Assad's Fall and Russia's Stumble

Thursday, December 12, 2024 

I can only imagine how eerie it must have been for the residents of Damascus to wake up this past week and find themselves finally rid of the Assads. 

All smiles for now

But it must be terrifying as well, at least for those who don't savor the idea of living under the rule of fighters who, until quite recently, were affiliated with ISIS and other extremist Sunni Muslim militias. So, while I doubt that there are very many Syrians who will miss the tyranny of Assad's rule, there are some who will definitely be sorry to see the secularism of Baath party rule come to an end. 

Now that Assad has been overthrown, the jockeying for power begins.

Kristmas Konvoy N & P: News from Belgrade and in the World

Sunday, December 8, 2024

This past Thursday was our last day of classes at MSU, so there's been a lot going on. In the city of Belgrade, meanwhile, the Christmas Convoy rumbled through town last night. 

The rumbling was so loud that I've barely been able to focus on the news. Russia, Romania, South Korea, Georgia--so much stuff going on. For my takes on the latest at home and abroad, see below. 

Postcards from Belgrade: the Snows of Autumn

Sunday, November 24, 2024

The snows of autumn are back. 

Not so long ago, the evenings were still quite balmy

 

I woke up this morning and headed out into the living room area. There room has a number of high windows so it gives me a good sense of what the weather is like on any particular day. I saw a bunch of snow falling and all of a sudden felt really energized.

It's nice to have some real snow again.  

Shotz from Ireland

Saturday, August 10, 2024

This past May I finished my last class on a Thursday afternoon, then went to my department's end-of-year party. The next morning I got up at 3:30 am, showered, and left my place at about 4:30. As usual, I walked to the airport--it's about fifteen minutes door-to-door--and then flew out to Michigan to see my parents. 

I spent a weekend in Ann Arbor before traveling out to Philadelphia for a week to do some research for a new project that I'm working on. The research in Philly could only be conducted in the first week of the month, while some other research I had planned in DC could only take place in the last week of May. 

So, I had two weeks on my hands and decided to spend it traveling. From Philly I went up to NYC for a weekend, and  from there flew to Ireland, where I stayed for twelve days. 

It was a short trip, but a memorable one. 

Video of my (virtual) talk on Nâzım Hikmet at Bosphorus University

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Here is a video of a talk I gave (virtually) earlier this year at Bosphorus University's Nâzım Hikmet Kültür ve Sanat Araştırma Merkezi. 

The talk is in English. 

Thanks to everyone at the center for making this possible.

The Sordid Reflections of a Detroit Lions Fan

Saturday, January 27, 2024

As the only Lions fan in the lives of a number of people, I've been hearing from a lot of friends this week. Mostly, they're writing to tell me that they're pulling for my team in the playoffs, which I appreciate. There's always room for one more on the bandwagon. 

I have to say that I'm experiencing something of a personality crisis right now. All my football-watching life, more or less, I've been cheering for a perennial NFL loser. It's definitely strange to  see the team doing so well. Part of me is genuinely optimistic and excited, but another side of me just hopes they don't manage to disgrace themselves somehow. 

Upcoming Online Talk for the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Nâzım Hikmet Merkezi

Thursday, January 11, 2024

In case you're interested, I'll be giving an online talk about Nâzım Hikmet and my book Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation at an event organized by the Nâzım Hikmet Center at Bosphorus University. 

The event takes place on January 15, which is the 122nd anniversary of what is typically considered Nâzım Hikmet's birthday (in fact, it seems he was born toward the end of 1901). Online admission is free and the talk begins at 8 am, Montana time (10 am Eastern US, and 6 pm in Turkey). 

For more information, see below. 

Gabor Szabo in Budapest

Monday, January 8, 2024

I was in Budapest recently, where I was constantly reminded of one of my favorite jazz musicians, Gabor Szabo.  

Christmastime Research in Istanbul

Friday, December 29, 2023

I've spent the last couple of weeks in Istanbul, and it's been good to be back. 

March, 1992: I'm the one in the jean jacket

Ukraine and Russia: Any Deal Should Include NATO Membership

Saturday, December 23, 2023

I saw an interesting article in the New York Times today regarding possible Russian interest in negotiating a peace deal with Kyiv. 

As I discussed in a post last week, I think it would be foolish to let Putin off the hook by allowing him to declare victory in a war that's going so badly for Russia. I'd much rather see the Russian Army bleed out in eastern Ukraine than have it be in a position to recover and threaten Ukraine again in another few years. If the Ukrainians are willing to keep fighting, I think the US and its NATO allies should support them. 

But what if the Ukrainian government were to consider a peace plan? What might it look like?

Arming Ukraine: Why it's in American Interests

Friday, December 15, 2023

Every GOP senator voted no this week on a supplemental funding bill that included money for Ukraine. The vote, which failed 49-51, required 60 supporters in order to pass. Republicans voting no mainly argued that they wanted the Biden administration to make concessions regarding US border policies before they would consider supporting the spending bill. 

