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About this talk

What reporting on the ground from Eastern Europe tells us about geopolitics. Long before Putin's invasion of Ukraine, conflict was simmering on Europe's borders. In overlooked corners of the eastern Mediterranean, Balkans, Caucasus and Black Sea, Putin and his favoured strongmen have spent years stoking territorial disputes in order to destabilise an increasingly fragile European democratic order, abetted by Turkish president and regional linchpin Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Once a shining portal that straddled East and West, Istanbul's streets now teem with nationalistic fervour, political repression and rampant corruption. Local conflicts are spiralling into regional crises, deepening the fault lines now fracturing Europe and the Middle East. In their respective works, Suzy Hansen and Hannah Lucinda Smith trace the rise and reach of authoritarianism in Turkey and beyond by offering a first-hand account of the hidden places and people whose lives have been shaped by geopolitical forces. These struggles are both intensely local and undeniably global - and it's here where Turkey, and Europe's future could be decided.

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