After the Ottoman State withdrew from Rumelia, the Turkish and Muslim communities that remained in the Balkans aimed to continue traditional Ottoman institutions or create new ones. The Treaty of Istanbul signed between the Ottoman State and Bulgaria in 1913, the Treaty of Athens with Greece, and the Treaty of Istanbul signed with Serbia in 1914 regulated the status of the existing Muslim communities and foundations in these countries. The establishment of institutions where the necessary education would be provided to fulfill the Muslims’ need for “muftis” and “nüvvâbs” (acting muftis) was also resolved with these agreements. Also, with the signing of Lausanne Treaty on 24 July 1923, Western Thrace gained a new statute. Part I, Section III of the Treaty titled “Political Provisions” contains provisions defining the statutes of the minorities under the title of “Protection of the Minorities”. The right to open, supervise and manage their own schools belongs to minorities. In accordance with this Treaty, schools established in Western Thrace will have minority status and will be managed by school committees elected by the Turkish community. In this study, educational institutions in Western Thrace, especially Medrese-i Hayriyye are described in the perspective of their history, management, financial structures, educators and educational programs.

At a time of progressive development of public international law, the internal self- determination of peoples has no alternative, but external self-determination is justified in a situation where, as a result of oppression, dispossession, and collective discrimination, a certain people have full rights to freely determine its political, social, economic, and cultural setting. In the case of Kosovo, the right to “remedial secession” based on the right to external self-determination has been achieved. According to many legal scholars, the related right is an exception and could be realized outside the colonial context, in limited circumstances that resemble the colonial paradigm. Modern customary public international law provides a legal basis for the introduction of the concept of the right to “remedial secession” and forms an argument that is supported by the “Great Powers” and is consistent with international institutional practice provided that the people’s fundamental human rights are threatened. This article aims to explain through the case of Kosovo that the external form of self-determination, which includes secession, is possible only exceptionally in the case of grave violations of human rights and freedoms, war crimes, repression, and systematic oppression, and that the internal self-determination of the peoples is a more acceptable form of realizing this collective human right, which should be realized through broad constitutional and legal reforms in every multi- ethnic state (a certain degree of autonomy or decentralization).

is study examines the potential impact of religious organisations and networks on refugee integration processes. It focuses on the experiences of Muslim Syrian refugees in Turkey to address the questions of how pre-war religious networks and institutions evolve during forced migration and what types of functions they carry out in the refugees' integration in Turkey. e study adopts the integration theory of Alastair Ager and Alison Strang (2008) as an analytical framework. Drawing from ethnographic research -combining in-depth interviews with document analysis-the study proposes three ndings. First, Syrian religious communities seek to institutionalise and maintain their networks during their international migration process. Second, religious institutions and networks serve as a sanctuary for refugees. By participating in religious organisations and networks, refugees have accumulated their sociocultural capital and gained advantages in accessing aid and public services. e feeling of belonging provides them partial psychological comfort and coping opportunity against the trauma of war and migration and a means for attributing meaning to the hardships they experience. ird, while religious education is the primary function of these institutions and networks, they also serve as social bridges and linkage points between the host community and refugees. Finally, the study provides some ndings of the limitations of networks, including the risk of emergence of parallel lives, social closure, and marginalisation. e ndings contribute to the growing scholarship on refugee integration in the immediate host countries as well as migration and religion nexus.

This article covers the use of the internationalization of higher education as a soft power tool by revisionist countries in international relations. Whereas the common view of scholars is that revisionist forces tend to activate their hard power means as in the case of India about her dispute with Pakistan and Russia against Ukraine, their soft power engagement is tremendously important. While internationalization in higher education was the monopoly of the hegemonic and colonial powers previously, in recent years the progress of revisionist forces in this regard has been noted. Since soft power engagement forms vary with the stunning transformations after the millennium, internationalization of higher education is the latest trend. When examining the published data on international student mobility, we have determined that revisionist powers China, Türkiye, and Russia are among the top ten countries hosting the most international students.

The conflict between science and spirituality is an established fact, even though some scholars dispute this reality arguing that it is rather unfashionable for contemporary academic inquiry. The present study interrogates the foregoing position, submitting that the conflict between the two fields of knowledge still subsists. It advocates the recognition of spirituality as an alternative knowledge field, despite its lack of deductive, empirical procedures. The proposition builds on the reality of existential risks threatening humanity which can be adequately tackled if the two domains collaborate to develop mechanisms for ending human misery. Using syncretism/hybridity as a conceptual touchstone, the article attempts a postcolonial reading of Irete Lazo’s The Accidental Santera (2008) to pontificate about the imperativeness of mutuality between science and spirituality, and the danger inherent in a branch of knowledge displaying hubristic, overweening attitude towards another knowledge field. The study further suggests a new order to reposition the knowledge fields.

