Salim Çevik on Turkey’s Middle East reset
November 5, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #231 – Salim Çevik, visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), on his recent paper “Turkey’s Reconciliation Efforts in the Middle East: Ambitions and Constraints in a Changing Regional Order“.
The piece examines Erdogan’s shift away from trying to overthrow the established regional order by supporting Muslim Brotherhood allies, and towards rapprochement with the ruling regimes in Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Syria and others.
Our conversation weighs up the successes and failures of this initiative, how it has been impacted by Israel’s Gaza war, and how it could be affected by the results of the US presidential election.
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Ezgi Başaran on the new spirit of Islamism
October 8, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #229 – Ezgi Başaran, journalist and academic at St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford, on “The New Spirit of Islamism: Interactions Between the AKP, Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood” (IB Tauris).
The book looks at the aspirations of Islamist actors in Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab Uprisings from 2011 to 2013. Based on interviews with dozens of officials in all three countries at that time, it seeks to understand what motivated them, how they viewed each other, and whether they prioritised pragmatism or religious ideology.
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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.
Samim Akgönül on 100 years of Turkish-Greek relations
September 24, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #228 – Samim Akgönül, director of the Department of Turkish Studies at the University of Strasbourg, on “One Hundred Years of Greek-Turkish Relations: The Human Dimension of an Ongoing Conflict” (Edinburgh University Press).
Based on over two decades of research in Turkey and Greece, the book examines popular conceptions of the other in both countries, showing how lived experience complicates straightforward historical narratives.
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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.
Karabekir Akkoyunlu on religion and democracy in Turkey and Iran
August 27, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #226 – Karabekir Akkoyunlu, Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at SOAS, on “Guardianship and Democracy in Iran and Turkey: Tutelary Consolidation, Popular Contestation” (Edinburgh University Press).
The book makes the case that the political systems under the clergy in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the military in the Republic of Turkey have had surprising similarities – as well as important differences.
The conversation also considers how the two systems have transformed in recent decades, as well as how present-day social and political power struggles are shifting the landscape in both countries.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack
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Support Turkey Book Talk as a member on 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 #225 – Eugene Rogan, professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford, on “The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Ottoman World” (Allen Lane).
The book examines how in July 1860 Damascus exploded in communal violence, when a mostly Muslim crowd tried to exterminate the Christian community – a shocking eruption of violence after hundreds of years of relative peace and coexistence. It looks at why tensions built up in the decades before 1860, as well as how the Ottoman authorities oversaw recovery of the region in the aftermath.
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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.
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Read a transcript of the interview on Substack.
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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 #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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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.
Bilge Yesil on Turkey’s global media operations
June 4, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #220 – Bilge Yesil, associate professor of media culture at City University of New York, on “Talking Back to the West: How Turkey Uses Counter-Hegemony to Reshape the Global Communication Order” (University of Illinois Press).
The book examines how the Erdogan regime has mobilised English-language media apparatuses to counter foreign criticism and project Turkey as a rising power opposed to Western imperialism, supposedly giving a voice to oppressed Muslims around the world.
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Turkey Book Talk #218 – Emre Toros, professor of political science and dean of the communications faculty at Ankara’s Hacettepe University, on “Electoral Integrity in Turkey” (Edinburgh University Press).
The book weighs up the country’s democratic credentials after over two decades of rule by Erdogan’s party, both in terms of its electoral system and its broader institutional framework. It ultimately describes today’s Turkey as being in an ambiguous grey zone, neither straightforwardly democratic nor conventionally authoritarian.
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Turkey Book Talk #217 – Christopher Phillips, professor of international relations at Queen Mary, University of London, on “Battleground: Ten Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East” (Yale University Press).
The conversation explores the region’s fiendishly complicated geopolitical rivalries, as well as how Turkey’s push for greater influence in Syria, Iraq and Libya has reverberated on its ties with numerous other ambitious powers.
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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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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.
Download the episode or listen below:
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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, and links to articles related to each episode.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
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