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WORK TITLE: Frontline Turkey
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1981
WEBSITE: https://frontlineturkey.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: Turkish
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1981.
EDUCATION:Oxford University, M.Phil.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. Radikal, Turkey, editor; St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, England, coordinator of Programme on Contemporary Turkey at South East European Centre.
AWARDS:Dulverton Scholarship, 2017.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ezgi Basaran is a journalist based in the United Kingdom. A Turkish citizen, she began her career as the first female editor of the Turkish publication, Radikal. Basaran left that publication when the Turkish government put in place strict censorship laws. Basaran moved to the UK to attend Oxford University, where she earned an M.Phil. degree. She also works at the school, serving as the coordinator of the Programme on Contemporary Turkey at the South East European Centre at St. Anthony’s College.
In 2018, Basaran released her first book in English, Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East. In an interview with William Armstrong, contributor to the Hurriyet Daily News website, Basaran explained: “The main aim of writing this book was to tell the truth about a period that has been so crucial for Turkey. It’s about setting the record straight on how Turkey’s deepest conflict has gotten deeper, despite there being a time when a solution possibility had emerged. It’s about how the collapse of peace talks with the Kurds brought Turkey’s democratic institutions to collapse.” Basaran added: “I also wanted to offer an alternative way to look at the Middle East for a non-Turkish audience. Because a solution to what is happening in the Middle East is directly related to Turkey’s forty-year-old Kurdish problem and how the government has chosen to deal with it.” Basaran also told Armstrong: “In the book I track events from the emergence of the AKP to the start of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process. The consequences of the collapse of the peace process are very closely related to the Syrian war. When the war in Syria first erupted, Turkey’s leadership was adamant that it would only be a matter of months before Bashar al-Assad was ousted. That obviously didn’t happen.”
In Frontline Turkey, Basaran chronicles the history of the tense relationship between the Turkish government and the Kurdish minority based in the country. The two have been at odds with one another for over four decades. Basaran also discusses the ways in which the Turkish government has evolved of the years. For a time, it was considered to be more progressive relative to its neighbors in the Middle East. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly conservative and authoritarian. It has also begun to embrace more Islamist views. Basaran profiles President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom she believes has been instrumental in making Turkey more authoritarian. She also closely examines the peace talks that occurred in 2015. Those talks became strained and ultimately failed to come to a resolution. Basaran identifies factors that complicated the talks, including the Kurds’ decision to take part in the Syrian civil war, violence against the Kurds committed by the Turkey security forces, and tensions among the Kurds themselves. Also, Turkey was being considered to become part of the European Union around that time. Basaran laments the failure of the talks and hopes for fruitful negotiations between the Kurds and the Turkish government in the future.
In a review of Frontline Turkey in Publishers Weekly, a critic suggested: “Basaran’s survey covers a huge amount of material and will be of interest to
readers already well versed in the subject.” Writing on the New York Journal of Books website, Thomas McClung commented: “This is neither a pleasure read nor an easy read. It should be realized that this volume is primarily only for those whose interest lies in Middle Eastern conflict and politics and, specifically, the relations between the Turks and Kurds.” McClung concluded: “If one has an interest in Turkish-Kurdish history, relations and politics, this is an insightful book, providing a closeup look at a conflict that has bedeviled the Middle East and only added fuel to the ongoing fires in that region.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, November 20, 2017, review of Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East, p. 83.
ONLINE
Frontline Turkey Website, https://frontlineturkey.com/ (March 20, 2018), author profile.
Hurriyet Daily News Online, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ (December 23, 2017), William Armstrong, author interview.
New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (January 9, 2018), Thomas McClung, review of Frontline Turkey.
