The Politics of Turkish National Identity Essay -- Political Turkey Es

The Politics of Turkish National Identity ?Modern Turkish National identity has been shaped by events that have taken place in the region throughout its history. The formation of the national identity can be attributed to two dichotomies of political thought and culture. Some people want to keep in line with Turkey?s modern history as a secular westernized country looking to join the European Union; while others hearken back to the days of the Ottoman Empire and wish to make Turkey a divided Islamic state. Conflict between those who consider themselves Turks and the Kurdish separatist party, a militant rebel force, has long shaped the changing Turkish national Identity. Today, Turkey in many ways has had ?to depart from a strict observance of the guiding principals of [Turkey?s modern history] and the kind of self-perception and views it aimed to instill in the population? (Kushner 232). Although the most westernized of all Middle-East countries, Turkey still must deal with Islamic fundamentalism prominent in the area. In recent history, Turkey has done a poor job balancing the differing desires of the members of its society: some would like to homogenize and westernize society while others want to be recognized as a deeply religious and individual sector of the Turkish population. MODERN HISTORY? The country of Turkey, as we know it, has only come about in the last 80 years or so. Before this time, the land of present day Turkey was referred to as Anatolia. Anatolia is considered the bridge that connects the Middle East to Europe. Despite years of occupation by differing nations, the area of present day Turkey has held some consistency and continuity. This continuity is possible because even though many count... ... The Kurdish Experience. Jul.-Aug. 1994. PP 12-15. Mutlu, Servet. ?Ethnic Kurds in Turkey: A Demographic Study? International Journal of ? Middle East Studies. Vol. 28, No. 4. Nov. 1996. PP 517-541. World of Information Business Intelligence Report: Turkey. Walden Publishing Ltd. ? 2000. [i] Often considered as state socialism. In Turkish use, it involves state control of some industries and public services. [ii] A follower of the larger of the two primary denominations of Islam. [iii] A member of the smaller of the two great divisions of Islam. The Shia originated in a dispute over who should be the legitimate successor to the Prophet; a majority of early Muslims accepted the tradition of community consensus to choose the leader, but a minority supported the claim of Ali, the Prophet's cousin, to inherit the mantle of leadership (A Country Study).

Project Selection and Risks

Project selection should be done in a manner that address external risk before the project commences. Consequently the personnel selecting the project should also understand the deferral risk before making the decision of deferring the project. In many projects of organizations, they neither simply avoids risk since if it is not properly managed can result to a great loss. However taking risk is a necessary condition in creation of wealth. Most projects take risks deliberately especially when it is their advantage.Risk can affect a project negatively if the selection of the project can not manage, understand, and price it. Before selecting project, there is need to recognize, accept and understand the risks involved that can lead to the project failure or have little potential of going up. When risks evaluation is poorly done, it can lead to unrecognized and high risk projects that have potential of endangering the whole enterprise. Selecting a project wisely can lead to taking advan tage of low risk and thus benefiting much from the project.Most projects usually fail because of lack of consideration of important risk factors that can ruin the project. A good model of selecting a project is supposed to be put in place so as to avoid frustrations in the project when things turn out to be worse. Every thing proposed in a project may be implemented as well as people put more efforts in the project but at the end the project fail if the selection did not take into account the risks that may be involved in it. Senior officials may make their decisions but if they do not understand the risk which may be involved, the project may not be able to do better.In order to reduce loss after selecting a project, there is need to have knowledge of the project so as to make a sound plan and also understand on the right or appropriate technology that should be used in the project. Before selecting the project you have to understand on the problems that may encounter it and also t here is a need to first discover what you do not know about the project to reduce the risk of failure. Risk can be reduced by identifying it and understanding on the specific impact that can affect the project so as to take action and address the risk.If the risk has been understood and identified, ideas should be generated to modify the plan of project to reduce the risk. Furthermore, identifying risk of the project can be useful in reducing risk for any similar project that may be conducted in future. In order to reduce risk in selecting a project the process of selecting the project should be reputable in that the project proposal needs to be clear with high level statement in the scope, objective and expected success measure.The project should have estimate of high level and magnitude needed in the implementation of the project and there should be discussion of the alternative risks and approaches in each approach. The process of selecting the project must also be cross-function al in that senior representatives must be part of it in the selection. It further has to be multidimensional by recognizing the set of the viable project. The selection process also must also recognize that there is no single or obvious metrics based on better results in picking any one project to operate and this can prevent the optimistic approach.