Bernie Sanders also voted against the measure, which included funding for Israel, arguing that the US shouldn't be giving money to the Israeli government "with no strings attached." 

In fact, it seems likely that, eventually, the measure will pass and that aid to both Ukraine and Israel will continue. At the same time, however, the vote points to a worrying trend regarding the evolution of American thinking regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. 

Nâzım Hikmet in Montreal

Friday, November 10, 2023

I recently got back from the annual Middle East Studies Association conference in Montreal. It was great. I went to university in Montreal and had only been back a couple of times since I graduated more than thirty years ago. This was my first visit since 2001. 

Best of all, I had the chance to talk for a little while about my new book on Nâzım Hikmet, Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. The hardcover is now selling for just $41. And if that's too rich for you, a paperback edition is due to come out by March of 2025. 

My Thoughts on Nagorno-Karabakh

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Since Azerbaijan's attack on the remaining Armenian-held territory in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19-20, a number of people have gotten in touch and asked me what I thought.

So, here goes:  

Remembering Thomas Goltz

Friday, August 18, 2023

I was sitting in the sauna the other day, reading the Bozeman Yesterdaily Chronicle, when an article caught my eye. "Former MSU Professor and World Traveler Remembered" read the print version (the online title is different). 

Who could it be? I wondered. And then I saw the photo. 

Thomas Goltz passed away on July 29. Here is his obituary from the Livingston Enterprise. 

Red Star over the Black Sea: Excerpts from Chapter 11

Saturday, June 17, 2023

On this date in 1951, a Turkish poet named Nâzım Hikmet awoke before dawn, crept out of his house in Istanbul, and boarded a motorboat piloted by his brother-in-law. Their destination? The Eastern bloc. 

Chris-Craft boat of the sort Nâzım Hikmet
used to escape Turkey in 1951

 

The two brothers-in-law rode their boat up the Bosphorous, the turquoise saltwater strait which divides Turkey, and Istanbul, into “European” and “Asian” sections, before heading out into the Black Sea. Their original idea had been to get Nâzım to Bulgaria, and from there the USSR. En route, however, the brothers-in-law spotted a Romanian cargo ship, the Plekhanov. Boarding this should would, for Nâzım, be just as good as traveling all the way into Bulgarian territorial waters. Either way, they figured, Nâzım would be safely deposited behind the Iron Curtain. Nâzım boarded the Plekhanov, and his brother-in-law turned around and piloted the boat back to Istanbul. They would never see each other again.

Below you'll find some excerpts from Chapter 11 of my new book, Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. These pages relate what Nâzım was doing between the day of his escape from Turkey and his arrival in Moscow twelve days later. They're redacted and without footnotes, though. If you want the real deal, you'll have to buy the book.  

Excerpts from Chapter 4, Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation

Saturday, May 20, 2023

The first time I visited Batumi, Georgia, I couldn't believe my eyes. Rather than the drab, post-Soviet settlement that I expected to find, I'd come across a subtropical-looking place filled with flowers, weird-looking insects, and pastel-colored buildings. That was back in 2009, when I undertook the first of two research trips (the second was in 2013) on behalf of what would become my first book, Turks Across Empires.  

During the course of writing my second book, Red Star over the Black Sea, I didn't go back to Batumi. I did, however, feel transported there somewhat by the writing in Vâlâ Nureddin's later account of his travels through Anatolia and the USSR with Nâzım Hikmet. Vâlâ's description of their first days in Georgia, which had recently come under Bolshevik control, brought me back to the rocky beaches and very cool vibe that I associated with Batumi in particular. 

Below you'll find a few of the sections from Chapter 4 of Red Star, which went on sale in the UK a couple of months ago. The book is set to go on sale in the US at the beginning of June. The photos are from a travelogue that I was keeping on this blog in 2009. 

The Turkish Elections & the Origins of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Friday, May 19, 2023

Well, the results of the first round of balloting are in, and it's not looking good for the opposition. 

I can't say I'm surprised. While the economy in Turkey has been terrible, this election was largely a referendum on President Tayyip Erdoğan. In a country that is broadly divided regarding their opinions of Erdoğan, people aren't going to turn their backs on him just for the hell of it. They needed a good reason to vote differently this time. 

Four-time electoral loser Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu 
once again faces off against 21-year 
incumbent Tayyip Erdoğan

What they got instead was Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a decent man who in the first round of the campaign made real efforts to appeal to people's better instincts, as opposed to exploiting their resentments in the style of his opponent. 

But the resentments that many in Turkey have long held against the Republican People's Party (CHP) are real enough that, 100 years after the founding of the Turkish Republic, roughly half the country cannot bring itself to vote for Atatürk's party.

The Breakup of Russia?

