MERC presents: Mustafa Gökçek

Mustafa Gökçek on Democracy in Turkey: An Endless Story

Mustafa Gökçek, Associate Professor of History and the Director of MA program in Interdisciplinary Studies at Niagara University

Turkish experience of democracy has been a rocky journey at best. The legacy of the Ottoman multicultural coexistence never stopped confronting the claim of the Turkish Republic for a homogeneous nation state. Rapid social and political transformations challenge the traditional institutions and give way to a complex meshing of the old and the new. This presentation will provide a historical review of Turkey's engagement with democracy and offer an explanation for the roots of its contemporary challenges.

Dr. Mustafa Gökçekis an Associate Professor of History and the Director of MA program in Interdisciplinary Studies at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. He completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on Muslim intellectuals from Russia who migrated to Istanbul in early twentieth century and actively engaged in the intellectual discussions on Islam and Turkish nationalism. Dr. Gökçek currently teaches courses on the history of Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Ottoman Empire.

Sponsored by Moynihan European Research Centers at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and Turkish Cultural Center - Syracuse