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Papers by Isik Kuscu-Bonnenfant

Routledge eBooks, Mar 27, 2024

Uyghur Identity and Culture: a Global Diaspora in Times of Crisis, 2024

All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace

The end of the Cold War brought about new challenges and opportunities for Turkey in redesigning ... more The end of the Cold War brought about new challenges and opportunities for Turkey in redesigning its foreign policy. The independence of the Central Asian countries, with which Turkey shares common cultural, historical, and linguistic features, prompted Turkey to rapidly adapt to the new environment in the post- Cold War world order. After three decades, Turkey’s engagement with the Central Asian republics has gradually increased and reached a level at which Turkey is capable of effectively combining its soft and hard power capabilities within regional parameters. This article critically analyzes 30 years of Turkish foreign policy in Central Asia with a focus on its regionalism and soft power elements. We argue that Central Asia has provided a unique opportunity for Turkey to reshape its foreign policy on regional terms by utilizing its soft power resources for the first time, the experience later serving as a model for other regions.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, Dec 21, 2022

Research on contemporary diasporas and their political mobilization strategies has proliferated. ... more Research on contemporary diasporas and their political mobilization strategies has proliferated. The literature differentiates between the mobilization strategies of stateless and state-linked diaspora. While earlier works have argued that stateless diasporas pursue more violent strategies with, as an end goal, secession, more recent studies have suggested that this is not always the case. Research on diaspora has also borrowed extensively from social movement theory. This has allowed researchers to focus on diaspora as a social group that can mobilize in

Oxford Research Encyclopedia for International Studies, 2022

Routledge Handbook of Asian Transnationalism, 2022

The Uyghur Community, 2017

This study analyzes how the Uyghur diasporic identity and activities evolved through various mobi... more This study analyzes how the Uyghur diasporic identity and activities evolved through various mobilizing discourses, practices, and frameworks effectuated by the elite. The activities of the Uyghur diaspora during three significant time periods were observed. The first period covers the mobilization practices of the diaspora leaders in Turkey from the 1960s to the early 1990s. The second period covers the diasporic mobilization efforts in the 1990s in Turkey and Europe, and the final period covers 2000 until now. Such an analysis allowed me to discern how mobilization practices and frameworks varied over time according to changing political opportunities in different host states. The chapter is based on fieldwork conducted in Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, and France over a one-year period.

Ekonomik ve siyasi geçiş süreci Sovyet ardılı ülkelerin tümü için olduğu gibi Kazakistan açısında... more Ekonomik ve siyasi geçiş süreci Sovyet ardılı ülkelerin tümü için olduğu gibi Kazakistan açısından da sancılı bir süreç olmuştur. Bu dönemdeki sıkıntıların sosyal alana yansıması devletin sunduğu sosyal hizmetlerin kalitesindeki ciddi düşüşle gözlemlenebilir. Kazakistan hükümeti eğitim ve sağlık sektörlerindeki temel sorunlara bir dizi reformla cevap vermiştir. Bu süreçte uluslararası aktörler de önemli rol oynamıştır. Bu makale Kazakistan`da bağımsızlık sonrası süreçte yaşanan eğitim ve sağlık sorunlarını incelemiştir. Bu sorunlarla başa çıkmak için geliştirilen reformlar ve uluslararası aktörlerin bu süreçteki rolü de yine bu makalede tartışılmıştır.The political and economic transition period had been painful for many post-Soviet states in many different ways. Kazakhstan is one of these countries that deeply felt the negative effects of transition. Such problems were particularly acute in the state’s provision of social services. Kazakhstan’s government responded to the problems in the fields of education and health with a series of reforms, and throughout this process international actors played an important role. This article analyzes issues seen in the fields of education and health in Kazakhstan during the post-independence period with special attention paid to the government’s reform attempts and the role of international actors in this process

Diasporic communities identify themselves as part of their homeland’s national community and feel... more Diasporic communities identify themselves as part of their homeland’s national community and feel responsibility for the well-being of their homelands, which may result in a desire to engage in homeland affairs. = ¥ 4 ' tors: the diasporan community ́s unity and organizational capacity and the homeland ́s and host state ́s political opportunity structures. The Egyptian American diaspora in the US is one such diaspora group that has always yearned to partake in homeland affairs. Under the Mubarak regime, these types of attempts were curtailed to a large extent. The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 presented a historical opportunity for the Egyptian American diaspora to contribute to the shaping of homeland`s future. This article seeks to analyze the role of Egyptian Americans during and in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution.

Nationalities Papers, 2016

There is a sizable Kazakh diaspora living in Turkey and Europe. Since their initial migration, th... more There is a sizable Kazakh diaspora living in Turkey and Europe. Since their initial migration, these Kazakhs have been involved in actions aiming to preserve their group's cultural and ethnic boundaries. By studying these actions and related discourses, this article seeks to explain how these groups formulated and reformulated their identities and loyalties in their host states over generations. Many Kazakhs in Turkey and Europe originally came from Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) and considered this area their homeland. However, Kazakhstan's independence in 1991 led to an important change in their homeland orientation and, after 1991, the activities of an increasing number of Kazakh diaspora organizations shifted toward Kazakhstan as the homeland. Therefore, this article focuses mainly on two periods: the period before and the period after Kazakhstan's independence. The fieldwork was conducted in Turkey, Germany, France, and the Netherlands and includes interviews with lea...

bilig, Journal of Social Sciences of the turkish World, 2014

Publication of the Central Eurasian Studies …, 2004

Ayşe Güneş-Ayata, Director, Center for the Black Sea and Central Asia, Middle East Technical Univ... more Ayşe Güneş-Ayata, Director, Center for the Black Sea and Central Asia, Middle East Technical University, aayata metu. edu. tr; Hayriye Kahveci, Research Assistant, Center for the Black Sea and Central Asia, Middle East Technical University, hkahveci metu. edu. tr; ...

International Political Science Review, 2019

The article focuses on Greek Cypriot internally displaced persons and their attitudes towards the... more The article focuses on Greek Cypriot internally displaced persons and their attitudes towards the island’s reunification talks. We utilize quantitative data from two representative sample surveys, conducted in 2016–2017, which probed respondents on their views on territorial readjustments, property provisions and power-sharing. Contrary to the current findings in the literature, internally displaced persons status is associated with higher levels of support for a negotiated peace settlement. The article examines the impact of anticipated threats and economic opportunities accompanying a settlement and suggests a set of institutionalized mechanisms to incorporate the views of internally displaced persons and other disadvantaged groups in future reunification talks.