Third Edition of Prof. Heper's Türkiye'de Devlet Geleneği (The State Tradition in Turkey) Released
The third edition of Türkiye'de Devlet Geleneği by Professor Metin Heper, dean of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative, and Social Sciences, vice rector for academic affairs, and founder and honorary member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, has been released by Doğu-Batı Yayınları, Ankara, in November 2010.
When the English edition was published by the Eothen Press, U.K., in 1985, the publisher acknowledged the attention Turkey had begun to generate internationally, and especially as part of Europe: "Whilst economists and sociologists may rank Turkey as a developing country, her history has more common with that certain European states than with those in the third world. Consequently third world explanations of political instability are not so relevant for Turkey.... What Turkey principally shares as a historical legacy with European countries like France and Germany is a state tradition - a feature which distinguishes the generality of continental European states from those in the Anglo-American fold. In Turkey the state tradition has been both a source, and consequence, of political instability. This book seeks therefore, to explain the trials and tribulations of Turkish democracy in the light of the Turkish state tradition, which has the peculiarity, moreover, that it has emerged from a patrimonial background, not from decentralized feudalism, as in the case of France and Germany. This has provided an added difficulty for the establishment of a plural political system."
Prof. Heper conducts research on Turkish politics, with particular emphasis on secularism and politics, religion and politics, civil-military relations, nationalism, political parties, and civil society in Turkey.
Professor Heper's other books include Historical Dictionary of Turkey (Scarecrow Press, U.S.A., 1994, 2002, 2009, the last edition with Dr. Nur Bilge Criss), İsmet İnönü: The Making of a Turkish Statesman (E.J. Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1998), and The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of Assimilation (PalgraveMacmillan, London, 2008).