Turkey Old And New

This edition of Halide Edib Adivar's Memoirs, prefaced with Sibel Erol's excellent introduction, is important and timely. When stereotypes of women in the Muslim world abound, Halide's memoirs remind us of the courage and dedication of "foremothers" who struggled for emancipation at both personal and national levels. These memoirs open a window on the search for personal expression of a woman caught up in the oppressive dynamics of her polygamous households (parental and marital), and the travails of national liberation and nation-building in Turkey, in which she played an active role. Halide speaks to us with an urgency which now cries out to be heard more than ever. Halide Edib's memoirs are indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of childhood and education in the late Ottoman Empire. Edib worked to spread public education, instituting schools in Istanbul and in the Arab provinces during World War I. Her account is vibrant and direct, off ering an excellent witness to this critical period during which the Empire collapsed. Halide Edib lived through the most turbulent times in modern Turkish history. Most unusually for a woman of her day, she did so not only as an eyewitness, but as an active political participant. She was on close personal terms with powerful leaders such as Talat Pasha and Ataturk, but retained a critical and independent mind. All this gives her memoirs their unique character. The book provides new light on the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish nation.

In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and liberalism, Turkey is at the epicentre. And at the heart of Turkey is its right-wing populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. Since 2002, Erdo?an has consolidated his hold on domestic politics while using military and diplomatic means to solidify Turkey as a regional power. His crackdown has been brutal and consistent - scores of journalists arrested, academics officially banned from leaving the country, university deans fired and many of the highest-ranking military officers arrested. In some senses, the nefarious and failed 2016 coup has given Erdo?an the licence to make good on his repeated promise to bring order and stability under a 'strongman'. Here, leading Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay will look at Erdo?an's roots in Turkish history, what he believes in and how he has cemented his rule, as well as what this means for the world. The book will also unpick the 'threats' Erdogan has worked to combat - from the liberal Turks to the Gulen movement, from coup plotters to Kurdish nationalists - all of which have culminated in the crisis of modern Turkey.

Updated since the decision to begin Turkey's admission to the European Union. Turkey is a country in a state of flux, swept along by an extraordinary process of change. In the last few years, a series of far-reaching political and economic reforms has swept away much of the old order which ruled the country for so long. Some people call it a second Turkish revolution. But resistance to reform remains strong. Pressure for change has come from ordinary people fed up with the old ways; it's also been motivated by the dominant issue of Turkish political life - the long pursuit of membership of the European Union. And yet Turkey remains a mystery to many outsiders; a complex country hard to understand. It's secular and Muslim, Western and Eastern, democratic and authoritarian, all at the same time. This book examines the potential and the problems of the new Turkey, and the expectations of the people who live there, drawing on first-hand interviews and observations gathered over several years.