Syria: Lessons in ‘armed struggle’ as the government changes strategy
Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
13 October 2011
Representatives of Syrian opposition groups, which are carrying on their activities in Istanbul, keep sharing their views on various issues with the media. The most interesting among those views were the remarks of deserted Col. Riad al-Asaad of the Syrian Air Force to The Independent on Oct. 10 on behalf of the Syrian Free Army. He said guerilla warfare was the sole way to topple the regime. We have no idea about the expertise of the Air Force colonel on this issue, but it is understood that opponents have been debating this strategy for regime change in Syria. This monologue has been penned out of sharing the wish of a writer who himself is also a citizen of a nation that struggled/is struggling with knotted guerilla warfare.
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Blow on Bulgaria’s Ethnic Model
Erhan Türbedar, PhD
12 October 2011
Bulgarian cities were recently rife with protest demonstrations and incidents of violence against the Roma. The death of a Bulgarian youth on September 23, 2011 in the village of Katunitsa in what was purported to be an accident was what triggered the protests. The local Bulgarians blaming the killing on a Romani family and its firebrand member Kiril Raskov, notorious for underground and illegal activities, has set fire to their house as revenge. Hundreds of people were arrested in the ensuing incidents of violence. With an organization ensured over the Internet through the social networking sites, the acts of violence perpetrated in Katunitsa spread to the entire country, turning into the Bulgarian-Roma ethnic tension. Bulgarian high level officials fear the incidents may give way to eve
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Speed is not always bad
Fatih Özatay, PhD
11 October 2011
The most unpleasant challenge to this type of economic policies is the sudden reversal of the economic circumstances.
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A country which cannot go beyond producing iPad cases cannot manufacture automobiles.
Güven Sak, PhD
11 October 2011
A country that has not decided what to do in the field of intellectual property rights cannot improve its domestic value added.
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Which one?
Fatih Özatay, PhD
08 October 2011
The objective of the CBT to limit the credit expansion was relevant. But why did the BRSA not take the decision needed so as for the CBT decision to work?
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Mubarak as initiator of Arab Spring
Güven Sak, PhD
08 October 2011
Hosni Mubarak is on trial. His country is in transition, and the youth of Tahrir Square is lost in disillusionment. I have been looking at the photos of Mubarak facing prosecution on his sick bed. It’s tragic, but what goes around comes around, I suppose. A new study by Fabrice Murtin and Romain Wacziarg on “The Democratic Transition” has appeared on the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research (www.nber.org). I recommend everyone to take a look at it. After reading it, I have come to the conclusion that it is Hosni Mubarak himself who initiated the Arab Spring transformation in Egypt. The improvement of Egypt in the last 30 years in the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR) alone is mind boggling.
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What distinguished Steve Jobs?
Güven Sak, PhD
07 October 2011
An entrepreneur is like a sculptor who sees the shape in the stone block before he begins. Apple saw the Macintosh in Xerox Alto. This is what distinguished Steve Jobs.
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Exchange rate movements: why different now?
Fatih Özatay, PhD
06 October 2011
Global risk perception is high and capital is heading towards safe havens.
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Whither the PKK problem?
Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
06 October 2011
Let’s take a closer look at how the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have positioned themselves as constitutional debates, on the one hand, and terrorist activities, on the other, gain pace.
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How can Turkey improve the value added in the construction sector?
Ozan Acar
04 October 2011
Construction services sector is among the most global sectors in Turkey. Construction companies that have been enhancing their capital structure and skills since the 1950s via public investment projects started to have a voice throughout the world along with the efforts to liberalize trade and capital accounts of the Turkish economy. Today, Turkish construction companies have a significant presence over a vast area from Argentina to Indonesia, South Africa, and Russia. Construction projects financed by the World Bank over the last decade were also predominantly undertaken by the same Turkish companies. The number of Turkish companies on the top 225 international constructors list prepared by the Engineering News Record (ENR) increased from 8 in 2003 to 31 in 2011. Turkey left behind the US
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