Erik-Jan Zürcher on imperial nostalgia in Turkey and Britain

June 24, 2025

Turkey Book Talk #247 – Erik-Jan Zürcher, professor emeritus of Turkish Studies at Leiden University, on the uses and abuses of nostalgia for empire in contemporary Turkey and the UK.

The conversation is based on a lecture that Zurcher delivered at the Istanbul Policy Center in May, “The Poison of Nostalgia”, which compared neo-Ottomanist tendencies in Turkey with the view of empire in Britain’s Brexit debate.

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Posted by William Armstrong
Filed in EU accession, Europe, European Union, History, Interviews, Istanbul, Nationalism, neo-Ottomanism, Ottoman Empire, Podcast, Politics, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey, Turkish history, Turkish politics
Tags: Brexit, British Empire, Erik-Jan Zurcher, interview, Istanbul, neo-Ottomanism, Ottoman Empire, podcast, Turkey, Turkey Book Talk, Turkish politics

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