The New Turkey is a term that refers to at least two distinct published works and, more broadly, to a political concept describing the transformation of the Republic of Turkey under the leadership of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
1. The New Turkey: The Quiet Revolution on the Edge of Europe (2005)
This is a book by Chris Morris, a BBC World Affairs Correspondent, published by Granta Books on 5 September 2005 (ISBN 978-1-86207-865-9). The 288-page work examines the sweeping political, democratic, legal, and economic reforms undertaken by the AKP government in the build-up to the European Union summit of December 17, 2004, at which Turkey was granted the opening of EU membership talks. Morris describes these reforms as a "second revolution" in Turkey, following the first revolution of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
The book is structured into ten chapters covering: Ottoman history and its legacy; Atatürk and Kemalism; political Islam; the Kurdish question; Greek and Armenian minorities; human rights issues; the economy; the Turkish diaspora in Europe; Turkey's geopolitical position; and Turkish culture and media. The epilogue, written in May 2006, addresses the subsequent backlash against Turkish EU membership led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the resurgence of Turkish nationalism.
Reviews in The Guardian (Andrew Finkel), New Statesman (Maureen Freely), and The Times (Ross Leckie) described the book as a brisk and lucid primer on Turkish politics, noting Morris's affection for the country balanced by his willingness to address difficult issues such as the Kurdish question, torture, and the role of the military.
2. The New Turkey and Its Discontents (2017)
This is a book by Simon Waldman and Emre Caliskan, published by Oxford University Press (ISBN 978-0190668372). The work traces Turkey's evolution under Erdoğan's leadership and assesses the political, social, and international consequences. It examines questions of political polarization, the consolidation of executive power, the Kurdish conflict, and Turkey's shifting foreign policy. The book was also published under the title The 'New Turkey' and its Discontents.
3. Broader Political Usage
Beyond these specific publications, "The New Turkey" (Turkish: Yeni Türkiye) has been used as a political slogan and conceptual framework by the AKP and President Erdoğan to describe a vision of a transformed Turkey: one that moves away from the traditional Kemalist secularist model, embraces a more assertive foreign policy, centralizes executive power (culminating in the 2017 constitutional referendum that replaced the parliamentary system with a presidential system), and redefines the relationship between religion and the state. This usage of the term is associated with the political and institutional changes that have taken place in Turkey since the early 2000s.