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Putin's air of invincibility is shrinking by the day. But what would happen if he were somehow removed from power?

In my previous post, I speculated on the possibilities of sudden collapse in Russia. My argument was that, as was the case with respect to the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, there's a possibility of a similarly unexpected downfall in today's Russia as well. While Vladimir Putin by all accounts appears to be quite secure with respect to his ability to maintain his position in power, there is certainly precedent in Russia for seemingly stable regimes falling unexpectedly. 

As I noted on Monday, Putin's legitimacy rests largely upon his ability to deliver. He has no dynastic claim. There is no all-powerful party in the manner that there was in Soviet times. Nor is there any real ideology associated with Putin's rule. Instead, Putin's competence has been his primary tool of legitimacy in Russia. And, no matter how much Russian authorities endeavor to hide the truth from their citizens, the fiasco that is the war in Ukraine is becoming increasingly difficult to explain away. So, when your claim to legitimacy is based mainly upon your competence, that legitimacy evaporates once you've been exposed as incompetent. 

And that can be very bad news if you happen to be the incompetent one in power.  

Thinking beyond Putin

Monday, April 10, 2023

Lately I've been thinking about the possibilities of collapse. No, not my own--but rather that which could take place inside Russia. 

When Nicholas II of Russia was, in 1905, pushed to the brink of overthrow, the world was incredulous. After all, the Russian government had, it seemed, been making all of the right moves for decades. The liberalization of the economy that had followed Russia's abolition of serfdom had led to an astonishing level of development. In the 1890s, Russia had the second fastest-growing economy in the world, after the USA. Foreign investment in the Russian economy increased nine-fold between 1880 and 1900. 

Red Star over the Black Sea: Excerpts from Chapter 5

Saturday, April 8, 2023

For the past week or so I've been posting excerpts from my new book, Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. You can find the book's prologue here, a few sections from the introduction here, and selections from Chapter 2 here. 

A few points to keep in mind: 

1) These are just excerpts, not entire sections. So, for example, the offerings on this post represent only a small part of Chapter 5. 

2) These sections do not necessarily appear contiguously in the book. In some places, I've cut intervening sections out while preparing the digital excerpts. 

3) There are no footnotes in the excerpts, but there are in the book (more than 1600 of them, as a matter of fact). So, if you're wondering where the information comes from, check the notes in the book. 

Something else that you'll notice when reading the excerpts: the book is about a lot more than Nâzım Hikmet. While the poet-communist is at the center of the story, you'll see that the book also details the lives of other, less well-known figures. Mainly, what I was interested in doing with this book was placing Nâzım within a particular context, then using the stories of this generation's lives to say something bigger about the times in which these people lived. 

I hope you like it. 

Red Star over the Black Sea: Excerpts from Chapter 2

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Over the past few days I've posted excerpts from the prologue and introduction of my new book, Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. The book, which is published by Oxford University Press, is now on sale in the UK. It will be available for purchase in the United States starting in the first week of June. 

Below you'll find some excerpts from the book's second chapter. 

Red Star over the Black Sea: Excerpts from the Introduction

Saturday, April 1, 2023

After seven and a half years of working on my biography of Nâzım Hikmet, at times it's difficult to believe that the work is finally over. With the exception of teaching days and other times I was momentarily busy with something else, I woke up almost every morning between August of 2014 and February of this year thinking about this book. 

Not only did I wake up thinking about the book, but almost without exception I felt excited and very positive about the project. I hardly ever felt stuck or unsure of what I wanted to do with it. In this respect, Red Star over the Black was a lot of fun to write. 

So now what to do? It's hard. I think a lot of people feel a mild touch of postpartum depression after a project they've spent years on has come to an end. I can't say that I feel depressed about the book ending per se, it's just difficult to know what to think about now. I find myself flipping through the book, reading sections of it out loud, then wandering off distractedly to change the record that's playing or write some notes about a new project I'm interested in. 

Or posting excerpts from the book to my blog. 

Anyway, below you'll find some of the fruits of these labors, excerpts from the book's introduction. It's not the whole intro, but it should give you a good taste of what's there. 

Prologue: Tears of Joy

Monday, March 27, 2023

This morning I was minding my business as usual at the Borderlands Lodge when, fresh from emerging from a mid-morning sauna I happened to notice the snowy residue of footprints on my front walk. 

Well, who could that be? I wondered.  

It feels great to see this baby in print

It turned out to be the delivery of the author copies of my book, Red Star over the Black Sea. The book, which is published by Oxford University Press, goes on sale in the UK next week. It'll be available in the US at the beginning of June. 

After seven and a half years of working on this project, it's pretty amazing to finally hold the book in my hands. 

And what about you? Any interest in getting a copy of your own? If you're still on the fence, maybe checking out the prologue (sans footnotes) below will help you decide. 

In the meantime, please forgive these tears of joy...