The Ottoman State between Urban Space and Environment: Preserving the Drinking Water of Istanbul Burcu Kurt Belleten, 2021 This study reveals the contribution of environmental and sanitarian factors to the shaping of the cities, particularly the Ottoman capital Istanbul. This paper, focusing on the second half of the 19th century, discusses the man-made environmental destruction, the water shortage that emerged as a result of uncontrolled urbanization and the Ottoman state’s evacuation process of the Belgrad, Kömürcü and Bahçecik villages due to the threat of disease. Thusly, this paper aims to shed light on the extent to which Ottoman urbanization was exposed to environmental influences.
Diffusion of power in ottoman Iraq: Shebam regiments as a state instrument in politics of centralization Belleten, 2019
Contesting foreign policy: Disagreement between the Ottoman ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of war on the Shatt al-Arab dispute with Iran, 1912-13 Burcu Kurt Iranian Studies, 2014 The Shatt al-Arab question has been the subject of several studies, most of which concentrate on the internationalization of the subject. However, few, if any, works have analyzed how this territorial dispute was perceived within Ottoman bureaucratic circles. When the Ottoman Empire reinstated a constitutional monarchy in 1908, the Ottoman–Iranian border dispute regarding the Shatt al-Arab had to be readdressed, with international players involved in the process. Considering the role of foreign factors, this study focuses on the contesting interests of the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of War on the Shatt al-Arab question (1912–13) and considers how these interests shaped foreign policy in the process of negotiating a resolution.