AUTHOR
Ezgi Başaran is a Turkish journalist who made her name covering the Kurdish conflict – reporting ‘on the ground’ in the fight between ISIS, the YPG (People’s Protection Unit), the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Turkish state. After accepting an offer to write a daily column on Turkish foreign affairs, she became the youngest ever editor of Radikal, the biggest centre-left news outlet in Turkey, and the first woman to hold the role. After facing government censorship when covering the breakdown of the Kurdish talks, she resigned. Radikal was shut down subsequently. Ezgi is now coordinator of the Programme on Contemporary Turkey at the South East European Centre (SEESOX) at St Antony’s College, Oxford University, where she explores the bridge between journalism and academia. In 2017 she was awarded a prestigious Dulverton Scholarship for her upcoming MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University. She has written on Turkish domestic politics and her comments have appeared in major international media, including the BBC, the Financial Times, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Her book Barış Bir Varmış, Bir Yokmuş (Once upon a Time Peace) was published by Doğan Kitap in 2015.
QUOTED: "The main aim of writing this book was to tell the truth about a period that has been so crucial for Turkey. It’s about setting the record straight on how Turkey's deepest conflict has gotten deeper, despite there being a time when a solution possibility had emerged. It's about how the collapse of peace talks with the Kurds brought Turkey's democratic institutions to collapse."
"I also wanted to offer an alternative way to look at the Middle East for a non-Turkish audience. Because a solution to what is happening in the Middle East is directly related to Turkey's forty-year-old Kurdish problem and how the government has chosen to deal with it."
"In the book I track events from the emergence of the AKP to the start of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process. The consequences of the collapse of the peace process are very closely related to the Syrian war. When the war in Syria first erupted, Turkey's leadership was adamant that it would only be a matter of months before Bashar al-Assad was ousted. That obviously didn't happen."
December 23 2017 00:01:00
INTERVIEW: Ezgi Başaran on ‘frontline Turkey,’ Gülenists and the Kurdish peace process
William Armstrong - william.armstrong@hdn.com.tr
INTERVIEW: Ezgi Başaran on ‘frontline Turkey,’ Gülenists and the Kurdish peace process
Over the course of 2017 a ruling right-wing bloc has become consolidated in Turkey. This religious-nationalist ascendency has been ongoing since 2015, which saw two general elections and the collapse of a two-year peace process between Turkey and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East” by Ezgi Başaran is a breezy 200-page account addressing the peace process and its collapse, the rise and fall of the Gülenist network, and the broader question of accelerating authoritarianism in today’s Turkey. Başaran is among the most qualified writers for such a project, with over 10 years’ experience in the Turkish media, including a stint as editor-in-chief of the late daily Radikal. She is currently based at Oxford University’s St Anthony’s College, where she’s coordinates its Programme on Contemporary Turkey.
Başaran spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News about her book (reviewed in HDN here). The conversation has been edited for clarity and concision.
Why did you decide to write this book at this point?
The main aim of writing this book was to tell the truth about a period that has been so crucial for Turkey. It’s about setting the record straight on how Turkey's deepest conflict has gotten deeper, despite there being a time when a solution possibility had emerged. It's about how the collapse of peace talks with the Kurds brought Turkey's democratic institutions to collapse.
I also wanted to offer an alternative way to look at the Middle East for a non-Turkish audience. Because a solution to what is happening in the Middle East is directly related to Turkey's 40-year-old Kurdish problem and how the government has chosen to deal with it.
Today in Turkey ultra-nationalism is at the center of government, becoming more strident by the day. It is almost surreal to recall that not so long ago a peace deal between the state and the PKK seemed to be in sight.
When I give seminars on the book here in the U.K., when I list what has happened in the space of two years - from 2013 to 2016, starting with the peace process and ending with the July 2016 coup attempt - it sounds outrageous. We tend to forget what we have gone through, good or bad. It is surreal that just three years ago [jailed PKK leader] Abdullah Öcalan was sitting across the table from the National Intelligence Agency [MİT] chief in negotiations. It seems almost surreal at a time when [Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party] HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has been in jail for almost a year.
Let's go back to the start of the peace process. It's sometimes forgotten now but one of the reasons why the Turkish government felt nudged toward starting peace talks was because of what was going on in Syria. Ironically it was also developments in Syria that ended up collapsing the peace process.
