Triumphant Turkey? ~ Book Review Center

Thursday, 28 July 2011

Triumphant Turkey?

15:03 property No comments

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Stephen Kinzer

Turkey and the Dilemma of EU Accession: When Religion Meets Politics
by Mirela Bogdani

The Mobilization of Political Islam in Turkey
by Banu Eligur

Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History, 1789–2007
by Carter Vaughn Findley

Streets of Memory: Landscape, Tolerance, and National Identity in Istanbul
by Amy Mills

Kayhan Ozer/Anatolian Agency/epa/Corbis

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine at a campaign rally in Istanbul, June 11, 2011

Politically Turkey has changed more in the last ten years than it did in the previous eighty. For generations the army was able to enforce strict secularism in the tradition of Ataturk, but a new ethos, more open to religious influence, has changed the terms of politics and public life. Prime Minister Erdogan prays daily and his wife wears a headscarf. In some Turkish towns, Justice and Development mayors have sought to restrict the sale of alcohol or establish single-sex beaches. This has alarmed many secular-minded citizens. Erdogan could help calm their fears, but instead he has become increasingly strident. Turkey has emerged from the shadow of military power, a breakthrough of historic proportions. Whether it is moving toward an era of European-style freedom or simply trading one form of authoritarianism for another is unclear.