Turkey Book Talk #217Christopher Phillips, professor of international relations at Queen Mary, University of London, on “Battleground: Ten Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East” (Yale University Press).

The conversation explores the region’s fiendishly complicated geopolitical rivalries, as well as how Turkey’s push for greater influence in Syria, Iraq and Libya has reverberated on its ties with numerous other ambitious powers.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #216Seda Demiralp, professor of political science at Istanbul’s Işık University and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, on what the recent surprise local election results mean for Turkish politics. 

The conversation takes in what the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) did right, what Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) did wrong, the emerging challenge to the AKP posed by the hardline Islamist Yeniden Refah Party, the performance of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, and the impact of Turkey’s economic woes.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #215 – Andrew Finkel on his novel “The Adventure of the Second Wife: The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan” (Even Keel Press).

Andrew is a veteran journalist based in Turkey for decades. His debut novel is a sprawling, playful narrative exploring the mystery of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II’s obsession with Sherlock Holmes stories.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #214 – Bahar Baser, associate professor of Middle Eastern politics at Durham University, on “An Exodus from Turkey: Tales of Migration and Exile” (Edinburgh University Press), which she co-edited with Erdi Ozturk.

The book examines the current wave of migration from Turkey, focusing on the experiences of 21 public figures who have moved overseas – voluntarily or otherwise – amid political and economic turbulence in recent years.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #213 – İlkay Yılmaz, research associate in the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute at the Free University of Berlin, on “Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908” (Syracuse University Press).

The book examines how paranoia about nationalist, anarchist and revolutionary movements spread during the era of Abdulhamid II, prompting the introduction of various new methods to control and restrict subjects of the Ottoman state.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #212Alexander Christie-Miller on “To The City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul” (William Collins).

Alexander worked for many years as the Times of London’s Turkey correspondent. His book is a sophisticated meditation on contemporary life and politics in the country. It combines historical, political and environmental ruminations with vivid portraits of people living in the neighbourhoods around Istanbul’s historic city walls.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #211Tuğba Tekerek, journalist and author, on “Taşra Üniversiteleri: AK Parti’nin Arka Kampüsü” (Provincial Universities: The AK Party’s Backyard Campus), published by İletişim.

The book examines the impact of the government’s push to open over 100 universities across Turkey over the last two decades. It paints a picture of falling academic standards but increased outlets for the ruling party’s religious nationalist ideology.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #210Timur Hammond, Assistant Professor of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University, on “Placing Islam: Geographies of Connection in Twentieth-Century Istanbul” (University of California Press).

The book is a sociological and historical study tracing the changing character of Istanbul’s Eyüpsultan district, its industrial and commercial history, and its role in the emergence of political Islam in Turkey.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to related content upon publication of each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #209İlkim Büke Okyar, associate professor in political science and international relations at Yeditepe University, on “Arabs in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1876-1950: National Self and Non-National Other” (Syracuse University Press). 

The conversation addresses how Arabs are typically viewed in Turkish popular culture, as well as examining the impact of the influx of millions of Syrian migrants since 2011 and the Israel-Gaza war.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to related content upon publication of each episode.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #208 – Berk Esen, associate professor of political science and international relations at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, on the troubled future of Turkey’s democracy and the challenges facing its opposition parties heading into 2024.

Berk is a prolific commentator and sophisticated scholar of Turkish politics, recently co-authoring “Turkey’s New Regime: Competitive Authoritarianism” (Iletisim) along with Hakan Yavuzyilmaz and Sebnem Gumuscu. 

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #207 – Sinem Adar, associate at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, on Turkey’s response to the Israel-Gaza war. 

The conversation builds on her recent article for War on the Rocks arguing that the crisis shows the limits of Turkey’s regional influence. She also co-wrote a piece for the Middle East Institute with Hamidreza Azizi, looking at how Turkey and Iran’s interests converge and diverge on this and other issues.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.

Turkey Book Talk #206Cihan Dizdaroğlu, associate professor in the political science and international relations department at Baskent University and associate fellow at the Istanbul Policy Institute, on “Turkish-Greek Relations: Foreign Policy in a Securitisation Framework” (Edinburgh University Press).

The book looks at how ties between Athens and Ankara have gone through various cycles of improvement and deterioration from the early era of the Republic of Turkey to today.

Download the episode or listen below:

Listen to Turkey Book Talk:  iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes

Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.

Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.