Peloponnesian War Essay

Nearly during fifty years that preceded Peloponnesian War, the Greek history was characterized by development of the city of Athens as the main power in the Mediterranean world. The ancient Greece is a term used to describe the Greek speaking world in the ancient times which included the Hellenic culture that were settled in Greek during the ancient times. The ancient times in Greece was influenced by frequent migration as several people were forced to leave their land due to pressure from superior tribes. People were not free to cultivate their land since they could not predict when the invaders would come. Most of these people sort refuge in the city of Athens as a safe retreat. No form of communication, no freedom of trade and the richest soil were frequently invaded thus changed master. Such fertile district included most parts of Peloponnese, Boeotia, and Thessaly (Hanson, V, 2005). The city of Athens in Europe was the birthplace of democracy and became the most powerful and the leading city in the Ancient Greece during the first millennium BC. Classical democracy which was also called Athenian democracy was the democratic system that greatly developed in the Ancient Greek city state Athens and it’s surrounding such the Attica. Many states in Greek also had democracies but not in the Athenian model nor were they as powerful and stable as the Athenian democracy. It started as a small group of city states who merged in order to bring to an end the then intense Persian war. It had several cultural achievements that laid the foundation for the western civilization. Just before the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, the city of Athens had grown in power and wealth and was the strongest city state in Greece. After a short while the city of Athens started dominated and invading other city-states. They succeeded in dominating all the Greece except the Sparta and its allies thus making the Athens Empire with which they were able to defeat the Persians and thereafter formed a coalition of Greek city-states. Just after the departure of the Persians friction began between the Athens and the Peloponnese states including Sparta who were trying to hinder the Athenians from building the walls of Athens but their hindrances were thwarted (Cawkwell, G, 1997). The Peloponnesians believed that without the walls the Athenians would defenseless against land attack and thus would be easily subjects to Sparta since they (the Spartans) overpowered the Athenians in land war. Since they did not succeed in their bid, they felt secretly grieved. All this events marked the birthpangs of Peloponnesian war. Other events that fueled the war involved the Athens and the Corinth. After Corinth faced defeated from Corcyra which happened to be one of their colony, they started building naval power but the Corcyra formed an ally with the Athens so as to gain defense against any farther attack from the Corinth. Peloponnesian war which is also known as Athenian war commenced in 431BC between the Athenians and the Spartans who were leading the Peloponnesian league at that time. Many were the underlying factors behind this war which lasted up to 404BC. These two countries had made a peace treaty which had lasted for thirty years at that time. However, the Spartans felt threatened by the increasing power and wealth of the Athenians since they (the Athenians) being power hungry had began to reassert their control on the mainland of Greece. The other factor that triggered the war was the trade sanctions that the Athenians gave to the Megarans who were Spartans allies. As a result of this, Spartans and the Athenians fell into another war which was named Peloponnesian war after the Peloponnesian league which was led by the Spartans. This war lasted for over twenty seven years and it occurred in three different phases namely: Archidamian War, the attack of the Syracuse in Sicily and the Decelean war or the Lonian war. First phase of the war named Archidamian war, after the king of Sparta called Archidamus II, took place between 431BC and 421 BC. At the outbreak of the war the Spartans attacked Attica and burned all their crops with an aim to starve the Athenians forcing many of the citizens in Attica to leave their farms and seek refuge inside the long walls that joined Athens and its port known Piraeus. The general of the Spartan army during this period was Brasidas while the general of the Athenian army was Cleon. They highly wished to fight the land war which they were good at to the disadvantage of the Athenians who anchored on the powerful navy they had. A good number of the population of the Athenians died during this period not only as a result of the war but also an outbreak of plague which consumed almost two thirds of entire Athens population. Each of the sides believed that it would over power the other and therefore force a surrender which was not the case (Kallet, L, 2001). After ten years of struggles and fighting, both the two nations were worn down and thus they agreed and signed a fifty-year peace treaty which was called the Peace of Nicias. The peace treaty was named Nicia after an Athenian politician and general leader of the Athens at that time. However, the treaty lasted for only six years after the death of Brasidas and Cleon thereafter there was an outbreak of another war which ushered the second phase of the war. During these six years there were constant skirmishes and even though the Spartans kept themselves from war their