The Kemalists: Islamic Revival and the Fate of Secular Turkey, by Muammer Kaylan.
For most of the time I’ve been traveling in Turkey (on and off for nearly 40 years), Hürriyet has been the country’s major daily newspaper.
You can imagine that a journalist who rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief of Hürriyet would know a thing or two about modern Turkey, and Mr Muammer Kaylan, author of this book, certainly knows.
His memoir of a long career dealing with Turkish politics, culture, society and the news has lots of background on Turkey and its people, making it a good source for understanding the country you’ll be visiting.
The change from aggressively secularist republic to one that is, arguably, moderately Islamic, is the topic for students of Turkish history and politics today. This is a fine first book to understand what it’s all about.