Turkey Book Talk

Marc Sinan Winrow, post-doctoral research assistant at the London School of Economics, on “Turkey and the Liberal International Order: Hegemony, Contestation and the Politics of Articulation Since 1919” (Agenda Publishing, Edinburgh University Press) The conversation addresses Turkey’s position on the edge of the Western-led international order over the past century, as well as Ankara’s view of the threats and opportunities posed by today’s mounting turbulence. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Benjamin Fortna, professor of history at the University of Arizona, on “The Shortest History of Turkey: From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic” (Old Street Publishing) The book spans the emergence of the Ottoman Empire to the present day. The interview addresses the challenges of trying to fit so much history into such a compressed form, appealing to a popular readership, and the recurring themes that emerge over the course of so many centuries. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Işılay Gürsu, assistant director at the British Institute in Ankara, on “Public Dialogues in Archaeology: New Methodologies from Turkey” (Bloomsbury Academic). The book explores the Turkish public’s views of the country’s rich archaeological heritage, the hunt for treasure at historic sites across the country, and efforts to repatriate ancient artefacts that were pilfered generations ago. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Onur İnal of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Vienna on “Gateway to the Mediterranean: An Environmental History of Late Ottoman Izmir” (Cambridge University Press). The book describes how the cosmopolitan coastal city of Izmir, often known in Europe at the time as Smyrna, flourished in the second half of the 19th century, becoming a major connection between the Ottoman Empire, Europe and the rest of the world. It shows how settlers, migrants and investors exploited the natural resources in the hinterland of Western Anatolia to create a transportation hub of people and goods in Izmir. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Sinem Adar, head of the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, returns to the podcast. The conversation takes stock of Turkey’s international profile and domestic political trajectory after its recent hosting of the NATO summit in Ankara. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Hannah Lucinda Smith on “Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers” (Profile Books). The book is based on vivid reporting from Eastern Europe, the East Mediterranean and the Caucasus, as places like Kosovo, Bosnia, Karabakh, Transnistria and Cyprus become geopolitical hotspots with ambitious revisionist powers like Russia and Turkey looking to secure a greater share of the pie. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Doruk Erhan, doctoral candidate at Yale Law School and visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, on the crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition CHP. The conversation is based on Doruk’s recent articles for the Verfassungsblog, including his recent assessment of the legal and political impact of cases against jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, published on the first anniversary of his arrest. Since then the crackdown has escalated, with the judicially engineered return of Kemal Kilicdaroglu as its chair. These manoeuvres have led analysts and pundits to warn Turkey is shifting to a post-democratic system of arbitrary rule, in which elections are essentially meaningless. The articles make a relatively optimistic case for Turkey’s opposition, and the interview also weighs up potential future scenarios and the international context that has facilitated the crackdown. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Long-time Istanbul-based journalist Jennifer Hattam on her work updating the Lonely Planet travel guide to Turkey. The conversation touches on the immense amount of work and miles that go into updating the guide, her impressions of the many places she has visited over the years, and how Turkey has changed since she first took on the job. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Brett Wilson, associate professor of history and public policy at Central European University, on his article ”Sufi Leaders in the early Turkish Republic: Profession, Privilege, and Persecution (1925-1950)”, published in the latest edition of New Perspectives on Turkey. The piece studies the impact of Turkey’s 1925 outlawing of Islamic religious orders, challenging the traditional idea of harsh secularist persecution in the early republic. By examining the post-1925 lives of over 100 religious leaders, it shows how the vast majority “remained a part of the intelligentsia and elite echelons of society as they were absorbed into the educational, cultural and political institutions of the new nation-state”. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Journalist Suzy Hansen on “From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). The book focuses on Istanbul’s Karagumruk neighbourhood to explore the everyday impact of geopolitical upheaval, economic turbulence and the arrival of Syrian migrants in Turkey. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Faisal Devji, professor of global and imperial history at Balliol College, Oxford, on “Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam” (Yale University Press) The book argues that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Islam stopped being primarily a religious movement focused on scripture and the divine, instead transforming into a modern ideological system like capitalism or communism. In countries including Turkey, that process paved the intellectual path for Islamism’s emergence as a political force, reshaping the trajectories of those countries. However, it also suggests that the limits of this transnational moment were reached long ago, and that we are now seeing the results of a crisis of political Islam in Turkey and elsewhere. