Ece Temelkuran is one of Turkey’s most prominent journalists. A recipient of the Turkish Journalist of the Year and the Pen for Peace awards, she is a persistent foe of right-wing nationalist currents in her country and has suffered death threats over her writings on the Kurds and the Armenians. Her most recent book, Deep Mountain, is a thoughtful reflection on the personal and communal politics of nationalism. Published in Turkish in 2008, and translated into English last year, the book explores ways of bypassing the formal politics of reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia through personal engagement between Turks and Armenians. Its value, in my view, lies primarily in its exposition of the subjective experience of nationalism and the ways in which personal and communal identity can become bound up with political demands.
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