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China started a new initiative to Europe via One Belt One Road (OBOR) Project after 2013. This trade corridor aims to revitalise ancient Silk Road with new motorways, railroad infrastructure and ports. Thus Europe and China will have faster, more efficient and competitive t rade route with declining costs of transportation. Turkey is on the Central corridor of OBOR. In this paper the possible outcomes of OBOR on Turkey will discussed under the historical rela tions of China and Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-known 14th century historian, economist, and sociologist Ibn Khaldun analyzed the economic, social, and political development of organized societies systematically. In his comprehensive analysis, he put forward that there had to be some factor, some incitement for the desire to exist on a larger scale among some human beings than among others. He stated that this factor which large and powerful states originated was asabiyya. He borrowed the concept of asabiyya from classical usage and gave a new, positive meaning to it. The original meaning of asabiyya implies people related to each other by blood ties. The group to which an individual feels most closely attached is his clan or tribe, the people with whom he shares a common descent. Ibn Khaldun reconsidered asabiyya as a factor being shared by people not related to each other by blood ties but by long and close contact as members of a group. According to him, it meant solidarity, group feeling or group consciousness. In this paper, I will try to highlight the concept of asabiyya as discussed by Ibn Khaldun. The aim of the paper is to quest whether asabiyya can be used as a fundamental concept for social cohesion in the EU, Turkey, and other political entities in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency increases and guarantees the living standards of a society. Equity increases the well-being of people who do not have the opportunities and capacities to obtain a share from the wealth. Equity enhances social inclusion and social cohesion. Efficiency and equity are regarded as contrary topics by a number of economists and policy makers, and therefore a tradeoff between them is brought forward. My argument in this paper depends on a normative assumption that, with no focus on a tradeoff between efficiency and equity, 'effiquity'[sup¹] best serves for the social Europe. The purpose of this paper is to display various social models in the EU and to highlight the most efficient and equitable model, namely the Nordic model, which can be used as the European Social Model. The method used in this article is normative and comparative. The article will proceed as follows: after the introduction part; varieties of societal models will be summarized. In this section, the core values and typologies of social models will be described. Then, the grounds for the trade-off between economic efficiency and social equity will be discussed. The concept of 'effiquity' and its variables in analyzing a social model will take part in the fourth section. A numerical analysis of the effiquity position in the EU15 and Turkey, which is based on the empirical data, will follow the conceptual framework of effiquity. The conclusion part will sum up the discussion and propose the Nordic model best for the social Europe, and make some suggestions for Turkey to promote its social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women have higher rates of depression and report more depressive symptoms than men, in diverse societies and contexts. Typical explanations make reference to hormonal aspects of being female, and to women's lower social status, which occurs in every culture. However, gender differences are absent or reduced in rural contexts and in non-Western cultures. The current paper sought to contribute to the literature on both gender differences and urban-rural differences in depression with data from a rapidly developing society, Turkey. The Beck Depression Inventory was administered to college students in rural and urban regions of Turkey, along with questions about personal achievement, parental control, and individualism-collectivism scales. Males and females reported similar amounts of depressive symptoms in both urban and rural areas, with symptom report being lower in the urban sample compared to the rural sample. These findings cast doubt on the proposal that women are inevitably more depressed than males. It is useful to consider what factors exist in Turkish society, or in the lives of Turkish college students, that equalize stressors for males and females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), embarking on significant roles in the development of both undeveloped regions and developed economies of the world, especially in many European countries, have come to agenda with intense discussions in Turkey. Although forms and directions of these discussions have changed following of RDAs going into action, concerns about their vision and future roles are still up to date. In this study, place and importance of Turkey's RDAs, of which legal basis was formed in 2006 and establishment was completed all over the country in 2010, will be handled by presenting experience of regional development agencies of England. As England model has been generally tackled in the formation process of RDAs in Turkey, discussions have remained mostly theoretical in similarly entitled studies in the literature. There have also existed concrete practices in Turkey with the agencies' coming into operation. This paper aims to add the experience of these practices to the previously conducted theoretical studies in the same title and make contribution to studies to be carried out in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the monthly alcohol consumption rates and expenditures of about 52,000 households within the framework of their correlations with socio-economic variables. According to the research results, 7.6 percent of the total households regularly consumed alcohol from 1994 to 2006 throughout Turkey. Alcohol consumption has been experiencing an upward trend since 2000s. Specifically income, education level, and being male are predominant factors in alcohol consumption habits and expenditures. Alcohol consumption in Turkey is lower compared to other countries. As shown by the results, alcohol consumption rate does not exceed 15% even in households from the highest 20% income quintile. When alcohol consumption and smoking habits are evaluated together, interesting results arise between the European Union Member States and Turkey. In European Union countries, the rate of alcohol consumption habits is at least 65-70% in households and smoking habits are around 10-15%. The opposite is valid for Turkey. Smoking habits in Turkey is at a rate of 60-65% in households, whereas the rate of alcohol habits is 8% at its highest as also revealed by this research. In Turkey, smoking replaces the alcohol consumption which is low due to religious and cultural reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase maximum productions obtained in any unit area or from livestock, chemical and genetic inputs have been rigorously used due to rapid population growth in the world. However, negative effects of such methods to cultural and natural environment, as well as to human health, have often been debated in public and scientific community. Concerns for human health and natural environment turned scientists into looking for alternative sustainable methods and organic agriculture practices. While organic agriculture was first used at the beginning of the 20th century, it took a widespread practice of usage in the developed countries since 1970s. In Turkey, organic agriculture started with the demands of European companies in 1980s and made substantial developments over the years. However, although Turkey has very good potential, its share in the total organic products produced in the world is still low. The aim of this paper is to call attention to Turkey's potential in the organic agriculture in terms of its geographic features. Our investigation is based on written sources, statistical data, type land observations and face to face interviews. We have tried to identify major problems in regard to organic agriculture in Turkey, with some suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]