Of Turkey, Russia and Elsewhere

Transfaires and Empire

Bibliographic Data

ID2631452
AuthorsOlivier Bouquet (0000-0002-4463-7359, Université Paris Cité, corresponding author)
TranslatorsNora Scott (0000-0002-9485-5522)
Year2016
Volume22
Issue22
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean journal of Turkish studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1773-0546 • E-ISSN: 1773-0546
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/ejts.6863
OpenAlexW3132397909
LanguageEN
References cited24

V. Putin was driven in an armored limousine to the president's palace in Ankara, where R.T. Erdoan gave him the grand tour of the huge neo-Ottoman building. Comprising over 1000 rooms, the White Palace has been dubbed "Ak Saray" by both the press and the opposition. Differences of opinion between the two heads of state were vigorous and many (from the occupation of Crimea to the Syrian issue). But potential conflicts were tempered by shared interests (in particular energy cooperation) and the rejection of a Western domination denounced by both parties. On 23 September 2015, it was R.T. Erdoan's turn to pay a visit to his Russian counterpart. In Moscow, he joined Mahmud Abbas in inaugurating an imposing mosque (46m high with a dome 27m in diameter and costing $170 m). It is the largest mosque in a city counting no fewer than two million Muslims. The mosque stands on the site of an earlier building demolished in 2011 by (a particularly controversial) decision of the Russian religious authorities. In their respective speeches, Putin and Erdoan articulated the issues of cultural cooperation, protection of Islam and the struggle for peace. For Putin, this meant fighting terrorism -on the part of DAESH, enemy of the military-backed Syrian regime; while for Erdoan, it meant the PKK and the threat it posed to the Turkish state. What was depicted by the press of the countries involved as the outcome of a Eurasian collaboration (Erdoan used the term "Avrasy"), financially underpinned by several partnered Muslim countries or governments (Turkey, Kazakhstan, the Palestinian Authority), refers to interlacing "trans-actions", "transfaires" in the French literature, which we will for the time being define as the "technical and symbolic instruments produced and reproduced by circulation" involved in "processes of the translation and co-production of the normative and material vectors of political action" (Transfaire 2012) Of Turkey, Russia and Elsewhere

Ancient history · Archaeology · Economic history · Islam · Political science · Politics · Terrorism · Turkish · History · Law · Philosophy · Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation · Turkey's Politics and Society

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