Media and foreign policy in Turkey: the tezkere crisis of 2003

On March 1, 2003, the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) debated a bill that would meet the US requests and authorize the deployment of roughly 62.000 4th Infantry Division troops to Northern Iraq via Turkish territory. The parliament favored the deployment of the US troops by 264 to 251 with 19 abstentions. However, considering the abstentions, the bill failed to achieve the absolute majority required for its ratification by only three votes (267 votes). Despite the strong opposition on the public level and in the parliament, this outcome was largely unexpected for both Washington and Ankara. More importantly, this unexpected consequence, which is known as the "Parliamentary Bill Crisis", has been regarded as a major turning point and set-back for US-Turkish relations. This study explicates the newspaper coverage of the decision-making process that led to the "Parliamentary Bill Crisis". With a content analysis of the media rhetoric during this process, this study aims to analyze how the media presented the issue and it also questions if a link exists between the media's framing of the issue and the ideological positioning of newspapers in Turkey. Furthermore, this study discusses the role of the media in Turkish foreign policy in general. With this aim in mind, articles from three Turkish daily newspapers; Milliyet, Yeni Şafak and Evrensel between the period between 26 October, 2002 and 1 March, 2003 was subject to content analysis. The results of the research suggest a clear division between the three newspapers in their framing of the issue and the effect of their ideological positions on this. This differentiation is mainly on the basis of, ideological-identity (leftist-religious) related factors on the one hand, and rationalist-cost benefit calculations (realpolitik) on the other. Lastly, the role of the media especially in relation to the Parliamentary Bill Crisis should be questioned via its role on affecting the domestic context in which the public debate took place, its rhetoric and its effect on the formation of the public opinion and directly its effect on the parliamentarians

IMF STRUCTURAL CONDITIONALITY AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS: DETERMINANTS OF PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION IN LABOR MARKET AND FINANCIAL SECTOR

What accounts for the differences in implementation of IMF programs across countries and across policy areas? Why do some countries are more effective in implementing IMF reforms than others, and in some policy areas than others? In this dissertation project, I argue that one of the most important sources of this heterogeneity in implementation lies in the strength of organized interests who are adversely affected by specific policies and their interaction with their governments. Specifically, I examine how partisan differences in the borrowing country governments and their electoral concerns mediate the effect of organized interests in the implementation of IMF reforms. Departing from common practice in the literature, I use a disaggregated approach to study implementation. With a novel global dataset, constructed from the Fund’s MONA database, I analyze implementation in two specific policy areas: labor market and financial sector reforms, in which preferences of organized interests and their linkages to the different partisan governments can be drawn from the existing literature. The results provide strong evidence regarding the interactive effect of special interests and partisanship. Analysis of the implementation of labor market reforms show that these reforms are driven by partisan preferences, electoral concerns and the interaction between the borrowing country governments and labor unions. When faced with an increasing number of strikes, left-wing governments are more likely to implement labor market reforms in non-election years than center/right wing governments. However, the left is less likely than the center/right to fulfill its international commitments when labor groups are militant during election years. Unlike labor market reforms, the effect of the financial sector is not necessarily mediated by the partisan politics and democratic institutions in the implementation stage due to lack of broader electoral appeal and mobilization capacity. The implementation of financial sector conditionality significantly goes down in the presence of strong financial interests, irrespective of the regime type and partisan ideology. This dissertation also provides two detailed case studies: the recent Fund programs in Ireland and Greece, focusing on the politics of reform in these countries and further highlighting the empirical findings

Limited Impact of the EU on Candidate States: Turkey’s Employment Policy

The employment policy is one of the most disputable areas between Turkey and the EU. The EU declared two opening conditions, one about union rights and the other one about preparing an action plan displaying step by step the transposing of EU laws. Although Turkey claims that she met those criteria, the EU insists on keeping the accession negotiations in this area closed. However, there is serious gap between Turkish and European employment policies and in order to comply with the EU’s, there is a strong need of enthusiasm in Turkey for proper implementation of changes made in legal and institutional structures. Simultaneously, the EU has to offer a considerable incentive, e.g. membership, for Turkey to encourage her to adapt EU rules in employment policy. Unfortunately, it is argued in this paper that the current situation is the opposite, i.e. there is no substantial incentive from the EU to encourage Turkey and thus, no enthusiasm from Turkey to comply with the EU policy. In order to analyze the impact of the EU on Turkey’s employment policy the main question designed in this paper is: ‘To what extent does the EU have influence on policy convergence in a candidate country that does not have a clear membership perspective? ‘. It is argued in this study that “without a concrete incentive, European Union’s impact on a candidate country would be limited”.  Thus, the patterns of policy change at the national level are the dependent variable to be observed. The European Union’s conditionality is the independent variable that is expected to alter the national patterns

