Overview

Turkey was once regarded as merely an odd appendix to the West: economically backward, inward-looking, marred by political violence, and yet a staunch NATO ally. But as a result of the turmoil currently engulfing the Middle East, Turkey has become a country of increasing global significance. Negotiating an uneasy membership in the Western security alliance with its predominantly Muslim identity, it is a test case for a number of the momentous conflicts of our time: from the future of Islamic reform and democracy to the capacity of the European Union to project its norms, and from the quest to come to terms with a past marred by mass violence to the promise of equitable economic development. Kerem OEktem charts the contemporary history of Turkey, exploring such key issues as the relationship between religion and the state, Kurdish identity, Turkey's relationship with Israel, and the ongoing controversy over EU membership. This new edition adds up-to-date analysis of recent developments, including the momentous events of the Gezi Park protests, and assesses the extent to which political Islam in Turkey has been able to respond to these new challenges. Readable but comprehensive, Angry Nation remains the definitive book on the country's erratic transformation from a military dictatorship to a maturing, if still deeply troubled, democracy.

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Kerem OEktem is a Professor for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, Austria. He is also an associate of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford, where he read for his D. Phil at the School of Geography and taught at the Oriental Institute until 2014. He has published extensively on Turkish politics and international relations, as well as in the fields of nationalism studies, ethnic conflict, ethnic diversity and Muslims in Europe. His most recent books are the monograph Circumcision and surveillance: Jews, Muslims, and German attitudes (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), a special issue of the Journal Patterns of Prejudice on Armenian-Turkish relations, edited with Sossie Kasbarian (2014), and the volume Another empire? A decade of Turkey's foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party (Istanbul: Bilgi University Press, 2012), with Ayse Kadioglu and Mehmet Karli. Kerem OEktem has contributed articles to Nations and Nationalism, The English Historical Review, European Journal of Turkish Studies, Journal of Muslims in Europe, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies and the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe. In addition to his scholarly work, he comments on current affairs for OpenDemocracy.

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