Leonidas Karakatsanis
Leonidas Karakatsanis is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki Greece and a Honorary Fellow of the British Institute at Ankara. His research interests include the politics of identity and reconciliation, peace and conflict transformation, nationalism, minority rights, immigration, civil society and the politics of resistance. His theoretical interests include discourse theory, theory of deconstruction, theories of affect, post-structuralist political theory and interdisciplinary approaches to social and political sciences. The area of his research is Turkey and its neighbours in the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Leonidas received his PhD in Ideology and Discourse Analysis from the University of Essex and he worked for seven years at the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA), initially as a research fellow before undertaking the post of the Assistant Director of the Institute between 2015-2019. He has taught at Universities in the UK, Greece, and Turkey. Leonidas is the author of the research monograph Turkish-Greek Relations. Rapprochement, Civil Society and the Politics of Friendship (Routledge, 2014) and the co-editor of The politics of Culture in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. Performing the Left since the Sixties (together with N. Papadogiannis, published by Routledge, 2017)) and Bordered Places, Bounded Times: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on Turkey (together with E. Baysal, Published by the BIAA, 2017). His work has also appeared in Middle Eastern Studies, The Journal of Contemporary European Politics, European Review, the Working Papers in Ideology and Discourse Analysis. His current research focuses on a comparative approach to reconciliation and peace processes in the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
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Books by Leonidas Karakatsanis
Instead of lineal continuities, the book explores different routes that these efforts for rapprochement have followed, reflected in the divergent visions for a ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’ pursued by actors as distinct as radical leftists, civil society activists, local government representatives, artists and liberal intellectuals, as well as journalists, politicians and businessmen.
Drawing on political discourse theory and social anthropology, this book employs extensive archival research into Turkish and Greek sources, significant numbers of interviews with pioneers of the rapprochement movement, and an original ethnographic study, to examine the competing claims for ‘Greek-Turkish friendship’. In doing so, it is possible to assess their successes and failures, prospects and predicaments. A valuable addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations, Peace and Reconciliation Studies, and Politics.
Edited Works by Leonidas Karakatsanis
This book explores the intersection between the politics and cultures of the Left since the sixties in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. With the use of 12 case studies, the contributors expose the moments in which the Left has been claimed and performed, not only through political manifestos and traditional political boundaries, but also through corporeal acts, discursive practices and affective encounters. These are all transformed into distinct modalities of everyday life and conduct, which are commemorated, narrated or sung, versed, painted, or captured in photographic images and on reels of tape. By focusing on culture and performance, this book highlights the complex link between nationalism and internationalism in left-wing cultures, and illuminates the entanglements between the ways in which left-wingers experienced transitions from dictatorship to democracy and vice versa.
Contents:
Introduction: Radicalisation as form: beyond the security paradigm | Leonidas Karakatsanis & Marc Herzog
Radicalisation of politics and production of new alternatives: rethinking the secular/Islamic divide after the Gezi Park protests in Turkey | Erdem Damar
This radicalisation which is not one: contentious politics against the backdrop of the Greek crisis | Savvas Voutyras
When the radical is ordinary: ridicule, performance and the everyday in Bulgaria’s protests of 2013 | Lora Koycheva
Radicalised citizens vs. radicalised governments? Greece and Turkey in a comparative perspective from the December 2008 uprising to the 2013 Gezi Park protests | Leonidas Karakatsanis
Polarization without radicalization: political radicalism in Albania in a comparative perspective | Blendi Kajsiu
Articles & Book Chapters in English by Leonidas Karakatsanis
The paper argues that the period during and following the Gezi Park protests was characterised by a cognitive and normative certainty regarding solidarity strategies, that is, a certainty in which the questions What is going on? and What should one do? were answered easily by both insiders and outsiders.The paper shows that at a time when the country seemed to be reigned by its particularities, international solidarity with a pro-democratic Turkey had to cope with growing dilemmas, finding new ways to access the complex new political boundaries that appeared hard to decipher.
1999 marked, inded, a ground-breaking shift when the calls for a ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’, transformed suddenly from a radical message pursued by small segments of the two societies, to a popular and widely celebrated, if not ‘mainstream’ message. The numbers of Greek-Turkish initiatives at all fields of activity (from civil society to the arts, to business and politics) and the points of contact between the two societies skyrocketed during the period 1999-2003 boosting further the experience of excitement over this new cordial relationship with the once ‘enemy-other’.
