Turkey Book Talk episode #116 – Ünver Rüstem, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, on “Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul” (Princeton University Press).
The book examines the adoption of Baroque and rococo styles in Istanbul mosques between 1740 and 1800, looking at how this fits into – or perhaps questions – popular ideas of Ottoman decline and Western influence.
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Turkey Book Talk episode #115 – Michael Wuthrich, assistant professor of political science at the University of Kansas, on “The Pushback Against Populism: Running on ‘Radical Love’ in Turkey”, co-authored with Melvyn Ingleby and published in the April 2020 edition of the Journal of Democracy.
The article examines the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) successful local election campaigns in major Turkish cities in 2019, when it applied sophisticated methods crafted by strategist Ateş İlyas Başsoy to counter the government’s populism.
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Here’s a link to the article.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
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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 #114 – Curators Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı discuss Istanbul art gallery Meşher’s exhibition on the works of little-known Ukrainian painter Alexis Gritchenko (1883-1977).
Gritchenko produced over 600 works – watercolours, oil paintings and sketches – during a two-year stay from 1919 to 1921 in occupied Istanbul, to which thousands of White Russians fled after the First World War and the Russian Revolution.
Download the episode or listen below
The exhibition opened in February but has been suspended due to Covid-19. However, many of the works – as well as audio and text material – can be viewed at Meşher’s website and its Instagram and Facebook accounts.
There is also a video discussing/touring the exhibition (in Turkish)
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 #103 – Jonathan Rugman, foreign affairs correspondent at Channel 4 News, on “The Killing in the Consulate: Investigating the Life and Death of Jamal Khashoggi” (Simon & Schuster).
The book examines the run-up and aftermath of the gruesome killing of Saudi journalist Khashoggi by a 15-man hit squad in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul Consulate on 2 October 2018. It also delves into Khashoggi’s complicated professional and personal life, as well as the bitter diplomatic rivalry between Ankara and Riyadh that the killing shone a light on.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Become 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 episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
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Nur Deriş on the epic life and times of Turkish journalist Sabiha Sertel
September 10, 2019
Turkey Book Talk episode #98 – Nur Deriş on the extraordinary life of journalist Sabiha Sertel (1895-1968).
Deriş is co-editor of “The Struggle for Modern Turkey: Justice, Activism and a Revolutionary Female Journalist” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The volume is the first ever appearance in English of Sertel’s autobiography “Roman Gibi” (Like a Novel), a fascinating window into an era covering the war of independence and Turkey’s entire single-party period until 1950.
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This book is one of over 400 books in IB Tauris/Bloomsbury’s Turkey/Ottoman history category, which you can get a 35% discount on if you sign up to become a Turkey Book Talk member. Members also get 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.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Turkey Book Talk episode #95 – Mehmet Fatih Uslu, faculty member in the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Istanbul Şehir University, on the pleasures and challenges of translating from Armenian into Turkish.
Uslu has translated a number of significant texts in recent years, including by the great early 20th century Istanbul Armenian feminist Zabel Yesayan and the 19th century playwright Hagop Baronyan.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Become 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.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Turkey Book Talk episode #93 – Haris Theodorelis-Rigas on Skarlatos Byzantios’ “Constantinople” (Istos), a monumental social and historical description of Istanbul written in the mid-19th century.
Haris is a Latin and Classical Greek instructor at Koç University and translator of the first volume of this work, which Byzantios wrote from 1851 to 1869. He is also one of the founders of Istos, a publishing house focusing on the Greek Orthodox heritage of Istanbul and Anatolia.
The conversation discusses Byzantios’ life and work, as well as the work of Istos.
Apologies for the delay in posting, I have been on holiday!
Download the episode or listen below.
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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.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Turkey Book Talk episode #85 – Doğus Şimşek of Koç University and photographer Yusuf Sayman on “Çabuk Çabuk: Africans in Istanbul” (Pencere Yayınları).
The book features text by Şimşek and over 100 photos by Sayman, giving a glimpse into the lives of migrants from a range of African countries living in Istanbul.
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For more of a historical look at African migrants in Istanbul, check out an episode we published back in October 2016 – Professor George Junne on black eunuchs and slavery in the Ottoman Empire.
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 80+ episodes, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Caroline Eden on a culinary journey across the Black Sea coast
January 15, 2019
Turkey Book Talk episode #81 – Caroline Eden on “Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes – Through Darkness and Light” (Quadrille).
The book is richly illustrated and lovingly put together: A part-cookbook, part-travelogue describing places, people and recipes from the Black Sea coasts of Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria to Istanbul, Trabzon and Rize in Turkey.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Join as a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Lora Sarı on the life, photography and writing of Ara Güler
December 11, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #79 – Lora Sarı talks about the life and work of the late great Ara Güler.
Lora is an editor at Aras, an Armenian-focused publishing house that recently published “We Will Live After Babylon”, a collection of Güler’s largely fictional writings, penned mostly in the 1940s and 50s before he started taking photographs.
Download the episode or listen below.
Also check out a previous episode with Lora Sarı talking about Mıgırdıç Margosyan’s “Infidel Quarter” and the broader work of Aras.
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Join as a member to support Turkey Book Talk and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of 231 reviews written by myself covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Begüm Adalet on the Cold War origins of Turkey-US ties
October 30, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #76 – Begüm Adalet on “Hotels and Highways: The Construction of Modernization Theory in Cold War Turkey” (Stanford University Press).
The book looks at Turkey in the aftermath of World War Two, the early years of its alliance with the United States at the advent of the Cold War. Ankara was a major recipient of aid as part of the Truman Doctrine, which knitted it into the Western alliance against the Soviet Union and reshaped its economic preferences. The 1950s was also an era when Turkey started to be put forward as a “model” for various other countries, particularly in the Middle East.
Download the episode or listen below.
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Don’t forget the new addition to Turkey Book Talk’s membership system : Members now get access to an archive of 231 book reviews originally written for the Hurriyet Daily News. That archive was still standing for a few months but it now seems to have been deleted from the HDN website.
The reviews cover a pretty diverse spread of subjects: Turkish and international fiction and poetry, history, journalism, politics, the Middle East and Europe.
Members also get full transcripts in English and Turkish of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire Turkey Book Talk archive (over 70 conversations so far), and access to an exclusive 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman History titles published by IB Tauris.
Sign up as a member to support Turkey Book Talk via Patreon.
Mehmet Kentel on the world of Ottoman caricaturist Yusuf Franko
February 20, 2018
Turkey Book Talk episode #58 – Mehmet Kentel on the life and work of Yusuf Franko, an obscure Ottoman bureaucrat who lived a remarkable double life as a caricaturist depicting Istanbul’s cosmopolitan late 19th century high society.
Kentel is a PhD Candidate in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Washington, and was adviser to the exhibition “The Characters of Yusuf Franko: An Ottoman Bureaucrat’s Caricatures” at the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations.
Download the episode or listen below.
Here’s the great website where you can view all of Yusuf Franko’s remarkable pictures and read the essays in “Youssouf Bey: The Charged Portraits of Fin-de-Siecle Pera,” the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.
And here’s my review of that book in Hurriyet Daily News.
Subscribe to Turkey Book Talk : iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / RSS
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Consider supporting Turkey Book Talk and get extra content by becoming a member. Members get full transcripts (in English and Turkish) of every interview upon publication, transcripts of the entire Turkey Book Talk archive (in English) and access to an exclusive 30% discount on over 200 Turkey/Ottoman History titles published by IB Tauris.
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