Turkey Book Talk

Sami Kent on stories from Turkey’s first hundred years

Sami Kent on “The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey’s First Hundred Years” (Picador). The book paints a portrait of Turkey by combining accounts of key events with Sami’s personal reflections on growing up learning about his paternal homeland from afar, before coming to work in the country as a journalist.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Bradley Secker on the pleasures and perils of photojournalism in Istanbul

Istanbul-based photojournalist Bradley Secker discusses his work on migration, LGBT+ asylum seekers in the Middle East and Europe, the difficulties of practicing journalism in Turkey and the broader state of photojournalism.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Bilge Yesil on Turkey’s global media operations

Bilge Yesil on “Talking Back to the West: How Turkey Uses Counter-Hegemony to Reshape the Global Communication Order” (University of Illinois Press). The book examines how Erdogan's regime has mobilised English-language media to counter foreign criticism and project Turkey as a rising power opposed to Western imperialism, supposedly giving a voice to oppressed Muslims around the world.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon or Substack. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky on Muslim refugees in the Ottoman Empire

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky on “Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State” (Stanford University Press). The book explores the forced migration from the Russian Empire of around one million Muslims, who settled in the Ottoman Empire between the 1850s and World War One.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Patreon members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Emre Toros on Turkey between democracy and authoritarianism

Emre Toros on “Electoral Integrity in Turkey” (Edinburgh University Press). The book weighs up the country's democratic credentials after over two decades of rule by Erdogan's party, painting an ambivalent picture combining both optimism and pessimism.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Patreon members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Christopher Phillips on Turkey’s place in Middle East turbulence

Christopher Phillips on “Battleground: Ten Conflicts that Explain the New Middle East” (Yale University Press). The conversation explores the region's shifting rivalries, as well as how Turkey’s push for greater influence in Syria, Iraq and Libya has impacted its ties with other ambitious powers.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Patreon members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Seda Demiralp on Turkey’s surprise local election results

Seda Demiralp on what the recent local election results mean for Turkish politics. The conversation takes in what the main opposition CHP did right, what the ruling AKP did wrong, the emerging challenge to Erdogan posed by the Yeniden Refah Party, and the performance of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Patreon members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Andrew Finkel on Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II and Sherlock Holmes

Andrew Finkel, a veteran journalist based in Turkey for decades, on his debut novel “The Adventure of the Second Wife: The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes and the Ottoman Sultan” (Even Keel Press). It is a sprawling story exploring the mystery of Abdulhamid II’s obsession with Sherlock Holmes.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk. Patreon members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Bahar Baser on Turkey's brain drain

Bahar Baser on “An Exodus from Turkey: Tales of Migration and Exile” (Edinburgh University Press), co-edited with Erdi Ozturk. The book examines the current wave of migration from Turkey, focusing on the experiences of 21 different public figures living overseas.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

İlkay Yılmaz on the origins of the Ottoman Turkish security state

İlkay Yılmaz on “Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908” (Syracuse University Press). The book examines how paranoia about nationalist, anarchist and revolutionary movements spread during the era of Abdulhamid II, prompting new methods aiming to control subjects of the Ottoman state.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Alexander Christie-Miller on Turkey and the people of Istanbul’s historic walls

Alexander Christie-Miller on “To The City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul” (William Collins). He worked for many years as the Times of London's Turkey correspondent and his book is a sophisticated meditation on contemporary life and politics in the country.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Tuğba Tekerek on the crisis in Turkish academia

Tuğba Tekerek on “Provincial Universities: The AK Party’s Backyard Campus" (İletişim). The book examines the government's push to open over 100 universities across Turkey over the past two decades, painting a picture of falling academic standards but increased outlets for the ruling party's religious nationalist ideology. 

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to articles related to each episode.

Timur Hammond on religion and change in Istanbul

Timur Hammond on “Placing Islam: Geographies of Connection in Twentieth-Century Istanbul” (University of California Press). The book is a sociological and historical study tracing the changing character of Istanbul's Eyüpsultan district, its industrial and commercial history, and its role in the emergence of political Islam in Turkey.

Become a member to support Turkey Book Talk on Patreon. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and links to related content with each episode.

İlkim Büke Okyar on Arabs in Turkish popular culture

İlkim Büke Okyar on “Arabs in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1876-1950: National Self and Non-National Other” (Syracuse University Press). The conversation addresses how Arabs are typically viewed in Turkish popular culture, also examining the impact of the influx of Syrian migrants since 2011 and the Israel-Gaza war.

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.

Berk Esen on the future of Turkey’s opposition and the fate of its democracy

Berk Esen on the troubled future of Turkey’s democracy and the challenges facing its opposition parties heading into 2024. Berk recently co-authored “Turkey’s New Regime: Competitive Authoritarianism” (Iletisim) along with Hakan Yavuzyilmaz and Sebnem Gumuscu.

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.

Sinem Adar on Turkey’s dilemmas amid the Israel-Gaza war

Sinem Adar, associate at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, on Turkey’s response to the Israel-Gaza war. The conversation builds on her recent article arguing that the crisis shows the limits of Turkey’s regional influence.

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.

Cihan Dizdaroğlu on Turkey-Greece ties through turbulence and rapprochement

Cihan Dizdaroğlu on “Turkish-Greek Relations: Foreign Policy in a Securitisation Framework” (Edinburgh University Press). The book looks at how ties between Athens and Ankara have gone through various cycles of improvement and deterioration from the early Republic of Turkey to today. 

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.

Alp Yenen on weighing up the Republic of Turkey’s legacy at 100 years

Alp Yenen on “A Hundred Years of Republican Turkey: A History in a Hundred Fragments” (Leiden University Press). The book includes 100 chapters, written by over 70 scholars, examining different aspects of Turkey's political, social, cultural and economic history on the centenary of the republic's founding.

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.

Nilay Özok-Gündoğan on political authority in Ottoman Kurdistan

Nilay Özok-Gündoğan on “The Kurdish Nobility in the Ottoman Empire: Loyalty, Autonomy and Privilege” (Edinburgh University Press). The book narrates the rise and fall of the Kurdish nobility in the Ottoman east, as well as how their autonomy was abolished as the empire modernised and centralised from the 19th century.

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.

Onur İşçi on post-war Turkey-Soviet relations and Ankara’s ties with Russia today

Onur İşçi on “Turkey at a Crossroads: The Soviet Threat and Postwar Realignment, 1945-1946”, published in the journal Diplomatic History. The article reexamines the time when the Soviet Union made military and territorial demands, ultimately pushing Turkey towards Nato. The conversation also touches on Ankara's complicated present-day policy towards Moscow.

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.