allies constantly conversed on the possibility of revolt. As a result of these talks the allies got good support from Argos one of the cities within Peloponnesus which was quite independent from Lacedaemon (another Greek name for Sparta). They managed to form a coalition with other democratic states within the Peloponnese such as Elis and Mantinea and the Spartans were unable to break this coalition despite all their efforts. A small portion of Athenians including Alcibiades backed this coalition too. History has it that the war which occurred in Mantinea was the fiercest war that was ever fought during Peloponnesian war. The Lacedaemonians together with their neighbors Tegean faced a tough opposition from the combined forces of the Mantinea, Argos, Arcadia and the Athens. The Spartans who were also known as Lacedaemonians were able to put down this coalition forcing the democratic alliance to break. Finally, the members of this coalition joined the Peloponnesian league. The second phase of this war was characterized by the attack in Sicily from Syracuse. The people of Syracuse were Dorians as the Spartans whereas the Sicilians were Ionians as the Athenians. The colonization of the Sicily would have been a great door for getting immense wealth by the Athenians. During this time the Athenian religious statute was destroyed by an anonymous figure but the charges were placed upon Alcibiades who demanded trial immediately so that he could defend himself. Instead, the Athenians allowed him to go for expedition. He was then summoned back to Athens when he was in Sicily but he fearing that he could possibly be condemned unjustly, he opted not to return to Athens and instead defected to the side of Spartans (Krentz, P, 1982). He became a resourceful person to the Spartans by revealing to the Spartans the underlying plans of the Athenians as pertained to the city of Sicily including the Athenian plan to use Sicily as a springboard to conquer Italy and use the resources plus the soldiers in these new conquests to conquer all the Peloponnese. In order to counteract this move, Nicia was taken to replace Alcibiades as mission who then was commissioned to mount an attack on the Syracuse. But with the help from Spartans, the Athenians were all defeated miserably thus they were unable to invade the city. The joint reinforcement of the Spartans, Corinth and Peloponnese league to Syracuse were able to entirely destroy the Athenian fleet and consequently all their army was sold off into slavery The Sicily attack almost left the Athenians powerless since their power was more vested in the naval power and any of their troops that remained were killed and enslaved by the Syracusans. This war had detrimental effect on the Athenian empire as their treasury was reading empty and their strong youths were held prisoners in a strange land. Through the advice of Alcibiades, the Spartans were able to fortify Decelea, a city near Athens, thus preventing the shipment of supplies to Athens and also hindering them from using their land in a full year. This move disrupted the sliver mines that were nearby and thus forced the supplies to be taken by sea at an increased cost. Worst of all, the Spartans freed most of the Athenian slaves at Decelea forcing the Athenians to seek tribute from their subject allies which farther caused tension and a threat of rebellion within the Athenian empire (Robert B, 1996). Despite all these humiliating defeat in the Sicily the Athenians never gave up on their fight but they managed to escape. For instance, the slow with which the Spartans furnished their troops and ship. The Syracuse and the Corinth were also not speedy enough in letting their fleet in Aegean thus giving the Athenians an opportunity to survive. The Spartan officers lacked necessary skills and these accounted for their slowness in furnishing the troops. During the last phase of the war, the Spartans received reinforcement from the Persians who offered assistance in form of money and ship. The Persians allied with the bid to revenge on the Athenians for the war they had prosecuted in the earlier century. Whenever war was shifted to the sea the Athenians could enjoy victory. Under the leadership of General Lysander, the Spartans got an overall victory over the Athenians. As a result of this Alcibiades exiled himself from Athens because he was not re-elected as the general of the Athenians. Unfortunately their fleets were completely destroyed due to a surprise attack which then left them very hopeless and consequently they surrendered to the Spartans who broke the walls of their cities and barred them from possessing a navy. The aftermaths of the Peloponnesian included the overthrowing of oligarchs and restoration of democracy. This war reshaped the ancient Greek world. Sparta was established as the leading power in Greece whereas Athens which was the powerful state was lowered into subjection. Poverty was greatly experienced in Peloponnesus due to the economic costs of the war across the entire Greece. Reference: Cawkwell, G. L. (1997). Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. London: Routledge. Hanson, V. (2005). How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War. New York: Random House. Kallet, L. (2001). The Sicilia Expedition and its Aftermath. Berkeley: University of California Press, Krentz, P. (1982). The Thirty at Athens. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, Robert B. (1996). A Guide to the Peloponnesian War. New York: The Free Press.