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Ryan Gingeras, historian at the Naval Postgraduate School in California and author of “Mafia: A Global History” (Simon & Schuster) and “Heroin, Organized Crime, and the Making of Modern Turkey” (Oxford University Press), returns to the podcast. The conversation discusses the influence of criminal organisations in Turkey’s political and economic life over the decades, the alarming rise of new generation criminal gangs on Istanbul’s periphery, and the country’s position in international narcotics trafficking. Please support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Supporters get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by Bloomsbury Academic, transcripts of every interview, and links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Mustafa Aksakal, associate professor of history at Georgetown University, on “The War that Made the Middle East: World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire” (Princeton University Press) The book gives a revisionist take on the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution, suggesting it was not a foregone conclusion and that alternative future paths were possible. Aksakal argues that the end of the empire and emergence of nation states in the region resulted from a combination of European imperial ambitions, resentments among local populations, and catastrophic decisions taken by the Committee of Union and Progress in power in Istanbul during the war. 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Michelle Lynn Kahn, associate professor of modern European history at the University of Richmond, on “Foreign in Two Homelands: Racism, Return Migration and Turkish-German History” (Cambridge University Press). Migration from Turkey largely started with West Germany’s “guest worker” scheme, introduced in 1961. Since the 1970s, Turks have been Germany’s largest ethnic minority and today there are around 3 million people with Turkish heritage in the country. Using sources in both countries and both languages, as well as in-depth conversations with former guest workers and their children, ”Foreign in Two Homelands” gives a kaleidoscopic overview of experiences on both sides. Uniquely, it also focuses on the experiences of migrants to Germany who returned to Turkey, many of whom ended up feeling socially alienated in both environments. 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Murat Yıldız, associate professor of history at Skidmore College, on “The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul” (University of Texas Press). The book examines the emergence of sports culture in late Ottoman Istanbul and its implications for developing ideas of modernisation, imperial identity, religious identity, communal identity and gender norms. It also shows how Muslims, Christians and Jews created an athletics culture in schools, clubs and publications that in some ways transcended ethnoreligious divisions but in other ways reinforced them. 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Berin Gür, professor of architecture at Ankara’s TED University, on “The Conquest of Istanbul and the Manipulation of Architecture: The Islamist-Nationalist Rhetoric of Conquest and Melancholy” (Routledge). The book explores how the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Istanbul is remembered in Turkey’s mainstream official narrative and how architecture contributes to this. It dives deep into the weaponisation of historical memory in the country today, while also considering how Greeks remember the same historical event. 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Journalist Adnan Khan on the spectacular growth of Turkey’s plastic waste imports and the role of migrant labour in the sector. Adnan is the author of two major investigations for the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP): “A Deadly Trade - Refugee Labor in Turkey and Europe’s Plastic Waste” and “Dirty Work - The Hidden Machinery and Human Toll of Europe’s Broken Recycling Trade”. Both articles paint a grim portrait of how a confluence of circumstances, including the EU-Turkey migration deal and China’s banning of plastic waste imports, have helped the industry flourish in Turkey - with deadly human consequences 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Burcu Karahan of Stanford University on her translation of “One Thousand and One Kisses: The Most Joyous and Flirtatious Stories” (Translation Attached). The collection brings together 65 stories blending risque humour and bold eroticism, first published anonymously in weekly instalments in 1923-24. The stories are a fascinating time capsule of a vanished age, but much remains unknown about who was behind them and the circumstances of their publication. 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Mehmet Gurses, director of Kurdish Studies at the University of Central Florida, on his article “Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict Transformed”, recently published in the journal Current History.  The article places the PKK’s emergence and transformations in a historical context over the past four decades, also weighing up shifts that may be triggered by its current dialogue process with Ankara. 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 links to articles related to each episode. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true Substack: https://turkeybooktalk.substack.com/

