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Abandoning Atatürk
Soner Cagaptay 9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ottoman Empire, having suffered military defeats at the hands of Europe, realized it could match its rivals only by becoming a European society itself. So it embarked on a program of intense reforms. In 1863, Sultan Abdulaziz established Darüssafaka, the empire's first high school with a secular Western curriculum in Turkish. In the early 20th century, Kemal Atatürk followed through on the sultan's dreams, making Turkey a staunchly secular state. Institutions such as Darüssafaka, my alma mater, thrived.
Haunted by History
Owen Matthews 9/4/2009 12:00:00 AM
The ruins of the ancient Armenian capital of Ani are haunting, and haunted. On what is now a windblown patch of grassland enclosed in colossal walls and dotted with ancient cathedrals, there was once a great city. You can still see the ghosts of its streets outlined in the turf, and inside the granite churches you can make out the fading faces of saints and kings painted on the ceilings more than a millennium ago. On one side of the city, a dramatic single-span bridge, now ruined, brought the Silk Road across the gorge of the Akhurian River. On the other, the road wound on across the Anatolian plains to Constantinople and the great trading cities of the Mediterranean. Once, Ani was close to the center of the world. Today, it feels like the end of the earth.
Students Without Borders
Arlene Getz 8/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
American students abroad are hardly rare: a report by the American Council on Education found that the number of U.S. institutions offering overseas opportunities rose from 65 percent in 2001 to 91 percent in 2006. Most of these programs range from a single week to several months. But a new internationalism is spreading across American campuses, with an increasing number of colleges now offering their students degrees in conjunction with a partner institution in another country. In some cases, students get two separate (dual) degrees; less frequently they get a single shared (joint) degree from both schools. But whatever the definition, it is clear that many educators and administrators see these programs as the new shape of higher education.
Meddle Nettle
8/6/2009 12:00:00 AM
A sovereign state is, by definition, supposed to manage affairs inside its borders. But that's not always the case, especially when it comes to disputes involving guerrilla movements. After all, moral equivalency or not, one nation's terrorists really are another's freedom fighters, and foreign governments sometimes cross international borders to protect antigovernment forces elsewhere, reinforce ethnic movements, or simply to make their presence known. Last week, for example, documents revealed that Venezuela is still supporting the FARC guerrillas in Colombia.
The Right to Defend Ourselves
Larry Kaplow 8/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Iraq's Kurds have been enthusiastic U.S. allies since before the 2003 invasion. But as the Kurds have expanded their control over their oil-rich territory—and as they reassert claims to the contested city of Kirkuk ahead of a constitutionally mandated referendum—tensions are mounting with the central government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and with Arabs and other ethnic groups. Last week, Massoud Barzani was reelected president of the Kurdistan Regional Government despite a strong opposition showing. Days later, he sat down with NEWSWEEK's Larry Kaplow in his mountain complex high above the Kurdish city of Irbil. Excerpts:
Turkish Delight

Spend a summer night strolling down Istanbul's Istiklal Caddesi, the pedestrian thoroughfare in the city's old Christian quarter of Beyoglu, and you'll hear something surprising. Amid the crowds of nocturnal revelers, a young Uzbek-looking girl plays haunting songs from Central Asia on an ancient Turkic flute called a saz. Nearby, bluesy Greek rembetiko blares from a CD store. Downhill toward the slums of Tarlabasi you hear the wild Balkan rhythms of a Gypsy wedding, while at 360, an ultratrendy rooftop restaurant, the sound is Sufi electronica--cutting-edge beats laced with dervish ritual. And then there are the clubs--Mojo, say, or Babylon--where the young and beautiful rise spontaneously from their tables to link arms and perform a complicated Black Sea line dance, the horon. The wonder is that each and every one of these styles is absolutely native to the city, which for much of its history was the capital of half the known world.