Sean Mathews on Greece’s regional comeback amid rivalry with Turkey
October 14, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #255 – Sean Mathews, Athens-based journalist at Middle East Eye, on “The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East” (Hurst).
The book examines Greece’s comeback as a regional player, arguing that this has largely been triggered by neighbouring Turkey’s growing assertiveness and revisionism. It suggests that this competition increasingly means we should view Greece as a Levantine or even Middle Eastern country, anchored in the East Mediterranean.
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Perin Gurel on the history of comparing Turkey and Iran in the West
September 30, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #254 – Perin Gurel of the University of Notre Dame on “Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America’s Wife, America’s Concubine” (Cambridge University Press).
The book looks at diplomatic history, popular culture and media portrayals to explore the cultural history of Turkey–Iran comparisons in the West, from Cold War-era modernisation theory to post-9/11 studies of “moderate Islam”.
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Use the code “PERIN2025” to get a 20% discount when buying the book on the Cambridge University Press website.
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Please 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.
Gokhan Bacik on Turkey’s citizenship-selling programme
September 16, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #253 – Gokhan Bacik, professor in the department of politics and European studies at Palacky University, on his article “Selling Citizenship in Turkey: Political Parties, Pragmatism, and Polarization,” recently published in the journal “Nationalism and Ethnic Politics”.
The article examines the Turkish government’s Citizenship By Investment scheme, first introduced in 2016 and amended several times since then. It looks at the economic and social consequences of the programme, as well as the way it has been discussed – or avoided – in the national political debate.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Please 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.
Omar Kadkoy on the future of Syrian migrants in Turkey
January 21, 2025
Turkey Book Talk #236 – Omar Kadkoy, foreign policy, security and migration program coordinator at Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s Istanbul office, on the future of Turkey’s Syrian migrant population after the fall of Assad.
Developments in Syria have raised expectations that the millions of Syrians in Turkey will now return home. While some have already returned, the issue is very complex and poses major social, political and economic dilemmas for both Ankara and Damascus.
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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 #221 – Istanbul-based photojournalist Bradley Secker discusses his work on migration, LGBT+ asylum seekers in the Middle East and Europe, the difficulties of practicing journalism in Turkey and the broader state of photojournalism.
Bradley recently launched a Substack, in which he tackles various aspects of his work and the challenges of working in the industry.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack.
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Turkey Book Talk #219 – Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on “Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State” (Stanford University Press).
The book explores the forced migration from the Russian Empire of around one million Muslims between the 1850s and World War One, their seeking of refuge in the Ottoman Empire, and the seismic demographic, economic, social and political impact this had.
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Bahar Baser on Turkey’s brain drain
March 12, 2024
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.
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İlkim Büke Okyar on Arabs in Turkish popular culture
January 2, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #209 – İlkim 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.
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Turkey Book Talk #200 – Anthony Gad Bigio on “A Sephardi Turkish Patriot: Gad Franco in the Turmoil of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic” (Hamilton Books).
The book describes the turbulent and difficult life of Anthony’s grandfather, Gad Franco, a prominent journalist, social activist and lawyer in the late Ottoman and early republican eras. It also charts his gradual disillusionment after advocating Jewish integration into Ottoman and later Turkish society, which culminated in his imprisonment and impoverishment following the 1942 Wealth Tax.
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Turkey Book Talk #199 – James Meyer, associate professor of Islamic World History at Montana State University, on “Red Star over the Black Sea: Nazım Hikmet and His Generation” (Oxford University Press).
The book is a new biography of the great 20th century poet Nazım Hikmet (1902-1963). It draws deeply on previously untapped archival sources from Moscow, Istanbul, Amsterdam and Washington, situating him within a broader generation of border-crossing Turkish communists.
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Read excerpts from Chapter 11 of the book.
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Turkey Book Talk #191 – Paul Levin, director of Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies, on “Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, Belonging and Transnational Community” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury), co-authored with Bahar Baser.
The conversation looks at the demographic profile of the Turkey-origin migrants in Sweden, the power dynamics of Turkish and Kurdish communities in the country, and the imbroglio over Ankara’s continued non-ratification of Stockholm’s Nato membership bid.
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