The Struggle for Modern Turkey: Justice, Activism and a Revolutionary Female Journalist

by Sabiha Sertel, Tia O'Brien (Editor), Nur Deris (Editor), David Selim Sayers (Translator), Evrim Emir-Sayers (Translator)

Overview

Sabiha Sertel was born into revolution in 1895, as an independent Turkey rose out of the dying Ottoman Empire. The nation's first professional female jourbanalist, her unrelenting push for democracy and social reforms ultimately cost Sertel her country and freedom.

Shortly before her death in 1968, Sertel completed her autobiography Roman Gibi (Like a Novel), which was written during her forced exile in the Soviet Union. Translated here into English for the first time, and complete with a new introduction and comprehensive annotations, it offers a rare perspective on Turkey's history as it moved to embrace democracy, then violently recoiled. The book reveals the voice of a passionate feminist and committed socialist who clashes with the young republic's leadership. A unique first-hand account, the text foreshadows Turkey's increasingly authoritarian state. Sertel offers her perspective on the fierce divisions over the republic's constitution and covers issues including freedom of the press, women's civil rights and the pre-WWII discussions with European leaders about Hitler's rising power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838604448
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/27/2019
Series:	Library of Middle East History
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Sabiha Sertel (1895-1968) is considered the first professional female jourbanalist in modern Turkey.

Tia O'Brien is an award-winning reporter and editor based in San Francisco. Her jourbanalism focuses on politics, business and technology, Turkey and consumer affairs.

Nur Deris is a freelance translator and interpreter and worked most recently at the European Masters in Conference Interpreting at Bosphorus University, Istanbul.

David Selim Sayers is a Founding Member of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT) and a Lecturer at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Université Sorbonne Paris Cité.

Evrim Emir-Sayers is a Founding Member of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT) and worked as a Lecturer in Philosophy at San Francisco State University.

Table of Contents

List of figures x

Preface xii

Introduction xvi

Translators' note xxvii

Biographical and historical timeline xxix

Acknowledgements xxxv

Author's note xxxvii

1 Introduction to life 1

2 In America 19

3 The return home 35

4 Publishing Resimli Ay 47

5 Life in politics 105

6 Turkey in the war years 127

7 Turkey at the end of the war 159

8 The Görüsler journal 181

9 The Tan incidents 191

10 The founding of the Democrat Party and the arrests 205

11 The Human Rights Association 221

12 The provocations continue 229

13 To my countrypeople 241

Glossary 243

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

The Struggle for Modern Turkey is a vivid translation of a phenomenal work of personal and political history. The life of Sabiha Sertel--a pioneering woman, pioneering Turk, pioneering socialist activist, and pioneering journalist--and the history she tells, will move and inspire readers. It will also unsettle myriad assumptions and truisms about life and politics in twentieth-century Turkey. Her courage and insight burst forth from these pages, and invite us into her struggle, which is, after all, a universal struggle for justice.

Sabiha Sertel's memoirs have long been a unique and crucial view onto the dynamism and tumult of Turkey's 20th century. The appearance now of a careful, eloquent, and accessible English translation will open her expansive vista on Turkish politics, society, and culture to new audiences, and ought to be a cause for celebration.

The story of Turkey's first female journalist, Sabiha Sertel, is not only about Turkey as it went through the pains of establishing as a modern country and certainly is not confined to its setting of the decades that led up to and follow the second World War. This is the story of a woman who had to stood up against racist and sexist slurs emanating from her male colleagues. This is the story of a journalist who had to face imprisonment, endured life- threatening attacks from the far-right and forced to live in exile. At a time when press freedom and truth itself are under attack around the world, Sertel's memoir provides timely lessons for us journalists and for anyone who cares for free speech and press. It is both a story of hope and courage but also of despair as it displays that time does not always bring progress but moves in a cyclical motion with the same horrifying fall backs lurking ahead for a liberal democratic order.

From the Publisher