Çağdaş Üngör on Turkey’s geopolitical dilemmas in the Asia-Pacific century
September 10, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #227 – Çağdaş Üngör discusses her recent articles “A Bridge No More? Turkiye’s Geopolitical Significance in the 21st Century” in the journal Survival and “A ‘Bridge’ Pushed to the Periphery? Turkey’s Geopolitical Significance in the Asia-Pacific Century” in Turkish Studies.
Üngör challenges the popular conception that Ankara is poised to leverage its unique geographical location to rise to greater geopolitical prominence in an emerging multipolar world order. The idea of Turkey having a crucial “bridge” status goes back decades, but Üngör argues that Ankara in fact risks being sidelined as power and attention shift to Asia and divisions deepen between the US and China.
Çağdaş Üngör is professor of political science at Istanbul’s Marmara University, non-resident fellow at Washington’s Middle East Institute and fellow at SWP Berlin’s Center for Applied Turkey Studies.
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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.
Umit Kurt on Gaziantep’s forgotten Armenian past
July 30, 2024
Turkey Book Talk #224 – Umit Kurt, assistant professor of history at the University of Newcastle, Australia, on ”The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province” (Harvard University Press).
The book draws on Armenian, Ottoman, Turkish, British and French archives, memoirs, personal papers, oral accounts and property liquidation records to detail the dispossession of Antep’s historic Armenian community and the transfer of their wealth and resources to Ottoman and later Turkish Muslim elites.
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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 #223 – Ozge Samanci, artist and associate professor at Northwestern University, on her new graphic novel “Evil Eyes Sea” (Uncivilized Books).
The semi-autobiographical story is a murder mystery centred on a group of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in the 1990s. It follows up from her highly successful graphic novel “Dare to Disappoint”.
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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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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.
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Turkey Book Talk now on Substack!
May 27, 2024
Quick announcement to say that Turkey Book Talk is up and active on Substack at TurkeyBookTalk.substack.com.
From now on, text transcripts of all our interviews will be posted there, accessible to everyone who supports the podcast as a member. Of course, the podcast will also continue to be published as normal in audio form.
You can become a member on either Patreon or Substack for the (rough) equivalent of $3 per episode. Sign up via Patreon or via Substack. Just like Patreon members, Substack members also get access to the 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury.
I’ve taken this step based on feedback, replacing our previous system of sending out PDF transcripts via email. Hopefully this will make everything more simple.
If you are an existing member, you already have access to the Substack page and you will be able to view all transcripts there from now on.
The first post on the Substack is the transcript of our most recent episode: Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky on Muslim refugees in the Ottoman Empire.
As always, massive thanks to everyone who listens to or reads the interviews. I’m looking forward to putting out many more episodes!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
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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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