Insight Turkey / issues

Editor's Note | Spring 2010

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:15:00 GMT

Turkey’s political transformation is continuing with new waves of democratization. The latest move is an initiative proposed by the AK Party’s parliamentary group to amend the constitution. With proposals to amend 27 articles, the reform package, currently being considered in the Turkish parliament, is one of the most comprehensive amendments to the current constitution.

Turkey’s Constitutional Amendments: Between the status quo and Limited Democratic Reforms

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:18:00 GMT

This article deals with debates surrounding the package of constitutional amendments proposed by AK Party deputies. The proposal consists of 27 articles; its general aims are to improve human rights standards, strengthen the rule of law, make the prohibition of political parties more difficult, and increase the democratic legitimacy of the judiciary. With regard to the last objective, the proposal suggests changing the composition and function of the Constitutional Court and the High Council of Judges and Public Prosecutors (HSYK). Among other innovations in the proposal are the introduction of a provision for constitutional complaint and the establishment of an Ombudsman. The article concludes that the proposal, despite certain deficiencies, is on the whole a positive step in the process of democratization. It should not, however, preclude the need for a totally new liberal and democratic constitution.

The Turkish-Armenian Debacle

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:50:00 GMT

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols on October 10, 2009 at Zurich University in Switzerland, with a view to opening a new chapter in bilateral ties, as well as improving the troubled relations between Turks and Armenians in general. But the signing ceremony in Zurich had started inauspiciously. The problem turned out to be the seemingly intractable issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, which cast its shadow over the process at the outset. After Karabakh, the second key issue that emerged was a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Armenia, which said that the protocols in question could not stop the government of Armenia from pursuing its duty of trying to get international recognition for the genocide allegedly perpetrated by Ottoman Turks against Armenians. These two topics effectively blocked the process enshrined in the protocols. But how could these problems not be foreseen? What were the two governments expecting in this respect when signing the protocols?

Prospects for Normalization between Armenia and Turkey: A View from Yerevan

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:51:00 GMT

Since Armenia’s independence in 1991, its three successive presidents have invariably expressed their country’s readiness to normalize relations with Turkey without preconditions. This is despite unsettled historical issues between these two nations, namely the issue of the 1915 Genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey, and the disappointing record of the last two decades in which Turkey sealed its borders to Armenia and failed to establish diplomatic ties with it. Should ratification fail, it will be very hard for the two countries, and especially for Armenia, to continue with normalization. By spring 2010, mistrust of Turkey grew significantly even among those political circles in Armenia that were originally very pro-rapprochement and argued in favour of it in discussions with nationalists and Diaspora actors. Armenian society’s perspective on relations with Turkey is again moving closer to that of the Diaspora.

Russia and Turkish-Armenian Normalization: Competing Interests in the South Caucasus

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:57:00 GMT

Following the 2008 Georgia war, Russia reasserted itself as the main power in the Caucasus. The war shattered the old status quo and Moscow sought to make good use of the shifting geopolitical landscape to enhance its strategic footprint in the region. Russia’s policy in the Caucasus has been an example of a subtle balancing act: it appeared to have encouraged Turkish-Armenian reconciliation while at the same time skillfully exploiting the suspicions that this process aroused in Azerbaijan and seeking to put an additional pressure on Georgia. Now, as Turkish-Armenian normalization seems to have hit a snag, Moscow can safely distance itself from what increasingly looks like a failure. After all, having deftly played all its “partners” off against each other, Russia appears to have secured its objective: both Armenia and Azerbaijan tend to lean more on Russia, while Turkey’s relations with the two Caucasus countries has deteriorated. Moreover, Ankara’s ties with Washington became frayed, too, which, from Moscow’s perspective, isn’t bad either.