In the book I track events from the emergence of the AKP to the start of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process. The consequences of the collapse of the peace process are very closely related to the Syrian war. When the war in Syria first erupted, Turkey's leadership was adamant that it would only be a matter of months before Bashar al-Assad was ousted. That obviously didn't happen. And when it became clear that al-Assad wasn't going anywhere soon Turkey's main objective in Syria shifted to obstructing the [Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party] PYD in its bid to form an autonomous region in northern Syria, in Rojava. Because of that, from the end of 2013 to the start of 2015 Turkey saw no problem in having an open-border policy for jihadists in Syria. This turned the country into a hub for jihadists, including ISIS recruits, and it has caused huge security vulnerabilities for Turkey and Europe.
Ankara took this course for the simple reason that the PYD is ideologically affiliated with the PKK, and an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could be an example for the Kurds in Turkey. So ultimately we can say that one of the main reasons why the peace process collapsed was the expansion of Syrian Kurdish cantons on the Turkish border.
Politics was also crucial. Turkey held an election in June 2015 and the peace process was still ongoing until then. The AKP lost almost 10 percentage points of support and wasn’t able to form a parliamentary majority. Soon after that the peace process collapsed, there was a harsh military crackdown, and when a snap election was held in November 2015 the AKP was able to rally nationalist support to return to single-party government. Those nationalist lessons have set the course for the government ever since.
I was really diligent about portraying events from February 2015 to July 20, 2015, when the peace process collapsed. In February there was the “Dolmabahçe meeting,” which seemed to be a turning point for the peace process. But in retrospect it turned out that the peace process was actually not going in the right direction anyway. The events I list and the rhetoric used by the AKP and President Erdoğan show that the peace process wasn't helping the AKP gain votes. On the contrary it was helping the HDP. Looking back day-by-day, announcement-by-announcement we see how the AKP's leadership suddenly decided there was no point in continuing the peace process politically. The Syrian war was not going in the direction they thought it would go and the peace process was only helping the HDP. So after the June 2015 election the AKP made a new calculation about how to deal with the Kurdish conflict.
The PKK also miscalculated. It thought the HDP's success in June 2015 could be interpreted as support for the PKK. But in fact the HDP's success meant support for the peace process and a ceasefire, not for the PKK. The PKK thought the backing it received in Syria for fighting ISIS would continue for the urban warfare it started in Turkey after the peace process collapsed. But it was wrong. This miscalculation led to urban warfare that cost hundreds of lives and hundreds of thousands of relocations in the region.
Today, Kurds in Turkey feel tired, detached and betrayed by both the PKK and the state. That is why they have kept largely silent despite the fact most of their mayorships have been confiscated by the state and their party's co-chairs have been in jail for over a year.
The government claims that the PKK was collaborating with the Gülen movement to stockpile weapons and create chaos once the peace process collapsed.
I don't see any possibility of the Kurdish movement and the Gülen movement being in collaboration. They have actually long been in a mental and material conflict with each other. So I cannot buy this argument that the PKK and Gülen are in an alliance to divide Turkey. They may have their own plans to divide the country but I don't think they'd collaborate for it!
Throughout your career you witnessed how the Gülen movement went from being a close ally of the government to being declared a terrorist organization. Unlike many people you were always skeptical about the Gülenists and their methods.
After the July 2016 coup attempt my colleagues in Western media outlets were really surprised and couldn't believe that an Islamic cleric living in Pennsylvania could orchestrate a military coup. It's really hard to describe how this Sufi movement of Gülenists was able to infiltrate the state - particularly the National Intelligence Agency and the judiciary – while also building huge lobbying mechanisms in Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. It's difficult to tell the Western world about this if they have just started reading about Turkey after the coup attempt.
Years ago a few journalists were writing about irregularities and fabrications of evidence during the very important Balyoz and Ergenekon cases. Many others were praising the Gülen movement and the government because to the West they seemed to be a good example of moderate Islam with a pro-business mindset. Erdoğan formed a tacit alliance with Gülen and the Gülenists came to form the backbone of the early years of AKP rule, helping it in its struggle against the secularist establishment. But from around 2011, when Erdoğan began to consolidate his position in the government, a power struggle erupted between his party and the Gülen movement. The July 15, 2016 coup attempt was the final skirmish in this battle.
