Review of Tahir Abbas, Contemporary Turkey in Conflict: Ethnicity, Islam and Politics

Abstract

Since the rise of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in 2002, the country has been at the forefront of events in the region and beyond, even more so in the wake of the 15 July 2016 failed coup attempt. The party’s initial pro-EU, pro-democratic posture has given way to an illiberal authoritarianism since 2010, a process that has yet to reach its denouement. Tahir Abbas’ worthy ambition in Contemporary Turkey in Conflict: Ethnicity, Islam and Politics is to chart the path of sociopolitical transformation Turkey has undergone over the last decade or so, by surveying some of the key ideas and actors shaping contemporary Turkish politics. The author, in six well sourced and written chapters, grounds his survey in a comprehensive range of important themes—namely: the issue of minorities (with emphasis on Armenians and Kurds); the broader Kurdish Issue; contemporary Kemalism; Islam; neo-liberalism and conservatism; and nationalism and ethnicity.