Turkish-Armenian Protocols: An Azerbaijani Perspective

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:09:00 GMT

This commentary addresses Azerbaijan’s position prior to and in the aftermath of the Turkish-Armenian Protocols signed in October 2009. It critically analyzes Azerbaijan’s reactions to the Protocols, Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives, and its perception of Turkey’s position in this process. By signing the protocols, Turkey did nothing in practice against Azerbaijani interests except to reiterate the interdependence between any Turkish-Armenian rapprochement and Armenia’s move on the NK settlement. The commentary argues that the inexperienced Azerbaijani administration failed to manage Azerbaijani society’s reactions to Turkey’s signing of protocols with Armenia. It also discusses the consequences of a possible opening of Turkish-Armenian border for Azerbaijan and the region, and concludes that the way out of the frozen conflicts is contained in Turkey’s proposal for a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform.

A Key to the “Democratic Opening”: Rethinking Citizenship, Ethnicity and Turkish Nation-State

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:14:00 GMT

This article focuses on the ongoing process of transition in Turkey from a “homogeneous national identity”, which produced a notion of “equality as sameness”, to a “multiculturalist democracy” that requires a new constitutional system that has a conception of “equality in difference”. The organization of this paper is as follows: First a brief evaluation of the Kemalist foundations of the Republic will be provided to establish how the official ideology in Turkey conceives of state-society relations. An evaluation of the persistence of this official ideology under the multiparty political system is provided in the second part. The final part of the paper concentrates on the rising public presence of the Kurdish problem, which is forcing Turkish politics to change its constitutional identity, most notably aided by the process of change driven by EU reforms. The article concludes with a call for the inevitability of a radical change in Turkish constitutional identity to include a public recognition of multiculturalism through an acceptance of linguistic and other cultural rights, but leaves open the question of how this change will be realized.

The “Democratic Opening” in Turkey: A Historical/Comparative Perspective

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:34:00 GMT

This article aims to analyze the process of AKP’s democratic opening in an historical and comparative perspective with respect to various other experiences of transition to democracy in Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe. With the current democratic opening, first labeled as “Kurdish opening,” and continuing with a large constitutional reform package, the AKP seems to be engaged in a huge task of deeply transforming the post-1980 regime. Comparing with the experiences in Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the consolidation of a new democratic regime introduced by the democratic opening in Turkey will be a governmental enterprise: a matter of political maneuver to reach a compromise among the various sections of the governing elite with the opposition; a matter of institution building to create channels of mobilization for societal demands; and finally a matter of timing.

The CHP and the “Democratic Opening”: Reactions to AK Party’s Electoral Hegemony

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:47:00 GMT

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has initiated a number of democratic opening initiatives to tackle with the Kurdish question, the Alevi question, the Roma question, and the minorities question. This paper focuses on the reaction of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) to the initiative. It seeks to explain the CHP’s reaction through the concept of “electoral hegemony”, which refers to a situation where one party becomes an uncontestable actor in the electoral process, which, while weakening the possibility of the opposition parties winning elections, also weakens the faith and trust of their supporters that these parties could govern Turkey through winning elections. It is argued that the CHP’s reaction to the democratic opening initiative is in fact directly related to its need to respond effectively to the electoral hegemony of the AK Party, and that it has developed its response through the concept of sovereignty which has always been integral to its historical identity as the main carrier of the state-centric Turkish modernity.

The Militarization of Secular Opposition in Turkey

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:16:00 GMT

Turkey under the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has represented an opportunity to go beyond the Orientalist modernization framework and produce “value” by countering the culturalist arguments that foreclose the possibilities of democratization in modernizing Muslim countries. The secular opposition, however, has reproduced the logic of the February 28 process and has therefore immobilized and forced the AKP into a struggle to survive, both as a political party and as the elected government of the country. It is this power struggle that has come to epitomize the democratization debate and the democratization process in Turkey. In this context of an impoverished democratization debate, it remains to be seen whether and to what extent the AKP can accomplish the task of revitalizing the constitutive capacities of politics in Turkey.

