In August of 2019 Erik-Jan sent an e-mail to all Turkish studies staff and students at Leiden University, proposing an edited volume to mark the centennial of the Republic in 2023. The plan was to have Turkish primary sources translated into English and annotated by the Leiden team, with ten contributions for each decade, making a total of a hundred. After several editorial meetings, discussions, and a good deal of experimentation, an open invitation was made to colleagues, to top historians and social scientists working on aspects of Turkey. The rest is history . . . in fragments.

In this podcast recorded on 9 December 2023, Erik-Jan and his co-editor Alp answer questions from TLP’s Ozan Ozavci and Enno Maessen. They discuss the story behind the cover of the book, their innovative approach and what exactly we mean when we refer to ‘Turkish studies’. They also consider where their volume stands in the ongoing discussion surrounding post- and post-post-Kemalism, arguing that the contents of their book straddle these diverse approaches. For Erik-Jan it is high time we had a new paradigm, though he does not see one emerging yet. For Alp, what we need is not another single paradigm, but rather multiple ones, while Ozan proposes we emancipate ourselves from a Kemalist ontology entirely, and reframe this as a gradual move from a revisionist to a post-revisionist approach. The conversation ends with a reading of one of Alp’s favourite fragments from the book, on arabesque music in Turkey.

Episode 46 – History in Fragments

Podcasts are published by TLP for the purpose of encouraging informed debate on the legacies of the events surrounding the Lausanne Conference. The views expressed by participants do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TLP, its partners, convenors or members.

MAIN IMAGE: İSTİKLAL STREET ON THE CENTENARY OF THE REPUBLIC, SOURCE: DAILY SABAH.