An Exodus from Turkey - by Ahmet Erdi Öztürk & Bahar Baser (Paperback)

About the Book

Examines the current wave of migration from Turkey with a specific focus on the experiences of 21 public figures and intellectuals from varying backgrounds.

Book Synopsis

Turkey's authoritarian turn under the reign of Erdoğan, and the crackdown on freedom of speech and assembly, has caused many Turkish citizens - either voluntarily or involuntarily - to flee the country. Featuring interviews with former politicians, artists, journalists, academics and activists, this book gives a voice to those in exile. By presenting their own stories in their own words, we learn how individuals cope with the realities of separation from their homeland, how they have managed to build new lives abroad and the prospect of return to Turkey. Both heart-breaking and informative, this book provides a snapshot of a new layer of intellectual diaspora in the making.

Review Quotes

This book is a very timely contribution, consisting of impressive and intimate interviews with critical names of the Turkish diaspora. Ahmet Erdi Öztürk and Bahar Baser do an excellent job of capturing emotions in these sensitive conversations that make the reader laugh and cry. I wish there were more books like this - direct, personal testimonies of intellectuals who are living in exile. This is truly a stellar collection.--Nukhet A. Sandal, Ohio University

About the Author

Dr Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Relations and Politics at London Metropolitan University and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Coventry University in the UK and GIGA in Germany. He is also an associate researcher (Chercheur Associé) at Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes and editor of International Journal of Religion. He was a Swedish Institute Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellow at Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), at Linköping University, Scholar in Residence at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is the author of more than 20 articles, numerous policy reports, opinion pieces and co-editor of four special issues and two books on religion and politics and Turkish politics. He is a regular contributor to media outlets such as Open Democracy, The Conversation, Huffington Post and France 24.

Bahar Baser is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Politics at Durham University. Previously, she was an associate professor and research group leader at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations of Coventry University. She is also an associate research fellow at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa (SIGLA), Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She completed a PhD in Social and Political Science at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. During her PhD, she had the opportunity to work as a Visiting Research Fellow at Humboldt University in Germany, at Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University in Sweden, and the Instituto de Ciencias Sociais (ICS) in Lisbon, Portugal. Dr. Baser's research interests include ethno-national conflicts and political violence, conflict resolution, third party mediation, migration and diaspora studies. Bahar has various publications in peer-reviewed academic journals and she has published a book in Turkey entitled: The Turkish-Kurdish Question in the Diaspora: Second-generation in Sweden and Germany. Her book Diasporas and Homeland Conflicts: A Comparative Perspective was published by Routledge in 2015. She has published four co-edited volumes by different publishers and she has penned more than 30 articles that are published in prestigious journals such as Ethnicities, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Third World Quarterly, Civil Wars and Ethnopolitics among others. Her research has been funded by the British Academy, CBRL, the Swedish Institute, the Italian Foreign Ministry, Coventry University and the Newton Fund-National Research Foundation (South Africa). She has written policy reports for Berghof Peace Foundation, TUSIAD Foreign Policy Forum and the Heinrich Boll Foundation.