logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2014
50m 2s

The War That Changed The World: Istanbul...

BBC Radio
About this episode

Turkey emerged from the First World War as a new republic, with a secular and modern identity, attempting to break from its Ottoman past. How has this influenced Turkey today? With historians Aksin Somel and Ahmet Kuyas, and novelist Elif Shafak.

Up next
Jun 2015
USA: Isolationism
How did WW1 change America's place in the world? Jonathan Dimbleby presents a public debate from the US Library of Congress in Washington 
50m 1s
Jun 2015
Germany: The Waging of War
How did technological and industrial development revolutionise World War One? The tank, gas, flame throwers, Zeppelins were like nothing that had been experienced before. 
50m 4s
Jun 2015
Sarajevo: Nationalism
A century ago a shot rang out in Sarajevo which set the world on a path to war. How did the peace made after WW1 influence the ethnic conflicts in the region during the 1990s? 
50m 5s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2018
The Emergence of Modern Turkey
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 t ... Show More
40m 9s
Apr 2023
41. The Rise of Ataturk
The First World War is over. There is unrest across Anatolia, exacerbated by the Greek invasion coming through Smyrna. Turkish forces are swelling to fight back against the Greeks, and at their head... Mustafa Kemal. Otherwise known as Ataturk. Join William and Anita this week as ... Show More
51m 57s
Feb 2024
Atatürk: Fall of the Ottoman Empire
<p>On the 19th of May, 1919, an Ottoman general stepped ashore at the Black Sea port city of Samsun. This marked the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence, and ultimately the end of the Ottoman Empire. The man's name was Mustafa Kemal, the soldier, statesman and reformer w ... Show More
33m 56s
May 2023
Turkey's Turning Point
<p>Turks are at a historic turning point - choosing between two radically different visions for the future of their country.</p><br><p>With the battle for the presidency almost certain to go to a second round and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan facing his biggest challenge for two decades, ... Show More
37m 55s
Jan 2020
The Birth of the Modern Middle East, with Ted Widmer
At the end of World War I, colonial powers carved up the Ottoman Empire and the reverberations are still being felt today. Historian Ted Widmer discusses the circumstances that led to this fateful episode and why Woodrow Wilson wasn't able to extend his principle of "self-determi ... Show More
30m 14s
Feb 2021
Turkey: Adnan Menderes, populism, and history
Turkey and 50s Prime Minister Menderes, Erdogan today, and how history is used for political power. Matthew Sweet is joined by Jeremy Seal, Ece Temelkuran, Michael Talbot & Nilay Ozlu.Before his execution in 1961, the Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes saw Turkey admitted to N ... Show More
45m 4s
Jun 2021
Christine Philliou on reimagining Turkish history and the roots of political dissent
Christine Philliou, associate professor of history at UC Berkeley, on “Turkey: A Past Against History” (University of California Press). The book examines the life of the writer Refik Halid Karay (1888-1965), interrogating the shifting meaning of political dissent from Ottoman to ... Show More
42m 15s
Oct 2023
The Three Faces of Ataturk
"Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation." A military commander named Mustafa Kemal uttered these words in 1923, on the eve of the founding of the Republic of Turkey. He would later rename himself Ataturk, "Father of the Turks." And he was outlinin ... Show More
53m 27s
Jun 2019
Elif Mahir Metinsoy on Ottoman women during World War I
Elif Mahir Metinsoy on her book “Ottoman Women During World War I: Everyday Experiences, Politics and Conflict” (Cambridge University Press). The book describes the lives of Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire during the Great War, moving beyond a focus on the educated urban popul ... Show More
23m 23s
Nov 2024
Salim Çevik on Turkey's Middle East reset
<p>Salim Çevik on his recent SWP <a href='https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/publication/turkeys-reconciliation-efforts-in-the-middle-east'>paper</a> "Turkey’s Reconciliation Efforts in the Middle East: Ambitions and Constraints in a Changing Regional Order". The paper examines Erdoga ... Show More
37m 9s