Hakan Özoğlu, professor of history and director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Central Florida, on “The Decline of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of the Turkish Republic: Observations of an American Diplomat, 1919-1927” (Edinburgh University Press). Based on tens of thousands of primary documents from US and Turkish archives, as well as private letters and memoirs, the book examines the work of Admiral Mark L. Bristol, US high commissioner in Istanbul as the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923. Compared with many European diplomats at the period, Bristol had a relatively pro-Turkish, pro-Muslim perspective. His recommendations from Istanbul helped shape US policy and also helped lay the foundations of the strategic partnership between Washington and Ankara during the later Cold War years. Become a member 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 over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Çiğdem Oğuz, research fellow at the University of Bologna’s Department of History and Cultures, on “Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire: Society, Politics and Gender during WWI” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book examines debates about morality in the late Ottoman era, when mounting European cultural influence triggered anxiety about the loss of traditional religious values among many. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Murat R. Siviloğlu, assistant professor in Turkish Cultural History at Trinity College Dublin, on “The Emergence of Public Opinion: State and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press).  The idea of “public opinion” is generally associated with the emergence of a middle class, independent of the state, in Western Europe in the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire is generally seen as outside this process, but Siviloğlu argues that Ottoman society developed a realm of “public opinion” that had a crucial effect on political developments in the late 19th century. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Ramazan Aras, professor of social and cultural anthropology at Istanbul‘s Ibn Haldun University, on “The Wall: The Making and Unmaking of the Turkish-Syrian Border” (Palgrave Macmillan). The book examines the effect on local Kurdish communities of the foundation of the Turkey-Syria border in 1923 and its hardening in subsequent decades, leading most recently to Turkey‘s building of a hi-tech security wall along the length of the border. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Maureen Freely discusses the eventful life of leftist woman novelist Suat Derviş (1904-1972), as well as her recently published translation of Derviş‘s “In the Shadow of the Yalı” (Other Press). Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Marc David Baer, professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, on “The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs” (Basic Books). The book makes the case that the Ottoman Empire is an inseparable part of European history - not as antithesis of the Christian West but as an intimate and active participant in the continent‘s shifting cultural and political tides. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Federico Donelli, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Genoa, on “Turkey in Africa: Turkey‘s Strategic Involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book examines Ankara‘s bid to boost its diplomatic, cultural, economic and security influence in Africa, the effects this has had on the ground, and what to expect in the coming years. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Yonca Köksal, associate professor of history at Koç University, on “The Ottoman Empire in the Tanzimat Era: Provincial Perspectives from Ankara to Edirne” (Routledge). The book compares and contrasts the application of the empire‘s modernising, centralising Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century in the Balkan province of Edirne and the central Anatolian province of Ankara. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Giancarlo Casale, chair of early modern Mediterranean history at the European University Institute and associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota, on “Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in 17th Century Europe” (University of California Press). Casale edited and translated the book, the first English-language edition of Osman of Timişoara‘s fascinating memoir describing his years as prisoner and slave in the Habsburg Empire from 1688 to 1699. Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

Soner Çağaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, on “A Sultan in Autumn: Erdogan Faces Turkey‘s Uncontrollable Forces” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book describes the myriad political challenges facing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at home and abroad, and speculates about his potential response. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854&fan_landing=true

