Ozan Ozavci talks to Christine Philliou about her new book Turkey: A Past Against History and the many lives of muhalefet (opposition) from the late Ottoman Empire to today.

e-mail: philliou@berkeley.edu

Professor of History at Berkeley, Christine specializes in the political, social, and cultural history of the Ottoman/post-Ottoman world.

What would it be like if one attempted to reconstruct the political history of Turkey through the lens of oppositional figures? Christine Philliou’s 2021 book, Turkey: A Past Against History, is one such effort. It offers an insightful and perceptive analysis of the notion of muhalefet (opposition) in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish republic. Its seven chapters discuss the life and writings of Refik Halid Karay (1888-1965) as a case study in muhalefet. For Philliou the shifting meanings and associations of muhalefet reflect “the deep lack of consensus about the history of Turkey”. This conversation was recorded on 14 January 2022.