Book Review: Simon A. Waldman and Emre Caliskan’s “Turkey and its Discontents” by Sertaç Sehlikoglu

Waldman, Simon A. and Emre Caliskan. 2016. Turkey and its Discontents. Pp: 342. Hurst & Company Publishers: London. Paperback ISBN: 9781849045667.

Reviewed by Sertaç Sehlikoglu, s.sehlikoglu@ucl.ac.uk , Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at the University College London

Turkey has long been perceived to be an intriguing country for social scientists to study mostly due to its Muslim secularist constituent, lately resulting in a vast literature on the unprecedented upsurge of political Islam. The last five years, on the other hand, have proven to be particularly perplexing for an outsider to understand. Waldman and Caliskan’s book provides a rich and detailed mapping of those recent political, social, and economic events as they took place in Turkey.  

The book consists of seven chapters with an introduction and a conclusion. The chapters focus on the major issues in Turkish political and social life: military and the coup attempt of 2016 (Chapter 1: The General’s Last Sigh), AKP’s success in the parliament and over the public (Chapter 2: The Irresistable Rise of the AKP), Erdogan’s political significance (Chapter 3: Erdogan’s Way: Turkey’s Majoritarianism and Its Discontents), the rising pressure and control over the media in general and the journalists in particular (Chapter 4: Breaking the News), suburban majorities (Chapter 5: Urban Planning, Development and the Politics of the  Gecekondu), Kurdish question (Chapter 6: Waltzing with Ocalan: Turkey and the Kurdish Peace Process), and Turkey’s foreign policy in the last decade (Chapter 7: Davutoglu’s Rhythmic Diplomacy: Classical Concert or Improvised Jazz?)

It is quite a challenge for the researchers working on various parts of the Middle East to describe the political battles in all their complexity. In each one of the chapters, the authors provide a comprehensive detail to the reader to make the complicated issues comprehensible and are often skillful in doing so. One challenge any author might face in providing such a convoluted narrative to the reader is of course to further confuse them. Thanks to the diligent work of the authors, the confusion is minimized. All the key figures and elements discussed in the book are provided along with a classical abbreviations list are provided for the reader’s reference. Endnotes are used both in-text citations and to provide footnotes and are organized in a manner that is quite easy to follow.

Authors use a wide range of material from academic and non-academic resources. The book has a rich bibliography consisting of both English and Turkish resources.

The book also has a strong critical eye. Multiple times throughout the book, the authors draw readers’ attention to the nuances in terminology of Islam, political Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, and else. This reflects the authors’ strong critique of the use of populist terms as they circulate in the media and in scholarly circles. In a similar vein, they also directly challenge some of those terms and offer new ones. The discussion on the so-called ‘deep state’ (31-38) is an example to such concerns. Unfortunately, the authors’ critical eyes are only critical within the journalistic terms as their liberal use of certain other terms – such as Western (55) or traditional (51) suggest that they are not necessarily familiar with the ways in which such terms are challenged in social studies.

In fact, throughout the book, the authors’ ability to provide ample meticulous background does not direct the reader to social analysis. The chapters or the discussions across the chapters do not necessarily connect through an analysis or a theme as they seem to be written with an investigative concern.

I believe this book is an excellent resource, without a doubt, for anyone trying to understand the complex nature of Turkey’s politics. I would provide good material for researchers in sociology, political sciences, Middle Eastern Studies, international relations, and anthropology who are interested in intricate political games across various actors in Turkey.