E. Natalie Rothman, associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, on “The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism” (Cornell University Press). The book shows how Istanbul-based diplomatic translator-interpreters played a crucial role in developing outside understanding of the Ottoman Empire, as well as in the Ottoman elites' various diplomatic manoeuvres. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Ömer Tekdemir, lecturer in political economy at Coventry University, on “Constituting the Political Economy of the Kurds: Social Embeddedness, Hegemony and Identity” (Routledge). The book is a sweeping account of the social, political and economic circumstances shaping the emergence of collective Kurdish identity from the late Ottoman era to today's Turkey. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Nicholas Danforth on “The Remaking of Republican Turkey: Memory and Modernity since the Fall of the Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press). The book upends conventional wisdom about social and political shifts between 1945 and 1960, years when Turkey held its first multi-party elections and joined the NATO alliance under the conservative Democrat Party government of prime minister Adnan Menderes. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Büke Uras on “The Balyans: Ottoman Architecture and the Balyan Archive” (Korpus). The Balyan family served as Ottoman imperial architects for three generations in the 19th century and are responsible for some of Istanbul's most iconic monuments, including Dolmabahçe Palace and Beyazıt Tower. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Suna Çağaptay, post-doctoral research associate at St Edmunds College, University of Cambridge, on “The First Capital of the Ottoman Empire: The Religious, Architectural and Social History of Bursa” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book examines Bursa's history from antiquity to the present day, particularly focusing on its hybrid and plural character after transitioning from Byzantine to Ottoman rule in the 14th century. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts in English and Turkish of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Dimitris Kamouzis, researcher at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens, on “Greeks in Turkey: Elite Nationalism and Minority Politics in Late Ottoman and Early Republican Istanbul” (Routledge). The book explores the spread of nationalism and ideas of unity with the Kingdom of Greece among Istanbul's Greek Orthodox community from the 19th century to the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and beyond. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Christine Philliou, associate professor of history at UC Berkeley, on “Turkey: A Past Against History” (University of California Press). The book examines the life of the writer Refik Halid Karay (1888-1965), interrogating the shifting meaning of political dissent from Ottoman to republican eras. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Malte Fuhrmann, research fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, on “Port Cities of the East Mediterranean: Urban Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press). The book paints a panorama of cultural and social life in the richly diverse port cities of Salonica, Istanbul and Izmir in the late Ottoman era, when European cultural traits and economic development had a profound impact on the daily experiences of locals across boundaries. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Sir Noel Malcolm, senior research fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford, on “Useful Enemies: Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought 1450-1750” (Oxford University Press). The book examines how early modern Western European writers shaped perceptions of the Ottoman Empire and Islam through fear, distrust and hostility, but also curiosity and admiration. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Evren Savcı of Yale University on "Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics Under Neoliberal Islam" (Duke University Press), the shifting discourse around LGBT rights in Turkey, and the government's mounting rhetoric against activists. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, associate professor and Marie Curie fellow at London Metropolitan University and Coventry University, and non-resident scholar at ELIAMEP, on “Religion, Identity and Power: Turkey and the Balkans in the Twenty-First Century" (Edinburgh University Press). Based on extensive fieldwork in the region, the book examines how Turkey's religious nationalist transformation under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is reflected in its expanding footprint in the Balkans. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Jenny White, professor at Stockholm University's Institute for Turkish Studies, on "Turkish Kaleidoscope: Fractured Lives in a Time of Violence" (Princeton University Press). The graphic novel, illustrated by Ergün Gündüz, tells the story of four young protagonists caught up in the social and political turbulence leading to Turkey's 1980 military coup. Find a link to a Spotify playlist specially crafted to complement the book via: https://armstrongwilliam.wordpress.com/ Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Jeremy Seal on “A Coup in Turkey: A Tale of Democracy, Despotism and Vengeance in a Divided Land” (Chatto & Windus/Penguin). The book blends biography, history and reportage to explore the legacy of Adnan Menderes, who became the Republic of Turkey's first democratically elected prime minister in 1950 before being overthrown in a military coup in May 1960. It also weaves this story in with developments in contemporary Turkey under President Erdoğan, who often presents himself as inheriting Menderes' political legacy. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Taner Doğan on “Communication Strategies in Turkey: Erdogan, the AKP and Political Messaging” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book is based on over 100 interviews with AKP supporters, activists, officials, strategists and pundits, as well as attending events and closely examining President Erdoğan's messaging as his rhetoric shifted from emphasising Ankara's EU membership goal towards hard-edged nationalism. Support Turkey Book Talk by becoming a member. