Turkey Book Talk episode #146 – Buke Uras on “The Balyans: Ottoman Architecture and the Balyan Archive” (Korpus).
The Balyan family served as Ottoman imperial architects for three generations in the 19th century and are responsible for some of Istanbul’s most iconic monuments, including Dolmabahce Palace and Ortakoy Mosque.
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Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get extras including exclusive access to a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Turkey Book Talk episode #121 – Richard Antaramian, assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California, on his book “Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire: Armenians and the Politics of Reform in the Ottoman Empire” (Stanford University Press).
The book examines the Armenian community’s experiences with the Ottoman Empire’s “Tanzimat” modernising reforms of the mid-19th century.
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Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
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Check out Raziye Akkoç and Diego Cupolo’s excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter
Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get loads of extras: A 35% discount on any of over 100 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Turkey Book Talk episode #95 – Mehmet Fatih Uslu, faculty member in the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Istanbul Şehir University, on the pleasures and challenges of translating from Armenian into Turkish.
Uslu has translated a number of significant texts in recent years, including by the great early 20th century Istanbul Armenian feminist Zabel Yesayan and the 19th century playwright Hagop Baronyan.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get a load of extras: A 35% discount on any of over 400 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of 90+ episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Turkey Book Talk episode #91 – Selim Deringil, professor of history at the Lebanese American University, on “The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands: Turkish Memoirs and Testimonies of the Great War” (Academic Studies Press).
The volume includes translations and annotations of fascinating memoirs by five Ottomans stationed in Syria and the Arab Peninsula during the First World War: Falih Rıfkı Atay, Hüseyin Kazım Kadri, Ali Fuad Erden, Münevver Ayaşlı and Naci Kıcıman.
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Related episodes
- Yiğit Akın on the Ottoman home front during World War One
- Michael Provence on the last Ottoman generation and the making of the Middle East
- Ryan Gingeras on the fall of the Ottoman sultanate
Join as a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get a load of extras: A 35% discount on any of over 400 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s excellent Turkey/Ottoman history category, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire archive of 90+ episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Yigit Akin on the Ottoman home front during World War One
January 1, 2019
Happy New Year one and all.
Turkey Book Talk episode #80 – Yigit Akin of Tulane University on “When the War Came Home: The Ottomans’ Great War and the Devastation of an Empire” (Stanford University Press).
The book is a richly researched study on the consequences of the First World War on everyday social life across Ottoman territories as the empire collapsed.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Follow Turkey Book Talk on Facebook or Twitter
Join as a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Lora Sarı on the life, photography and writing of Ara Güler
December 11, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #79 – Lora Sarı talks about the life and work of the late great Ara Güler.
Lora is an editor at Aras, an Armenian-focused publishing house that recently published “We Will Live After Babylon”, a collection of Güler’s largely fictional writings, penned mostly in the 1940s and 50s before he started taking photographs.
Download the episode or listen below.
Also check out a previous episode with Lora Sarı talking about Mıgırdıç Margosyan’s “Infidel Quarter” and the broader work of Aras.
Subscribe to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / RSS
Follow Turkey Book Talk on Facebook or Twitter
Join as a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Avedis Hadjian on the ‘hidden Armenians’ of Anatolia
November 13, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #77 – Avedis Hadjian on “Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey” (IB Tauris).
Download the episode or listen below.
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Don’t forget the new addition to Turkey Book Talk’s membership system : Members now get access to an archive of 231 book reviews originally written for the Hurriyet Daily News. That archive was still standing for a few months but it now seems to have been deleted from the HDN website.
The reviews cover a pretty diverse spread of subjects: Turkish and international fiction and poetry, history, journalism, politics, the Middle East and Europe.
Members also get full transcripts in English and Turkish of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire Turkey Book Talk archive (over 70 conversations so far), and access to an exclusive 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman History titles published by IB Tauris.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Turkey Book Talk episode #67 – Jonathan Varjabedian on “My Dear Son Garabed: Kojaian Family Letters from Efkere/Kayseri to America (1912-1919)” (Histor Press).
The book is a collection of 88 letters written from the Anatolian village of Efkere to America between 1912 and 1919. They were sent to Garabed Kojaian and his father Harutian, who were among the many Ottoman Armenians migrating to America in the early 20th century.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Here’s my review of the book from a few of weeks ago.
As mentioned in the episode, check out the website efkere.com, where Jonathan, the grandson of the late Garabed Kojaian, pieces together the lost history of the village.
Purchase the book (highly recommended) from Histor. Details on their Facebook page.
Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Membership gives you full transcripts in English and Turkish of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire Turkey Book Talk archive (over 60 conversations so far), and access to an exclusive 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman History titles published by IB Tauris.