Essay on Life Without Colours Essays

Essay on Life Without Colours Essays Essay on Life Without Colours Paper Essay on Life Without Colours Paper Imagine the World without Colours Once upon a time in the kingdom of Jubilee, King Davis was one of the kindest rulers in a thousand years. One day, his family received a letter from their uncle John inviting them to a fun day. With much joy, the family packed their personal belongings and headed for Baskalin, the border between Kingdom Jubilee and Kingdom Wisdom. On the way to Baskalin, the family saw some of the most amazing scenery in all the land. The beautiful turquoise Lake Prince was sparkling in the warm, golden sunlight of the April morning. The sweet smell of the freshly cut yellow grass mixed with dirt met their noses as the carriage moved down the muddy road. Above Lake Prince the sky was crisp and clear with cotton ball clouds painted with sky blue edgings. The fields were a patchwork of colors. Lavender, strawberries and sunflowers beamed at the sun and danced with the lazy breeze. Juicy apples mixed with orange citrus, curly bananas mixed with green papaya. Plump blueberries were ripe for the picking. From miles away, the smell of the rich fruits reached the Kings carriage and stimulated the appetite of the royal family. What a beautiful world! Jubilee Kingdom got its name because the people were always happy and enjoyed their gorgeous environment. The colorful surroundings and the pleasant smell of nature with sweet fruits bought joy to everybody. It was at the very moment that King Davis closed his eyes to enjoy the rhythm of the carriage, that something strange suddenly happened. The melody of birds stopped, the sky turned black and the wind became wild.  What, what is going on! cried the King as he opened his eyes to check on his family.  A thunderstorm is coming Your Highness, please do not worry reassured the carriage driver. It was then that the rain poured down from the sky and everything became covered by fog. The King and his family waited, and waited, and waited until the rain stopped. Finally the sun was back, but everything was changed. The colors were washed away with the rain leaving the world black, white and dull shades of grey. The light of the sun became brighter but the king could not feel the heat. No longer did the sun have a warm yellow glow, instead it turned to blinding white. The King was frightened by the change. He couldnt understand what was happening. All of Kings expectations of the surroundings had altered. He couldnt believe the images that he was seeing. He thought he was seeing an optical illusion created by a change in the light waves, but his family reminded him that this is the reality of Jubilee Kingdom. It is the realm of being that happens in Jubilee Kingdom once every hundred years. The colors were stolen by the evil witch living in Misery Cave. For the next twelve months, citizens of Jubilee Kingdom have to live without color until the evil curse was broken. Everyone including the King found it difficult to adjust. They were no longer able to see after sunset. Everything turned black. During the daytime, people become more dependent on communication and their sense of hearing. Their knowledge source was changed due to the loss of colors. Since people lost their visual perception, they had to double check everything through sound and touch. Never did it occur to the King that Jubilee Kingdom would suffer so much, even the melody of birds turned disturbing, and the sweet smell of juicy fruits turned sour. People no long enjoy living in Jubilee Kingdom. The change in blindness caused a rapid increase in depression and affected peoples emotions. People were used to a beautiful Jubilee Kingdom instead of being locked up in a world without colors. Losing the visual sense and reality made it difficult for people to stay rational thus the organic (human nature) changed from blind trust. As days went by, people had to learn to adapt the environment without colors. Although it was difficult and depressing, they had no other choice. Tourists stopped coming to visit Jubilee Kingdom and farmers could not work properly as all they could see was black and white. Life continued without happiness. Every day people were expecting change and experimented with new methods to make their new life better. Under the new environment, fashion designers redesigned the patterns of clothing with black and white to create new fashions. The lifestyle of people changed little by little, making progress to adapt to the environment without colors. It is true that the quality of living went down but at some point, people had to accept it and ignore the inconvenience. The King and his family were left in the middle of the land with nowhere to go because without colors, the carriage driver couldnt be sure which way to go. They were lost in the middle of their journey. Like everyone else, the King and his family eventually learned a new way of living. Twelve months sounded a long time but when people began to get used to their new routine, the time flew by. On the dawn of the 366th day after the thunderstorm, the evil curse was broken by magical fairy. After a few simple flicks of her wand, the colors were returned to Jubilee Kingdom. Men on the street were busy celebrating the return of color, while woman were busy cleaning up the huge mess that was left over. At first, people were slow to adapt back to a world with colors. They were now used to seeing the days filled with only black and white colors. Things began to return to normal, people with depression were cured without medical treatment. The visual perception became the most dependent and reliable perception that people were using, and auditory perception became less important. Most of all, peoples lives returned to normal. The King realized that it was possible for one to adjust to another environment, the secret is that time is of the essence. After twelve months of delay, the King and his family decided to move on with their journey. Within a few days, they reached Uncle John and had the biggest fun day in the history of Jubilee Kingdom. From that day forward, the King and the people of Jubilee Kingdom enjoyed their colorful surroundings every day and lived happily ever after.  The End.  Knowledge issues:  When the king and everyone lost their sense to colors, they have to adjust to their new life through experience and time. They found it difficult to change the way they lived because it turned out that the people were heavily depended on their sense to colors. There are other factors needed to be taken into account, such as the way the humans brain is not designed to see without colors so this might have mixed up the way our brain functions. I think that youll be able to train you brain to only see black and white, because thats how the ancient people lived inside caves, but it would take time for the transition. That is why when the colors returned, people had to spend some time adjusting from black and white back to colors. The color transition also varies between people because just like the optical illusions, some people were able to see it straight away and some people just could not get it. However, in this case, just because those people could not see the optical illusion, they could still train their brain to become sensitive in seeing black and white. I wonder if this happened to me, what are the ways that I would conquer this disability because loosing the sense to colors isnt the same as loosing the eyesight, and although youre able to see, you cant really see. It would be difficult to distinguish shapes, distance and finding the subjects that youre looking for. I think that it will be a wonderful experience if I could experience it myself for a short period of time.