Turkey’s Radical Right and the Kurdish Issue: The MHP’s Reaction to the “Democratic Opening”

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:23:00 GMT

Turkey’s current government’s ‘democratic opening’ project has led to a series of political discussions regarding the cause and resolve of the Kurdish issue. One major consequence of this debate has been the polarization of opinion between conservatives, represented by the ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) and nationalists, represented by the Nationalist Action Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP). This study elaborates on the major reasons for MHP’s opposition to AKP on the ‘democratic opening.’ In doing so, the study examines the historical, ideological distinctions between the two parties and their perception of ethnic and linguistic differences in Turkish society. AKP comes from a political tradition that has been relatively more accommodating towards such differences. On the contrary, MHP has roots in an ethno-nationalist and mono-culturalist ideology, which can be observed in its denial of the identity component of the Kurdish issue.

The AKP and the “Alevi Opening”: Understanding the Dynamics of the Rapprochement

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:30:00 GMT

The AKP government has undertaken a series of steps to understand and respond to Alevi identity-based claims. Popularly known as the “Alevi opening” process, the initiative is the first systematic effort to deal with the identity-based discontents of the Alevis. This step is also part of the broader policy of “democratic opening,” which intends to address the burning problems of various identity groups (the Kurds, Alevis, religious minorities and the Roma people) in Turkey. This study provides an analytic background for understanding the governing AKP’s “Alevi opening”, which was launched in the summer of 2007. More specifically, the issues that are discussed are the Alevi claims, the obstacles to the fulfillment of these issues, and the methods and the processes of the ongoing “Alevi opening”. In order to provide a holistic analysis, the political, legal, psychological as well as cultural dynamics of the Alevi issue are emphasized here. At the end, a set of policy recommendations are formulated that are consistent with the analytic perspective.

The Alevi Opening: Concept, Strategy and Process

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:39:00 GMT

The Alevis, with their varied discourses, are in the midst of a deep intra-comunial debate as to how they will sustain their historical identity, institutional structure and rituals. This study analyzes the problems of Alevis that are mainly shaped along the processes of rapid modernization and social transformation. It also explains the parameters of the ongoing “Alevi Opening” with a focus on the logic and outcomes of the Alevi workshop series. These workshops that brought together the government and the representatives of the Alevi community can be viewed as an effort to learn, understand, and deliberate problems of Alevi citizens. In this framework, the Alevis were brought together to conceptualize and formulate their arguments and ideas into a coherent discourse. The Alevi workshops are therefore an attempt to ease the acceptance of Alevism by all sections of the society and to accelerate the realization of a profound process of empathy.

Kurdish Political Movement and the “Democratic Opening”

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:46:00 GMT

There has long existed a Kurdish political movement with its illegal, legal, and semi-legal aspects of it. All of Turkey wants peace but most people in the Southeast want this peace not “despite the PKK” but with “the PKK’s consent and participation.” While the Kurdish political movement wanted the government to shoulder all the weight of the opening, they also had serious responsibilities. It became clear very quickly that the important personalities of the movement were not very enthusiastic in facing these responsibilities. The Kurdish political movement has distanced itself from the opening process and, at times, appeared against it. Parallel to this, there have been changes in the state’s perspective and even, to some degree, “return to the old state line. The discussion of “who is the counterpart?” impeded the process as much as, if not more, the opposition parties’ obstructions.

Reimagining Minorities in Turkey: Before and After the AKP

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:50:00 GMT

This article analyzes the changing concept of “minority” in today’s Turkey. Minorities have been historically conceived as a “problem” by the Republican regime and a threat to the “purity” of the nation. For a long time, the term “minority” was commonly associated with the non-Muslim communities of Lausanne. Still now, non-Muslim communities are seen as passive elements in nation-centric conspiracy theories. However, the age-old definition of minority in Turkey is being challenged by a transformation on a global scale. Within this process, not only are political regimes, bureaucratic structures and nation-states being re-shaped, but social and cultural perceptions, and values and norms are also transforming. Given this context, it is insightful to focus on the AKP to understand the changing face of Turkey and vice versa. In this new setting, to what extent can the AKP, so far a reluctant reformer, satisfy the demands of non-Muslim citizens and address the problem of democracy? Turkey, it seems, is on the brink of another wave of change and the non-Muslim minorities are located at its center.

