Turkey Book Talk

Nov 04 2024 100 ep. 38 mins 420
Turkey Book Talk Podcast artwork

Conversations with journalists, academics and writers on Turkey and its region. New episode every two weeks.

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Salim Çevik on Turkey's Middle East reset

Nov 04 2024 37 mins  
Salim Çevik, visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), on his recent paper ”Turkey’s Reconciliation Efforts in the Middle East: Ambitions and Constraints in a Changing Regional Order”. The piece examines Erdogan’s shift away from trying to overthrow the established regional order by supporting Muslim Brotherhood allies, and towa

Orçun Selçuk on populist polarisation in Turkey and Latin America

Oct 21 2024 40 mins  
Orçun Selçuk, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Luther College, on ”The Authoritarian Divide: Populism, Propaganda, and Polarization” (University of Notre Dame Press). The book compares what Selçuk calls ”affective leader polarisation” in Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Venezuela under Hugo Chávez, and Ecuador under Rafael Correa. It shows that Turkey’

Ezgi Başaran on the new spirit of Islamism

Oct 07 2024 34 mins  
Ezgi Başaran, journalist and academic at St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford, 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, Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab Uprisings from 2011 to 2013. Based on interviews with dozens of officials in all

Samim Akgönül on 100 years of Turkish-Greek relations

Sep 23 2024 37 mins  
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). Based on over two decades of on-the-ground research in Turkey and Greece, the book examines popular conceptions of the other in both countries, showing how live

Çağdaş Üngör on Turkey's geopolitical dilemmas in the Asia-Pacific century

Sep 09 2024 38 mins  
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. The two pieces challenge the popular conception that Ankara is poised to leverage its unique g

Karabekir Akkoyunlu on religion and democracy in Turkey and Iran

Aug 26 2024 41 mins  
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). The book makes the case that the political systems under the clergy in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the military in the Republic of Turkey have had surprising similarities

Eugene Rogan on communal violence and the end of the old Ottoman world

Aug 12 2024 46 mins  
Eugene Rogan, professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford, 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 - a shocking eruption of violence after hun

Umit Kurt on Gaziantep's forgotten Armenian past

Jul 29 2024 30 mins  
Umit Kurt, assistant professor of history at the University of Newcastle, Australia, on ”The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province” (Harvard University Press). The book draws on Armenian, Ottoman, Turkish, British and French archives, memoirs, personal papers, oral accounts and property liquidation records, to detail the dispossession of Antep�

Ozge Samanci on visualising Istanbul's sociopolitical currents

Jul 15 2024 23 mins  
Ozge Samanci, artist and associate professor at Northwestern University, on her new graphic novel “Evil Eyes Sea” (Uncivilized Books). The semi-autobiographical story is a murder mystery centred on a group of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in the 1990s. It follows up from her previous highly successful graphic novel “Dare to Disappoint”. Become a member on

Sami Kent on stories from Turkey’s first hundred years

Jul 01 2024 32 mins  
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 from previous decades 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