Turkey Book Talk episode #56 – Boğaziçi University Professor Edhem Eldem on “To Kill a Sultan: A Transnational History of the Attempt on Abdülhamid II” (Palgrave Macmillan), which he co-edited with Houssine Alloul and Henk de Smaele.
The book explores a deadly assassination attempt targeting the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul in 1905, and appears at a time when Abdülhamid II is the subject of a growing popular obsession among religious conservatives in Turkey.
Download the episode or listen below.
Here’s my review of the book at HDN.
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As mentioned in the podcast, here’s a recent article from me in History Today on this Abdülhamid revisionism and comparisons between him and Erdoğan.
As also mentioned, stay tuned for details of a new membership system coming for Turkey Book Talk. As part of the system, paying subscribers will get access to a range of extra content and benefits. I will post more details in due course, hopefully by the time of the next episode in two weeks.
* SUPPORT *
Remember you can support the podcast, if you enjoy or benefit from it, by making a pledge to Turkey Book Talk via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Michelle Zimmer, Steve Bryant, Jan-Markus Vömel, Celia Jocelyn Kerslake, Aaron Ataman, Max Hoffman, Andrew MacDowall, Paul Levin, Ayla Jean Yackley, Burak Kodaz and Tan Tunalı.
Lora Sarı on the Istanbul-based Armenian publisher Aras
November 24, 2017
Turkey Book Talk episode #52 – LORA SARI on the Aras Publishing House, set up in Istanbul in 1993 as a “window onto Armenian literature.” We also discuss Mıgırdıç Margosyan’s “Infidel Quarter,” published this year as Aras’ first English-language title.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Extras
- Episode of Turkey Book Talk from last year on Zabel Yessayan.
- Brief profile of Yetvart Tomasyan, one of Aras’ founding fathers.
- My review of Tuba Çandar’s biography of Hrant Dink in HDN.
- Interview with Tuba Çandar discussing that book and Hrant Dink’s life.
* SPECIAL OFFER *
You can support Turkey Book Talk by taking advantage of a 33% discount plus free delivery (cheaper than Amazon) on five different titles, courtesy of Hurst Publishers:
- ‘Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State’ by Olivier Roy
- ‘The Circassian: A Life of Eşref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent’ by Benjamin Fortna
- ‘The New Turkey and its Discontents’ by Simon Waldman and Emre Çalışkan
- ‘The Poisoned Well: Empire and its Legacy in the Middle East’ by Roger Hardy
- ‘Out of Nowhere: The Syrian Kurds in Peace and War’ by Michael Gunter
Follow this link to get that discount from Hurst Publishers.
Another way to support the podcast, if you enjoy or benefit from it: Make a pledge to Turkey Book Talk via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Michelle Zimmer, Steve Bryant, Jan-Markus Vömel, Celia Jocelyn Kerslake, Aaron Ataman, Max Hoffman, Andrew MacDowall, Paul Levin and Tan Tunalı.
The latest podcast is with Judith Saryan, who edited a new English edition of Zabel Yessayan’s account of a trip to Adana in the aftermath of pogroms targeting Armenians there in 1909.
Download the podcast or listen below:
Subscribe: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Facebook / RSS
Read my Hurriyet Daily News review of “In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana” (AIWA).
Here’s an interview from last year with translator Jennifer Manoukian, discussing Yessayan’s remarkable life and work.
Here’s another piece I wrote last year for Al Monitor from a crumbling station on the Armenian side of the closed Turkey-Armenia border. The immediate political dynamics have changed since then but it may still be an interesting read. View photos I took of the station here.
Finally, let me flag up my newly opened Patreon account – Through it you can support the Turkey Book Talk podcast by making a monetary donation, large or small, on a per episode basis. Check it out. Many thanks to my first supporter Sera Aleksandra Marshall.
From the Armenia-Turkey border
June 27, 2015
A couple of months ago I visited the Armenian side of the border with Turkey – specifically the Akhuryan train station, 2 km from the border and just outside Armenia’s second biggest city Gyumri.
The station has been closed since 1993, when Turkey sealed the border amid the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ever since, former station conductor Hagop Kevorkian has stayed on as a guard, forlornly waiting for services to restart.
When we visited, Hagop was just sitting alone in the dark station office wearing his fading old Soviet-era uniform, midway through his 12-hour shift doing nothing. Another guard waits at the station on rotating days, but they have not seen trains for over two decades. The Akhuryan Station is thus a sad symbol of the human cost of the diplomatic impasse between Ankara and Yerevan.
I wrote an article for Al Monitor about the station and the slim chances for the border reopening.
Below are some of the photos I took of Hagop and the station.
Turkey Book Talk 