This study examines the early multiculturalism of the Abbasid Empire. The purpose is to demonstrate the significance of historical multiculturalism in building a governmental-social system. The analysis of the early Abbasid multiculturalism also integrates Persian and Greco-Roman multicultural models. The study argues that the Abbasid Dynasty, which succeeded the Umayyad Dynasty after a revolution, had introduced a unique multicultural model by establishing a tolerant and libertarian imperial structure. In effect, the Abbasid Dynasty rejected the Umayyad emphasis on the so-called Arab nationalism in its early period (750-833). This study employs a comparative analysis of the early multiculturalism of the Abbasid Empire and modern practices of multiculturalism for textual analysis and conclusions. It is significant to demonstrate how the early multiculturalism of the Abbasid Empire could be correlated to modern multicultural practices. In this regard, the policy of support and encouragement of translation activities by the early Abbasid caliphs, rulers and intellectuals had strengthened this multicultural system, which was inclusive regardless of ethnicity, religion, and race.

This paper provides a brief overview of Turkey’s soft power in Austria through the example of the faith-based public diplomacy institution ATİB (Avusturya Türkiye İslam Birliği‚ Türkisch-Islamische Union in Österreich), a branch of the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı). It addresses the significance of ATİB with regard to the religious and cultural needs of the Turkish Muslim community in Austria and the negative perceptions of Turkey’s soft power strategy in this country. The paper also focuses on the current challenges faced by the ATİB, as well as by Austria’s Muslim community in general, as a result of the Law on Islam that was adopted in 2015 (Islamgesetz 2015) and the accompanying discussions around Muslim associations financed from abroad. The research design is primarily based on a critical discourse analysis of political and academic debates about the ATİB, the 2015 Islam Law, and their catalyzing effect on Islamophobia in Austria.

As the number of older adults in low- and middle- income (LMIC) countries is expected to grow substantially over the next several decades, it is important to develop programs for the prevention of major depression in later life. These programs should be flexible enough to be adjusted to the needs of poorly resourced LMICs. The current report provides an overview of a “depression in later life” (DIL) study in Goa, India, as a promising and effective mental health prevention program, with the potential for implementation in other LMICs. DIL study uses unspecialized physicians and lay health counselors (LHCs) to deliver both scalable psychological intervention and low-intensity intervention, consistent with Institute of Medicine’s (IOM, 1994) indicated prevention approach. DIL intervention led to reduced incidence of Major Depressive Disorder in DIL-randomized participants and as such it is important in meeting the 2016-2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages."

The primary goal of this paper is the scrutiny of the relationship between place attachment and the poetry of Juraj Kuniak, the Slovak poet, in terms of focusing on the most significant aspects of his poetic discourse pertained to home, landscape and identity. The origin of the phenomenon is also explored as well as how it affected Juraj Kuniak and his writing process. The main topics are examined in terms of how they could be used in order to foster global skills in the context of the 21st century. The motifs that show the expression of place attachment in his poetry are heavily discussed for example rootedness, birthplace bond and native land devotion. The research-based evidence consists of decoding allusions and intertextual meanings which are incorporated in the text. We have also approached the author through the medium of online communication. Our analysis reveals how diverse the function of poetry is and to what extent it can be used in real life within different target groups, i.e. students. This paper concludes that Juraj Kuniak´s poetry has got a huge potential referring to different kinds of recipients and offers a number of practical solutions of how to make poetry part of a teaching process (but not only), if used appropriately and wisely.

In the period between April 6, 1992 and December 14, 1995, an estimated 102,622 people were found to have died due to war-related causes in armed conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of those killed in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is estimated that 54% were civilians. The war profoundly affected the civilian population, which was subjected to mass killings, the systemic use of rape and sexual violence, and the physical and psychological torture inside concentration camps. This case study paper has four aims. First, it highlights the complexity and severity of the traumatic psychological effects of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina on its citizens, including the effects of the war on the generation born during or shortly after the war. Second, the paper proposes a heuristic in the form of a broader theoretical approach; an ecological analysis of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1989). This approach aims to provide a framework for research and the development of intervention strategies for the adolescent children of adult war survivors who have been affected by war-related trauma. Third, the paper presents a case vignette of an adolescent to demonstrate the application of the ecological framework to clinical practice with adolescents. Finally, we explore how the current cultural, political, and societal realities in Bosnia and Herzegovina affect the population in general and the children of war survivors in particular. The transition from a state of war to peace is a long and continuous process with residual effects of violent conflicts permeating the broader society and its inhabitants, even after the war’s official end over 23 years ago. The authors argue that roles of psychologists and other mental health providers should expand beyond traditional focus on intrapsychic problems. Rather, effective treatment strategies should also include recognition of and attenuation of the larger systemic stressors that patients experience on daily basis. This could be accomplished through collaboration among psychologists and patients, patients’ families, teachers, and community members, all of whom directly or indirectly affect patients’ treatment outcomes.