This month Ankara moved to include the Blue Homeland doctrine, which expresses Ankara’s controversial maritime claims in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean, in Turkish school curriculums. In the meantime, Turkish President Erdogan once again took the opportunity on May 29th, 571 years after the fall of Constantinople, to make reference to conquests of the past, tying them to his vision for today’s Turkey. Ryan Gingeras joins Thanos Davelis to discuss Turkey’s decision to teach the Blue Homeland in Turkish schools, its wider ramifications, and explore the link between the rhetoric of conquest we’ve become used to hearing from Erdogan and policies like Blue Homeland.

Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on Turkish, Balkan, and Middle East history. The views expressed in this interview are his own and do not reflect the views of the US government. 

You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:

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