I read thousands of pages of indictments in the Balyoz and Ergenekon cases and have done extensive research into the Gülen movement. Because of that I was targeted by them. My name was on a list of journalists who should have been jailed during the Ergenekon case. I was tagged by them as a coup-lover and an army boot-licker because I was trying to make the point that they formed a very dangerous organization that fabricated evidence to put half of the army in jail.
The Gülenists may be the most dangerous thing that has happened to the Republic of Turkey since its founding. But it's very hard to explain this because there is a very authoritarian climate in Turkey with hundreds of journalists and academics in jail. So it's really hard to maintain the narrative for Western audiences that the Gülen movement is dangerous. They just see Gülen as a victim of an authoritarian regime. But this is too binary.
What about the current situation in Turkey? There is a seemingly ever-stronger coalition of the religious-nationalist right wing. It may seem very distant right now, but do you see any prospect of a return to the peace process? Is there any way that electoral calculation may push the AKP towards returning to that path?
Erdoğan is a political wizard. He has the power and talent to spin anything in a matter of minutes. The rhetoric has turned pretty nationalistic and there is this consolidated 70 percent bloc on the Kurdish issue – made up of secular nationalists, MHP voters, AKP voters and many CHP voters - but if Erdoğan sincerely wanted to go back to a peace process he would find a way.
He has used many different agencies in the past. He used the EU accession process as a tool to gain approbation within Turkey and outside. He once compared democracy to a train that you get off once you reach your destination. He thought the Kurdish peace process was another vehicle, but it turned out that the process was actually helping the Kurdish movement more than him.
Ultimately he still sees the world in pragmatic political terms, so I don't see him returning to a peace process any time soon, especially before the November 2019 presidential elections. Until then, unfortunately, we will be on a very bumpy road.
QUOTED: "Basaran's survey covers a huge amount of material and will be of interest to
readers already well versed in the subject."
Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the
Heart of the Middle East
Publishers Weekly.
264.47 (Nov. 20, 2017): p83.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East
Ezgi Basaran. I.B.Tauris, $25 (224p) ISBN 9781-78453-841-5
Basaran, a Turkish journalist, delivers a concise, if dense, summary of the complex politics and conflicts
between Turkey and its Kurdish population, recapping the personalities, parties, and principles that make up
this long-running war. Basaran condenses four decades of strife and traces their intersection with the
evolution of the Turkish state, now veering toward authoritarianism and Islamist tendencies under President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom she labels an "unpredictable and erratic strongman." The story of the most
recent, abortive peace process is not for the novice: muddling factors include rifts in the Turkish
government, disputes between Kurdish political parties, the prospect of Turkey joining the European Union,
assassinations of Kurds by state security forces, and the role of Kurds fighting in the Syrian civil war. The
author lays blame for the collapse of negotiations in 2015 on a complex mix of influences and laments the
waste of an "invaluable opportunity: the chance to end a40-year-old war." Casual readers of international
news will struggle with the swirl of acronyms and names, and Turkey experts may find points to debate. But
for a relatively short work, Basaran's survey covers a huge amount of material and will be of interest to
readers already well versed in the subject matter. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East." Publishers Weekly, 20 Nov. 2017, p. 83.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A517262125/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f9c15b44. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A517262125
QUOTED: "This is neither a pleasure read nor an easy read. It should be realized that this volume is primarily only for those whose interest lies in Middle Eastern conflict and politics and, specifically, the relations between the Turks and Kurds."
"If one has an interest in Turkish-Kurdish history, relations and politics, this is an insightful book, providing a closeup look at a conflict that has bedeviled the Middle East and only added fuel to the ongoing fires in that region."
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Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East
Image of Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East
Author(s):
Ezgi Basaran
Release Date:
January 9, 2018
Publisher/Imprint:
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
Pages:
224
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Reviewed by:
Thomas McClung
“an insightful book, providing a closeup look at a conflict that has bedeviled the Middle East and only added fuel to the ongoing fires in that region.”
