Seventy-Five Years of the Turkish Republic.

• Author: Lee, Deborah
• Position: Review

Seventy-Five Years of the Turkish Republic

Sylvia Kedourie, Editor (Essex, England: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000), 256 pp.

After three-quarters of a century as a Republic, Turkey continues to face instability, contradiction and numerous challenges balancing the relationship between state and society, secular democracy and Islam and in its civil-military bureaucracy In what has become a cliche, Turkey watchers observe a state caught between East and West, shedding the shackles of history; while trying to retain its diverse and unique cultures and at the same time modernizing and joining the global economy.

Seventy-Five Years of the Turkish Republic, a mini-anthology of writings detailing Turkey's modern history; examines the issues that have shaped and continue to mold Turkey's foreign and domestic policy The volume also appears as issue 35.4 of the journal Middle Eastern Studies, the periodical Sylvia Kedourie has edited since its founding by modern historian and political philosopher Elie Kedourie in 1964.

Sylvia Kedourie has assembled nine essays that relate in some way to strife or force. Seventy-Five Years is interesting in that, unlike other essays and publications on Turkey, it leaves the ongoing debate of civil rights and diversity to others. Instead, it begins with an essay examining current regime attitudes toward Turkey's Kurdish population in historical terms by looking at pre-independence attitudes and post-independence policies. In the following essays, Kedourie turns to expatriate warriors, Turkey's military alliances with the Western powers and the evolution of civil-military relations in the last years of the 20th century She concludes the book by zooming out to the present "big picture" questions faced by Turkey: Turkey's relations with the rest of the world, its relations with its citizens and, finally; its hoped for return to stability

It is under these "circumstances that an elucidation of the genesis of the problem is a matter of current political, as well as of historical importance. And since the actions and statements of Ataturk remain a source of inspiration of Turkish government policy ... it is as well to be clear about Ataturk's attitude toward the Kurds." Mango concludes that, Ataturk recognized the diverse nature of Turkey's Muslim population, but insisted as well on its "fraternal unity." And although he promised that the "government would accommodate ethnic specificity," his own attentions turned toward power...