Experts Soner Çağaptay and Michael Reynolds take the listener through a history of Turkey featuring archival audio clips, historic speeches, and contemporary news reels. We examine the birth of the modern Turkish state after the fall of the Ottomans, tracing the country’s development from the rump of a defunct empire to a power straddling both Europe and Asia whose influence extends into and beyond both regions. (Total time: 14:50 minutes.)

Topics include: the vision of modern Turkey’s first leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; the domestic debates throughout the past century about Atatürk’s legacy; the role of Islam in Turkish society and politics; Turkey’s role in regional politics; and the contemporary trends in Turkish domestic and foreign policy.

We hear from American and Turkish officials in an in-depth oral history that looks back at the dispute over the transport of US troops through Turkey in the lead-up to the Iraq War. (Total time: 12:14 minutes.)

Topics include: Turkish concerns about pan-Kurdish political ambitions; Turkish public opinion about the invasion; US negotiating tactics to win the Turkish government’s permission to transport US troops. Featured guests: Ambassador Marc Grossman, former American Ambassador to Turkey; Ambassador Faruk Loğoğlu, former Turkish Ambassador to the United States; General Richard Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and John Taylor, former Under Secretary for International Affairs at the Treasury Department.

We speak with Dr. Ahmet Evin of Sabancı University and Dr. Kemal Kirişci of Boğaziçi University about contemporary Turkish foreign policy and United States/Turkey relations. (Total time: 9:59 minutes.)

Topics include: Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East; Turkey’s role in NATO; Turkish-American cooperation and areas of divergence; and the historical evolution of Turkey’s worldview.

We talk to Dr. Dave Cuthell, Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University, about domestic issues and trends in Turkey today. (Total time: 15:55 minutes.)

Topics include: the role of the military in Turkey; religion in the public sphere, and Turkey’s economic dynamism.

We speak with Ambassador James H. Holmes, President and CEO of the American Turkish Council (ATC), about US-Turkish relations. (Total time: 11:51 minutes.)

Topics include: the shared concerns of the US and Turkey; challenges to the US-Turkey relationship; and ATC’s work to continue growing ties between the two countries.

We speak with Dr. Azade Seyhan, Professor of Comparative Literature at Bryn Mawr College, about the history of Turkish literature. (Total time: 11:15 minutes.)

Topics include: the beginnings of the Turkish literary tradition; the role of Turkish literature in the founding of modern Turkey; important and influential Turkish authors; and new and emerging trends in Turkish literature.