Tormented by History

Nationalism in Greece and Turkey

Sofos Spyros A., Ozkirimli Umut

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"Tormented" by Historyis the first comparative study of nationalism in Greece and Turkey. Grounded in an extensive critical review of the popular and scholarly historiography and literature on Greek and Turkish nationalisms, it traces the emergence and development of the Greek and Turkish nationalist projects over the past two hundred years, challenging the received wisdom about the inevitability of the rise of a 'Greek' and a 'Turkish' nation. Acknowledging the complexity of the relationship between the two nationalisms, Ozkirimli and Sofos, one a Turk, the other a Greek, examine a complex terrain involving the politics of language, religion, memory and history, territory and landscape; processes of homogenization, marginalization and minoritization of populations and cultures as well as institutional support of Greek and Turkish nationalism. They also discuss the place of 'constitutive violence' – physical and symbolic – in the nationalist imagination and the ensuing trauma and sense of loss in the process of establishment and consolidation of Greek and Turkish identities.

About the Author

Spyros Sofos is Senior Research Fellow in European and International Studies at the European Research Centre, Kingston University, London. His publications include "Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe" and "Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Networks", both of which he co-authored.

Umut Ozkirimli is Associate Professor of Politics and the Director of the Center for Turkish-Greek Studies at Istanbul Bilgi University. His previous publications include "Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Introduction" (2000)

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