This dissertation analyses the restructuring of the state and financialisation in Turkey in the post-1980 period with specific emphasis on public debt management. Turkey provides a model case of state pioneering financial deepening and intervening into the market for the socialisation of the losses of the financial sector. The dissertation argues that despite the increasing public debt ratio through 1980s and 1990s, the aim of financial deepening was persistent. The state contributed to the financialisation in the 1990s through the dominance of public securities with high yields in the market. The Treasury was a nodal point not only in the restructuring of the banking sector in the aftermath of 2001 crisis but also the insulation of economic management from political intervention. Its success is tightly related to financial markets and its restructuring presents a case of identification of public interest with the interest of financial sector. The literature on financialisation should be extended to cover the neoliberal transformation in countries labelled as &ldquo / emerging markets&rdquo / . The restructuring of the state in neoliberal era can be defined as financialisation of the state from a broader perspective. It contributed to financialisation by making the state rely on financial markets in an increasing number of policy fields.

For most of their histories, Turkey and Iran have had a friendly but competitive relationship in ideological and geopolitical venues. When this competition reached its peak in the 1990s, conventional wisdom foresaw prospects for cooperation between Turkey and Iran would gradually decrease. Instead, bilateral relations began to be enhanced in the early 2000s, which is commonly labeled as rapprochement. This rapprochement spread to the political, economic and security arenas, and has accelerated during AKP (Justice and Development Party) rule in Turkey, especially after the Iraqi War of 2003. However, the rapprochement process in bilateral relations lost its momentum in 2010. This thesis examines the reasons and extent of the rapprochement process in Turkish-Iranian relations in the first decade of 2000s, attempting to answer the following research questions: &bdquo / How can the rapprochement process in bilateral relations be defined?

This thesis examines the historical process which led to the signing of the Customs Union Agreement/Decision between the EU and Turkey. For not only is the positive economic impact of the Customs Union on Turkish economy rather questionable, but also it has meant clear political losses for the country as she had to surrender her trade autonomy and gave significant concessions in the Cyprus issue to make the EU approve it. Via the Customs Union which was introduced by Turkish authorities as a stepping stone to the EU membership, Turkey indeed suppressed all industrial custom duties in her trade with the EU and has started implementing EU tariffs in her trade with the third countries, losing in return a significant diplomatic stake to be used in her full membership negotiations with the EU. This study attempts to analyze different perceptions in Turkey over this issue since the 1970s in order to understand why this unfortunate decision was taken without even the approval of the National Assembly. It will finally argue that besides the incumbent Government&rsquo / s short-term electoral expectations, the Customs Union has paved the way for Turkey&rsquo / s one-sided integration to the EU legislation within the chaotic political atmosphere of the 1990s, and hence helped limit the economic, if not the political, policy options of any future government. Thus, the Customs Union was not about trade relations only but ensured a more comprehensive framework for political action that locked in Turkey&rsquo / s policy choices to a neoliberal path in a rapidly changing global and domestic political atmosphere.

This study attempts to better understand gender relations in the process of resettlement among families of Afghan forced migrants in Turkey. In addition it tries to gain an insight into whether those gender relations have been changed by this migration. In order to ascertain these possible changes a field study including participant observation, in depth interviews and interviews with experts was conducted in a city in Central Anatolia to which Afghan migrants are assigned. Since 2007 Afghan asylum-seekers represent a new event in Turkey. They have admitted the right to seek asylum in Turkey very recently. Furthermore, as their population has risen to become the third largest of the non-European asylum seekers in Turkey / there is a need for more research about them and the associated issues. The research findings demonstrate patterns of changes concerning gender relations. Changes can be explained by using the concepts of liminality. Those changes sometimes accommodated emancipation for women / alongside this the opposite occurred too. Liminality produced different patterns of gender relations.

The main aim of this thesis is to analyze the constitution of the female subjectivity in the novels, Emma by Jane Austen and The Proud Woman (Magrur Kadin) by Muazzez Tahsin Berkand, through the discourse of romance and within the discursive features of the narratives reflecting their time and cultures. The reflections of modernity are also analyzed in both texts in relation to the life styles and the representations of the male and female characters. This thesis deals with the issue of romance and romantic love in these novels in terms of examining the women&rsquo / s experience of romance within the patriarchal order through the pleasure of the texts offering to its readers.

