Why is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan so enthusiastic about planting trees? In this episode, we speak with Ekin Kurtiç, 2022-2024 Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and former Neubauer Junior Research Fellow at the Crown Center, who argues that the Turkish government’s interest in greening Turkey is an attempt to monopolize the environmental agenda and turn legitimate protest into criminal activity. Join guest host Daniel Neep as he and Kurtiç examine misconceptions about the Turkish government’s tree planting and other “greening” campaigns, and explore the complex history and politics of environmentalism in the country.
Ekin Kurtiç, the 2022-2024 Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and previously the Neubauer Junior Research Fellow at the Crown Center.
Daniel Neep, Mellon Research Fellow at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a non-resident fellow at the Crown Center. He was previously the assistant director for research and a sabbatical fellow at the Crown Center.
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This episode of Counter/Argument on the environmental challenges in Turkey and the government’s response to them was recorded prior to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that devastated southeast Turkey and northwest Syria on February 6, 2023 and therefore does not mention it.
Editorial team: Naghmeh Sohrabi, Karen Spira, Ramyar D. Rossoukh
Producer: Karen Spira
Audio engineer: Levon Henry
Podcast art: Chae Lee
Theme music: "Sleeky" by ComaStudio, Pixabay
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