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Prof Dr Murat Erdoğan, director of the Turkish German University's Migration and Integration Research Centre, on the future of Syrians in Turkey. Erdoğan oversees “Syrians Barometer”, an annual UNHCR-supported research project tracking the views and tendencies of Syrians in Turkey, as well as Turkish citizens' views of Syrians. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Chiara Maritato, post-doctoral researcher at University of Turin's Department of Culture, Politics and Society, on "Women, Religion and the State in Contemporary Turkey" (Cambridge University Press). The book examines the causes and effects of women's expanded role in Turkey's state religious agency over the past 20 years. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 30% discount on all books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Mostafa Minawi, associate professor of history at Cornell University and senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University, on "The Ottoman Scramble for Africa: Empire and Diplomacy in the Sahara and the Hijaz" (Stanford University Press), examining the Ottoman Empire's bid to expand its footprint in Africa and Arabia in the late-19th century age of imperialism. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Omer Taşpınar, professor at the US National War College and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, on “What the West is Getting Wrong about the Middle East: Why Islam is Not the Problem” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book argues that the US and Europe often fundamentally misunderstand social and political trends in the Middle East, overemphasising the importance of Islam at the expense of more important economic, governance and institutional factors. It makes this case by examining the examples of Turkey, the Sunni-Shia divide and the emergence of ISIS. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Gülay Türkmen, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Göttingen, on "Under the Banner of Islam: Turks, Kurds and the Limits of Religious Unity" (Oxford University Press). The book addresses how Islam has been used as a tool of both unity and resistance by various sides in Turkey's Kurdish question. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Mustafa Menshawy, associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, associate fellow at University of Westminster, and author of “Leaving the Muslim Brotherhood: Self, Society and the State” (Palgrave), on how the migration of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members from Egypt to Turkey in recent years has changed the group. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Elizabeth Rodini on "Gentile Bellini's Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II: Lives and Afterlives of an Iconic Image" (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book explores how and why the Venetian painter came to the Ottoman court in 1479, as well as his portrait's many intriguing afterlives in subsequent centuries. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Jan-Markus Vömel, doctoral candidate at the University of Konstanz, on the origins and development of political Islam in Turkey from the 1950s to the 1980s. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Louis Fishman, associate professor at Brooklyn College at the City University of New York, on “Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914: Claiming the Homeland” (Edinburgh University Press). Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Umut Azak of Istanbul's Okan University on Hagia Sophia's conversion from museum to mosque, the history of calls on Turkey's religious right to take the step, and the future of the country's religious nationalist status quo under President Erdoğan. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Ahmet Kuru, professor of political science at San Diego State University, on "Islam, Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison" (Cambridge University Press). The book traces the causes of low socio-economic development in many Muslim-majority countries to the 11th century, when Kuru argues an alliance of orthodox Islamic scholars and military states started to hinder intellectual and economic creativity. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Zeynep Çelik, professor of architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, on the origins of archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, the response to European pursuit of antiquities, and questions of heritage in contemporary Turkey. Çelik is author of “Empire, Architecture and the City: French-Ottoman Encounters, 1830-1914” (University of Washington Press) and “About Antiquities: Politics of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire” (University of Texas Press), among others. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Alan Mikhail, professor of history at Yale University, on "God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern World" (WW Norton). The book is a continent-spanning account of the life and times of Selim I, who ruled from 1512 to 1520 and whose reign saw seismic changes in Ottoman and world history. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Sinem Adar, associate in the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the SWP think tank in Berlin, on the hardening of Turkey's foreign policy in the Middle East, the East Mediterranean and Europe, as well as the Turkish government's soft power investments. