Issue 92 · Winter 2020

Dear Readers,

We are glad to announce the 92nd issue of bilig in the first days of 2020. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our followers’ new year and wish them health, happiness and success.

We have been in the third millennium within the third decade. 2019 had great importance in terms of being the 100th anniversary of the commencement of Turkey’s National Independence War. 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, which carried out the War of Independence and therefore has the title of Gazi. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk won the titles of Gazi and Marshal by leading the National Struggle as the President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Commander-in-Chief. In this respect, as bilig, we are planning to prepare a special issue regarding the Turkish War of Independence which is an inspiration for all the oppressed nations and the Turkish Grand National Assembly that is a model for modernization and democratization in Eastern countries. We would like to announce in advance that we will prioritize the studies on these issues in 2020.

In fact, the first four articles in this issue are the studies that reflect Turkey’s experiences in the fields of politics, public administration, economics and urbanization. After the collapse of the USSR, with the arise of newly independent Turkic Republics, “Turkish Model” was on the agenda in the 1990’s. During the period of the Arab Spring which began in 2011, “Turkish model” was frequently discussed. We are of the opinion that these four articles would be useful in terms of understanding, political and economic governance structure of Turkey, a country adapting quickly to transform and in the regions of the world, developing democracy simultaneously with many European countries, having an economy based on free market and whose population mostly made up of Muslims.

Ü. N. Zengin’s article on Crimea and R. Dursun’s articles on Tunisia are the studies that address the identity-belief relationship of Crimean Tatars and Tunisians with ethno-symbolic approaches. H. Sıddıkoğlu examines comparatively the relationship of society and the state with Islam in Turkey and Pakistan. These three articles are interesting in terms of a theoretical analysis of the connection between religion and identity in Muslim societies and to understand the importance that culturally close societies place on their beliefs in defining themselves. The Turkic world’s social sciences and the science of Turkishness are a vast ocean. We hope that this issue 92nd (a drop of this ocean) will contribute to the field, have a nice reading.

Prof. Dr. Fırat Purtaş

Editor in Chief