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Turkey: Past and Present

Amol Rajan discusses Turkey with Elif Shafak, Kaya Genç, Fadi Hakura and Bettany Hughes.

Amol Rajan discusses Turkey past and present with the authors Elif Shafak and Kaya Genç, Chatham House's Fadi Hakura and the historian Bettany Hughes.

Shafak's new novel, The Three Daughters of Eve, moves between Turkey and Britain, and is a tale of friendship, faith and betrayal. It portrays Turkey as a country riven by deep divisions in society, politics and religion.

Kaya Genç reports from across Turkey, exploring the lives of the country's angry young people on both sides of the political divide, while Fadi Hakura from Chatham House considers Turkey's changing relations with the outside world amid increasing nationalist feeling and isolationism.

Bettany Hughes's biography of Istanbul is the story of three cities - Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul - and reveals a city that's been at the heart of political life between the East and the West for the last eight thousand years.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

Available now

43 minutes

Last on

Mon 30 Jan 2017 21:30
±«Óătv Radio 4

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Elif Shafak

is an author.

Three Daughters of Eve is published by Viking.

Kaya Genç

is a novelist and essayist from Istanbul.

Under the Shadow: Rage and Revolution in Modern Turkey is published by I.B.Tauris.

Fadi Hakura

manages the Turkey Project at Chatham House. 

Bettany Hughes

is a historian.

Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities is published by W&N.

Credits

Presenter Amol Rajan
Interviewed Guest Elif Shafak
Interviewed Guest Kaya Genc
Interviewed Guest Bettany Hughes
Interviewed Guest Fadi Hakura
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 30 Jan 2017 09:00
    ±«Óătv Radio 4
  • Mon 30 Jan 2017 21:30
    ±«Óătv Radio 4

Podcast

  • Start the Week

    Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday