Crescent & Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds

From Publishers Weekly
A passionate love for the Turkish people and an optimism that its ruling class can complete Turkey's transformation into a Western-style democracy mark Kinzer's reflections on a country that sits geographically and culturally at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. Kinzer, the former New York Times Istanbul bureau chief, gives a concise introduction to Turkey: Kemal Ataterk's post-WWI establishment of the modern secular Turkish state; the odd makeup of contemporary society, in which the military enforces Ataterk's reforms. In stylized but substantive prose, he devotes chapters to the problems he sees plaguing Turkish society: Islamic fundamentalism, frictions regarding the large Kurdish minority and the lack of democratic freedoms. Kinzer's commonsense, if naeve, solution: the ruling military elite, which takes power when it feels Turkey is threatened, must follow the modernizing path of Ataterk whom Kinzer obviously admires a step further and increase human rights and press freedoms. Kinzer's journalistic eye serves him well as he goes beyond the political, vividly describing, for instance, the importance and allure of the narghile salon, where Turks smoke water pipes. Here, as elsewhere, Kinzer drops his journalist veneer and gets personal, explaining that he enjoys the salons in part "because the sensation of smoking a water pipe is so seductive and satisfying." Readers who want a one-volume guide to this fascinating country need look no further. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Americans can no longer plead ignorance about modern Turkey. Recently, several excellent books on the subject have been published by Western journalists: Marvine Howe's Turkey Today (LJ 6/1/00), Nicole and Hugh Pope's Turkey Unveiled (Overlook, 1998), and now this work by Kinzer, former New York Times Istanbul bureau chief (1996-2000). All three are informative and provocative, though each has a slightly different focus (Howe focuses on the role of Islam, while the Popes provide a narrative history). Interspersing journalistic essays with personal vignettes, Kinzer discusses Turkey's potential to be a world leader in the 21st century, as it is truly a bridge between East and West, politically and geographically. Kinzer questions Turkey's ability to achieve this potential, however, unless true democracy can be established. Whether it can depends on Turkey's military, which, in order to ensure the continuation of the Kemalist ideal of a paternalistic state, has never allowed real freedom of speech, press, or assembly. Kinzer argues persuasively that if the military refuses this opportunity, the consequences (Islamic fundamentalism, Kurdish terrorism, denial of EU membership) could be catastrophic for the Turkish state and its people. An excellent, insightful work; highly recommended. Ruth K. Baacke, formerly with Whatcom Community Coll. Lib., Bellingham, WA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Akin to an exit interview with a country, Kinzer's book sums up his reportage for the New York Times from Turkey in the 1990s. He evocatively describes the customs of Turkish social life and also analyzes the paradoxes of its political system which, whatever its original justification in saving the country in the 1920s, no longer fits a more prosperous, more literate populace. Kinzer is, of course, talking about the nationalist, secularist legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, preserved by the country's military, which regards it as a nigh-sacred duty. The problem with higher callings, as Kinzer never tires of recounting, is the lack of accountability: the government's security entities enjoy a "culture of impunity" that abets Turkey's poor image on the issue of human rights. Yet Kinzer recognizes that the military's influence, however much it inhibits democratization, stems from a real if obsessive fear of separatists and Islamicists. That paradox, and Turkey's options of facing either West or East, both geographically and figuratively, are ably presented by Kinzer's backgrounder on Turkey's contemporary scene. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


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. . . [Kinzer] shows that good journalism conveys the history and culture of a country . . . The result is an intriguing portrait. Read all 7 "From The Critics" >


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