Podcast: An American In Istanbul — 'Another Year Of Living Dangerously'

Turkey is one of those spots in the world where, if you are a Westerner finding yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people, chances are that you are targeted for demonisation and criminalisation.

It had happened years ago, for example, during the urban youth revolt, Gezi Park protests. 

Some American and European observers who had been caught in the middle of the street clashes were targeted deliberately as agents 'provoking the uprising against the ruling party, and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'. The most popular tool for the voluntary informants was the social media. Some of those targeted had to leave the country, some never to return.

The case of Henri Barkey is a more recent and more spectacular one. One of the most prominent analysts on Turkey, with expertise on Kurdish issues, and a scholar who worked in the State Department during Bill Clinton’s presidency, Barkey was an invitee at a 2016 think-tank meeting on Iran in Istanbul on the weekend when a group of officers attempted a coup. 

Following the immense turbulence during that weekend, he left Turkey hastily, only to find himself some weeks later accused of being one of the chief plotters of the military uprising against the ruling government. 

Since then, the allegations have been repetitious, copied and reproduced not only by the pro-government Turkish media, but also by the fiercely nationalist opposition press, which depicted him as an agent.

Resembling a hero in an early Hitchcock movie, Barkey here tells the story in detail, explaining how the ordeal that followed has taken a toll on his personal life and career. In many ways, his chilling account is symbolic in understanding the witch hunt that — according to the Turkish Justice Ministry's recent figures — in 2017 alone led to legal probes about nearly half a million citizens on alleged 'aiding and abetting terrorism' charges.