Ten years have now passed since I completed the work for the first edition of Turkey: A Modern History. Apparently, the book answered an existing demand, because in those ten years it was reprinted five times (sometimes with alterations), translated into Turkish, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew and Indonesian and used as a textbook in universities in several countries. At the same time, during this decade quite a large number of studies on the history of the late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey have appeared. The social, economic and cultural history of the late empire on the one hand, and contemporary history of the republic have been areas in which research has developed particularly strongly. In the first case the impetus has come from the increased availability of important archival collections. In the second from the fundamental challenges put to the Kemalist republic by Kurdish and Islamist movements, as well as by the prospect of integration with the European Union.
As a result of all this published research a substantially better textbook on Turkey’s modern history could now be written and rather than wait until someone else does it, I have tried to do it myself. The main structure of the book is unaltered, but more than one hundred alterations and additions have been made. In addition, I have endeavoured to support the text with references to the sources (although sparingly, in line with the book’s character as a primer) and enlarged the bibliographical guide.
It makes no sense to try to run oneself breathless in an effort to keep up with history, but it is worthwhile at regular intervals to try to bridge the gap between the frontline of historical research and what is available to the student and general reader in the shape of textbooks. To achieve this is the ambition of this book.
Of course, the improvements are not the result of additional reading and research alone. They also reflect the ongoing discussions with colleagues. Among the many colleagues who have helped me see things more sharply, I should like to single out – in no particular order – Aykut Kansu, Mete Tunçay, Zafer Toprak, Bill Hale, Fikret Adanır, Hamit Bozarslan, François Georgeon, Hilmar Kaiser, Hans Lukas Kieser, Mehmet Emin Yıldırım and Andrew Mango.
A special word of thanks is due to my Ph.D. students, in particular Nicole van Os, Umut Azak, Özgür Gökmen, Seçil Deren and Özgür Mutlu Ulus. I have learned a lot from their work. I thank Vangelis Kechriotis, Socrates Petmezas and Yasemin Gönen for their feedback on the translations into Greek and Turkish, which have improved the original. Of course, I once more thank Lester Crook for his guidance on the English text.
Leiden, December 2003