Battle of Bennington - American Revolution

Battle of Bennington - American Revolution The Battle of Bennington was fought during the American Revolution (1775-1783).  Part of the Saratoga Campaign, the Battle of Bennington took place on August 16, 1777. Commanders Armies: Americans Brigadier General John StarkColonel Seth Warner2,000 men British Hessian Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich BaumLieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann1,250 men Battle of Bennington - Background During the summer of 1777, British Major General John Burgoyne advanced down the Hudson River valley from Canada with the goal of splitting the rebellious American colonies in two. After winning victories at Fort Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, and Fort Ann, his advance began to slow due to treacherous terrain and harassment from American forces. Running low on supplies, he ordered Lt. Colonel Friedrich Baum to take 800 men to raid the American supply depot at Bennington, VT. Upon leaving Fort Miller, Baum believed there to be only 400 militia guarding Bennington. Battle of Bennington - Scouting the Enemy While en route, he received intelligence that the garrison had been reinforced by 1,500 New Hampshire militiamen under the command of Brigadier General John Stark. Outnumbered, Baum halted his advance at the Walloomsac River and requested additional troops from Fort Miller. In the meantime, his Hessian troops built a small redoubt on the heights overlooking the river. Seeing that he had Baum outnumbered, Stark began to reconnoiter the Hessian position on August 14 and 15. On the afternoon of the 16th, Stark moved his men into position to attack. Battle of Bennington - Stark Strikes Realizing that Baums men were spread thin, Stark ordered his men to envelop the enemys line, while he assaulted the redoubt from the front. Moving to the attack, Starks men were able to quickly rout Baums Loyalist and Native American troops, leaving only the Hessians in the redoubt. Fighting valiantly, the Hessians were able to hold their position until they ran low on powder. Desperate, they launched a saber charge in an attempt to break out. This was defeated with Baum mortally wounded in the process. Trapped by Starks men, the remaining Hessians surrendered. As Starks men were processing their Hessian captives, Baums reinforcements arrived. Seeing that the Americans were vulnerable, Lt. Colonel Heinrich von Breymann and his fresh troops immediately attacked. Stark quickly reformed his lines to meet the new threat. His situation was bolstered by the timely arrival of Colonel Seth Warners Vermont militia, which aided in repulsing von Breymanns assault. Having blunted the Hessian attack, Stark and Warner counterattacked and drove von Breymanns men from the field. Battle of Bennington - Aftermath Impact During the Battle of Bennington, the British Hessians suffered 207 killed and 700 captured to only 40 killed and 30 wounded for the Americans. The victory at Bennington aided in the subsequent American triumph at Saratoga by depriving Burgoynes army of vital supplies and provided a much-needed​ morale boost for the American troops on the northern frontier.

