Folklore and nationalism in Turkey

This study explores the changing nature of the relation between folklore and nationalism by examining three phases of Turkish folkloristics. The first phase begins in the mid-nineteenth century and ends in 1923 with the foundation of the Republic of Turkey upon the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. It marks the Romantic Nationalist period in which Ottoman intellectuals developed an interest in folklore as a new discipline which could help them formulate new means of survival for the decaying Ottoman Empire. The second phase starts with the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and continues until 1950. This is the nation-building era in modern Turkey, a period illustrating the nationalization of folklore, as the state established several folklore-related institutions and formed its own national folklore repertoire. The third phase covers the period from the mid-fifties till the late eighties. It marks the end of the previous folklore institutions, and the booming of the folk dance movement in urban areas and the concurrent marginalization of other folklore genres. Exploring these three phases of Turkish folkloristics, this study attempts to examine different meanings of the term national, as they emerge in the eve of the nation-building era and in the aftermath of the nation-state\u27s consolidation

Thalassemia-free and graft-versus-host-free survival: outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for thalassemia major, Turkish experience

We report the national data on the outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for thalassemia major (TM) patients in Turkey on behalf of the Turkish Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation Group. We retrospectively enrolled 1469 patients with TM who underwent their first HSCT between 1988 and 2020 in 25 pediatric centers in Turkey. The median follow-up duration and transplant ages were 62 months and 7 years, respectively; 113 patients had chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) and the cGVHD rate was 8.3% in surviving patients. Upon the last visit, 30 patients still had cGvHD (2.2%). The 5-year overall survival (OS), thalassemia-free survival (TFS) and thalassemia-GVHD-free survival (TGFS) rates were 92.3%, 82.1%, and 80.8%, respectively. cGVHD incidence was significantly lower in the mixed chimerism (MC) group compared to the complete chimerism (CC) group (p < 0.001). In survival analysis, OS, TFS, and TGFS rates were significantly higher for transplants after 2010. TFS and TGFS rates were better for patients under 7 years and at centers that had performed over 100 thalassemia transplants. Transplants from matched unrelated donors had significantly higher TFS rates. We recommend HSCT before 7 years old in thalassemia patients who have a matched donor for improved outcomes