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Richard Antaramian, assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California, on his book “Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire: Armenians and the Politics of Reform in the Ottoman Empire” (Stanford University Press). The book examines the Armenian community's experiences with the Ottoman Empire's "Tanzimat" modernising reforms of the mid-19th century. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Berk Esen, assistant professor of international relations at Bilkent University, on his paper “Why did Turkish democracy collapse? A political economy account of the AKP's authoritarianism”, co-authored with Şebnem Gümüşçü for the Party Politics journal. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Magdalena Zaborowska, professor of literature at the University of Michigan, on "James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile" (Duke University Press). The book looks at the great African American author's extensive periods living and working in Istanbul from 1961 to 1971. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Serhun Al on the historical origins of Turkey's Kurdish issue and the latest crackdown on the Kurdish movement. Al is assistant professor at Izmir Economics University, co-editor of “Comparative Kurdish Politics in the Middle East” (Palgrave Macmillan), and author of “Patterns of Nationhood and Saving the State in Turkey” (Routledge) as well as a number of academic articles on the Kurdish issue. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Oya Dursun-Özkanca, professor of political science at Elizabethtown College, on her book “Turkey-West Relations: The Politics of Intra-Alliance Opposition” (Cambridge University Press) and Ankara's grand ambitions for the post-coronavirus world. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, a 35% discount on over 100 books in IB Tauris' Turkey/Ottoman history series, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

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. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English/Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, exclusive access to more links, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

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 outlined by strategist Ateş İlyas Başsoy to counter the government's populism Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Curators Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı discuss the Meşher gallery's exhibition on Ukrainian painter Alexis Gritchenko's years in Istanbul from 1919 to 1921. Gritchenko produced over 600 works while living in the occupied city, to which thousands of White Russians fled after the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, associate professor of history at The College of William and Mary, on “The Kizilbash Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia: Sufism, Politics and Community” (Edinburgh University Press). The book traces the origins of today's Alevis as a unified religious group back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Ryan Gingeras, professor of history at the Naval Postgraduate School in the US, on his book “Eternal Dawn: Turkey in the Age of Atatürk” (Oxford University Press). This is his sixth and most ambitious book on the late Ottoman and early republican period, examining the conditions and paradoxes behind the rise and consecration of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from the First World War, through the Turkish war of independence, and to his death in 1938. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Omar Kadkoy, policy analyst at the Ankara-based TEPAV think tank, on the over 3.5 million Syrian migrants and refugees in Turkey, the Turkey-EU migrant deal, shifting public opinion, and the legal future of Syrians in the country. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Onur İşçi, assistant professor at Ankara's Bilkent University and director of its Centre for Russian Studies, on “Turkey and the Soviet Union during World War II: Diplomacy, Discord and International Relations” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book counter-intuitively argues that the breakdown in Turkey-Soviet relations in the Second World War and at the start of the Cold War was an anomaly in a 20th century in which Turkey and Russia in fact cooperated widely. We also take the opportunity to address present-day Ankara-Moscow ties and the situation in Syria. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854 Check out the Turkey Recap weekly newsletter: https://twitter.com/Turkeyrecap

Ayşe Zarakol, reader in International Relations at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, on “After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West” (Cambridge University Press). The book was published in English in 2011, and its second Turkish edition has just come out. It examines how a sense of “stigma” has dogged the way modern Turkey engages with the Western-led international order, as well as comparable cases of Japan and Russia. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Erkan Saka, associate professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, on “Social Media and Politics in Turkey: A Journey Through Citizen Journalism, Political Trolling and Fake News” (Lexington). The book looks at the transformation of social media use in Turkey over the years, as well as the government crackdown on social media platforms and users. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854 Check out the Turkey Recap newsletter: twitter.com/Turkeyrecap

