ABSTRACT

This exciting new textbook provides a broad and comprehensive overview of contemporary Turkey. Placing the country and its people within the context of a rapidly globalizing world, the book covers a diverse range of themes such as politics, economics, international relations, the Turkic world, religion and recent historical background.

Tracing the evolution of Turkey’s domestic political and economic systems, and its foreign policy, from the inception of the republic to the present day, the themes covered include:

  • the impact of globalization on Turkey’s society, politics, economy and foreign policy
  • the role of the EU and the Turkish diaspora in the evolution of Turkish policies
  • the main features and prominent role of Kemalism
  • turkish foreign policy, and the new challenges and opportunities brought by the end of the cold war
  • the position of Turkey as a ‘bridge’ between East and West, and the particular and unique dilemmas confronting a Muslim but economically developed, democratized state allied to the West
  • Kurdish identity
  • the Fethullah Gulen movement and the Armenian ‘genocide’.

Situating the country as a ‘model’ for the wider Muslim world, this sophisticated analysis of one of the largest and most important states in the Middle East will be an invaluable resource for scholars and officials interested in Turkish politics and US foreign and security policies, and for students of the Balkan, Middle Eastern, Caucasus and Central Asian regions.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

Globalization, Turks and Turkey

chapter |18 pages

The Kemalist Legacy

Cult, Ideology and Political Practice

chapter |16 pages

Kemalism and State Security

chapter |19 pages

Turkey's Europeanization

A Journey without an Arrival?

chapter |18 pages

From Autarky to Globalization

Turkey's economic transition

chapter |21 pages

Turkey and the Kurdish issue

A transnationalized domestic problem

chapter |20 pages

A New Foreign Policy for a Globalized Age?

A Selective Historical Context

chapter |20 pages

Turkey between East and West

A bridge or afloat?

chapter |14 pages

Between Consumers and Producers

Turkey as an energy bridge?

chapter |15 pages

The Armenian Genocide

A Foreign Policy Problem in a Globalized World

chapter |13 pages

Migration, Turkey and Turks

chapter |7 pages

Concluding Thoughts