Turkey Unveiled
by Nicole Pope, Hugh Pope
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hugh Pope, Nicole PopeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-06-29
ISBN: 1585675814
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Overlook TP
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781585675814
- Condition: USED - Very Good
- Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Turkey Unveiled
Book Review: An interesting though lacking piece on modern Turkey
Summary: 3 Stars
The modern republic of Turkey has recently been featured in the Western media quite frequently; whether it being its vociferous campaign on the passing of an Armenian Genocide resolution in the US Congress or its unilateral military initiatives in Iraq against the Kurds, Turkey, as the authors of this book quite rightly and matter-of-factly state, comes off as a contradiction of sorts to the ordinary viewer, neither being a truly Western nor Eastern power yet having a significant ability to bridge the gap between the two cultures.
The Popes, a husband and wife team, are British journalists and they set about to unravel the enigma that is Turkey. The book concentrates primarily on the Turkish state that was established in 1923 from a top-heavy perspective and does a decent job by providing an objective look on all the major political players of the political establishment. Turgut Ozal, the prime minister and president of Turkey from the 1980s to the early 1990s, clearly comes off as the hero who pulled Turkey from its bootstraps by enacting legislation, encouraging Western investment, and tempering down its wild inflation. On other fronts, the Popes spare no criticism in castigating the doubled-edged sword that is the Turkish military (sworn to protect Turkey and its secular nature), the narrow-minded attacks that Turkish political parties level at each other and both the Turks' and Kurds' blatant disregard for human rights. Turkish culture and the current struggle between secularism and Islam is lightly explored also, but it leaves much to be desired
Though all this is well and good, the book does have significant shortcomings. The book devotes to Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish state and so revolutionary and significant a figure, a mere 19 pages (one chapter) and does not at all go into depth of the groundbreaking changes Ataturk initialized and abolished when he became president in 1923. Even after this chapter, his name is only mentioned sparingly and only then used to repeat what he had accomplished. A second significant fault in this book is the Popes' shameless denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Picking up directly the Turkish line of argument, the Popes provide a distorted picture of the events that led up to the Genocide and go even further in what happened later. This chapter (ch. 2) is written in ambivalent and apprehensive language, as if the Popes both wish to dwell more on the topic and drop it at the same time. The Ottoman government is not criticized at all here, nor are Turkey's current-day policies, nor Turks for their denial of the Genocide; one wonders what the Popes' reaction was when Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was killed in January 2007 and the notorious role Article 301 of the Turkish law code plays in Turkey to this day.
A basic knowledge of Turkey is required, although I recommend this book half-heartedly. You can read it to understand Turkey better, but will only be able to lift the veil halfway through.
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