With Erik-Jan Zürcher   SPECIAL EPISODE IN COOPERATION WITH “OTTOMAN HISTORY PODCAST”  Cover of the revue published in French“La Turquie Kamaliste” used in 1935 and 1936 In this episode, we discuss the emergence of the Turkish nationalist movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the establishment of a sovereign Republic of Turkey in … Continue reading #024 – Kemalism and the Making of Modern Turkey

with İşil Erdinç   Workers of the DİSK Confederation at the Gezi Park protests. The tag says “Tayyip, this is the beginning of the end” Since 2002, when the Party of Development and Justice (AKP) seized power in Turkey, the relationship between state institutions and unions has changed toward polarization and fragmentation. The increasing interference … Continue reading #023 – Turkish Labor Unions under AKP Rule

with Milica Popović and Jovana Papović   Street protests in Belgrade, April 2017 (Photo: Ne Davimo Beograd, Facebook)  On 2 April 2017 Alexander Vučić became President of Serbia, winning the first round of the elections, obtaining a score of 55%, and leading in all districts of the country. The public perception and representation of Vučić … Continue reading #022 – A Look at Vučić’s Serbia and the Emergence of New Social Movements

with Norah Benarrosh-Orsoni   Travellers and drivers during a break on the road from Montreuil to Arad  After 1989, Romania’s economy and its labor market experienced dramatic changes. One of the most common strategies to survive in a state of precariousness was emigration abroad. In this episode, we discuss two case studies based on based … Continue reading #021 – On the Road with Romanian Migrants and Traders

with Ali Yaycioglu   Fethiye Mosque and Ali Pasha’s tomb, Ioannina (Greece) Ottoman Studies offer several unexplored fields of research for the perspectives introduced by the so called “spatial turn” in historiography. “Space” can be investigated as a constituive element in an abstract imaginary of power and agency, but also as a repository which engenders … Continue reading #020 – Space, Wealth, and Power in the Ottoman Empire

with Ana Kladnik   The new town center of Velenje, early 1960s (Velenje Museum) After 1945, Yugoslavia aimed at fostering its industrial infrastructure by bringing factories closer to the sites where natural resources were abundant. The “new town” of Velenje in Slovenia was planned in this context in order to provide good housing for the coal … Continue reading #019 – A New Town in Socialist Yugoslavia in Comparative Perspective

Hosted by Andreas Guidi and Aurélie Perrier, edited by Chris Gratien   SPECIAL EPISODE IN FRENCH IN COOPERATION WITH “OTTOMAN HISTORY PODCAST” (Series “Tout/MO”) “The Rebirth of the Ottoman Empire”, litograph by Sotirios Christidis, ca. 1909 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)  ENG: By reframing the discourse on history and identity, the Revolution of 1908 and the Young … Continue reading #018 – Les Jeunes Turcs: Sauver l’Empire et créer la Nation

with Iva Lucic   Street scene from 1960s Sarajevo. (Photo: FORTEPAN/ Romák Evá) The “long 1960s” represent a vibrant decade for debates on state reconfiguration in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Inside the Communist Party, voices for decentralization gained the overhand in 1964 and eventually led to the new constitution of 1974, which granted more power … Continue reading #017 – Muslim nation-building in Socialist Yugoslavia

with Elif Becan   An example of Tabiiyet Beyannamesi (citizenship certificate) of a Muslim family from today Provadia, Bulgaria, arriving in Turkey in 1934 The repatriation of Muslim refugees from the lost territories in the Balkans to Anatolia became an urgent issue for Ottoman territorial and settlement policies since the war against the Russian Empire in … Continue reading #016 – Balkan Migrants in Turkey: Naturalization, Identifications, and Associations

with Nathalie Clayer and Fabio Giomi   The workshop “Islam in the Balkans”, held at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris in December 2016 was dedicated to the memory of Alexandre Popovic (1931-2014), “Sasha” for his colleagues and friends. The conference gathered twenty-two scholars organised in four panels and a … Continue reading #015 – “ISLAM IN THE BALKANS” – Paris, 15-16.12.2016: Conference Report