However, despite this—unprecedented since the population exchange of 1923—emotions stimulated by socio-cultural and economic exchange between the two societies, wariness and boredom started appearing as a symptom in the Turkish-Greek politics of friendship. Signs of boredom could be traced amongst the disillusioned peace activists who saw their own radical vision of ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’ being used for commercial and profit-making prospects during the 2000s; but also amongst experienced pro-rapprochement practitioners who saw their years-old efforts for unbiased media reporting, or the avoidance of tensions-stimulating political rhetoric to remain stubbornly unfulfilled. After all, despite the abundance of the ‘friendship’ narrative, none of the long-standing interstate disputes were resolved with the earthquake diplomacy. Finally, there was the boredom of those who went successfully through their ‘rite-of-passage’, initially amused by the discovery of cultural similarities between Turks and Greeks, but then started feeling indifferent about it. For them, Greeks and Turks were not any more enemies or friends… they were just ‘neighbours’.
Is then boredom the price to pay for the normalization of the societal relations across the Aegean?
But then, how is it possible that almost two decades in since 1999, Turkish-Greek relations can still stir up excitement; both in positive and negative ways? From the discovery of new ‘grey zones’ in the Aegean, to the enchantment of descendants of refugee families with the search of family roots in the ‘other’ side; to the fascination of Turkish tourists with the Greek islands.
This chapter explores this pendulum between excitement and boredom in Turkish-Greek relations arguing that both emotions carry their own different potentials as part of the politics of reconciliation for overcoming of the burden of history across the Aegean.
In the introduction, the editors make the case for the significance of the components of this comparative study because the historical, political and cultural context that binds the Left in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus: These societies emerged as the only non-socialist constituents of South-eastern Europe after the Second World War, and Left-wingers in all these contexts have had similar experiences of long periods of manifold persecution, beginning in the Interwar years, but continuing subsequently.
In terms of theory, the introduction revisits analyses that have probed the Left in and between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, including their cultures, by reconsidering two core issues. First, by showing that the link between nationalism and internationalism in left-wing cultures and performances is more complex and aporetic that usually approached, especially when seen through a novel transnational vantage point. Moreover, directs the attention towards dimensions of left-wing politics beyond the institutional terrain, incorporating a focus of wider social and political transformations that usually evade conventional political analysis.
The editors present their case for using the notion of 'culture' to explore both the everyday life of politicised leftists subjects as constitutive of a 'left-wing political culture', but also the 'outcomes' of a politicised life in the wider local or national culture(s), in music, films, theatre, or other forms of artistic production. Therefore the editors suggest the term "cultures as/in performance" as a way of stressing this heterogeneity and fluidity of the notion .
Radicalization and transformation in South-Eastern Europe: States, societies and contentious politics
Key words:
Political discourse theory, socio-cultural anthropology and cultural critique, fieldwork and ethnographic sensibility, interdisciplinarity and research methods, articulation
Articles & Book Chapters in Greek by Leonidas Karakatsanis
Instead of lineal continuities, the book explores different routes that these efforts for rapprochement have followed, reflected in the divergent visions for a ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’ pursued by actors as distinct as radical leftists, civil society activists, local government representatives, artists and liberal intellectuals, as well as journalists, politicians and businessmen.
Drawing on political discourse theory and social anthropology, this book employs extensive archival research into Turkish and Greek sources, significant numbers of interviews with pioneers of the rapprochement movement, and an original ethnographic study, to examine the competing claims for ‘Greek-Turkish friendship’. In doing so, it is possible to assess their successes and failures, prospects and predicaments. A valuable addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations, Peace and Reconciliation Studies, and Politics.
This book explores the intersection between the politics and cultures of the Left since the sixties in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. With the use of 12 case studies, the contributors expose the moments in which the Left has been claimed and performed, not only through political manifestos and traditional political boundaries, but also through corporeal acts, discursive practices and affective encounters. These are all transformed into distinct modalities of everyday life and conduct, which are commemorated, narrated or sung, versed, painted, or captured in photographic images and on reels of tape. By focusing on culture and performance, this book highlights the complex link between nationalism and internationalism in left-wing cultures, and illuminates the entanglements between the ways in which left-wingers experienced transitions from dictatorship to democracy and vice versa.
