A Journal of Foreign Policy Issues

It is a radically revised and improved edition of the important book published in 1988 which presents in a concise, scientifically documented and lively way the entire historical course of the civilisations, the development of economy, the successive political systems etc.. Starting from the origin of man, the geological eras, and the pre-history, the Atlas inductively ÒexploresÓ the world 20,000 years ago, and it accompanies and follows man as he progressively conquers one continent after the other by creating and destroying, building and demolishing. The author, with the assistance of maps, descriptive images and charts, takes his readers to countries that have disappeared, from Australasia to the civilisations of the "classical" era of America etc., and from the invention of fire in central Africa to the "hunting = life" in the Arctic. The book is divided into four parts. In the first part, we see primitive humans and the civilisations of the ancient world. In the second part, we see the decline of the ancient "establishment" and the emergence of the new world.

The third part discusses the dawn of the West (the topic of European imperialism 1815-1914 and the descriptive presentation of the international economy 1850-1929 are beautifully written) and the fourth part outlines the modern world, from the Chinese revolution in 1911 to the fall of the Berlin wall and the political consequences of the emergence of Far Asia as a powerful international economic factor.


Sylvia Kedourie, "Turkey: Identity, democracy, politics", editions Frank Cass, London, 1996. 266 pages, 25 pounds

Six are the principles of "Kemalism": democratism, nationalism, populism, statism, anti-sacerdotalism and revisionism, Aise Kantouoglu says in her article on the Turkish identity and its nationalistic ideology which constitutes one of the twelve theses that make up Kedourie's book. "However, democracy is not one of them", the author points out in order to interpret (but not justify) the apathy of a large part of the Turkish people towards the continuous violations of the foundations of the most elementary democracy.

The largest part of the essays collected by Kedourie deal with subjects that attempt to justify the origins of a situation that two Turkish sociologists,-and this is suggestive-Ihsan Dagi and Zigia Gokalp, characterise as "suffocating reality". Until recently, most books on Turkey published in a foreign language (and one must admit that they are not many) have been taking almost for granted, with the exception of historical - tourist books, that the democratic system imposed and enacted by Atatourk was fully consolidated and productive in practice. This has been so despite the political-military coups, the continuous censorship, the restrictions to trade-union activities, etc..

However, in the last few years, because of the strain of the Kurdish issue and the aggravation of criticism regarding the violations of human rights as well as the desire of Western Europeans for a closer commercial and economic cooperation with Ankara, books by Turkish and foreign authors have started to be published that examine critically and not descriptively the situation in Turkey, investigate the origins of its ideology, criticise the orientation of its policy, etc.. Such a book is Kedourie's book, in reality a compilation of twelve articles. The negative thing about these articles is that they have no connection except that they discuss the development of Turkey through time. The work of all article writers is not of the same quality. The "environment", the wider area and the changes therein are absent from the articles referring to Turkey's foreign policy after 1920. In the field of international relations, the article which stands out is the one concerning the turn of Turkey towards the USA and NATO when it abandoned the policy of approaching Russia which had started when Lenin was in office. Here, the reader is impressed by the syndrome of encirclement of Turkish military officials and politicians which is clear in other articles as well. The reader will also be surprised by the minor interest of Washington to use the Turkish territory during the cold war.

Perhaps the most interesting article of the book is that by Ihsan Dagi. It gives a very interesting, sufficiently convincing and somewhat unknown explanation of the gradual democratisation of Evren in the beginning of the 80Õs. The military officials were not at all concerned by the criticism of the West regarding the violations of human rights. However, Turkey risked being removed from the Council of Europe-its presence therein being the "seal" of its European character and the confirmation of continuation of Atatourk's policy-which is what invoked them to make some democratic concessions.