Standing at the gateway between Europe and Asia, Istanbul lies at the centre of the most pressing challenges of our time. With environmental decay, rapacious development and tightening authoritarianism straining its social fabric to breaking point, it represents the precipitous moment civilisations around the world are currently facing. In and around its crumbling Byzantine-era fortifications […]
The late Turkish ambassador Zeki Kuneralp (1914-1998) is regarded as one of the most brilliant diplomats of his generation. He served twice as Turkiye’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, with both terms taking place during crucial periods in modern British history, as the UK tried to come to terms with its role as a post-imperial […]
The Anglo Turkish Society continues with its series of fascinating expert talks into key aspects of Turkish life and history, this time inviting author and academic Kaya Şahin to present a talk on the extraordinary life of Sultan Süleyman, who ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1520 and 1566. Süleyman’s domain extended from Hungary to Iran, […]
Historian and author Giancarlo Casale will be an online talk about Osman Agha of Timişoara, or Osman Ağa of Temeşvar as Turks would say. Hosted by the Anglo-Turkish Society (ATS), Professor Casale puts the spotlight on this fascinating Ottoman military officer from the seventeenth century. In 1688, in the tumultuous aftermath of the failed Ottoman […]
Turkish broadcaster TRT’s new epic period drama Barbaros: Sword of the Mediterranean (Barbaroslar: Akdeniz’in Kılıcı), about a sixteenth century corsair who went on to become admiral of the Ottoman fleet, has piqued major interest in corsairs of that era. It’s fitting, therefore, that the Anglo-Turkish Society’s next talk will be on ‘Piracy and law in […]
Turkey is no stranger to martial law. Its roots are steeped in the late Ottoman Empire, when İdare-i örfiyye first appeared as a neologism in the 1876 Ottoman constitution. While the term referred to the sultan’s authority in the Ottoman-Islamic legal tradition, its definition was inspired from the French “état de siège” in the 19th century. […]
Leading Turkey analyst and author David Barchard will be giving his assessment on the country as it enters a new era, transitioning from a parliamentary system of government to a presidential one. During the evening lecture, organised by the Anglo-Turkish Society at the Royal Anthropological Institute in London, Barchard will look at the growth of the idea of […]