This thesis examines the structure of national innovation system by analyzing the functional dynamics. The institutionalization of national innovation system, programs and funding system are analyzed. Similarities and differences between two countries, namely Germany and Turkey, are examined. The advantages, strengths (inducement) and weaknesses (blocking) of the German and Turkish research system are discussed and examined by focusing on key policy differences. Key policy differences are explained with tools in the national innovation system. The answer to the question of whether it is possible to harmonize the advantages of German system with the existing research and incentive structure in Turkey is looked for. Finally, considering the solutions that are presented by the tools proposed in the study, the question of whether there are any lessons to be drawn for Turkey is answered.

This thesis is concerned with political psychology as an academic field with regard to the explanatory power of political psychology accounts in understanding the al-Qaeda network. Understanding al-Qaeda as a network of cells dispersed worldwide and in cooperation with local militant Islamist groups requires analysis at individual and group level, a multidisciplinary and multimethod research and focus on context and process. In this sense, political psychology accounts appear to have explanatory power to understand the al-Qaeda network, utilizing the defining characteristics of the field. Analyzing al-Qaeda through the lenses of political psychology, it can be concluded that psychoanalytically based approaches may not be very relevant to approach al-Qaeda. In this regard, this thesis promotes the study of the al-Qaeda network by concentrating on the group level of analysis. In this context, sociological accounts, social psychological framework of moral disengagement mechanisms, developmental psychology approach of social learning theory and large group in its own right provide us with powerful frameworks to study the causes, process and effects of al-Qaeda&rsquo / s terrorist activities.

Gambling becomes a source of difficulties of varying severity for some individuals whereas it is a positive experience for most of other people. Although gambling continues to be an entertaining activity for the majority of gambling individuals, prevalence rates suggest that pathological gambling is not low compared to other types of diagnosis. Most of the data with respect to gambling is from Western gambling literature, whereas research investigating the associated features of problem and pathological gamblers are very limited in the Turkish sample. The present study aimed to adapt two gambling-related instruments into Turkish and subsequently to examine the contributory roles of gambling participation, personality, affect, cognition, and motives of Turkish gamblers on gambling severity and gambling-related harm. The present study sample consisted of 357 males who were gambling in the sports and horse-races betting terminals. The findings pointed out it is important to conduct gambling research with Turkish samples considering the gambling severity and harm scores of the participants. The Turkish versions of Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale and Gambling Motives Scale showed promising psychometric properties with respect to their reliability and validity analyses. Besides, relatively higher negative affect, neuroticism, gambling-related cognitions, avoidance motive, and gambling participation were found to be associates of probable pathological gambling among Turkish regular gambling individuals. Moreover, the relationships of gambling cognitions / motives and gambling severity were mediated by the gambling participation. The main findings and related findings of the present study together with their implications are reported and discussed within the relevant gambling literature.

This thesis analyses the transformation in health care system in Turkey with particular emphasis on Health Transformation Program (HTP) which has been in progress since 2003. This analysis is done from political science and public administration perspective where neoliberal restructuring process and related approaches such as New Public Management and epistemic communities are utilized. This dissertation argues and verifies that health care reforms in general and HTP in particular mainly target organizational and financial set-ups of the health care systems and these reforms are not only highly interrelated among themselves but are also the ones which bring about the most serious outcomes. In this regard an attempt is made to clarify the long-lasting confusion about what decentralization means in health care systems and to understand the trend in health care reforms towards producing hybrid models for organizational and financial set-ups. The thesis argues and explores that health care reforms targeting organizational and financial set-ups have been producing serious impacts regarding economic, political, managerial, clinical, equity and conceptual aspects of the health care system. This argument is supported by primary data derived from the research conducted in a public hospital in the post-HTP period. In its efforts towards understanding the repercussions of the HTP, this thesis points to the value of referring to the English NHS - particularly its way of reforming itself- where it not only extracts out the common points between the two cases but also attempts at making inferences from the latter for the incipient former.

The thesis aims to chart the relations of the EU and NATO through the case of Afghanistan. It examines the role of ISAF in conjunction with PRTs and EUPOL to evaluate the relations between the EU and NATO. The involvement of the ISAF and EUPOL missions from their establishment to evolution and the limitations of both missions in accordance with the management of the US in the &ldquo / War on Terror&rdquo / are examined. The implications of American policies on the missions of both parties are explored, from the first term of Bush to the Obama administration. The thesis argues that while there has been cooperation between the EU and NATO without structural cooperation, thus being ad hoc cooperation, the US has been benefiting from this cooperation from the second term of the Bush administration to the Obama administration, thereby rehabilitating the tense relations between the EU and the US. In the final analysis, it may be said that this cooperation did not result in a success story in the case of Afghanistan.