“Democratic Opening,” the Legal Status of Non-Muslim Religious Communities and the Venice Commission

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:00:00 GMT

This article deals with a recent opinion adopted by the Venice Commission at its meeting onMarch 12-13 concerning the legal status of non-Muslim religious communities in Turkey and the right of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul to use the title “ecumenical.” On the first issue the Commission points out the difficulties that arise from the lack of legal personality for such communities, especially in matters related to access to courts and property ownership. The Commission urges Turkish authorities to attend to this problem by choosing from the many models of legal personality for religious groups practiced in European countries. On the second point, the Commission observes that the title ecumenical is a spiritual and ecclesiastical matter, and not a legal one. It concludes that unless Turkish authorities actively interfere with the use of such title by the Patriarchate, the simple refusal of the use of this title by Turkish authorities does not amount to a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Prospects for Democratization in Iran: Policy Implications

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:08:00 GMT

The breakdown or modification of the Islamic Republic, though not imminent, is increasingly conceivable. However, in the event that the regime were tofall, Iran is bereft of many of the social and economic requisites for a stable democracy to emerge. About 80% of the Iranian economy is in the hands of the state, the private sector is dependent and feeble, and the 70% of the Iranians that are under the age of 30 are neither propertied nor middle class. This has implications for US policy, made all the more urgent by the timeline imposed by the looming nuclear issue. Rather than experiment with ineffectual and counter-productive attempts at democracy promotion, this study suggests that a policy of long-term international diplomatic and economic engagement is the best available tool for transforming Iranian society and politics in such a way that a transition to a sustained and stable democracy and, by implication, a resolution of Iran’s nuclear issue, becomes more likely.

Harmonizing Foreign Policy: Turkey, the European Union and the Middle East

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:56:00 GMT

Various scholars have analyzed Turkey’s foreign policy in the post-Cold War era from different angles. The changes in Turkish foreign policy, in line with the 1989 structural transformation, were important both for foreign policy analysts and for scholars working on International Relations theory. This book is a timely addition to this literature with its in-depth analysis and theoretical angle. Equally important is that since the end of the Cold War the academic community has become more receptive to the problems in the Middle East, the formulation of common foreign policy in the EU, and ethnic based violence in the Middle East. As a result, understanding such changes in foreign policy has become an object of scientific inquiry.

Winning Turkey: How America, Europe, and Turkey Can Revive a Fading Partnership?

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:04:00 GMT

In recent years, relations between Turkey and the United States have been tumultuous. This is in contrast with a half century of exemplary cordial relations between Turkey and the U.S. as close allies and strategic partners. Despite differences on the Cyprus issue and discussions on the Armenian question, relations remained friendly and cooperative. The US supported Turkey’s bid for EU membership, helped Turkey during its economic crisis, defended Turkey’s right to self-defense during its long lasting conflict with the PKK, and also designated this organization as a terrorist group. Meanwhile, Turkey backed the US foreign policy in the region, played an important role during the Cold War as a bulwark against the spread of communism, participated in the first Gulf war, allowed US bases to exist on its soil, and supported the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. However, this harmonious relationship has recently become unstable.

The Armenian Rebellion at Van

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:08:00 GMT

Devoid of rhetorical embellishment, this work challenges some traditional notions about the tragic history of both the Muslim and Armenian people of the Ottoman eastern Anatolian province of Van. It is a balanced contribution to a field of study that in the past has often been affected by nationalist agendas and emotionally charged discourses.

Blood, Beliefs and Ballots: The Management of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey, 2007-2009

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:15:00 GMT

Robert Olson has been a pioneering and prolific scholar of Kurdish nationalism. In Blood, Beliefs and Ballots, he analyzes Kurdish political activism and the Turkish state’s attempts to manage this activism between the July 2007 parliamentary and 2009 local elections in Turkey. Olson extensively documents political developments during this period on the basis of interviews he personally conducted, news sources in Turkish, and secondary literature. The fact that Olson gives voice to a variety of actors ranging from the Turkish political elite to Kurdish nationalists to liberals substantially enriches the book. He convincingly demonstrates how increasing political pluralism and competition in Turkey makes the Turkish political elite and Kurdish nationalists develop new positions. Interestingly, these actors may adopt more moderate and radical stances depending on the nature of criticisms and political competition they are faced with.

