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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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.
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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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 #206 – Cihan Dizdaroğlu, associate professor in the political science and international relations department at Baskent University and associate fellow at the Istanbul Policy Institute, on “Turkish-Greek Relations: Foreign Policy in a Securitisation Framework” (Edinburgh University Press).
The book looks at how ties between Athens and Ankara have gone through various cycles of improvement and deterioration from the early era of the Republic of Turkey to today.
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