Police Force in the Formation of the Modern State: Development and Transformation of the Police Force in Iran

Public security was unable to achieve any systematic order until the start of urbanization. With the formation of modern cities, the need to ensure the security of people and their living spaces were met primarily by city administrators and then by regular internal security organizations. This article discusses Iran’s security system as it existed in the pre-modern period and the internal security strategies that transformed in line with the modern understanding of the state. The concept of internal security in Iran has gone through the following four main phases: (1) military methods that had been applied by the senior administrators of the states that had ruled the region before the Qajar Dynasty, (2) the first professionalization that saw the Nazmiyya Organization established in the Qajar Dynasty through efforts to separate policing from military service, (3) the re-militarization of internal security services and focus on intelligence activities during the Pahlavi Dynasty that had been established after the Rıza Han coup, and (4) the ideological appearance of the police organization accompanied by the theo-political orientation that emerged after the 1979 Revolution. This text discusses these four phases in detail.

The Vague Concept of ‘Primitive’: The Change in Perceptions from Barbarism to Wisdom

This study focuses on the usage and effect of the ‘primitive’ concept in social sciences. This concept, which is used to express both people who lived in the deep past and people who did not come into contact with modernity, has a rather ambiguous world of meaning. It is possible to say that non-Western societies are coded as ‘primitive’ in this approach, which is basically based on the Western and other dichotomy. The Western mind, which sees itself at the top of the line of progress, people who did not come into contact with modernity as irrational, unaware of his surroundings, and lacking many values and institutions. It can be said that the ‘theory of primitive society’ plays a dominant role in the background of transferring democracy and prosperity to ‘developing societies’. This article also discusses the transformation of the ancient human, coded as barbarian and savage, under the influence of the progressive approach, into a creature with knowledge and wisdom, with the effect of romance over time. The concept of ‘primitive’, which continues to find a place for itself in the literature despite some criticisms, has a influence of domain beyond what is thought. The criticism of the ‘primitive’ contributes to the correct understanding of both the ancient human and the traditionally expressed contemporary societies.

Analysis and Criticism of the Comparative Historical Method

Comparative history which intellectually emerged at the end of the 18th century, is a method of explaining, analyzing and interpreting the similarities or the differences which are put forth as a result of comparing the various historical units. The purposes of the method are; to reveal the subjects which can not be performed without comparison, to make generalizations with obtained data from comparison of individual events, to give broader perspective to historians. While reaching the aim the temporal/spatial/social etc. features should be considered. This article reveals general features to be considered in the comparative history and then discusses the mistakes in using this method and critics about these mistakes.

An Analysis of Interactions in Intercultural Marriages: A Field Study of Alanya

This study aims to examine the dimensions of the conflicts arising from the interactions of two different cultures in intercultural marriages and to examine under which conditions and the level to which cultural adaptation is provided. This study was conducted with 35 participants who have an intercultural marriage and live in Antalya Province’s Alanya District, where people from many cultures and nationalities can be encountered due to Alanya being a tourist region. This study obtained the data using the semi-structured interview method to investigate the conflict and adaptation that may occur as a result of intercultural marriages. The snowball technique has been used to access the participants. At the end of the interviews conducted with these individuals, foreign spouses’ process of adapting to the Turkish family structure and culture, what they’ve acquired from experiencing cultural conflict, and what conflict and adaptation processes they experienced were examined within the scope of family and social environments. The findings from the study have been compiled within the framework of conflict and adaptation as a result of cultural interaction.

Sabri Ülgener and Ahmed Güner Sayar: A Line in Turkish Economic Thought

Sabri Fehmi Ülgener and Ahmed Güner Sayar are two of the most eminent figures to be recognized through their economic and cultural studies in modern Turkish thought. They have generated remarkable ideas about relative economic underdevelopment in Ottoman-Turkish society, controversial economic policies within capitalism, and the existence of two principal veins in the methodology of economics. This paper aims to ascertain Ülgener and Sayar’s approaches toward the different dimensions of economics and to review the points upon which they agree and disagree in this regard. On the problem of economic underdevelopment, they can be said to generally focus on cultural elements and to have asserted the essence of Sufism to be distorted. They can also be said to have not fallen into any sharp differences over capitalism’s liberal or interventionist policies. On the methodology of economics, they agreed about the need to have an a posteriori character within the scope of the explanatory nature of economic theories. Additionally, they focused on the sociology of economics using the verstehen [German: to understand] method to comprehend human typology in economics through its various aspects. The research findings indicate these two men to have been the architects of an original line in Turkish economic thought by showing consensus on principles and method, despite disagreements on the details.