Ayhan Kaya, Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair at the Department of International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University, on “Turkish Origin Migrants and Their Descendants: Hyphenated Identities in Transnational Space” (Palgrave Macmillan). Particularly looking at migration from Turkey to Europe since the 1960s, Kaya argues that home and host countries have increasingly defined migrants within rigid, religiously-defined boundaries, with ambivalent results. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 100 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Mike Giglio, staff writer at The Atlantic, on "Shatter the Nations: ISIS and the War for the Caliphate" (Public Affairs). The book describes Giglio's years reporting on the rise and fall of ISIS from Turkey, Syria and Iraq, including time embedded on the front line with Iraqi special forces and the Syrian Kurdish YPG. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Bilge Yabancı, Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Graz's Centre of Southeast European Studies, on her paper “Work for the Nation, Obey the State, Praise the Ummah: Turkey’s Government-oriented Youth Organizations in Cultivating a New Nation”, which appeared in the journal Ethnopolitics. Based on original fieldwork conducted over almost two years, the article explores the often umbilical relationship between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and over a dozen youth organisations that share its goal of shepherding Turkey down a religious, nationalist, conservative course. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Caner Yelbaşı, researcher in history at Mardin Artuklu University, on “The Circassians in Turkey: War, Violence and Nationalism from the Ottomans to Atatürk” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). The book describes the course of Circassians in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey after they were driven from their north Caucasus homeland by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

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. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history books published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Zeynep Şentek on the environment, public health and politics in Dilovası, a heavily polluted industrial district near Istanbul. Şentek is one of the reporters of a recent Black Sea.EU article examining the grim health consequences of life in what a 2007 parliamentary commission called a "public health disaster zone". The article paints an almost hellish picture of life for the nearly 50,000 people in Dilovası, where dangerous chemicals are continuously belched into the air, cancer rates are reportedly well above average, and locals suffer from a range of severe respiratory conditions. Here's a link to the detailed report on life in Dilovası: https://theblacksea.eu/stories/the-toxic-valley-project/the-toxic-valley/ And a shorter report on an asbestos dump in Dilovası: https://theblacksea.eu/stories/the-toxic-valley-project/asbestos-hill/ Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Soner Çağaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, on how Turkey's military incursion into northeast Syria fits into President Erdoğan's broader policies in the Middle East. Çağaptay is the author of three books since 2014 on Turkey's domestic and foreign policy, most recently “Erdogan's Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).  Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Holly Shissler, associate professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish History at the University of Chicago, on the life and work of Ahmet Mithat Efendi (1844-1912). Ahmet Mithat is among the most important men of letters in the late Ottoman era. The publisher of the newspaper "Tercuman-i Hakikat", he was also the author of many fictional works including “Felatun Bey and Rakim Efendi”, which appeared in an English translation from Syracuse University Press in 2016, and which Shissler wrote an afterword for. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive of episodes, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Deniz Çifçi on “The Kurds and the Politics of Turkey: Agency, Territory and Religion” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury). Based on extensive on-the-ground research, the book describes the diversity of interest and opinion among Kurds in Turkey, addressing differences in language, tribal affiliation, religion and ideology. While news coverage and analysis often see the Kurds as a homogeneous group with unified demands, the book paints a more nuanced picture. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. patreon.com/user?u=2998854

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. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Emre Erşen, associate professor of political science and international relations at Marmara University and co-editor of “Turkey's Pivot to Eurasia: Geopolitics and Foreign Policy in a Changing World Order” (Routledge), discusses the past, present and future of Ankara's relations with Russia and China. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Hannah Lucinda Smith on her new book “Erdoğan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey” (William Collins). Smith has been Turkey correspondent for The Times of London since 2013 and her book is a part-biography of President Erdoğan, part-journalistic account of contemporary Turkish history. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Mehmet Fatih Uslu, faculty member in the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Istanbul Şehir University, discusses the pleasures and perils of translating from Armenian into Turkish. Uslu has translated a number of significant texts, including by the great early 20th century Istanbul Armenian feminist Zabel Yesayan and the 19th century playwright Hagop Baronyan. