Erdogan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey

Erdogan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey
Author: Hannah Lucinda Smith
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2019-09-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0008308861

‘Essential reading for anyone interested in Turkey and its future.’ Literary Review ‘Essential reading full stop.’ Peter Frankopan ‘It is a must.’ The Times

Erdogan Rising: a Warning to Europe

Erdogan Rising: a Warning to Europe
Author: Hannah Lucinda Smith
Publisher: William Collins
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780008308889

'Essential reading for anyone interested in Turkey and its future.' Literary Review 'Essential reading full stop.' Peter Frankopan 'It is a must.' The Times Who is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and how did he lead a democracy on the fringe of Europe into dictatorship? How has chaos in the Middle East blown back over Turkey's borders? And why doesn't the West just cut Erdogan and his regime off? Hannah Lucinda Smith has been living in Turkey as the Times correspondent for nearly a decade, reporting on the ground from the onset of the Arab Spring through terrorist attacks, mass protests, civil war, unprecedented refugee influx and the explosive, bloody 2016 coup attempt that threatened to topple - and kill - Erdogan. Erdogan Rising introduces Turkey as a vital country, one that borders and buffers Western Europe, the Middle East and the old Soviet Union, marshals the second largest army in NATO and hosts more refugees than any other nation. As president, Erdogan is the face of devotion and division, a leader who mastered macho divide-and-rule politics a decade and a half before Donald Trump cottoned on, and has used it to lead his country into spiralling authoritarianism. Yet Erdogan is no ordinary dictator. His elections are won only by slivers, and Turkey remains defined by its two warring cults: those who worship Erdogan, the wilful Muslim nationalist with a tightening authoritarian grip, and those who stand behind Ataturk, the secularist, westward-looking leader who founded the republic and remains its best loved icon - now eighty years dead. Erdogan commands a following so devoted they compose songs in his honour, adorn their homes with his picture, and lay down their lives to keep him in power. Erdogan Rising asks how this century's most successful populist won his position, and where Turkey is headed next.

Erdogan's Empire

Erdogan's Empire
Author: Soner Cagaptay
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-09-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1786726343

Gradually since 2003, Turkey's autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to make Turkey a great power -- in the tradition of past Turkish leaders from the late Ottoman sultans to Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Here the leading authority Soner Cagaptay, author of The New Sultan -- the first biography of President Erdogan -- provides a masterful overview of the power politics in the Middle East and Turkey's place in it. Erdogan has picked an unorthodox model in the context of recent Turkish history, attempting to cast his country as a stand-alone Middle Eastern power. In doing so Turkey has broken ranks with its traditional Western allies, including the United States and has embraced an imperial-style foreign policy which has aimed to restore Turkey's Ottoman-era reach into the Arabian Middle East and the Balkans. Today, in addition to a domestic crackdown on dissent and journalistic freedoms, driven by Erdogan's style of governance, Turkey faces a hostile world. Ankara has nearly no friends left in the Middle East, and it faces a threat from resurgent historic adversaries: Russia and Iran. Furthermore, Turkey cannot rely on the unconditional support of its traditional Western allies. Can Erdogan deliver Turkey back to safety? What are the risks that lie ahead for him, and his country? How can Turkey truly become a great power, fulfilling a dream shared by many Turks, the sultans, Ataturk, and Erdogan himself?

The New Sultan

The New Sultan
Author: Soner Çaǧaptay
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2017
Genre: Turkey
ISBN: 9781350988972

"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."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Ally No More

Ally No More
Author: Clare Lopez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2018-04-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781717071675

"Whither Turkey?" is a question that has become one of the most pressing national security topics of our time. The available evidence - including notably the increasingly overt ambition of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to become the Caliph of a neo-Ottoman empire, his naked hostility toward the United States and the damage being done by Turkey to America's vital interests and those of the rest of NATO and other allies like Israel and the Kurds - suggests the answer is alarming. That evidence is thoughtfully assessed in Ally No More, including in essays about the presence of Turkish influence operations and infrastructure that could bring here the threat posed to this country by Erdogan, as well, making it required reading for policy-makers and the public, alike.

