Main content

The Emergence of Modern Turkey

How Atatürk’s reforms transformed the nation and strong armed the country into modernity. Joining Bridget Kendall are Recep Boztemur, Dr Hülya Adak and Yeşim Özsoy.

100 years ago, Turkish defeat in World War One signalled the end of the once great Ottoman Empire. What emerged was a European orientated secular republic led by a man who used social engineering to shape Turkey in his own image – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Bridget Kendall examines this key period of Turkish history and asks whether modernisation could have been brought in less forcefully, and why the women who were helping bring about similarly progressive ideas were eventually side-lined. And what impact did Ataturk’s social revolution have on the arts and literature? Joining Bridget is Recep Boztemur, Professor of History at the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara, Dr Hülya Adak from Sabanci university in Istanbul, who specialises in gender and nationalism, and the actor, theatre director and playwright Yeşim Özsoy, whose latest play examines Turkish identity from 1918 onwards.

Photo: A statue of Ataturk located in Marmaris harbor, Turkey. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Available now

41 minutes

Last on

Christmas Eve 2018 04:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 20 Dec 2018 09:06GMT
  • Fri 21 Dec 2018 00:06GMT
  • Sat 22 Dec 2018 14:06GMT
  • Sun 23 Dec 2018 15:06GMT
  • Christmas Eve 2018 04:06GMT

Featured in...

Do you use US dollars even though they are not your country’s official currency?

Do you use US dollars even though they are not your country’s official currency?

We would love to hear why for an upcoming Forum about the history of the dollar.

Podcast