A Hundred Years of Republican Turkey: A History in a Hundred Fragments

The Republic of Turkey was founded a hundred years ago on 29 October 1923. Turkey holds a unique position between Europe and the Middle East. It continues to captivate international attention, evoking hopes and fears in the hearts and minds of contemporary observers. As a critical commemoration of its centenary, this book presents a mosaic of one hundred carefully curated fragments by expert authors, shedding light on politics, economy, society, culture, gender, and arts in a hundred years of Turkey. Each fragment offers a glimpse into a specific aspect of Turkey’s development, revealing the complexities of Turkey’s historical reality. Through exhibiting a diverse range of historical sources like laws, speeches, essays, letters, newspaper articles, poems, songs, memoirs, photos, posters, maps, and diagrams, each fragment brings the voices and images of Turkey’s past and present to readers. A Hundred Years of Republican Turkey: A History in a Hundred Fragments is an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, students, and anyone interested in Turkey’s fascinating history since 1923.

Stichting Oosters Instituut supported this publication.

Alp Yenen is a university lecturer for modern history and culture of Turkey at the Institute for Area Studies at Leiden University. He works primarily on the political history of modern Turkey and the Middle East in the twentieth century. He studies transnational and transgressive politics during transitional periods, such as the end of the Ottoman Empire and the end of the Cold War.

Erik-Jan Zürcher is emeritus professor of Turkish Studies at Leiden University. He is primarily interested in the period of transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey and in the role of the Young Turk generation/movement in this process. He studies the emergence of modern Turkey by linking the processes of forced migration, war, imperial legacies, and nation building.

Alp Yenen on weighing up the Republic of Turkey’s legacy at 100 years