A Sultan in Autumn

A Sultan in Autumn
Author: Soner Cagaptay
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2021-09-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0755642813

"Informative." - Foreign Affairs Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled Turkey for nearly two decades. Here, Soner Cagaptay, a leading authority on the country, offers insights on the next phase of Erdogan's rule. His dwindling support base at home, coupled with rising opposition, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Turkey's weak economy, would appear to threaten his grip on power. How will he react? In this astute analysis, Cagaptay casts Erdogan as an inventor of nativist populist politics in the twenty-first century. The Turkish president knows how to polarize the electorate to boost his base, and how to wield oppressive tactics when polarization alone cannot win elections. Cagaptay contends that Erdogan will cling to power-with severe costs for Turkey's citizens, institutions, and allies. The associated dynamics, which carry implications far beyond Turkey's borders-and what they portend for the United States-make A Sultan in Autumn a must-read for all those interested in Turkey and the geopolitics of the next decade.

GameChanger

GameChanger
Author: Erbil Gunasti
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1642934607

Imagine… The US, as the sole Christian and Western power, down to the third slot from the top, is being squeezed out by China and India, the number one and two economies in the world, and challenged by two upcoming Muslim countries, Indonesia and Turkey, from the other end. All the while, Germany, the UK, and France are struggling to hold on to the bottom of the barrel in the top ten list, being of no help to the US during this onslaught. No, it is not a horror movie. It is about to become reality. And as early as within a decade! Unless Erdoğan and Trump can eliminate soft bellies in the Middle East and Europe, setting the stage for the US to establish balance of power against the rapidly rising East.

Why Turkey is Authoritarian

Why Turkey is Authoritarian
Author: Halil Karaveli
Publisher: Left Book Club
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Authoritarianism
ISBN: 9780745337555

A radical history of Turkey, from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the present day, rejecting traditional narratives of a 'clash of civilisations'

How to Lose a Country

How to Lose a Country
Author: Ece Temelkuran
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2024-10-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1668087855

“Essential.” —Margaret Atwood An urgent call to action and a field guide to spotting the insidious patterns and mechanisms of the populist wave sweeping the globe from an award-winning journalist and acclaimed political thinker. How to Lose a Country is a warning to the world that populism and nationalism don’t march fully-formed into government; they creep. Award-winning author and journalist Ece Temelkuran identifies the early warning signs of this phenomenon, sprouting up across the world from Eastern Europe to South America, in order to arm the reader with the tools to recognise it and take action. Weaving memoir, history and clear-sighted argument, Temelkuran proposes alternative answers to the pressing—and too often paralysing—political questions of our time. How to Lose a Country is an exploration of the insidious ideas at the core of these movements and an urgent, eloquent defence of democracy. This 2024 edition includes a new foreword by the author.

The Turkish Malaise - A Critical Essay

The Turkish Malaise - A Critical Essay
Author: Cengiz Aktar
Publisher: Transnational Press London
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2021-09-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1801350779

No one can predict today how Turkey will evolve; which spirit will mark the country’s future. Who could have predicted the turn it has taken in recent years after having been a rising star in the early 2000s, a candidate for the European club, “the” model to follow, especially for Muslim countries seeking justice and prosperity? The failure of its candidacy, in which Europe has its share, has been the prelude to its progressive de-Westernisation accompanied by bellicosity on all fronts, at home and abroad. Western countries are trying to manage this “Turkish crisis” between incomprehension and blind detachment, between appeasement and complicity, between containment and apprehension of seeing this large country decompose in its turn. In this concise and well-documented essay, the author provides analytical tools to understand the split of a society, between state, nation, religion, imperial myth and the West. The analysis is complemented by interviews with the sociologist Nilüfer Göle and the historian Étienne Copeaux, both of whom have witnessed Turkey’s never-ending transformation.