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Anti-Westernism in Turkey: Historical and Ideological Roots
Author(s): Ihsan Dagi (Editor), Ahmet Erdi Öztürk
- Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
- Publication Date: May 19, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 285 pages
- ISBN-10: 3032221293
- ISBN-13: 9783032221292
Book Description
This book explores anti-Westernism in Turkey by locating it in historical, ideological, and political contexts. It examines how anti-Westernism has evolved from the early period of Turkish modernization to the present day. The book traces admiration, scepticism, and resistance in the Turkish attitude toward the West through a historical and ideological account of Turkish politics. Through contributions from experts, overarching themes such as sovereignty, security, and memory are analysed in a way to explain how historical grievances as reinvented by political actors representing different ideological dispositions converge to shape a negative attitude in Turkey toward the West.
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Why does “the West” remain Turkey’s most persistent mirror, an object of aspiration, grievance, and political mobilisation all at once? This book explains anti-Westernism in Turkey not as a passing mood or a single ideology, but as a durable political language shaped by history, identity, and power. From the late Ottoman and early Republican encounters with European modernity to today’s debates about sovereignty and security, the chapters show how admiration can coexist with suspicion, and how belonging can be narrated through rejection.
Bringing together expert contributors, the volume traces different genealogies of anti-Westernism across Turkey’s ideological spectrum and shows how memories of humiliation, intervention, and unequal recognition are reactivated in politics, media, and foreign policy rhetoric. By foregrounding contested memory and strategic insecurity, it clarifies why anti-Westernism persists, how it changes, and what it enables.
Ihsan Dagi is Professor of International Relations at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He has published widely on Turkish politics and foreign policy with a particular focus on democratization, Islamism, and Turkey-West relations.
Dr Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is a multi-award-winning political scientist and international relations expert who is serving at London Metropolitan University as a reader. He is the author and editor of nine books and has published widely on Turkish politics, foreign policy, religion and state power, and transnational governance.
About the Author
Ihsan Dagi is Professor of International Relations at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He has published widely on Turkish politics and foreign policy with a particular focus on democratization, Islamism, and Turkey-West relations.
Dr Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is a multi-award-winning political scientist and international relations expert who is serving at London Metropolitan University as a reader. He is the author and editor of nine books and has published widely on Turkish politics, foreign policy, religion and state power, and transnational governance.
