Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

New Perspectives on Turkey’s 68th issue for Spring 2023 is coming in the aftermath of domestic challenges in Turkey. Following one of the worst disasters in recent history not only in Turkey but also in the world, the country is still fighting hard to recover from the double earthquakes of February 6. Though their epicenter was Kahramanmaraş, a southeastern city of 1.1 million, the earthquakes wreaked havoc in ten surrounding provinces (manymore in northern Syria), home to more than 13million people, and killed more than 50,000 according to official figures. It deeply impacted another ten provinces neighboring the hard-hit areas, and arguably, the entire country has been transformed by this highly devastating experience socially, politically, economically, and psychologically. The lingering effects are expected to further alter the region and the nation in numerous unprecedented ways. We are deeply sorry for the loss of tens of thousands of lives. The other process defining the moment of publication of our 68th issue is the upcoming national elections of May 14. The country is headed to elections in yet another extremely polarized political atmosphere, which has been exacerbated by the impact of the double earthquakes. Continuing high inflation rates are impacting all aspects of domestic politics and the economy and these are further convoluted by the persistent regional challenges such as the ongoing war in Ukraine and the perennial conflict in Syria. We are deeply saddened by the loss of our editorial board member and a much-admired professor for many, Professor Fikret Şenses. Şenses contributed to our journal until the very end with his widely read and highly influential piece on the Turkish economy. We start this issue with a memorial essay written by a student of his, as well as a member of our editorial board, Murat Koyuncu. This issue features five independent articles, a review article and six book reviews. The independent articles contribute to various current scholarly debates in Turkey from environment to migration, from gender representations in media to elections. We have written many times that we want NPT with its interdisciplinary approach to be a dynamic medium to cover environmental and climate change related research. The first two articles of this issue are a product of this agenda. The first article by Berna Doğan, Hasan Tekgüç and Alp Erinç Yeldan brings together the debates on basic income and environmental policy making. Investigating the potential of what they call the green basic income program, the authors argue that such policy scenarios have the capacity to achieve both GDP growth to expand welfare and reduce carbon emissions to address global environmental challenges. The second article of this issue by Fatih Serkant Adıgüzel addresses the critical problem of deforestation in Turkey.