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Part of a series of seminars from the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre,London Met researchers and external collaborators.
About this event
Turkey Under Erdogan: How a Country Turned from Democracy and the West
Since coming to power in 2002 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has overseen a radical transformation of Turkey. Once a pillar of the Western alliance, the country has embarked on a militaristic foreign policy, intervening in regional flashpoints from Nagorno-Karabakh to Libya. And its democracy, sustained by the aspiration to join the European Union, has given way to one-man rule.
Dimitar Bechev traces the political trajectory of Erdoğan’s populist regime, from the era of reform and prosperity in the 2000s to the effects of the war in neighboring Syria. In a tale of missed opportunities, Bechev explores how Turkey parted ways with the United States and Europe, embraced Putin’s Russia and other revisionist powers, and replaced a frail democratic regime with an authoritarian one.
Despite this, he argues that Turkey’s democratic instincts are resilient, its economic ties to Europe are as strong as ever, and Erdoğan will fail to achieve a fully autocratic regime.
In this event, Dimitar Bechev and A. Erdi Ozturk will discuss both Bechev’s brand new Yale University book: Turkey Under Erdogan: How a Country Turned from Democracy and the West and also their new policy paper, Competing Over Islam, written for the Middle East Institute
Speakers:
Dr Dimitar Bechev [2] is a lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford. He is also a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, where he focuses on Southeastern Europe, Turkey and Russia. Bechev is the author of Turkey under Erdogan (Yale University Press, 2022), Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia (Rowman, 2019), and Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe (Yale UP, 2017) as well as co-editor of Russia Rising: Putin’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa (Bloomsbury, 2021). He has also published numerous academic articles and policy reports. His past positions include lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and senior policy fellow, head of the Sofia office at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Bechev has held fellowships at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna; Harvard’s Center for European Studies; and the European Institute, London School of Economics. He contributes frequently to Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, Politico Europe, and RFE/RL and his quotes have appeared in the FT, the Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other major news outlets.
Dr A. Erdi Ozturk [3], is an associate professor and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at Coventry University, London Metropolitan University and GIGA. He is also an associate researcher (Chercheur Associé) at Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes and Non-Residence Scholar at ELIAMEP’s Turkey Programme. He is the co-editor of Edinburg University Press’ Series on Modern Turkey and editor of International Journal of Religion. He was a Swedish Institute Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellow at Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), at Linköping University, Scholar in Residence at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is the author of more than 25 peer-review journal articles, numerous policy reports, opinion pieces and co-editor of four special issues on religion and politics and Turkish politics. Dr. Öztürk is the co-editor of Authoritarian Politics in Turkey: Elections, Resistance and the AKP (IB Tauris 2017), Ruin or Resilience? The Future of the Gulen Movement in Transnational Political Exile (Routledge 2018) and Islam, Populism and Regime Change in Turkey (Routledge 2019). In January 2021, his first solo-authored book, Religion, Identity and Power: Turkey and the Balkans in the Twenty-First Century is published by Edinburgh University Press. He is a regular contributor to media outlets such as Open Democracy, The Conversation, Huffington Post and France 24.
This event will be held online via BlackBoard Collaborate. You will receive a joining information closer to the date.
The Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre [6] is a home for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scholarship that explores migration, diasporas, nations, regions and localities through the lenses of diversity and inequality.
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