The Transformation of Turkey Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era

In 1923, the Modern Turkish Republic rose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, proclaiming a new era in the Middle East. However, many of the contemporary issues affecting Turkish state and society today have their roots not only in the in the history of the republic, but in the historical and political memory of the state's imperial history. Here Fatma Muge Gocek draws on Turkey's Ottoman heritage and history to explore current issues of ethnicity and religion alongside Turkey's international position. This new perspective on history's influence on contemporary tensions in Turkey will contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding Turkey's accession to the EU, and offers insight into the social transformations in the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Nation-State. This analysis will be vital to those involved in the study of the Middle East Imperial History and Turkey's relations with the West.

Fatma Müge Göçek is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Program in Women’s Studies, University of Michigan. She is the co-editor of A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire (2010) and editor of Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East (2002).