Ahmet Erdi Öztürk on Turkey’s cultural, political and religious footprint in the Balkans
April 13, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode #139 – Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, associate professor and Marie Curie fellow at London Metropolitan University and Coventry University, and non-resident scholar at ELIAMEP, on “Religion, Identity and Power: Turkey and the Balkans in the Twenty-First Century” (Edinburgh University Press).
Based on extensive fieldwork in the region, the book examines how Turkey’s religious nationalist transformation under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is reflected in its expanding footprint in the Balkans.
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Turkey Book Talk episode #132 – Omer Taşpınar, professor at the US National War College and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, on “What the West is Getting Wrong about the Middle East: Why Islam is Not the Problem” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury)
The book argues that the US and Europe often fundamentally misunderstand social and political trends in the Middle East, overemphasising the importance of Islam at the expense of more important economic, governance and institutional factors. It makes this case by examining the examples of Turkey, the Sunni-Shia divide and the emergence of ISIS.
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Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get extras: 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. We are also currently working on a 2021 update to the discount deal on books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s Turkey/Ottoman history category, so stay tuned for that.
Turkey Book Talk #129 – Elizabeth Rodini on “Gentile Bellini’s Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II: Lives and Afterlives of an Iconic Image” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book explores how and why the Venetian painter came to the Ottoman court in 1479, as well as his portrait’s many intriguing afterlives in subsequent centuries.
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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.
Ahmet Kuru on Islam, authoritarianism and underdevelopment
September 29, 2020
Turkey Book Talk #125 – Ahmet Kuru, professor of political science at San Diego State University, on “Islam, Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison” (Cambridge University Press).
The book traces the causes of low socio-economic development in many Muslim-majority countries to the 11th century, when Kuru argues an alliance of orthodox Islamic scholars and military states started to hinder intellectual and economic creativity.
Download the episode or listen below
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
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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.
Zeynep Çelik on archaeology and heritage in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey
September 15, 2020
Turkey Book Talk #124 – Zeynep Çelik, professor of architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, on the origins of archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, the response to the European pursuit of antiquities, and questions of heritage in contemporary Turkey.
Çelik is author of “Empire, Architecture and the City: French-Ottoman Encounters, 1830-1914” (University of Washington Press) and “About Antiquities: Politics of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire” (University of Texas Press), among others.
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As mentioned at the end of the episode, Nektaria Anastasiadou’s debut novel, “A Recipe for Daphne”, has just been published by Hoopoe Books. Check out details here and order it from Hoopoe here.
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 #119 – Magdalena Zaborowska, professor of literature at the University of Michigan, on her book “James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile” (Duke University Press)
The book looks at the great African American author’s extensive periods living and working in Istanbul from 1961 to 1971.
Download the episode or listen below.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow Turkey Book Talk on Facebook or Twitter
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 #117 – Oya Dursun-Özkanca, professor of political science at Elizabethtown College, on her book “Turkey-West Relations: The Politics of Intra-Alliance Opposition” (Cambridge University Press) and Ankara’s grand ambitions for the post-coronavirus world.
Download the episode or listen below.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow Turkey Book Talk on Facebook or Twitter
Remember to 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 #116 – Ünver Rüstem, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, on “Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul” (Princeton University Press).
The book examines the adoption of Baroque and rococo styles in Istanbul mosques between 1740 and 1800, looking at how this fits into – or perhaps questions – popular ideas of Ottoman decline and Western influence.
Download the episode or listen below.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow Turkey Book Talk on Facebook or Twitter
Remember to 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.
Ayse Zarakol on stigma and status anxiety in Turkey’s ties to the West
February 18, 2020
Turkey Book Talk episode #109 – Ayşe Zarakol, reader in international relations at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, on “After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West” (Cambridge University Press).
The book was published in English in 2011, and its second Turkish edition has just come out. It examines how a sense of “stigma” has dogged the way modern Turkey engages with the Western-led international order, as well as comparable cases of Japan and Russia.
Download the episode or listen below.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Check out the 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.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Ayhan Kaya on migration from Turkey to Europe, past and present
January 21, 2020
Turkey Book Talk episode #107 – Ayhan Kaya, Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair at the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University, on “Turkish Origin Migrants and Their Descendants: Hyphenated Identities in Transnational Space” (Palgrave Macmillan)
Particularly looking at migration from Turkey to Europe since the 1960s, Kaya argues that home and host countries have increasingly defined migrants within rigid, religiously-defined boundaries, with ambivalent results.
Download the episode or listen below.
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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.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş on Turkey and Europe beyond hypocrisy
April 17, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #62 – ASLI AYDINTAŞBAŞ, journalist and fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, on the ECFR’s recent report: “The Discreet Charm of Hypocrisy: An EU-Turkey Power Audit”
Based on interviews with top officials on all sides, the report examines bitter current ties between Brussels and Ankara. It recommends finding a new model for the relationship beyond the hypocritical and stalled accession process.
Download the episode or listen below.
Subscribe to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / RSS
Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get extra things! Members get full transcripts (in English and Turkish) of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire Turkey Book Talk archive (in English) and access to an exclusive 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman History titles published by IB Tauris.
Mehmet Kentel on the world of Ottoman caricaturist Yusuf Franko
February 20, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #58 – Mehmet Kentel on the life and work of Yusuf Franko, an obscure Ottoman bureaucrat who lived a remarkable double life as a caricaturist depicting Istanbul’s cosmopolitan late 19th century high society.
Kentel is a PhD Candidate in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Washington, and was adviser to the exhibition “The Characters of Yusuf Franko: An Ottoman Bureaucrat’s Caricatures” at the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations.
Download the episode or listen below.
Here’s the great website where you can view all of Yusuf Franko’s remarkable pictures and read the essays in “Youssouf Bey: The Charged Portraits of Fin-de-Siecle Pera,” the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.
And here’s my review of that book in Hurriyet Daily News.
Subscribe to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / RSS
Follow on Facebook or Twitter.
Consider supporting Turkey Book Talk and get extra content by becoming a member. Members get full transcripts (in English and Turkish) of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire Turkey Book Talk archive (in English) and access to an exclusive 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman History titles published by IB Tauris.
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