Erdoğan - (Edinburgh Studies on Modern Turkey) by M Hakan Yavuz (Paperback)

About the Book

M. Hakan Yavuz examines 'New Turkey' through the life of its domineering leader, President Erdogan Uncovering the person behind the persona, Yavuz draws on 250 first-hand interviews to untangle the web of literary, religious and biographical influences that shaped Erdogan's personality, ideology and world view.

Book Synopsis

President Erdoğan's resilience as Turkey's leader makes for an extraordinary political study of longevity, charisma and strategic decision-making. Uncovering the person behind the persona, M. Hakan Yavuz draws on 250 first-hand interviews to untangle the web of literary, religious and biographical influences that shaped Erdogan's personality, ideology and world view. With chapters covering the Gezi park protests, the clash between the AKP and Gülen movement, the Kurdish question and the country's projected image as a major international power, Yavuz explores how Erdoğan has created a 'New Turkey' - a hybrid political entity, neither East nor West, democratic nor dictatorial, Islamic nor secular.

From the Back Cover

An examination of 'New Turkey' through the life of the country's domineering leader President Erdoğan's resiliency as Turkey's leader makes for an extraordinary political study of longevity, charisma and strategic decision-making. Uncovering the person behind the persona, M. Hakan Yavuz draws on 250 first-hand interviews to untangle the web of literary, religious and biographical influences that shaped Erdogan's personality, ideology and world view. In understanding the inner life, continuous self-reinvention and professional struggles of Erdoğan, Yavuz is able to provide an invaluable insight into the complex record of policies - in both domestic and international arenas - that have marked his governing tenure. With chapters covering the Gezi park protests, the clash between the AKP and Gülen movement, the Kurdish question and the country's projected image as a major international power, this book explores how and why Erdoğan has reconstituted a 'New Turkey' - a hybrid political entity, neither East nor West, democratic nor dictatorial, Islamic nor secular. M. Hakan Yavuz is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah.

Review Quotes

After years of fieldwork and interviews, Yavuz has rejected the predominantly essentialist readings of Erdoğan's policies as reflecting his natural authoritarian personality or the fact that he always has been Islamist. In this work, Yavuz meticulously makes the case that Erdoğan's personality, leadership identity and political ideology shift continuously. This book is a must-read for anyone who desires to understand Turkey's greatest political crisis as we approach the centennial of the country's founding as a modern Republic.--İstar Gözaydın, the author of Diyanet

At last, a meticulously researched and stylistically elegant analysis that neither sanctifies nor vilifies Turkey's longtime, controversial leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Yavuz, one of the leading contemporary scholars of Turkish and Islamic studies calls upon more than 10 years of scrupulous research including a variety of revealing interviews with key personalities to present the most definitive personality study of this important socially conservative and populist world figure. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand Erdoğan's personality and how it has evolved.--Michael M. Gunter, Professor of Tennessee Technological University

For nearly two decades, President Recep T. Erdoğan has dominated political life in Turkey. Celebrated by some for standing up for the common person and Turkey's national interests, he is accused by others of establishing an authoritarian state and undermining Turkey's secular orientation. Yavuz's valuable study traces Erdoğan's political rise, documenting both events and actors that influenced his development as well as how Erdoğan's actions have fundamentally transformed Turkey. In so doing, Yavuz connects Erdoğan's story to the broader fault lines that shape Turkey today. Part biography, part astute political analysis, this book is highly recommended for understanding the contradictions and complexities of Turkey under Erdoğan.--Paul Kubicek, Professor of Oakland University, editor of Turkish Studies

About the Author

M. Hakan Yavuz is Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah.