Amy Marie Spangler on Leyla Erbil’s dark vision of Istanbul’s history
September 2, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #252 – Amy Marie Spangler on the late great author Leyla Erbil’s What Remains. Amy co-translated the novel, along with Alev Ersan and Mark David Wyers, for an edition that will be published by Deep Vellum in October.
First appearing in Turkish in 2011, two years before Erbil passed away, What Remains is a multilayered narrative that sweeps the reader from the Byzantine Empire to 20th century Turkey. It is also a dark elegy to the Istanbul of eras past and all that has been lost in its transformation.
Amy is the co-founder of the AnatoliaLit literary agency, so our conversation also touches on broader trends in Turkey’s contemporary literary marketplace and the growing role of AI.
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Also check out Amy’s previous appearance on Turkey Book Talk in June 2022, discussing another Leyla Erbil novel, A Strange Woman.
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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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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Talin Suciyan on Armenians in Turkey after World War Two
June 10, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #246 – Talin Suciyan, Associate Professor of Turkish Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University, on “Armenians in Turkey after the Second World War: An Archival Reader of USSR Consular Documents” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book highlights reports from the Soviet consulate in Istanbul in 1945-46, particularly focusing on the oral testimonies of thousands of Armenians in Turkey who registered for a campaign encouraging Armenians around the world to migrate to Soviet Armenia.
This campaign led to many Armenians from across the world moving to Soviet Armenia, but its Turkey chapter was ultimately cancelled for reasons still not clear today. Nevertheless, the book sheds fascinating light on Turkish politics and society at the time, pre-Cold War geopolitical dynamics, and the sentiments of Armenians from villages and towns across Turkey about their lives and why they wanted to emigrate.
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #243 – Fiona Mullen, director of the Nicosia-based Sapienta Economics consultancy, on uncertainty around the future of the decades-long Cyprus divide amid mounting geopolitical uncertainty and regional competition.
Fiona recently wrote that informal UN-brokered talks over the island suggest that the Cyprus paradigm may be changing. Ankara has in recent years pushed for a formal split on the island between Turkish and Greek sides, but shifting regional dynamics make calculations on all sides increasingly unpredictable.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Bilge Yesil on Turkey’s narrowing media landscape
April 15, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #242 – Bilge Yesil, professor of media culture at the College of Staten Island (CUNY) and author of “Talking Back to the West: How Turkey Uses Counter-Hegemony to Reshape the Global Communication Order” (University of Illinois Press), returns to the podcast.
The conversation addresses Turkey’s narrowing media landscape and internet crackdown amid political turbulence, protests and mounting pressure on critics.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #241 – Berk Esen, political scientist at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, on whether Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest heralds Turkey’s shift from competitive authoritarianism to autocracy.
The conversation addresses the dynamics driving the intensifying crackdown, the international context for this escalation, and the critical choices facing the country’s embattled opposition.
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Claudia Liebelt on cosmetic surgery and perceptions of beauty in Turkey
February 18, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #238 – Claudia Liebelt, professor of social and cultural anthropology at the Free University of Berlin, on “Istanbul Appearances: Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey” (Syracuse University Press).
Hair transplants, dental implants, botox, nose jobs, lip fillers, eye lifts… Turkey has become almost synonymous with the booming cosmetic sector among international “health tourists” in recent years.
Liebelt’s book is based on extensive research in beauty salons and cosmetic surgery centres across Istanbul, speaking to customers, workers and surgeons to explain the sector’s extraordinary growth among locals and foreigners.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #237 – Brett Wilson, associate professor of history and public policy at Central European University, on his translation of Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu‘s 1922 novel “Nur Baba” (Routledge).
The book’s account of a debauched Bektashi Sufi lodge caused a sensation at the time, raising eyebrows with its scandalous depiction of an immoral, even degenerate religious community in turn-of-the-century Istanbul.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Jennifer Hattam on Istanbul’s shifting cultural landscape
November 19, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #232 – Jennifer Hattam reflects on a decade-and-a-half of reporting on Turkey’s environmental, political and cultural agenda, as well as wrenching changes in journalism and staying afloat amid Istanbul’s relentless urban upheaval.
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Subscribe to Jennifer’s Substack “Istanbul etc.“
Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on either Substack or Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, access to transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to the subject of every episode.
Turkey Book Talk #223 – Ozge Samanci, artist and associate professor at Northwestern University, on her new graphic novel “Evil Eyes Sea” (Uncivilized Books).
The semi-autobiographical story is a murder mystery centred on a group of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in the 1990s. It follows up from her highly successful graphic novel “Dare to Disappoint”.
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Become a member on Substack or 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.
Turkey Book Talk #222 – Sami Kent on “The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey’s First Hundred Years” (Picador).
The book paints a portrait of Turkey by combining accounts of key events from previous decades with Sami’s personal reflections on growing up learning about his paternal homeland from afar, before coming to work in the country as a journalist.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read a transcript of the interview on Substack.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
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Become a member on Substack or 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.
Turkey Book Talk #216 – Seda 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.
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