Category: HISTORY

Op-Ed: A Robbery of Artistic Proportions: How the Louvre is Complicit in the Looting of Middle Eastern Treasures

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Photo Credit: DBUK

By Audrey Hall
Managing Editor

The Musee du Louvre, the world’s most visited museum located in the center of Paris, has come under severe scrutiny as former Louvre President Jean-Luc Martinez has been charged with money laundering and alleged art trafficking. Martinez is said to have accepted falsified certificates of origin for several archaeological treasures that investigators suspect were smuggled out of Egypt during the Arab Spring. Although Martinez is no longer at the forefront of the Louvre, he now works in the field of heritage as an ambassador for international cooperation. As Martinez continues to serve in the public eye, the allegations threaten to embarrass the French culture ministry and the ministry of foreign affairs.

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Turkey at the Centennial – Part II: A Nation at the Crossroads of Continuity and Change

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Read Part I of this series here.

Photo Credit: sulox32

By Shawn Rostker
Editor in Chief

It is from the rise of the AKP that Turkey’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ascended to power. Erdogan’s emphasis on the horizontal ties of solidarity that bound together the people of Turkey rather than the vertical ties of obligation that bound society to state helped elevate him to political prominence. During his time as Prime Minister (2003-2014), the AKP pursued an aggressive reform agenda aligned with its contemporary vision. Economic stabilization programs continued, and ties between foreign commercial and private industry were expanded. Steady declines in the rule of law and fiscal health have led to a running five-year decline in overall economic freedom, and Turkey’s economy has consistently ranked near the bottom of regional and global indexes. It has rebounded from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing by 11% in the past year. Still, it remains plagued by inefficiencies across its vital sectors and susceptible to long-term effects of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

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Turkey at the Centennial – Part I: A Product of Dyadic Interaction

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Read Part II of this series here.

Photo Credit: sulox32

By Shawn Rostker
Editor in Chief

The year 2023 will mark the centennial anniversary of the Republic of Turkey. The nation has seen staggering growth, transformation, and absorption into the international community over the past century, as well as expanded influence over both regional and global affairs. Turkey has changed markedly from the Western-leaning and largely secular state that it was in its earliest days and has experienced several transformations spanning its political, social, economic, and religious dimensions. The battle between secularism and politicized religion has defined its social and political development, and the recent acceptance of a Muslim distinction within the concept of Turkishness has fueled an ongoing identity contest. Though still maintaining linkages to the Western world, Turkey has gradually cultivated relationships with Eastern powers such as Russia and China. These bidirectional ties have begun to manifest in ways that challenge both its domestic and foreign policies. It has experienced multiple coups d’état and has struggled to reconcile its outward democratic aspirations with its internal authoritarian shifts. Part I of this two-part series will explore Turkey’s foundational ideological dyad: Kemalism and Islamism, and probe how this relationship influenced Turkey’s political, social, and religious development over the course of the 20th Century in the face of economic turbulence and internal strife to produce the state that it is today.

Continue reading “Turkey at the Centennial – Part I: A Product of Dyadic Interaction” →