EFD Rights Watch: body of Sebahattin Yılmaz found in debris. Journalists not only imprisoned but also die because of State misconducts in Turkey…

Turkish Quake Death Toll Rises to 26 ? ABC News – Bertan Ayduk – Mehmet Guzel – 4 hours ago Colleagues and friends wept as rescue workers pulled out the body of Sebahattin Yilmaz from beneath the debris of the Bayram Hotel ? one of two hotels that When judiciary facilitates rape from Today’s Zaman, your gateway to Turkish daily news :: Columnists … Read more

TÜBA President represents the state of Turkish academia…

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I always heard it as a gossip but a few days ago TÜBA (The Turkish Academy of Sciences) President Prof. Yücal Kanpolat made it official in my eyes: Prof. Şerif Mardin was not accepted as a member of the Academy because he “polished” Said Nursi too much. Prof. Kanpolat claims that not because Prof. Mardin studied on Said Nursi but because he praised him he was not accepted to the Academy.  Şerif Mardin is one of the best social scientists ever lived in modern Turkey and his work on Said Nursi (Religion and social change in modern Turkey: the case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi) is probably the first sociological work on this religious figure. Because he did not explicitly demonize Said Nursi, he was “excommunicated”. Kemalist scholarly establishment could never forgive him while generations of social scientists relied on his many works to create a better understanding of the social…

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