schools)"
Assist. Prof. Nihal Kuyumcu (Faculty of Training, Istanbul University)
June 12, 2008
"Of countries and the World"

KÜLLERİNDEN DOĞMAK / BORN OUT OF THE ASHES
Enis Rıza
Turkey / 2007 / 83 mins.

Enis Rıza's documentary is about the Circassians that were forced to migrate in 1864 after the long wars that followed the Russian invasion of North Caucasia. Second, third and fourth generation Circassians, now settled in various parts of Anatolia, relate their ancestors' migration and describe how they built their new lives and preserved their unique traditions. "Born Out of the Ashes" depicts the Circassian people as they go about their daily lives and rituals and is accompanied by a narration both in Turkish and in their own language – an inseparable part of Circassian culture.

Discussion: "Circassians in Turkey: A 144-Year-Old Adventure"
Zeyne A. Besleney (Researcher, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University)