Turkey Book Talk

Nora Fisher Onar on “Contesting Pluralism(s): Islamism, Liberalism, and Nationalism in Turkey and Beyond” (Cambridge University Press). The book challenges the common belief that a binary contest between "Islam" and "secularism" is the driving force behind Turkey's modern history. Please support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman Histor...

Sean Mathews 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 been triggered in large part by neighbouring Turkey's own increasing assertiveness. Please support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB...

Perin Gurel on “Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America's Wife, America's Concubine” (Cambridge University Press). The book explores the cultural history of Turkey–Iran comparisons in the West, from Cold War-era modernisation theory to post-9/11 studies of “moderate Islam”. Please support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoma...

Gokhan Bacik on his article “ Selling Citizenship in Turkey: Political Parties, Pragmatism, and Polarization ,” recently published in the journal “Nationalism and Ethnic Politics”. The article examines the government's Citizenship By Investment scheme, its economic and social consequences, and the way it has been discussed – or avoided – in the national political debate. Please support Turkey Book...

Amy Marie Spangler on the late great author Leyla Erbil's What Remains. First published in 2011, the book is a multilayered narrative that sweeps from the Byzantine Empire to 20th century Turkey. It is also a dark elegy to the Istanbul of eras past and all that has been lost in its transformation.  Please support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Tur...

Özgür Özkan, visiting scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, on the domestic and regional implications of Turkey's push for the Kurdish militant group's dissolution. The conversation digs into issues raised by his recent article “Turkey's Dangerous Illusion of Peace with the PKK”. Please support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% dis...

Christopher Dole on “Living On: Psychiatry and the Future of Disaster in Turkey” (Stanford University Press). The book examines the psychiatric response to the deadly 1999 Marmara Earthquake, examining the legacy of the earthquake in the lives of its survivors and the Turkish mental health professionals who responded to it. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get...

Mustafa Kutlay on his recent Foreign Affairs article “ Turkey's Middle-Power Dilemma ”, examining the successes and failures of Ankara's bid to carve out a greater role in the emerging multipolar world. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and l...

Bilge Yabancı on “Civil Society and Authoritarianism: Co-optation, Repression and Contestation in Turkey” (Edinburgh University Press). The book examines the transformation of civil society groups under pressure from mounting authoritarianism. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, tr...

Erik-Jan Zürcher on the uses and abuses of nostalgia for empire in contemporary Turkey and the UK. The conversation is based on Zurcher's recent lecture at the Istanbul Policy Center, “The Poison of Nostalgia”, which compared neo-Ottomanist tendencies in Turkey with the view of empire in Britain's Brexit debate. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on...

Talin Suciyan on “Armenians in Turkey after the Second World War: An Archival Reader of USSR Consular Documents” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book examines the oral testimonies of Armenians who registered to migrate to Soviet Armenia. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts...

David Tonge on “The Enduring Hold of Islam in Turkey: The Revival of the Religious Orders and Rise of Erdogan” (Hurst). The book explores the political, economic and social influence of key Islamic orders in the country over the last few decades. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury,...

Richard Calis on “The Discovery of Ottoman Greece: Knowledge, Encounter, and Belief in the Mediterranean World of Martin Crusius” (Harvard University Press). Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.

Fiona Mullen, director of the Nicosia-based Sapienta Economics consultancy, on uncertainty around the future of the decades-long Cyprus divide amid mounting geopolitical uncertainty and regional competition. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and li...

Bilge Yesil on Turkey's narrowing media landscape and internet crackdown amid political turbulence, protests and mounting pressure on critics. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode.

Berk Esen on whether Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest heralds Turkey's shift from competitive authoritarianism to autocracy, dynamics driving the government's crackdown, the international context, and critical choices facing the country's opposition. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, tran...

Cuma Çiçek, author of “The Kurds of Turkey: National, Religious and Economic Identities” (IB Tauris), on the dynamics behind Ankara's push for the PKK's dissolution, what it means for Turkish politics and what it means for the future of the Kurdish issue. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bl...

Selim Koru on "New Turkey and the Far Right: How Reactionary Nationalism Remade a Country" (IB Tauris). The book dives deep into the worldview driving Turkey's regime change in recent years, and its profound domestic and foreign policy implications. Support Turkey Book Talk on  Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbu...

Claudia Liebelt on "Istanbul Appearances: Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey" (Syracuse University Press). Based on research in beauty salons and cosmetic centres across Istanbul, the book explores the cosmetic sector's extraordinary growth in recent years. Support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman Histor...

Brett Wilson on his translation of Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu's 1922 novel "Nur Baba" (Routledge). The book's account of a debauched Bektashi Sufi lodge caused a sensation at the time, raising eyebrows with its depiction of an immoral, even degenerate religious community in turn-of-the-century Istanbul.   Support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon  or  Substack . Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turke...

Omar Kadkoy, foreign policy, security and migration program coordinator at Heinrich Böll Stiftung's Istanbul office, on the future of Turkey's Syrian migrant population after the fall of Assad. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack  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, tran...

Zozan Pehlivan on "The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century" (Cambridge University Press). The book explores how extreme climate disruptions were a major factor behind tensions between Christian Armenian peasants and Muslim Kurdish pastoralists in eastern Anatolia in the 19th century. Become a member on Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Ta...

Samuel J. Hirst on "Against the Liberal Order: The Soviet Union, Turkey, and Statist Internationalism, 1919-1939" (Oxford University Press). The conversation addresses key episodes of collaboration between Ankara and Moscow on political, industrial and cultural projects since the early republican era. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount...

Ralph Hubbell on translating Oğuz Atay's "Waiting for the Fear" (New York Review Books). Atay is widely seen as one the great Turkish fiction writers of the 20th century, but has largely yet to appear in English until now. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcri...

Jennifer Hattam reflects on a decade-and-a-half of reporting on Turkey's environmental, political and cultural agenda, as well as wrenching changes in journalism and staying afloat amid Istanbul's relentless urban upheaval. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcr...