Hi folks,
In the first half of this week’s podcast, Nick and I talked a bit about Iran and Turkey. In Western capitals, the two countries are considered to be in very different categories, and often for good reason.
Turkey is deeply integrated into the global economy, Iran is sanctioned off, relying on its oil and gas. Turkey is a member of NATO, Iran is the central node in the “axis of resistance.” Turkey is Sunni-dominant, Iran is the center of the Shia world.
Yet these countries are also very similar. They are the heirs to the two non-Arab Islamic Empires with significant reach across the Muslim world. Both countries have a modern history of secularism, militarism and leftism, more recently eclipsed by resurgent Islamism. To this day, the Turkish and Iranian cultural spheres feel very similar, with pretty warm feelings towards each other among the intelligentsia.
This being a short podcast, Nick and I jumped straight to the geopolitics: both are revisionist powers, but have very different models of revisionism. We talked about that a bit.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Karabekir Akkoyunlu has recently published a book on Iran-Turkey from a social science perspective. We didn’t talk about it, but you can find the
episode here:
In the second half of the podcast, we discussed Turkish views of the US elections. I specifically noted that government media has been uncharacteristically silent on their preferences. Nick put it into great context I think, arguing that this kind of an attitude makes sense for foreign powers as US politics is much more divided than it was even a couple of election cycles ago.
I hope you enjoy, and as always, feel free to write comments or discuss in the Kültürkampf chat.
- Selim
Here’s my comic translation for the week. It’s a long one, but I think it’s worth going through.
Man in yellow: Brother don’t underestimate Iran, those lands have ancient history… there are people like Omar Khayyam, Iranian literature is full of unbelievable ruba’i [a form of Persian poetry]… it is an ocean in itself!
Man in brown: hey brother we’re all praising Iran here, come let’s praise it together!
Man passing by: thank you my dear, but I’ve just praised them at home.
Man in brown: please brother, don’t upset us, come let’s praise them together!
Man passing by: my dear I’m telling you, I’ve already praised them, please don’t insist!
Man in blue t-shirt: and it goes without saying that Iranian cinema is a school in itself. And I like their language. It has a nice cadence.
Man in yellow: yes, Farsi is like a poem!
Man in red sweater: and the girls are beautiful!
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