Reading Agamben backwards: Syrian refugees, biopolitics and sovereignty in Turkey

Despite the growing literature that adapts the Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben’s theory of sovereignty to the analysis of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) increasing authoritarian politics in Turkey, this article draws attention to the theoretical pitfalls of this tendency and argues that these studies mostly fall into the trap of mistaking the consolidation of populist power with the establishment of sovereignty. Utilising the AKP’s biopolitical agenda over Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey as a case study, we attempt to realize a theoretical twist and offer to read Agamben backwards; that is to say, instead of starting with the assumption that the AKP has established sovereignty in the country, we question whether the party is indeed able to perform a consistent type of biopolitics over the Syrian refugees that would suggest the existence of such sovereignty in the first place. Consequently, our analysis reveals that it is not an Agambenian ‘state of exception’ established by the AKP leadership in Turkey that makes recent Turkish politics look more authoritarian than ever; instead, what we witness is a continuation of a strong state tradition inherited from Turkey’s founding Kemalist era that still determines the boundaries of state–society relations in the country.Malgré la publication croissante d’une littérature scientifique transposant la théorie de la souveraineté du penseur italien Giorgio Agamben à l’analyse des politiques autoritaires en plein essor du Parti de la justice et du développement (AKP) au pouvoir en Turquie, cet article attire l’attention sur les écueils théoriques de cette tendance et avance l’idée que ces études font majoritairement l’erreur de confondre la consolidation d’un pouvoir populiste avec l’instauration de la souveraineté. Utilisant comme étude de cas l’agenda biopolitique qu’adopte l’AKP pour les réfugiés syriens fuyant en Turquie, nous tentons d’opérer un renversement théorique et de lire Agamben à rebours?; c’est-à-dire que, au lieu de commencer par l’hypothèse que l’AKP a instauré sa souveraineté sur le pays, nous nous demandons plutôt si le parti est en réalité capable d’exercer un type cohérent de biopolitique sur les réfugiés syriens, qui suggérerait, en premier lieu, l’existence d’une telle souveraineté. De cette façon, notre analyse révèle que ce n’est pas un ‘état d’exception’ agambenien qu’a établi le leadership de l’AKP en Turquie, et qui fait que les politiques turques récentes ont l’air plus autoritaires que jamais?; ce que nous observons plutôt est le prolongement de la tradition d’un État fort, héritée de l’époque fondatrice de la Turquie kémaliste, et qui continue de tracer les frontières des relations entre l’État et la société dans le pays

Subepicardial adipose tissue thickness and its relation with anthropometric and clinical parameters in pubertal obese children

Aim: To determine the relation of echocardiographic subepicardial adipose tissue (SAT) thickness with anthropometric and clinical parameters in pubertal obese children. Subjects and methods: A total of 52 obese pubertal subjects (13.1 +/- 1.56 yr, 27 male patients) and 39 age- and gender-matched lean pubertal subjects (13.0 +/- 1.28 yr, 16 male patients) were included in the study. Serum glucose, lipid profile, and insulin levels were measured during the fasting state. Each subject underwent a transthoracic echocardiography and the SAT thickness was measured during end-diastole from the parasternal long-axis views. Results: The obese pubertal subjects had significantly higher SAT, triceps skin fold (TSF) thickness (mm), waist (WC) and mid-arm circumference (MAC) values (cm) compared with lean pubertal subjects group (p0.05). As an optimal cut-off point, a SAT thickness of 5.25 mm determined IR with 92% sensitivity and 62.1% specificity. Conclusions: Our study showed that SAT thickness in obese pubertal children shows a good correlation with age, SDS-BMI, BMI, WC, MAC, TSF, and HOMA-IR. In addition, our results suggest that SAT thickness might be used as a supportive data for risk stratification of metabolic syndrome in obese children. (J. Endocrinol. Invest. 33: 715-719, 2010) (C) 2010, Editrice Kurti