The Turks Today

Rating:
Summary: Mango gets it right....
Review: Dr. Andrew Mango in The Turks Today covers the history of the Turkish Republic with an easy-to-read narrative and thoughtful analysis.

In the fist segment, the author provides a short history of the

* Ataturk era (1923-1938) when the founding principles of the Republic were established,

* difficult times (1938-1945) in which President Ismet Inonu managed to keep Turkey non-aligned and out of WW II,

* transition period to a multi-party system (1946-1960) and the huge electoral successes of the Democratic Party in 1950, 1954 and again 1957 and the first intervention of the military into politics in 1960,

* years of strife (1960-1980) when the coalition governments struggled to cope with growing domestic problems,

* conflict contained (1980-2003) while Turkey made progress and emerged as a regional economic and military power.

In the second segment, Dr. Mango offers insightful analysis on several major issues, such as:

* economy, education, culture, Ankara (the seat of government and the ruling elite), Istanbul (the center of practically everything outside of government), the divide between Islam and secularism, the Cyprus saga and relations with Greece,
the quest to join the European Union and all EU related matters, the Kurdish problem and PKK's terrorist activities, the contentious Armenians' claim of genocide of events in 1915,
changes in relations between USA, Israel and Iraq after the events of Sep 11, 2001 and the rule of an Islamist party in a majority government since November 2002.

This book is vintage Mango. Page after page, it offers the essentials without getting into boring details yet remains factual and balanced. Once you begin to read "The Turks Today", it becomes very clear that Dr. Andrew Mango knows the history of the Turkish Republic and presents it in a marvelously
lucid fashion.

Anyone who is interested in knowing "what's going on in Turkey today" would enjoy reading this book.

Muharrem Sev
Ottawa, Canada
Dec 16, 2004