When technocratic appointments signal credibility

How do prime ministers manage investors' expectations during financial crises? We take a novel approach to this question by investigating ministerial appointments. When prime ministers appoint technocrats, defined as non-partisan experts, they forgo political benefits and can credibly signal their willingness to pay down their debt obligations. This reduces bond yields, but only at times when the market is sensitive to expected repayments---i.e., during crises. To examine the theory, we develop an event study analysis that employs new data on the background of finance ministers in 21 Western and Eastern European democracies. We find that investors reward technocratic appointments by reducing a country's borrowing costs. Consistent with the theory, technocratic appointments under crises predict lower bond yields. Our findings contribute to the literature on the interplay of financial markets and domestic politics

Novel Binding Mode of a Potent and Selective Tankyrase Inhibitor

Tankyrases (TNKS1 and TNKS2) are key regulators of cellular processes such as telomere pathway and Wnt signaling. IWRs (inhibitors of Wnt response) have recently been identified as potent and selective inhibitors of tankyrases. However, it is not clear how these IWRs interact with tankyrases. Here we report the crystal structure of the catalytic domain of human TNKS1 in complex with IWR2, which reveals a novel binding site for tankyrase inhibitors. The TNKS1/IWR2 complex provides a molecular basis for their strong and specific interactions and suggests clues for further development of tankyrase inhibitors

Probabilistic Approach to Generating MPOs and Its Application as a Scoring Function for CNS Drugs

Multiparameter optimization (MPO) scoring functions are popular tools for providing guidance on how to design desired molecules in medicinal chemistry. The utility of a new probabilistic MPO (pMPO) scoring function method and its application as a scoring function for CNS drugs are described in this letter. In this new approach, a minimal number of statistically determined empirical boundaries is combined with the probability distribution of the desired molecules to define desirability functions. This approach attempts to minimize the number of parameters that define MPO scores while maintaining a high level of predictive power. Results obtained from a test-set of orally approved drugs show that the pMPO approach described here can be used to separate desired molecules from undesired ones with accuracy comparable to a Bayesian model with the advantage of better human interpretability. The application of this pMPO approach for blood–brain barrier penetrant drugs is also described

Aspergillus flavus’un incir bazlı besiyerinde gelişimi ve aflatoksin üretimi: Mineral maddelerin ve şelat ajanlarının etkisi

In this study, minerals required for the growth and aflatoxin production of A. flavus were determined. Then, the effectiveness of some chelating agents such as citric acid, phytic acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in preventing mold growth and toxin production was investigated in a fig-based medium and in two synthetic media, called Czapek-dox agar (CZA) and potato dextrose agar (PDA). A. flavus did not grow in CZA without sodium nitrate during 6-day incubation at 30 degrees C. The absence of the other components (magnesium sulfate, iron sulfate, potassium chloride and potassium phosphate) did not significantly (p>0.05) affect the growth of the mold. However, the mold produced significantly (p<0.05) higher amounts of aflatoxins in the media without magnesium sulfate and iron sulfate. A. flavus grew faster on fig-based medium and produced higher amounts of aflatoxins in PDA. In all media tested in this study, EDTA was found to be more effective than the other agents in controlling the growth of A. flavus. It was also effective in inhibiting the production of aflatoxins. It was determined that 1.75 mM EDTA reduced aflatoxin production up to 97% in PDA. Citric and phytic acids could inhibit the growth of the mold only in PDA. All chelating agent reduced aflatoxin production over 90% in fig-based medium.C1 [Gunaydin, Sule; Karaca, Hakan] Pamukkale Univ, Fac Engn, Dept Food Engn, Denizli, Turkey

Limited Impact of the EU on Candidate States: Turkey’s Employment Policy

The employment policy is one of the most disputable areas between Turkey and the EU. The EU declared two opening conditions, one about union rights and the other one about preparing an action plan displaying step by step the transposing of EU laws. Although Turkey claims that she met those criteria, the EU insists on keeping the accession negotiations in this area closed. However, there is serious gap between Turkish and European employment policies and in order to comply with the EU’s, there is a strong need of enthusiasm in Turkey for proper implementation of changes made in legal and institutional structures. Simultaneously, the EU has to offer a considerable incentive, e.g. membership, for Turkey to encourage her to adapt EU rules in employment policy. Unfortunately, it is argued in this paper that the current situation is the opposite, i.e. there is no substantial incentive from the EU to encourage Turkey and thus, no enthusiasm from Turkey to comply with the EU policy. In order to analyze the impact of the EU on Turkey’s employment policy the main question designed in this paper is: ‘To what extent does the EU have influence on policy convergence in a candidate country that does not have a clear membership perspective? ‘. It is argued in this study that “without a concrete incentive, European Union’s impact on a candidate country would be limited”.&nbsp; Thus, the patterns of policy change at the national level are the dependent variable to be observed. The European Union’s conditionality is the independent variable that is expected to alter the national patterns