Crescent & Star
 Stephen Kinzer
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  ISBN: 0374131430


Turkey Between Two Worlds. An intimate report on Turkey today.

From a pre-9/11 perspective, the Stephen Kinzer traces the development of a modern state, explaining the dilemmas Turkey faces, poised between Europe & Asia, caught between the glories of its Ottoman past & its hopes for a democratic future.

In this time it is well for us to get to know our friends & Turkey has been America's friend for a long time. This vast & varied nation has the opportunity to be the world's first Islamic democracy. Crescent and Star explores the reasons why it might & might not become one.

Stephen Kinzer writes: “Whenever I sit in a café beside the Bosphorus I sense the power of Turkey's geography. Behind me lies Paris, Berlin and London. Across the narrow waterway is Asia, an unbroken land mass stretching from the streets of Istanbul to Baghdad, Delhi and Beijing. The Black Sea, gateway to Russia and the Slavic world, is a few miles to the north. To the south lies the wine-dark Mediterranean...which washes the shores of Europe and Africa. Turkey's own heartland, Anatolia, is a paradise of dreamy coasts and coves, vast fruited plains, thick forests, deep lakes, raging rivers and soaring mountain ranges. This country is the great bridge between East and West, North and South. Seen another way, it is a barrier protecting Europe from the tides of political upheaval and religious extremism.” Page 25

Yet Turkey is a country of opposites--that of istiklal & devlet. The former meaning independence & Turkey has so much from which to become independent--its autocratic heritage, its backwater position in global politics & its almost universal stereotyping as the terrifying Turk.

Devlet is defined in a dictionary simply as: state. Stephen Kinzer, however, has seen it mean much, much more as “...an omnipotent entity that stands above every citizen and every institution. Loyalty to it is held to be every Turk's most fundamental obligation, and questioning it is considered treasonous. No one ever defines what devlet means; everyone is supposed to know. Its guardians are a self-perpetuating elite--generals, police chiefs, prosecutors, judges, political bosses and press barons who decide what develet demands of the citizenry.” Page 26

Each chapter is started with a Meze--a story, a reminiscence, an amusing philosophical detour--about a scene from Shakespeare's Othello which cast the Turk in a terrible role throughout Europe; about raki--the national beverage; about the War of Troy & Homer's epic poems; about Thetis who was Achilles' mother the city of Zeugma on the banks of the Euphrates River; about the Veterans of the Korean War who were the first & only soldiers to fight overseas for the modern Turkish Republic.

“Turks have a vivid collective memory of the chaos out of which their nation was forged. Over the years they have also watched...Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan--dissolve into fratricidal conflict. These experiences have convinced them of the supreme value of stability...it is not hard to find thoughtful, worldy people who believe their country is not ready for full democracy. They know that once Turks are allowed to speak and write freely, to form political parties that advocate unorthodox ideas and to challenge long-held principles in the court of public opinion, Turkey will become more turbulent...They doubt their society can withstand the clash of ideas that is the essence of democratic life.” Page 17

Packed inside this modest volume are stories about the birthplace of so much of our Western mythology & insights into how this society lives, thinks & copes with a Big Brother-ism that pales beside the Soviet brand. Older, powerful men in control with a burgeoning younger generation patiently waiting until their day comes. There are taboos which, if you break them, will snuff out your life or have you thrown in jail. There are things you cannot talk about without putting yourself in very real danger & then there are people you'll be with & places you'll see that will break your heart & warm the cockles that haven't been broken.

“The Turkish Republic is a new nation, very much a work in progress.” Crescent and Star is a rambling, informative, dense read about a young society with an ancient story that is more a stranger to us Westerners than Afghanistan, & yet, Turkey has become an ally in this War against Terrorism.

Stephen Kinzer offers glimpses & impressions of this modern-day nation, overshadowed by its own history, & that of its neighbors. Fascinating!

Stephen Kinzer is a veteran foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on 4 continents. In 1966 he became the first New York Times bureau chief in Istanbul; currently he is that paper's national culture correspondent based in Chicago. He has written Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua & co-authored, with Stephen Schlesinger, Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala.
(02/16/03)

Rebecca