Tahir Abbas' interdisciplinary study 'Contemporary Turkey in Conflict: Ethnicity, Islam and Politics' aims to explain this authoritarian drift, and as such it can serve as an ideal reference book for those who wish to understand the transformations and conflicts occurring in contemporary Turkey...Abbas elegantly explores the various nuances of Turkish politics over the last decade...overall Abbas' study is a remarkable opus for an understanding of contemporary Turkey in terms of state-society relations...Abbas proceeds by means of a solid multidisciplinary approach combining sociological, political science, and sociohistorical points of views, making the book quite multidimensional overall. And lastly, the book is exceedingly well written, very readable, and lucid.
Ahmet Erdi Ozturk, New Perspectives on Turkey This work covers numerous contemporary issues, including minority rights and the Kurdish conflict as well the Gezi Park occupation protests and their aftermath. It also makes references to a history punctuated by conflicts and clashes between the center and periphery. At its core, the book is an inquiry into changes in Turkish society which, Abbas contends, is a composite of post-Islamism and post-Kemalism.
Furkan Halit Yolcu, Turkish Studies Tahir Abbas diligently analyses the complex dynamics between ethnicity, nationalism and Islam in relation to neo-liberalism and conservatism. His original emphasis is on how issues of political trust and social capital have impacted citizenship and identity in Turkey since the rise of AKP, and to what extent the ethnic, religious and cultural dimensions of Turkish identity have changed ... [He] provides a historically-conscious analysis of Turkish politics [and] explains the complex nature of Turkish politics through the lens of 'exceptionalism' ...due to Islam's paradoxical relations with ethnicity and nationalism.
Ayla G l, International Affairs