Valley of the Wolves as Representative of Turkish Popular Attitudes toward Iraq

Abstract In 2006, the Turkish film, Valley of the Wolves (Kurtlar Vadisi-Irak) (Serdar Akar, 2006), was released to audiences in Turkey and Europe. Costing $10 million, it was the most costly production in the history of Turkish cinema, breaking all box office records in the country. A fantastical account of a Turkish victory over a fictional US invasion of the country, Valley of the Wolves has been interpreted as a reaction to the ‘Sack Incident’ (‘çuval olayı’) of July 2003, in which eleven Turkish soldiers were hooded and arrested in northern Iraq shortly after the United States invasion. The film’s title hence refers to a dark and dangerous place where howling and vicious ‘wolves’—namely Americans and Kurds—are gathered. This paper argues that Valley of the Wolves confirms a reemergence of 1960s Turkish industry (Yeşilçam) films which emphasized the historical conflict between Western and Islamic values. It discusses the extent to which Valley of the Wolves reflects popular Turkish attitudes toward the US war on Iraq, and it analyzes the film’s projection of Turkish humiliation, anger, and frustration following the Sack Incident. The paper also addresses how Valley of the Wolves engages US–Turkish relations and Turkish concerns over current Iraq-related politics, especially the US–Kurdish alliance, the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, Turkmen and the issue of Kirkuk, US violations of international law in Iraq, and the conflict between Islam and ChristianityValley of the Wolves as Representative of Turkish Popular Attitudes toward Ira

Facebook and virtual nationhood: social media and the Arab Canadians community

This article focuses on the study of online communities and introduces an empirical study of social media production involving an online group called “Arab Canadians”. The study builds on Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’ and argues that Facebook provides the platform for an online nation in which users, whether Canadians or prospective immigrants, interact and exchange ideas about a country whose imagined concept varies from one user to another. Facebook here is a virtual nation that offers the community members an imagined sense of identity and belonging which they aspire to get. The results of the study revealed that the majority of comments carry highly positive sentiments towards Canada and its people, yet there is evidence that some comments are moderated. The study concludes that the Facebook administrator functions as a centralized gatekeeper who filters online chatter and leads the discussion to a certain direction. Building on the theory of networked gatekeeping, the study argues that vertical and horizontal flows of communication shape the online debate that takes place in this virtual space. Through a close analysis of these practices, the article sheds light on the role of social media in shaping online identities constructed around virtual nationhood

Young connected migrants: Remaking Europe from below through encapsulation and cosmopolitanization

Young connected migrants challenge exclusionary European understandings of white, secular, middle-class European family life. A better understanding of how migrants digitally ‘do family’ across borders and simultaneously use digital media to establish new local connections is urgently needed. Contributing to the emerging research field of digital migration studies, this chapter shows how young migrants digitally articulate their presence in Europe on their own terms vis-à-vis resurgent discourses about the failure of multiculturalism, anti-immigration sentiments, and Islamophobia. Moroccan-Dutch youth in the Netherlands, young Somalis in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and young Londoners of various ethnic backgrounds show they digitally stake out their positionalities vis-à-vis these discourses, both by turning towards members of their own communities living overseas (“encapsulation”) as well as by engaging in intercultural dialogue across cultural differences (“cosmopolitanization) (Christensen & Jansson, 2014)