Turkish Politics and ‘the People’: Mass Mobilisation and Populism (Edinburgh University Press – 2022)

• This is an impressive volume […] a rich work and an impressive piece of scholarship, one that deserves and no doubt will acquire a wide readership among those interested in Turkey’s political development. – Paul Kubicek, Professor, Political Science, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA
• Those who founded a republic in succession to the Ottoman Empire a century ago did so in the names of the Turkish people and/or nation. What did they mean by those names? Are their meanings the same? What kind of politics is seen as best representing them? Sofos argues that for the entire history of the Turkish republic, political discourse and action has been dominated by populism which, although changing over time, has constantly forestalled the development of democratic and liberal institutions. – John Breuilly, Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics
• In this excellent book, Sofos critically explores the ways the notion of the people, and the allied notions of the national and the plebeian/vernacular have been shaped by the history of the Turkish republic. He elegantly shows us how these very notions have informed ways of envisaging society and politics in Turkey by taking us on a journey through Turkish political history from the end of the Ottoman era to the reign of the AKP. He meticulously elucidates the transformations of the people during one hundred years of republican politics and gauges the ramifications of the populist turn in Turkey’s political trajectories. The book situates Turkey’s experience with populism in broader literatures by showing its unique aspects as well as commonalities with other cases all around the world. No one has shown us the continuities and changes in Turkish populism from this perspective before.– Bahar Baser, Associate Professor, Middle East Politics, Durham University

Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civic Networks (Palgrave – 2013)

• Drawing upon extensive fieldwork and suggesting novel ways of approaching the phenomenon of European Islam and the continent’s Muslim communities, Islam in Europe examines how European Muslims construct notions of identity, agency and belonging, how they negotiate and redefine the notions of religion, tradition, authority and cultural authenticity. In this volume, the authors take us beyond the analysis of society and politics. Their focus is the complex and tense field of the conceptual: in what ways are Muslims in Europe European Muslims; what do events and related discourses do to affect the formation of European Muslim identities? A valuable pointer to future lines of research. –Jørgen S. Nielsen, Professor, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Tarihin Cenderesinde: Türk ve Yunan Milliyetçiliği (İstanbul Bilgi Yayınları – 2013)

• Yunanistan ve Türkiye’deki milliyetçilik tartışmalarını tarih ile harmanlayan, oldukça akıcı bir dille yazılmış, etkileyici bir eser. Daha önce böyle bir karşılaştırmalı çalışma görmediğimi söylemeliyim – özellikle de Yunanca ve Türkçe malzemeleri büyük bir ustalıkla kullanan. Ayrıca birbirini rakip olarak gören iki ulustan aydının dünyada fazla örneği görülmeyen bu işbirliği, sadece bu yönüyle bile son derece cesur bir “müdahaledir”. –Fred Halliday, London School of Economics
• Modern Türkiye ve Yunanistan tarihyazımlarına kendine özgülüğü temel alan ve birbirlerini “öteki” olarak kurgulayan milliyetçi bakış açıları hâkimdir. Bu dikkate değer çalışma, her iki ülkedeki milliyetçilik tartışmaları ile daha genel anlamda kuramsal tartışmaları uzman bir bakış açısıyla ele alarak söz konusu milliyetçi bakışı aşmaktadır. Farklı temaları hem Yunanistan, hem Türkiye örneklerinde karşılaştırmalı bir bakış açısıyla değerlendiren bu çalışma, tarihsel anlamda aydınlatıcı bir yaklaşım sunmanın yanı sıra iki ülkenin birbirlerini daha iyi anlamasına da katkıda bulunacaktır. -John Breuilly, London School of Economics
• Eser, bir denizin iki kıyısında benzer ayrımcı tahayyüllerle gelişip köklenen iki milliyetçiliğin karşılaştırmalı bir analizini yaparak, karşılaştırmalı çalışmaların ender rastlandığı milliyetçilik literatürüne de önemli bir katkı yapmış oluyor. -Melike Akova, Bahar 2015, Bilge Strateji

