Derya Ozkul on Alevis in contemporary Turkey and abroad
December 20, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #183 – Derya Ozkul, Senior Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, on “The Alevis in Modern Turkey and the Diaspora: Recognition, Mobilisation and Transformation” (Edinburgh University Press), co-edited with Hege Markussen.
The book is a wide-ranging volume examining Alevi life in contemporary Turkey and overseas, the forces exerting influence on Alevi culture, beliefs and practices, and the impact of three decades of AKP rule.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on 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, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Enno Maessen on nostalgia and cosmopolitanism in Istanbul’s Beyoglu
November 22, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #181 – Enno Maessen, lecturer in political history at Utrecht University, on “Representing Modern Istanbul: Urban History and International Institutions in Twentieth Century Beyoglu” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book examines convulsive changes in Istanbul’s historical Beyoglu district over the past century.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on 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, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Saniye Dedeoğlu on Syrian migrants, work and precarity in Turkey
August 16, 2022
Turkey Book Talk episode 174 – Saniye Dedeoglu of Mugla University on “Syrian Refugees and Agriculture in Turkey Work, Precarity, Survival” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book looks at Syrians’ integration into Turkey’s labour market, its effect on relations between men and women, and the role of child labour in the agriculture sector.
Download the episode or listen below:
Check out the episode mentioned with Murat Erdogan from February 2021.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury (including the book featured in this episode), transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Turkey Book Talk episode 168 – Reuben Silverman on “Borderline Personalities: Lives at the Political, Social and Geographic Edges of Modern Turkey” (Libra Books).
The book brings together pieces from his website largely focusing on figures from the social, political and cultural margins to illustrate broader themes of modern Turkish history.
Download the episode or listen below:
Also check out Reuben’s previous appearance on the podcast from May 2019.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow us on Instagram
Become a member on 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, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Dilek Kurban on Turkey, the Kurdish question and the ECHR
February 1, 2022
Turkey Book Talk episode 160 – Dilek Kurban, Max Weber postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute and adjunct faculty at the Hertie School in Berlin, on “Limits of Supranational Justice: The European Court of Human Rights and Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict” (Cambridge University Press).
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow our new Instagram account
Become a member on 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, links to related content upon publication of episodes, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to Diego Cupolo’s excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Ramazan Aras on the past and present of the Turkey-Syria border
December 7, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode 156 – Ramazan Aras, professor of social and cultural anthropology at Istanbul’s Ibn Haldun University, on “The Wall: The Making and Unmaking of the Turkish-Syrian Border” (Palgrave Macmillan).
The book examines the effect on local Kurdish communities of the foundation of the Turkey-Syria border in 1923 and its hardening in subsequent decades, leading most recently to Turkey’s building of a hi-tech security wall along the length of the border.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS


Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to Diego Cupolo’s excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Turkey Book Talk episode #148 – Ömer Tekdemir, lecturer in political economy at Coventry University, on “Constituting the Political Economy of the Kurds: Social Embeddedness, Hegemony and Identity” (Routledge).
The book is a sweeping account of the social, political and economic circumstances shaping the emergence of collective Kurdish identity from the late Ottoman era to today’s Turkey.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
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, 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 #144 – Dimitris Kamouzis, researcher at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens, on “Greeks in Turkey: Elite Nationalism and Minority Politics in Late Ottoman and Early Republican Istanbul” (Routledge).
The book explores the spread of nationalism and ideas of unity with the Kingdom of Greece among Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox community from the 19th century to the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and beyond.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Check out Raziye Akkoç and Diego Cupolo’s excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
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 #140 – Evren Savcı, author of “Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics Under Neoliberal Islam” (Duke University Press), on the shifting discourse around LGBT rights in Turkey and the government’s mounting rhetoric against activists.
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.
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.
Murat Erdoğan on Syrian migrants’ future in Turkey
February 16, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode #135 – Murat Erdogan, director of Turkish German University’s Migration and Integration Research Centre, on the future of Syrians in Turkey.
Erdoğan oversees “Syrians Barometer”, an annual UNHCR-supported research project tracking the views and tendencies of Syrians in Turkey, as well as Turkish citizens’ views of Syrians.
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 extras: 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 written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Gülay Türkmen on Turks, Kurds and the limits of religious unity
December 22, 2020
Turkey Book Talk #131 – Gülay Türkmen, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Göttingen, on “Under the Banner of Islam: Turks, Kurds and the Limits of Religious Unity” (Oxford University Press).
The book addresses how Islam has been used as a tool of both unity and resistance by various sides in Turkey’s Kurdish question.
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 #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.
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.