Turkish Politics in a Changing World, Global Dynamics and Domestic Transformations

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:19:00 GMT

Turkish Politics in a Changing World, consisting of articles written by Keyman and Öniş discusses Turkey’s political process without ignoring the significance of external dynamics. It therefore examines the changes and transformations brought about by Turkey’s modernization and democratization processes under the influence of regional and global developments by paying particular attention to the interactions of local, regional, global agents and dynamics.

Muslim Modernities: Expressions of the Civil Imagination

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:21:00 GMT

It is a truism of contemporary social thought that modernity is not singular in its trajectories, but multiple. One especially significant element in the “multiple modernities” perspective concerns religion. Whereas two generations ago, most scholars assumed that modernization brought about the gradual privatization and decline of religion, it is now recognized that religion’s development in modern societies can be highly varied. Western Europe may be a deeply secular place, but the United States is not. The revitalization of religion seen in Muslim, Hindu, and southern Christian lands, then, represents not an “anti-modern” reaction, but one more illustration of the multiple pathways to the modern.

The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:25:00 GMT

Political developments in the Middle East have recently received a great deal of attention by journalists, editors, and academics, in addition to government policy makers. It seems that everyone has become a stakeholder in the future of this region, where crises have unexpectedly worsened with the invasion of Iraq. Crises in the Middle East are commonly explained by the supposed ‘geo-strategy’ of Islam, along with theories about the clash of civilizations, which mainly assert that the Muslim world wages war on the West by using terrorism. For many, conflicts ranging from Palestine, to riots in the Paris suburbs, to Bin Laden, show the dramatic influence of the geostrategy of Islam. On the other hand, some researchers prefer to deepen their questioning and investigate the broader structural causes behind the conflicts. While the former approach suffers from reductionism, the latter requires an intellectual enterprise which takes into account historical, sociological, and political factors. It pays attention to the Middle Eastern context as well as the influence of larger international developments. Examining Middle East politics and Islam by focusing on different dimensions from his earlier studies, Olivier Roy takes a stand in favor of the second approach. His recently published book, The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East, advances his arguments presented in Failure of Political Islam (1994), Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (2004), and Secularism Confronts Islam (2007).

Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:28:00 GMT

In this remarkable book, Ussama Makdisi offers a marvelously subtle analysis of American missionary work in nineteenth-century Syria, and just as importantly, the Syrian Maronite reaction to the missionaries’ overtures. Although much of the work on American missions has focused primarily on the missionaries, Makdisi meticulously reconstructs the cultural collision that transpired in Syria, and shows how the collision perplexed and transformed the religious assumptions of both sides. This book is now the field’s best micro-history of the early Protestant missionary encounter.

U.S. Foreign Policy and Islamist Politics

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:34:00 GMT

“I argue that the vast majority of Islamist movements do not pose a real threat to the West and its interests,” Ahmad S. Moussalli asserts in his latest book, U.S. Foreign Policy and Islamist Politics. Taking this idea as his starting point, the author confronts one of the key questions for the future of the Middle East region: whether to include– or exclude – Islamist parties as protagonists and interlocutors in regional and international policy. This question has been raised in American and western debates in general since the 1990s. But the pressing need to give a coherent response to this dilemma has become more urgent in the last few years. The experiences of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza have revealed the need for resolution, as well as the contradictions that result from any endeavour to find solutions to the conflicts and crises affecting this important part of the world. Therein lies the broad interest of this book, which seeks to demonstrate that the construction of Islamism as a threat to the West has been created above all “by the media, academia, policy makers, and strategists, as well as Muslim regimes and Israel.” Further, Moussalli argues that this media construction deliberately leaves aside any real, onthe-ground analysis of the many different Islamist parties, whose evolution and trajectories tend to show their diversity, their social integration and their progressive adaptation to democratic dynamics.

