Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds - Softcover

Kinzer, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374528667 ISBN 13: 9780374528669

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2002

Synopsis

If Turkey lived up to its potential, it could rule the world - but will it? A passionate report from the front lines

For centuries few terrors were more vivid in the West than fear of "the Turk," and many people still think of Turkey as repressive, wild, and dangerous. Crescent and Star is Stephen Kinzer's compelling report on the truth about this nation of contradictions - poised between Europe and Asia, caught between the glories of its Ottoman past and its hopes for a democratic future, between the dominance of its army and the needs of its civilian citizens, between its secular expectations and its Muslim traditions.

Kinzer vividly describes Turkey's captivating delights as he smokes a water pipe, searches for the ruins of lost civilizations, watches a camel fight, and discovers its greatest poet. But he is also attuned to the political landscape, taking us from Istanbul's elegant cafes to wild mountain outposts on Turkey's eastern borders, while along the way he talks to dissidents and patriots, villagers and cabinet ministers. He reports on political trials and on his own arrest by Turkish soldiers when he was trying to uncover secrets about the army's campaigns against Kurdish guerillas. He explores the nation's hope to join the European Union, the human-rights abuses that have kept it out, and its difficult relations with Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks.

Will this vibrant country, he asks, succeed in becoming a great democratic state? He makes it clear why Turkey is poised to become "the most audacious nation of the twenty-first century."

About this title

Review

"An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics . . . [Kinzer] is lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and (mostly) free people to realize their own implied glorious future." --Ira M. Lapidus, "The New York Times"

"Turkey matters greatly to us, given its crucial role both in Europe and in the Middle East, and this vivid book, both personal and analytical, is the best recent work on the subject." --Richard D. Holbrooke

“An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics . . . [Kinzer] is lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and (mostly) free people to realize their own implied glorious future.” —Ira M. Lapidus, "The New York Times"

“Turkey matters greatly to us, given its crucial role both in Europe and in the Middle East, and this vivid book, both personal and analytical, is the best recent work on the subject.” —Richard D. Holbrooke

"An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics . . . [Kinzer] is lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and (mostly) free people to realize their own implied glorious future." --Ira M. Lapidus, "The New York Times"

"Turkey matters greatly to us, given its crucial role both in Europe and in the Middle East, and this vivid book, both personal and analytical, is the best recent work on the subject." --Richard D. Holbrooke

An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics . . . [Kinzer] is lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and (mostly) free people to realize their own implied glorious future. "Ira M. Lapidus, The New York Times"

Turkey matters greatly to us, given its crucial role both in Europe and in the Middle East, and this vivid book, both personal and analytical, is the best recent work on the subject. "Richard D. Holbrooke""

An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics . . . [Kinzer] is lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and (mostly) free people to realize their own implied glorious future. Ira M. Lapidus, The New York Times

Turkey matters greatly to us, given its crucial role both in Europe and in the Middle East, and this vivid book, both personal and analytical, is the best recent work on the subject. Richard D. Holbrooke

"

"An unusually candid account of the state of Turkish politics . . . [Kinzer] is lyrical, even romantic, about the potential of a forceful, creative and (mostly) free people to realize their own implied glorious future." --Ira M. Lapidus, The New York Times

"Turkey matters greatly to us, given its crucial role both in Europe and in the Middle East, and this vivid book, both personal and analytical, is the best recent work on the subject." --Richard D. Holbrooke

About the Author

Stephen Kinzer is a veteran foreign correspondent who has covered more than fifty countries on four continents. In 1996 he became the first New York Times bureau chief in Istanbul; he is now that paper's national culture correspondent, based in Chicago. He is the author of Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua and co-author, with Stephen Schlesinger, of Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0374528667
• ISBN 13: 9780374528669
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272