Turkey Book Talk #189 – Doğan Gürpınar, historian at Istanbul Technical University, on “Apparatchiks and Ideologues in Islamist Turkey: The Intellectual Order of Islamism and Populism” (Palgrave Macmillan).
The book gives a sweeping overview of the public messaging that underpins support for the Erdogan government in Turkey’s popular media sphere, as well as some of the individuals and institutions that contribute to crafting of message in the pro-government media industrial complex.
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Gönül Tol on Erdogan’s wars at home and abroad
November 8, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #180 – Gönül Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, on “Erdogan’s War: A Strongman’s Struggle at Home and in Syria” (Oxford University Press).
The book tells the story of how developments in Syria have played a unique role in Erdogan’s political strategy, helping him construct his identity, consolidate his base, and divide and eliminate his domestic rivals. He has done this by shifting shape, emphasising different shades of Islamist or nationalist ideology at different times.
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Galip Dalay on the nuances of Turkey’s Middle East reset
September 13, 2022
Turkey Book Talk # 176 – Galip Dalay, associate fellow at Chatham House and non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, on his recent paper “Turkey’s Middle East Reset: A Precursor for Reescalation?”
The article looks in depth at Turkey’s bid to mend fences with previously bitter rivals including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel, toning down its revisionist zeal in order to return to something like the pre-Arab Spring status quo. Dalay looks at the push and pull factors behind this initiative, the challenges it faces, and some of the possible exceptions.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 173 – Gönül Bozoğlu, Leverhulme Research Fellow at Newcastle University, on “Museums, Emotion and Memory Culture: The Politics of the Past in Turkey” (Routledge).
The book focuses on the Panorama 1453 Museum in Istanbul and the Atatürk and War of Independence Museum in Ankara to show how history in Turkey is often a battleground where contemporary identities clash for supremacy.
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Turkey Book Talk episode #147 – Nicholas Danforth, non-resident fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, on “The Remaking of Republican Turkey: Memory and Modernity since the Fall of the Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press).
The book upends conventional wisdom about social and political shifts between 1945 and 1960, years when Turkey held its first multi-party elections and joined the NATO alliance under the conservative Democrat Party government of prime minister Adnan Menderes.
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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, 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.
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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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 #136 – Taner Doğan on “Communication Strategies in Turkey: Erdogan, the AKP and Political Messaging” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book is based on over 100 interviews with AKP supporters, activists, officials, strategists and pundits, as well as attending events and closely examining Erdoğan’s messaging as his rhetoric shifted from emphasising Ankara’s EU membership goal towards hard-edged nationalism.
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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 written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Umut Azak on Hagia Sophia and the future of Turkey’s religious nationalist status quo
October 13, 2020
Turkey Book Talk #126 – Umut Azak of Okan University on this summer’s conversion of the Hagia Sophia from museum to mosque, the history of calls on Turkey’s religious right to take that step, and the future of the country’s religious nationalist status quo under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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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.
Sinem Adar on the militarisation of Turkey’s foreign policy
August 18, 2020
Turkey Book Talk episode #122 – Sinem Adar, associate in the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the SWP think tank in Berlin, on the hardening of Turkey’s foreign policy in the Middle East, the East Mediterranean and Europe, as well as the Turkish government’s soft power investments.
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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 #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.
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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.
Bilge Yabancı on youth groups cultivating Turkey’s religious nationalism
December 17, 2019
Turkey Book Talk episode #105 – Bilge Yabancı, Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Graz’s Centre of Southeast European Studies, on her paper “Work for the Nation, Obey the State, Praise the Ummah: Turkey’s Government-oriented Youth Organizations in Cultivating a New Nation”, published in the journal Ethnopolitics.
Based on original fieldwork conducted over almost two years, the article explores the often umbilical relationship between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and over a dozen youth organisations that share its goal of shepherding Turkey down a religious, nationalist, conservative course.
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Here’s a link to the paper itself.
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This is the last episode of 2019. The next episode will be published in THREE weeks, on the first Tuesday of 2020. Thank you for listening throughout this year!
Here’s the link to sign up to Raziye Akkoç and Diego Cupolo’s Turkey Recap weekly newsletter, mentioned at the end of the episode.
Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get loads 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 episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. A great Christmas present!
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Turkey Book Talk episode #94 – Yağmur Karakaya, PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota, talks about her research on the rise of Ottoman nostalgia in contemporary Turkish politics and popular culture.
Karakaya is the author of “The Conquest of Hearts: The central role of Ottoman nostalgia within contemporary Turkish populism”, published in November 2018 in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology.
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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.
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