RollnSmoke Reviews: CRESCENT & STAR

Crescent & Star by Stephen Kinzer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)

Kinzer, the Istanbul chief for The New York Times from 1996 – 2000, presents a fascinating and clearly written explanation of Turkey’s modern history since Ataturk’s sweeping secular reformation in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He begins with a concise discussion of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires and covers interesting facets of Turkish culture like nargile (water pipe) salons, camel fighting and the sinister underworld of gangsters, traffikers and assassins. He effectively disseminates the debate surrounding the head-scarf and describes how the Turkish government has insisted on revising history in regards to the Armenian and Kurdish Crises and has punished those who have tried to speak the truth like Pulitzer Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk. Most central to Kinzer’s discussion, however, is the Ataturk faith of the ruling elite – called Kemalism -- where nation, secularism and democracy rule, which is at odds with Turkey’s current ruler, Erdogan, who is a devoted Muslim and brings with his administration a rising enthno-nationalism. As Turkey tries to erase its image as the dark scourge of civilization and Christian enemy and climbs towards Islamic democracy in its hopes to gain entry to The European Union, it has the potential to emerge as a powerful model for the rest of the world (9.5/10).