American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:37:00 GMT

This book examines the shifting balance of power between two western allies in the tumultuous Middle East. British interest in the Persian Gulf increased significantly during the nineteenth century, since the region functioned geographically as a liaison between the Mediterranean and the Indian subcontinent. Britain’s political domination of the region began in the 1820s, culminating in the Treaty of Maritime Peace of 1853, which created the system of trucial states along the Arabian coast. The treaty secured the political and economic stability of the region, which was vital for the maintenance of Britain’s Indian trade routes. British influence in the Gulf continued uninterrupted up until the period immediately following WWII. The post-war period not only brought about the demise of the old modes of imperialism but also gave way to the rise of new international political actors like the United States and the Soviet Union. The US entered the region as a powerful actor after the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia, and later extended its domination over other regions in the Middle East. W. Taylor Fain’s study focuses on “the Persian Gulf region” and analyzes diplomatic relations between the US and Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s. For Fain, this period of power politics witnessed how the interests of the two Western powers overlapped, and especially how they conflicted. Put more elegantly, “this book underscores the fragility of the vaunted Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ during the Cold War” (11).

Under Crescent & Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:40:00 GMT

“Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages” by Mark Cohen is a useful work for those interested in the question of the status of Jews under Christian rule and Muslim rule in the Middle Ages. This book boldly attempts to analyze the history of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim relations and compare their similarities and differences over a period of nearly one thousand years.

Geçmişiniz İtinayla Temizlenir (Your History is Carefully Cleaned: Historian as an Autopsy Expert)

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:51:00 GMT

The volume under review is the collection of many articles written at different times by Cemil Koçak. It consists of three main chapters, “Atatürk and the One-Party Regime,” “İnönü and the OneParty Regime,” and “As the One-Party Regime Changes.” This thematic organization makes the edited volume easy to read. However, since the collection brings together different kinds of writings, such as polemics, conference papers, academic journal articles, and newspaper articles, the book has no the internal cohesion.

Islam in Nederland en België

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:55:00 GMT

Shadid and van Koningsveld are at it again, this time with a full-length comparative treatment of Islam in two countries, the Netherlands and Belgium. For both authors this is well-travelled territory. On numerous occasions during the past 30 years, they have collaborated on comprehensive studies involving Muslims living in the West, as well as occasionally on other religious and cultural minorities. Their expertise is particularly known as it concerns the institutionalization of Islam in Western European society, and several of their previous works have examined the topics covered in the present volume.

The Ties that Bind: Accommodating Diversity in Canada and the European Union

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:59:00 GMT

“The Ties that Bind” is an edited compilation of European and Canadian authors discussing the issue of “Accommodating Diversity” in Canada and the European Union. The analysis employed is both normative and empirical. Certain chapters focus on the normative debate of the merits of accommodating diversity from an ethical, philosophical, and moral point of view. The empirical chapters analyze the causes, consequences, and effectiveness of different policies implemented to this end. Also, certain chapters provide comparative analysis of multiple EU member states, while others focus on one individual country, such as Canada, Britain, and Spain.

The Magna Carta Manifesto

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:02:00 GMT

The Magna Carta tradition that has been enshrined in Anglo-American law and celebrated in liberal political culture focuses almost exclusively on the events of 1215, when King John faced his disgruntled barons at Runnymede, acknowledged in a written charter limits to the royal prerogative, and in the immensely influential 39th chapter of the document set precedents for what have come to be considered fundamental liberal rights against the state: due process, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and the prohibition against torture. What is much less well known is that two years later, following tumultuous civil war and war with France, the new king, Henry III, only nine years old, in 1217 through his regent reissued the charter, amending it in key respects, and supplemented it with a second charter, the Charter of the Forest, which instantiated substantive rights of subsistence to free men by granting them various privileges within the royal forests. These included the right to have one’s livestock pasture and partake of the “common of herbage” for a specified time in the forest (agistment), the right to have one’s pigs access acorns and beech mast (pannage), and the right to wood for fuel, repairs, and other necessities (estovers). By 1297, Edward I declared both charters part of the common law of England. There was thus not one Great Charter, but two.[1] And if the first grounds our modern notion of human rights, the second stands for the right to access the commons to provide for one’s subsistence.