Counter/Argument: A Middle East Podcast
Counter/Argument: A Middle East Podcast is produced by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Through conversations with scholars and practitioners encompassing a variety of disciplines and perspectives, each episode debunks key misconceptions about the contemporary Middle East. Counter/Argument is committed to a balanced and dispassionate approach to the region and to making scholarship more widely accessible.
Counter/Argument: A Middle East Podcast
Planting Trees in Turkey Is Not Environmental Activism
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.
More Resources
- Ekin Kurtiç, "Criminalizing Environmental Activism in Turkey," Middle East Brief 147, March 2022.
- Ekin Kurtiç, "Wildfires Ignite Political Debate in Turkey," Middle East Report Online, February 22, 2022.
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
Follow the Crown Center on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!
https://www.brandeis.edu/crown
https://www.instagram.com/crowncentermiddleeast
https://twitter.com/CrownCenterMES
https://www.facebook.com/CrownCenterforMiddleEastStudies
https://www.linkedin.com/company/26545448
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC25hQ8yRiRifSb8d_YHCo-Q
The opinions and findings expressed in this podcast belong to the speakers exclusively and do not reflect those of the Crown Center or Brandeis University....
