Turkey Book Talk

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...

Salim Çevik on his recent SWP paper "Turkey’s Reconciliation Efforts in the Middle East: Ambitions and Constraints in a Changing Regional Order". The paper examines Erdogan's shift away from trying to overthrow the established regional order towards rapprochement with Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Syria and others. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get...

Orçun Selçuk on "The Authoritarian Divide: Populism, Propaganda, and Polarization" (University of Notre Dame Press). The book compares Turkey under Erdoğan, Venezuela under Chávez and Ecuador under Correa, showing that Turkey's experience can be more usefully compared with Latin American examples than cases of right-wing populism in Europe or Islamism in the Middle East. Become a member on  Patreo...

Ezgi Başaran 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, Egypt and Tunisia from 2011 to 2013, seeking to understand how they viewed each other and whether they prioritised pragmatism or religious ideology. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Boo...

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) 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...

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. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History book...

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). 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 intervi...

Eugene Rogan 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, after hundreds of years of relative peace and coexistence. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substack to support Turkey Book Talk. Members...

Umit Kurt on "The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province" (Harvard University Press). The book draws on archival sources, memoirs, personal papers, oral accounts and property liquidation records to detail the dispossession of Antep's Armenian community and the transfer of their wealth to Ottoman and later Turkish Muslim elites. Become a member on  Patreon  or  Substa...