Turkey: Adnan Menderes, populism, and history

Is idleness ever a virtue? In a world that seems to privilege utility and productivity above all else, Matthew Sweet considers whether we can rethink the importance of doing nothing. His guests for Radio 4's late night ideas discussion programme are:Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The ...  Show more

Do individuals or broader forces shape history? In the 2025 Reith lectures on BBC Radio 4, Rutger Bregman argues that small groups of individuals can have an outsize influence and he looks to examples in history from suffragism to the ending of slavery. In the Free Thinking studi ...  Show more

A Sultan in Autumn: Erdogan Faces Turkey's Uncontainable Forces (I. B. Tauris, 2021) is a primer for anybody who wants to understand modern Turkish politics and its central player Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who, for better or worse, has shaped Turkish politics and society for the last ...  Show more

Gönül Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute, on “Erdogan’s War: A Strongman’s Struggle at Home and in Syria” (Oxford University Press). The book describes how developments in Syria have helped Turkey's president divide and eliminate his domestic riva ...

Turkey’s longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing what many describe as his toughest election yet. On Sunday, May 14th polls will open for presidential and parliamentary elections, and amid a dire economic crisis in the country, his prospects are in doubt. His leading rival ...  Show more

The recent local elections in Turkey did not go to plan for President Erdogan. The voters sent a clear message to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party and the strongman president, when they voted in unprecedented numbers for the opposition Republican People's Part ...  Show more