Violence and conflict in the Middle East come in many forms and involve myriad nations and peoples. Some are sectarian and ethnic, others are religious or political. From Turkey to Yemen and many other points in between, especially Israel and the Palestinians, tension and conflict would seem to be endemic and ubiquitous.
With the emphasis currently on defeating the Islamic State, the ongoing, decades-long problem between the Kurdish people and Turkey has been somewhat pushed to the backburner. After gaining some prominence following the First Gulf War, the Kurds have found themselves on the short end of the stick in Iraq, Iran and Syria as well, despite their best efforts to attain a settlement with which they could live in what they would prefer to call Kurdistan.
This ideal homeland will probably never come to fruition given the reluctance of any state to cede territory. Consequently, Kurds in Turkey strive to obtain an autonomous region within that country and this is what has been at the heart of the problem. Although participatory in the country's politics, they have been largely marginalized, considering themselves to be second-class citizens where relations with the national government are concerned.
Author Ezgi Basaran maintains that this Turkish-Kurdish problem forms the linchpin of the overall conflict affecting the Middle East and investigates this problem to the nth degree, delving deeply into the events, personalities and politics which have afflicted these two disparate sides now for well over 40 years.
Be forewarned. This is neither a pleasure read nor an easy read. It should be realized that this volume is primarily only for those whose interest lies in Middle Eastern conflict and politics and, specifically, the relations between the Turks and Kurds. Indeed, one should already have considerable familiarization with the points of contention, cultures, parties, personalities and politics between the two.
Basaran not only recounts the original basis and history of the conflict but also the Kurds' contemporary place in the Turkish state. Willing to negotiate and wanting to have peace for themselves and their communities, they have been subjected to dispossession and oppression to the point of maintaining an on-again off-again violent war against the state.
By employing terroristic, asymmetrical means to assassinate leaders, ambush and kill police and security forces to influence public opinion, Kurds have fought to drive the government to the negotiating table to recognize their rights as a people to education (in their own language) and autonomy as well as acknowledgement of their culture while continuing to hold a place in Turkish society.
Complicating all of this are the multiple competing parties and organizations among the Kurds themselves. There is everything from the armed wing (the PPK), to a youth movement, women's organization and regular political parties and leaders, one of whom is practically the Kurdish version of the cult of personality.
While an ostensible democracy and its own linchpin for NATO in the overall region, Turkey has done everything possible to thwart the Kurds, according to Basaran, while moving ever closer to an authoritarian state, something that may remain to be seen for those unfamiliar with Turkish politics.
In any event, the major players are all here. Basaran covers, among many other things, Kurdish relations with the outside world, especially Europe and the United States which has given sanctuary to a main Kurdish leader and armed the Kurds in their fight against ISIS influence and persecution of the Kurds in Syria, much to the anger and dismay of the Turkish government. Indeed, there have even been suspicions of Turkish aid to ISIS relative to the Kurdish problem.
The author believes that the Kurdish problem has gone global and that the only way to curb tensions and eliminate at least some of the conflict in the Middle East is for the world to step in, pressure Turkey to negotiate in good faith and resolve the problem, obviously to everyone's satisfaction.
As a further indication, the author herself has come under fire from the Turkish government after covering the conflict between the parties as a journalist, eventually resigning as editor of a Turkish news outlet for her reporting following government censorship crackdown.
As previously mentioned, if one has an interest in Turkish-Kurdish history, relations and politics, this is an insightful book, providing a closeup look at a conflict that has bedeviled the Middle East and only added fuel to the ongoing fires in that region.
Stuart McClung holds a Master of Arts in Military History and has written reviews for the Journal of America's Military Past and Humanities and Social Sciences Online. He is a recognized long-time living historian and interpreter at Gettysburg National Military Park and various state and local venues. He is also a member of the Society for Military History, the Council on America's Military Past, and the Civil War Trust.