Geschichte der Türkei

The republican order of Turkey has remained almost unchanged since the establishment of the state in 1923, yet behind this remarkable continuity lie dramatic changes – from the enforced Europeanization under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to military coups and conflicts with minorities, culminating in the Islamist-authoritarian presidential regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Maurus Reinkowski narrates the story of a country at the crossroads of different cultures and power blocs with sovereignty, precision, and wonderful readability.

When Turkish President Erdoğan converted the Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque in the summer of 2020, he prayed like an Ottoman Sultan himself, simultaneously demonstrating that Turkey is an Islamic country. The Republic of Turkey, built on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, has repeatedly redefined its identity throughout its hundred-year history: The secular and European-oriented nation-state promoted by Atatürk aspired to a Turkish-Islamic synthesis under the military regime after 1980, positioned itself as the leading power of all Turkic peoples after 1990, aimed to become a future member of the European Union around the turn of the millennium, and today seeks to align itself with the formerly Ottoman-controlled Arab world. Maurus Reinkowski tells the story of Turkey through the lens of domestic and foreign political upheavals, masterfully highlighting the social, economic, and cultural tensions that continue to shape the country between East and West to this day.