Το Βάσανο της Ιστορίας: Ο Εθνικισμός στην Ελλάδα και στην Τουρκία (Καστανιώτης – 2008)

• Το βάσανο της Ιστορίας είναι η πρώτη συγκριτική μελέτη του εθνικισμού στην Ελλάδα και στην Τουρκία. Eξετάζοντας τα έργα της λαϊκής και της επιστημονικής ιστοριογραφίας και λογοτεχνίας σχετικά με τον ελληνικό και τον τουρκικό εθνικισμό, αναζητεί τα ίχνη της εμφάνισης και της ανάπτυξης του ελληνικού και του τουρκικού εθνικιστικού οράματος κατά τα τελευταία 200 χρόνια, αμφισβητώντας την επικρατούσα αντίληψη για την αναπόφευκτη ανάδυση του «ελληνικού» και του «τουρκικού» έθνους. Αναγνωρίζοντας την πολυπλοκότητα της σχέσης μεταξύ των δύο εθνικιστικών σχεδίων, ο Oυμούτ Οζκιριμλί και ο Σπύρος A. Σοφός, ένας Τούρκος και ένας Έλληνας, αναλύουν τις πολιτικές που υιοθετήθηκαν σε σχέση με τη γλώσσα, τη θρησκεία, τη μνήμη και την ιστορία, την εδαφική επικράτεια και το τοπίο, όπως επίσης και τις διαδικασίες ομογενοποίησης, περιθωριοποίησης και «μειονοτικοποίησης» πληθυσμών και πολιτιστικών παραδόσεων, αλλά και τη θεσμική υποστήριξη του ελληνικού και του τουρκικού εθνικισμού. Οι συγγραφείς πραγματεύονται επίσης τη θέση της «καταστατικής βίας» –φυσικής και συμβολικής– στην εθνικιστική φαντασίωση, καθώς και το επακόλουθο συλλογικό τραύμα και την αίσθηση της απώλειας κατά τη διαδικασία θεμελίωσης και εδραίωσης της ελληνικής και της τουρκικής ταυτότητας.

Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey (Oxford University Press – 2008)

Tormented by History is the first comparative study of nationalism in Greece and Turkey. Grounded in an extensive critical review of the popular and scholarly historiography and literature on Greek and Turkish nationalisms, it traces the emergence and development of the Greek and Turkish nationalist projects over the past two hundred years, challenging the received wisdom about the inevitability of the rise of a ‘Greek’ and a ‘Turkish’ nation.

Acknowledging the complexity of the relationship between the two nationalisms, Ozkirimli and Sofos, one a Turk, the other a Greek, examine a complex terrain involving the politics of language, religion, memory and history, territory and landscape; processes of homogenization, marginalization and minoritization of populations and cultures as well as institutional support of Greek and Turkish nationalism. They also discuss the place of ‘constitutive violence’ – physical and symbolic – in the nationalist imagination and the ensuing trauma and sense of loss in the process of establishment and consolidation of Greek and Turkish identities.

Introduction: The Nationalist Imagination – Modernity, Enlightenment, Westernization – Between Coexistence and Separation – Searching for Salvation, Discovering the Nation – Culture, Identity, Difference – Dual Heritage or Existential Schizophrenia? – Modernity, Ambivalence and Nostalgia – Past, Memory, History – Amidst Stone Paths and Tumbled Columns – Mythical Past, Elusive Present – Space, Territory, Homeland – The Incomplete Kingdom and the Impossible Empire – Imperial Dystopias, National Realities – Minorities and the Politics of Homogenization – Encountering Difference: Marginalization,
Aporia and Suppression – The Perils of Diversity: Assimilation, Exclusion and Expulsion – Nationalism in Greece and Turkey: The Quest for Hegemony

Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe (Routledge – 1996)