A tale of two mayors: Courts and politics in Iran and Turkey

Countries such as Iran and Turkey do not fit comfortably into the democratic and authoritarian categories. In these countries, elections are held regularly, and the will of the people is accepted as one source of sovereignty. At the same time, both constitutionally and in practice the elected officials have to share the exercise of political power with institutions that do not draw their power directly from the will of the people. In such systems, the judiciary has two important political functions. First, the judiciary acts as a politically insulated decision-maker through which the unelected head can exercise some degree of control over the actions of the elected head. Second, the judiciary's direct involvement in the political arena increases political tensions and legitimates the continuation of the two-headed system. In systems based on divided sovereignty, the tensions created by the judicialization of politics contribute to the stability of the regime. The first two sections of the article develop the theoretical framework of the study. I will then look at the constitutional structures of Iran and Turkey and discuss the role assigned to the judiciary in the two systems. The final section examines the politically important court cases of Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, a former mayor of Istanbul (1994-98), and his Iranian counterpart Gholamhussein Karbaschi, a former mayor of Teheran (1990-98). However, at the outset I should point out that my interest is not in establishing the guilt or innocence of the individuals involved. Rather, I hope that the analysis provided here will shed some light on the role of the judiciary in the politics of countries with two-headed executives. © 2004 Cambridge University Press

Courts in semi-democratic/authoritarian regimes: The judicialization of Turkish (and Iranian) politics

Turkey is not a typical authoritarian or democratic regime. For much of the past six decades Turkey has held regular multiparty and reasonably free and fair elections. Power has changed hands numerous times, and governments have come to office and left as a result of elections. Furthermore, even though the Turkish military has intervened in the political process on a number of occasions, unlike in most other developing countries, the periods of direct military rule have been relatively short (1960-1962 and 1980-1983). Finally, for much of the past half-century, Turkey has had lively social and political societies that have acted with relative freedom, although major shortcomings continue to plague both. There is much to suggest that Turkey should be classified as a democracy. At the same time, however, it is widely recognized that the Turkish political system displays authoritarian tendencies and that the military continues to play an important role in Turkish politics. The Turkish military has formally intervened in politics on four occasions (1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997). In 1960 and 1980, the military officially assumed the reins of power, while in the other two instances it limited itself to issuing a series of ultimatums that eventually brought down the governments of the day without formally interrupting the democratic experience. © Cambridge University Press 2008

Stereochemical and Skeletal Diversity Arising from Amino Propargylic Alcohols

An efficient synthetic pathway to the possible stereoisomers of skeletally diverse heterocyclic small molecules is presented. The change in shape brought about by different intramolecular cyclizations of diastereoisomeric amino propargylic alcohols is quantified using principal moment-of-inertia (PMI) shape analysis.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Emergency Communications for NASA's Deep Space Missions

No abstract availabl

[3]Ferrocenophanes with a tetramethyldisiloxane bridge: synthesis and molecular structure

Siemeling U, Krallmann R, Jutzi P, Neumann B, Stammler H-G. [3]Ferrocenophanes with a tetramethyldisiloxane bridge: synthesis and molecular structure. Monatshefte für Chemie. 1994;125(5):579-586.6,6,8,8-Tetramethyl-7-oxa-6,8-disila[3]-ferrocenophan 2 entsteht aus dem Di(alkoxysilyl)ferrocen (H4C5SiMe2OR)2Fe (R=CH2CH2OCH2CH2OCH2CH2OMe) durch Hydrolyse und anschließende intramolekulare Disiloxan-Bildung. 2,2',3,3',4,4',5,5',6,6,8,8-Dodecamethyl-7-oxa-6,8-disila[3]ferrocenophan 3 wurde durch Luftoxidation von 2,2',3,3',4,4',5,5',6,6,7,7-Dodecamethyl-6,7-disila[2]ferrocenophan erhalten. Die Kristallstrukturen beider Verbindungen wurden durch Einkristall-Röntgenstrukturanalyse bestimmt (2:a=8.5330(10), b=15.610(3), c=18.774(5)Å, [alpha]=70.68(2), [beta]=77.94(2), [gamma]=75.150(10)°, V=2259.8(8)Å3, Z=6, Raumgruppe P1, R=0.045, Rw =0.044; 3:a=12.388(3), b=9.924(3), c=19.136(10)Å, [beta]=105.11(3)°, V=2271.2(15)Å3, Z=4, Raumgruppe P21/c, R=0.076, Rw =0.060). Wegen der Flexibilität der Disiloxan-Brücke sind 2 und 3 ungespannte Moleküle