Contents:
Introduction: Radicalisation as form: beyond the security paradigm | Leonidas Karakatsanis & Marc Herzog
Radicalisation of politics and production of new alternatives: rethinking the secular/Islamic divide after the Gezi Park protests in Turkey | Erdem Damar
This radicalisation which is not one: contentious politics against the backdrop of the Greek crisis | Savvas Voutyras
When the radical is ordinary: ridicule, performance and the everyday in Bulgaria’s protests of 2013 | Lora Koycheva
Radicalised citizens vs. radicalised governments? Greece and Turkey in a comparative perspective from the December 2008 uprising to the 2013 Gezi Park protests | Leonidas Karakatsanis
Polarization without radicalization: political radicalism in Albania in a comparative perspective | Blendi Kajsiu
The paper argues that the period during and following the Gezi Park protests was characterised by a cognitive and normative certainty regarding solidarity strategies, that is, a certainty in which the questions What is going on? and What should one do? were answered easily by both insiders and outsiders.The paper shows that at a time when the country seemed to be reigned by its particularities, international solidarity with a pro-democratic Turkey had to cope with growing dilemmas, finding new ways to access the complex new political boundaries that appeared hard to decipher.
1999 marked, inded, a ground-breaking shift when the calls for a ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’, transformed suddenly from a radical message pursued by small segments of the two societies, to a popular and widely celebrated, if not ‘mainstream’ message. The numbers of Greek-Turkish initiatives at all fields of activity (from civil society to the arts, to business and politics) and the points of contact between the two societies skyrocketed during the period 1999-2003 boosting further the experience of excitement over this new cordial relationship with the once ‘enemy-other’.
However, despite this—unprecedented since the population exchange of 1923—emotions stimulated by socio-cultural and economic exchange between the two societies, wariness and boredom started appearing as a symptom in the Turkish-Greek politics of friendship. Signs of boredom could be traced amongst the disillusioned peace activists who saw their own radical vision of ‘Turkish-Greek friendship’ being used for commercial and profit-making prospects during the 2000s; but also amongst experienced pro-rapprochement practitioners who saw their years-old efforts for unbiased media reporting, or the avoidance of tensions-stimulating political rhetoric to remain stubbornly unfulfilled. After all, despite the abundance of the ‘friendship’ narrative, none of the long-standing interstate disputes were resolved with the earthquake diplomacy. Finally, there was the boredom of those who went successfully through their ‘rite-of-passage’, initially amused by the discovery of cultural similarities between Turks and Greeks, but then started feeling indifferent about it. For them, Greeks and Turks were not any more enemies or friends… they were just ‘neighbours’.
Is then boredom the price to pay for the normalization of the societal relations across the Aegean?
But then, how is it possible that almost two decades in since 1999, Turkish-Greek relations can still stir up excitement; both in positive and negative ways? From the discovery of new ‘grey zones’ in the Aegean, to the enchantment of descendants of refugee families with the search of family roots in the ‘other’ side; to the fascination of Turkish tourists with the Greek islands.
This chapter explores this pendulum between excitement and boredom in Turkish-Greek relations arguing that both emotions carry their own different potentials as part of the politics of reconciliation for overcoming of the burden of history across the Aegean.
In the introduction, the editors make the case for the significance of the components of this comparative study because the historical, political and cultural context that binds the Left in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus: These societies emerged as the only non-socialist constituents of South-eastern Europe after the Second World War, and Left-wingers in all these contexts have had similar experiences of long periods of manifold persecution, beginning in the Interwar years, but continuing subsequently.
In terms of theory, the introduction revisits analyses that have probed the Left in and between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, including their cultures, by reconsidering two core issues. First, by showing that the link between nationalism and internationalism in left-wing cultures and performances is more complex and aporetic that usually approached, especially when seen through a novel transnational vantage point. Moreover, directs the attention towards dimensions of left-wing politics beyond the institutional terrain, incorporating a focus of wider social and political transformations that usually evade conventional political analysis.
The editors present their case for using the notion of 'culture' to explore both the everyday life of politicised leftists subjects as constitutive of a 'left-wing political culture', but also the 'outcomes' of a politicised life in the wider local or national culture(s), in music, films, theatre, or other forms of artistic production. Therefore the editors suggest the term "cultures as/in performance" as a way of stressing this heterogeneity and fluidity of the notion .