Explain your academic interests and strengths or your future career Essay

Explain your academic interests and strengths or your future career goals. You may include any majors or areas of study you are currently considering - Essay Example The field of profession and academics that is of great interest to me is the field of accounting. My interest towards the field and the drive to pursue the field of accountancy started developing when I was in my early ages of life. My interest in this field was developed since I realized that my mom was an accountant in a reputable organization. I use to see my mom indulged in her work even at home. I used to sit by her and learn the game of numbers that is very essential to become a highly reputable professional accountant. I believe that I have various resources at my disposal to become a member of the field of accounting. I already have developed various knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that are required to work in the field. There are certain weaknesses that I need to overcome and I am sure that majoring in the subject of accounting from the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will help be converting my weaknesses into strengths and will further strengthen my strengths (Catalog.illinois.edu 1). After graduating from university, I aim at attaining an entry level position in a well-known accountancy firm or I aim at attaining an entry level position in the accounts department of a reputed organization or I wish to work with a securities organization. In order to attain my career goals I need various KSAs including technical skills, audit and compliance skills, commodity and equity valuation skills and communication skills (Accacareers.com 1). I have already developed some of these skills especially the technical skills and the communication skills. These skills were developed as my mother had worked very hard on me in helping me understand the mathematical equations and problems that are associated with the work of an accountant. Furthermore, the skills of communications and technical skills were further polished as I have already worked as an intern in a power

Argumentative Synthesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Argumentative Synthesis - Essay Example This is because, the unemployment of women does not only affect the individual women who are unemployed, but the future generations, since women bear the big burden in the upbringing of children and when they cannot be able to bring them up well due to poverty and other social constraints, there is no doubt that such children will turn out to be a disaster for the society in the future. Nevertheless, the unemployment for women has continued to be a major impediment to the advancement of equality in the society. The income inequality between the rich and the poor continues to increase, despite the measures that have been put in place to address poverty and unemployment in the society (Krugman, n.p.). Despite the seemingly advancement in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor in the 1920s in America, the situation has now changed, and the gap between the rich and the poor is now wider than ever. However, at the center of the social inequality, is the concept of women unemploym ent, which leaves women to take care of domestic chores, a scenario faced by a high population of women, summarized well by Diaz in the statement â€Å"She didn’t have a regular job outside of caring for us five kids† (Diaz, n.p.). In this respect, it is conclusive to argue that women unemployment is in the core of social inequality in the society. Gender discrimination is a social evil that has seen all manner of legislations, campaigns and advocacy targeting to empower women so they can be in the same position as men, when it comes to issues of accessing education, employment, political positions and any other social roles that were traditionally the preserve of men. However, all these attempts have not made the situation any better, since even though women can now access education and employment like men do; there is one major issue that acts as an impediment to the total liberation of women; family responsibilities (Woolf, n.p). Additionally, even