Şakir Dinçşahin, State and Intellectuals in Turkey: The Life and Times of Niyazi

Berkes,1908-1988, Lexington, New York and London, 2015

Anyone working on Turkey is familiar with Niyazi Berkes and his writings on a
variety of topics. Little is known, however, about his intellectual journey, the
factors that influenced his thought and his work and how these matured over time.
Şakir Dinçşahin has sought to address this gap in his study, State and Intellectuals
in Turkey: The Life and Times of Niyazi Berkes, 1908–1988, based on his
dissertation, defended in 2010.

Indeed, apart from Berkes’ autobiography, Unutulan Yillar, State and

Intellectuals in Turkey is the first intellectual biography focused exclusively on
the protagonist’s life. The study is divided in seven chapters, each corresponding
to an important period of Berkes’ life and the political history of Turkey. The
author presents in a clear manner both the initial factors that played an important
role in the ideological formation of Berkes in his birthplace, Cyprus, and later on,
after his family moved to Turkey, where Berkes was strongly influenced by the
dominant Kemalist ideas, and which would prove fundamental in his intellectual
journey.

When it comes to Turkish history and politics, the author’s well-informed

account and its association with the protagonist life is to be praised.
Methodologically, he associates theory with practice and he presents a generally
well-documented argument. Nationalism, one of the main ideologies that the
reader will easily come across throughout the study, is treated with caution. The
author is quite careful with the variations nationalism presents in each period and
the dynamics that unfold within Turkey by contextualizing it and associating it
with the works of some of the most prolific writers on the subject.

One of the greatest assets of the book is that Dinçşahin’s study of Berkes
narrates the latter’s intellectual journey not in isolation from the political and
social history of Turkey but in constant dialogue with it. This is also true, albeit to
a lesser extent, with global developments. He presents an in-depth analysis of the
political history of Turkey with great insight and analytical rigor, while it offers
great insight on other countries, such as Cyprus, Nazi Germany, the US and
finally, Canada.

The book can equally be read be experts and undergraduate students, as well as
by those who are interested in Turkish history, and still learn a lot from it. The
book is informative, and its well-researched material will provide a useful tool for
all interested readers in Turkish political history, European and intellectual
history.

Overall, Dinçşahin provides the reader with a great biography on one of

Turkey’s greatest intellectuals, whose writings are still consulted widely. And this
is where this study’s originality and innovation lies. The author has brought to
light an amount of archival material which has never before been surveyed in their
totality, despite having been available to the public, and easily accessible. Both
primary and secondary sources are used with great dexterity and provide a well-
researched documentation and panorama of Turkey during Berkes’ life.

The author’s arguments, however, caused some frustration at times, while at

others raised questions that could perhaps warrant further clarification. To name
just a few, we may raise, first, his approach to identity formation. Here, Dinçşahin
rightly mentions that self-identity is a social construct, “whose existence and
meaning is continuously negotiated, revised and revitalized” (xiv). Later (5),
however, we read “identities in Cyprus are simply political constructions”. The
word ‘simply’, at least to this reader, seems problematic. Considering that
identities are social and political constructs, then what purpose does the
qualification simply serve? What else could be identities if not constructs?
Furthermore, given that Berkes himself was born in a colonial environment, it
would be interested in seeing the extent to which colonialism played a role in
Berkes’ later life, if at all. A few lines should be devoted to problematizing this
aspect of his life. Finally, one gets the impression that Kemalism, despite its
repressive measures (to which the author also refers), for Berkes, and for
Dinçşahin himself in that matter, is of a distinct kind – socialist or socially-
oriented – an assumption that cannot be taken for granted without an in-depth
analysis and elaboration.

State and Intellectuals in Turkey is a noteworthy contribution in the field of

Turkish Studies, as being the first study that takes up the life of one of the most
famous intellectuals of Turkey, and fills a clear gap in the literature. Furthermore,
the study can be read in various ways, perhaps the most significant of these being
the focus on one important individual’s life and how political developments in
Turkey so deeply shaped his personality and ideas. Finally, it is a well-written
study with a structure that challenges the reader without losing her interest in the
subject.