Il Reis – Come Erdoğan ha cambiato la Turchia tries to
describe how the country has changed over the last 20 years for better and for
worse. The book is mainly focused on the political ascent and the ruling of
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his authoritarian involution. Il Reis is divided into
five chapters.
The first one is a summary of the main events in Turkish
history, starting from the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to the end of
Necmettin Erbakan’s executive. This chapter is mainly focused on the first four
military coups and the arise of political Islam in Turkey.
The second one is focused on the first phase of Erdoğan’s
political career, from his mandate as Major of Istanbul to the constitution of
the AKP party. This chapter looks also into the rift with the secular
establishment, the development of a new economic system, better known as
‘Islamic Calvinism’ and above gives a first, comprehensive portrait of
Fethullah Gülen and his network.
The third chapter describes the political events from 2007
to 2011. This period is generally considered the ‘golden age’ of AKP ruling in
Turkey. The author illustrates the improvement of the conditio of religious
minorities not to mention the economic growth, analyzing the reforms AKP
implemented in several fields. Nevertheless, the chapter highlights also the
massive trial against the so-called Ergenekon organization and the new era in
the foreign relations inaugurated with the appointment of Ahmet Davutoğlu as
Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The fourth chapter is about the first phase of Erdoğan’s
involution and his transformation from a leader to a increasingly authoritarian
despot. The attention is focused mainly on the activity in foreing diplomacy,
which shattered all the fragile balances in the Mediterrean region, and on the
repression of LGBT community, fundamental rights, perdonal freedoms that have
caused the Gezi Parki revolt. The last paragraph is dedicated at the mass
corruption scandal called ‘Tangentopoli a la Turka’ and which represents the
milestone of the feud in the Turkish islamic right wing, where Erdoğan and
Gülen, initially allied against the secular establishment, are now enemies.
Finally, the fifth chapter analyses how Turkey rapidly
changed in the last two years, dealing with important issue like the condition
of the press freedom and the repression of the Kurds. The books finishes with
three most sensitive topics: the accusation towards Turkey of cooperating with
Daesh, the agreement with the Eu on migrants, the failed coup and the Erdoğan’s
repression.
Marta Ottaviani is an freelance journalist, focused on
Turkey and Greece. She contributes to high profile Italian dailies as
‘Avvenire’ and ‘La Stampa’ and is regularly invited as an expert on Italian
media, both on radio and television. These includes for example Radio in Blu,
Radio Tre Mondo, Radio 24 and TV programmes Omnibus (La7). Linea Notte (Rai
Tre), Direttissima (TgCom-Mediaset). Her first two book were published in 2008
and 2010.
She began her career in 2001. Following her degree in
Literature and Arts in 2000, she was then awarded a Master degree in journalism
from School of journalism ‘Carlo de Martino’ in Milan in 2005. In the same year
she moved to Istanbul to nurture her interest in Turlish politics and further
develop her expertise. She also worked as a correspondent for several media.
She lived for several months in a students’ accomodation, where she often was
the only European. This experience gave her the opportunity to understand
Turkish youth and quickly learn Turkish language.
During the years she spent in Turkey, she travelled across
the whole country, but above all she observed the political scene and the
society changing day by day. She has been the direct witness of the ascent of
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his authoritarian involution.
Marta returned to Milan in 2013, where she continues
working as a jounalist and analyst. In the same time she works as consutant for
some companies that invested in Turkey and comes back to Istanbul evenry month.
She decided to capture what she had observed in Turkey in the past years in her
latest book ‘Il Reìs. Come Erdoğan ha cambiato la Turchia’ (The Reìs. How
Erdoğan changed Turkey, 2016). In this book, Marta Ottaviani explains how
Turkish internal and external policies changed, describing how this affected
the local society and increasingly distanced the country from the European
Union.