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Yağmur Karakaya, PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota, talks about her research on the rise of Ottoman nostalgia in contemporary Turkish politics and popular culture. Karakaya is the author of "The Conquest of Hearts: The central role of Ottoman nostalgia within contemporary Turkish populism", published in November 2018 in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Haris Theodorelis-Rigas on Skarlatos Byzantios' "Constantinople" (Istos), a monumental social and historical description of Istanbul written in the mid-19th century. Haris is the translator of the first volume and one of the founders of Istos, a publishing house focusing on the Greek Orthodox heritage of Istanbul and Anatolia. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Elif Mahir Metinsoy of Galatasaray University on her book “Ottoman Women During World War I: Everyday Experiences, Politics and Conflict” (Cambridge University Press). The book describes the lives of ordinary Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire during the Great War. It moves beyond a traditional focus on the experiences of the educated, middle or upper class urban population to focus instead on the lives of ordinary masses across Anatolia. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Selim Deringil, professor of history at the Lebanese American University, on “The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands: Turkish Memoirs and Testimonies of the Great War” (Academic Studies Press). The volume includes translations and annotations of memoirs by five Ottomans stationed in Syria and the Arab Peninsula during the First World War: Falih Rıfkı Atay, Hüseyin Kazım Kadri, Ali Fuad Erden, Münevver Ayaşlı and Naci Kıcıman. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Toygar Sinan Baykan of Kırklareli University on "The Justice and Development Party in Turkey: Populism, Personalism, Organization" (Cambridge University Press). The book is based on in-depth interviews with over 50 members at various levels of Turkey's ruling AKP, giving an intimate glimpse of its internal dynamics and how it benefits from the country's various socio-cultural divides. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get English and Turkish transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Reuben Silverman, author of “Turkey’s Ever Present Past: Stories from Republican Turkish History” and “Politics in Turkey: Parties, Politicians and the Struggle for Power” (Libra Books), talks about his research on contemporary Turkish history. Check out his website for posts on a broad range of subjects: https://reubensilverman.wordpress.com/ Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Patrick Keddie on “The Passion: Football and the Story of Modern Turkey” (IB Taurus/Bloomsbury), a sweeping account of the cultural, social, political and economic significance of football in contemporary Turkey. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Şevket Pamuk, Professor of Economics at Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University, on “Uneven Centuries: Economic Development of Turkey Since 1820” (Princeton University Press). Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Ceren Lord, British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford University’s School of Global and Area Studies, on her book “Religious Politics in Turkey: From the Birth of the Republic to the AKP” (Cambridge University Press). The book challenges the popular binary understanding of modern Turkish history, which pits a monolithic secular state against an authentic religious society. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

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 struggling to get by in Istanbul. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Selda Tuncer, assistant professor at Yüzüncü Yıl University, on “Women and Public Space in Turkey: Gender, Modernity and the Urban Experience” (IB Tauris). The book is based on interviews with dozens of women who lived in the Turkish capital Ankara between 1950 and 1980. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Selim Koru on his paper: “The Resiliency of Turkey-Russia Relations.” Despite being historic rivals and at odds on many issues, Koru argues that Ankara-Moscow ties are becoming increasingly warm due to a shared underlying worldview, spurred by resentment of the West. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Maureen Freely on the enduring appeal of Sait Faik Abasiyanik (1906-1954), perhaps Turkey’s greatest short story writer. Freely co-translated a selection of Sait Faik’s stories, published in English as “A Useless Man” (Archipelago). Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, access to a 35% discount on over 400 Turkey/Ottoman history titles published by IB Tauris, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Caroline Eden on “Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes – Through Darkness and Light” (Quadrille), a richly illustrated 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. Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast and get (English and Turkish) transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the entire archive, and an archive of over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854

Yigit Akin on “When the War Came Home: The Ottoman’ Great War and the Devastation of an Empire” (Stanford University Press), a richly researched study on the consequences of the First World War on everyday social life across Ottoman territories as the empire collapsed.  Become a Turkey Book Talk member to support the podcast 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 over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history, journalism and politics. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2998854