Turkey Book Talk

Episodes

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  Kenan Orhan on his novel of migration, nostalgia and Turkey's political crackdown 27.10.2026 31m

  Kenan Orhan on his Booker Prize longlisted novel “The Renovation” (Penguin).  The novel tells the story of a woman who has recently moved with her family from Turkey to a small town in Italy, where one day she discovers that her bathroom has been re-modelled into a cell in Istanbul’s notorious Silivri Prison. 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/
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  Nefise Kahraman on bringing overlooked Turkish classics to new readers 13.10.2026 32m

  Nefise Kahraman discusses Translation Attached, which brings lesser known Ottoman and Turkish literary gems to an English-reading audience.  The conversation also addresses Translation Attached’s seventh book, “Beneath the Handkerchief, and Other Tales”, a volume of 25 humorous and socially observant short stories by the late author and diplomat Memduh Sevket Esendal (1883-1952). Translated by Etkin Hanson, it is the first selection of Esendal’s work to appear in English and gives readers a flavour of a distinctive voice from 20th century Turkish letters. 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/
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  Dimitar Bechev on Turkey, Russia, China and the 'scramble for Europe' 29.09.2026 30m

  Dimitar Bechev, Director of the Dahrendorf Programme at St Antony’s College, University Oxford and Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe, on “The Scramble for Europe: Russia, China, and Turkey Challenging Regional Order” (Oxford University Press) The book questions whether Turkey can be placed alongside Russia and China as a direct competitor to the EU, with a fundamentally different view on the challenges posed by an increasingly unstable world. As Bechev writes: ”Whereas formerly the trio was on the receiving end of order-building from the EU, it is now in the business of reshaping and rearranging power hierarchies, institutions, and norms in Europe.” The conversation asks what has changed since the relative glory years of Turkey’s EU accession process in the 2000s, and whether the current situation of low-expectation, pragmatic engagement - with fundamental disputes left unresolved – was always inevitable. 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/
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  Marc Sinan Winrow on Turkey and the liberal international order 15.09.2026 39m

  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/
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  Benjamin Fortna on change and continuity in Ottoman and Turkish history 01.09.2026 41m

  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/
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  Işılay Gürsu on archaeology and public perceptions in Turkey 18.08.2026 35m

  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/
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  Onur İnal on the rise of late Ottoman İzmir 04.08.2026 26m

  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/
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  Sinem Adar on Turkey's role in a fracturing Western alliance 21.07.2026 38m

  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/
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  Hannah Lucinda Smith on Turkey, Russia and Europe's hinterlands 23.06.2026 45m

  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/
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  Doruk Erhan on the limits of Turkey's shift to autocracy 09.06.2026 36m

  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/
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  Jennifer Hattam on writing the Lonely Planet guide to Turkey 26.05.2026 33m

  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/
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  Brett Wilson on the myth and reality of modern Turkey's religious reforms 12.05.2026 39m

  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/
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  Suzy Hansen on Turkey and an Istanbul neighborhood in the age of Erdoğan 28.04.2026 48m

  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/
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  Faisal Devji on the crisis of 'global Islam' in Turkey and elsewhere 14.04.2026 34m

  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/
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  Ryan Gingeras on organised crime in Turkey's modern history 31.03.2026 38m

  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/
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  Mustafa Aksakal on World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire 17.03.2026 38m

  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/
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  Michelle Lynn Kahn on Turkish migration to Germany 03.03.2026 30m

  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/
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  Murat Yıldız on the Ottoman world of sports, modernisation and minorities 17.02.2026 42m

  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/
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  Berin Gür on the conquest of Istanbul in the Islamist-nationalist imagination 03.02.2026 30m

  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/
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  Adnan Khan on the human toll of Turkey's importing of Europe's waste 20.01.2026 37m

  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/