Turkey What Everyone Needs to Know®

by Finkel, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780199733057
• ISBN10: 0199733058
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Turkey occupies a strategic position in today's world: culturally, historically, and geographically, it is the link between Islam and Western democracy, between Europe and the Middle East. The only predominantly Muslim nation to be a member of NATO and an ally of Israel, Turkey straddles bothEurope and Asia. And it boasts an economy larger than any of the states that have joined the EU in recent years - Istanbul alone has a bigger economy than that of Hungary or the Czech Republic - with pipelines that carry much of the world's oil and gas. Andrew Finkel has spent twenty years in Turkey writing about the country for a number of leading news media such as The Economist and Time magazine. In this concise book, Finkel unravels Turkey's complexities, setting them against the historical background of the Ottoman Empire, the secularnationalist revolution led by Kemal Ataturk, and repeated political interventions by the military, which sees itself as the guardian of Ataturk's legacy. Finkel reveals a nation full of surprises. Turkey's labyrinthine politics often lead to such unexpected outcomes as leaders of theuntra-nationalist party starting on the road to EU membership by voting to scrap the death penalty - which also meant giving a reprieve to the convicted leader of the Kurdish separatist movement. And where else but in Turkey, Finkel writes, would secularist liberals have supported a prime ministerwho was once jailed for promoting religious extremism?From the Kurdish question to economic policy, from Turkey's role in Iraq to its quest for EU membership, Finkel illuminates the past and present of this unique, and uniquely consequential, country.

Author Biography

Andrew Finkel is a journalist who has been based in Turkey for twenty years. His reporting has appeared in The Economist, Time, The Daily Telegraph, The Times of London, and CNN.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Why this book?	p. 1
What is a Turk?	p. 8
What sort of language is Turkish?	p. 12
What are the regions of Turkey?	p. 17
Historical background	p. 20
Who were the Ottomans and what is their relation to modern Turkey?	p. 20
What was the genesis of modern Turkey?	p. 25
Who was Atatürk and why is his picture everywhere?	p. 28
What is Atatürk's legacy?	p. 30
Are there any Atatürk jokes (and, if so, does anyone laugh at them)?	p. 33
Where does Turkey fit into world history?	p. 34
How seriously does Turkey take its obligation to preserve the past?	p. 36
Economy	p. 43
What is Turkey's economic potential…?	p. 43
…And Turkey's economic weaknesses?	p. 47
If Turkey is an emerging market, what has it emerged from?	p. 50
What is the GAP and why is it so controversial?	p. 56
How important is agriculture to the Turkish economy?	p. 59
What are the differences between Istanbul and Ankara?	p. 62
Turkey in the world	p. 67
Where does Turkey fit into the world?	p. 67
How did Turkey respond to the end of the Cold War?	p. 69
What changes has the AK Party made?	p. 73
How strong is the U.S.-Turkish alliance?	p. 77
What is Turkey's relationship with Israel and what are its effects?	p. 84
What are Turkey's relations with the European Union?	p. 89
Is Turkey really European enough to be a member of the EU?	p. 94
Will Turkey successfully conclude negotiations (and what about Cyprus)?	p. 101
Politics…and the military	p. 106
Wha t sort of political system does Turkey have?	p. 106
Are Turkish political parties deeply ideological?	p. 114
What are the major forces in Turkish politics?	p. 118
How active is the Turkish press?	p. 123
What is the role of the military in Turkey?	p. 126
Could there be another military coup ?	p. 129
What is the Ergenekon Conspiracy?	p. 130
What sort of Constitution does Turkey have?	p. 134
Society and religion	p. 138
What role does Islam play in Turkish public life?	p. 138
Is Turkey in danger of becoming a fundamentalist state?	p. 141
Who are the Kurds?	p. 149
Where do Kurds fit into Turkish society?	p. 152
What lies at the heart of Turkey's Kurdish problem?	p. 154
Is there a Kurdish solution?	p. 163
What is the status of women in Turkey?	p. 165
Why are headscarves such a sensitive issue?	p. 169
What status do lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people enjoy in Turkey?	p. 172
Why doesn't Turkey concede there was an Armenian genocide in 1915?	p. 175
Wasn't there another tragedy in 1915?	p. 181
What are the implications of genocide resolutions?	p. 182
Conclusion	p. 186
What sort of future does Turkey face?	p. 186
Notes	p. 191
Further Reading	p. 195
Index	p. 199
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