Modern Turkey

Thaer Abbas

"The rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in Turkey was no ordinary event; it was a silent earthquake that unfolded in stages, its repercussions continuously affecting Atatürk's Republic and its geopolitical relations with neighboring and distant countries. Based on a long series of personal interviews with Abdullah Gül, the "spiritual father" and first "Islamist" president of Turkey, who hails from this very party, and extensive research into the country's history, this book traces the rise and fall of Islamist movements in Turkey.
As is known of him in politics, Gül does not maneuver in his narrative, addressing events clearly and without equivocation. He recalls the era when the second state in NATO was on the verge of joining the European Union and speaks at length about his country's relations, during his time in power, with major Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iraq, as well as with major regional players in the Middle East, such as the United States, Iran, and Israel. While Gül's relationship with the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is still based on old ties of friendship, the book dedicates ample space to shedding light on vastly different, even contradictory, visions between the old guard of the "Justice and Development Party" on one hand, and Erdoğan on the other. These disagreements begin with the amendment of the Turkish constitution regarding the presidential system, pass through the crisis of the Gezi Park protests, and do not end with the divergence in understanding Turkey's role in the Syrian crisis.
In addition to Gül's rich testimony, the book focused on encompassing his team, who feature strongly as colleagues in work and political struggle, witnesses to a period, and analysts offering insightful perspectives on the current Middle Eastern scene. Thus, across 15 chapters, the book, for which former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa wrote the introduction, reviews a short history, yet one burdened with woes heavier than its two-decade lifespan. A book that illuminates the pallor of the present and attempts to answer the difficult questions of the future.

Thaer Abbas – a Lebanese journalist and head of editing for Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper's Beirut office, where he began working in 1993. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Media from the Lebanese University, obtained in the same year.

"We were under a lot of pressure from the regime initially, but now we have become so free that the country is ruled by one person, who decides almost everything related to it."