Radicalization and transformation in South-Eastern Europe: States, societies and contentious politics
Key words:
Political discourse theory, socio-cultural anthropology and cultural critique, fieldwork and ethnographic sensibility, interdisciplinarity and research methods, articulation
Προϊόν εκτενούς αρχειακής έρευνας και σημαντικού αριθμού συνεντεύξεων βάθους, το άρθρο διαπραγματεύεται την ιστορία του Βραβείου Ειρήνης και Φιλίας Αμπντί Ιπεκτσί, της μακροβιότερης θεσμικής πρωτοβουλίας για την Ελληνοτουρκική προσέγγιση, διάρκειας εικοσιτεσσάρων χρόνων (1979-2003).
Υπό το πρίσμα της θεωρίας ‘ανάδυσης/αλλαγής όψεων [aspect dawning/change]’ την οποία η Norval αντλεί από την φιλοσοφική σκέψη του Wittgenstein, το άρθρο εξετάζει τις συνθήκες δυνατότητας για την δημιουργία και την εδραίωση της συγκεκριμένης πρωτοβουλίας στη διάρκεια των δεκαετιών του 1980 και 1990 στην Ελλάδα. Μια χρονική στιγμή όπου τα αντι-τουρκικά αισθήματα και τα αρνητικά στερεότυπα για τον εθνικό ‘άλλο’ ήταν άρρηκτα συνδεδεμένα με την ηγεμονία ενός ιδιόμορφου φοβικού εθνικισμού. Η μελέτη της μακρόχρονης πορείας του βραβείου και των ρηματικών του πρακτικών αντανακλά με ευκρίνεια τις ηγεμονικές συγκρούσεις αντιθετικών λόγων γύρω από το έθνος, την δημοκρατία, την ειρήνη, και το δίπολο ‘φίλος-εχθρός’ που χαρακτηρίζουν την συγκεκριμένη περίοδο.
Με όχημα το εμπειρικό υλικό και εξετάζοντας όχι μόνο την επιτυχία του θεσμού αλλά και τις διαδικασίες που οδήγησαν στην απώλεια της απήχησής του και τελικά στην εξαφάνισή του, το άρθρο επανέρχεται στην συζήτηση γύρω από την ανάδυση νέων πολιτικών γραμματικών και υποκειμενικοτήτων με στόχο τη διεύρυνσή της.
Συγκεκριμένα, εστιάζει στην ενσυναισθηματική (affective) διάσταση που μεσολαβεί μεταξύ της ανάδυσης και της μεταβολής όψεων, δείχνοντας ότι η ανάδυσης της εικόνας του ‘άλλου’ από εχθρό σε φίλο και η αναστάτωση που αυτή δημιουργεί, εμπεριέχουν μια ιδιαίτερη ενσυναισθηματική ένταση. Ενέχουν μια βαθιά υπαρξιακή εμπειρία ‘έκπληξης’ η οποία αναδεικνύει το όριο μεταξύ ρηματικού και μη-ρηματικού. Η ενσυναίσθηση καλύπτει το νοηματικό κενό που η εμπειρία της έκπληξης δημιουργεί, μέχρις ότου μια νέα συνάρθρωση νοήματος να παρέχει στα υποκείμενα μια νέα πολιτική γραμματική για την κατανόηση του συμβάντος. Το άρθρο εστιάζει στη σημασία αυτών των ενδιάμεσων ‘γραμματικών ενσυναίσθησης’. Εισάγοντας, τέλος, τον όρο ‘δύση των όψεων’ (aspect dusk) προτείνει μια νέα κριτική εξήγηση για τους λόγους της καθοδικής πορείας και εξαφάνισης της ειρηνευτικής αυτής πρωτοβουλίας, αλλά και της συνολικότερης εξάλειψης του πάθους των ακτιβιστών της Ελληνοτουρκικής προσέγγισης.
Published in Heritage Turkey (2014), vol .4
http://biaa.ac.uk/publications/item/name/heritage-turkey
Today, the positive momentum that such reconciliation efforts achieved appears long gone. Instead, cool relations at best - tensions, live conflict, and war at worst - have returned. Adopting a comparative historical approach, this lecture will evaluate the successes and failures of civil society’s role in promoting rapprochement and reflect on the challenges that Turkish civil society faces in the pursuit of regional peace.