Turkey: The Military

Turkey: The Military

Author: BBC Radio 4 October 27, 2023 Duration: 31:19

On September 12 1683, an army led by Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire, lined up on a hill just outside Vienna. The Ottomans had been besieging the city for almost two months. This wasn’t the first time they’d threatened Vienna. Europe’s fate appeared to hang in the balance once again.

Misha Glenny - who now lives in Vienna - traces the rise and fall of the Ottoman empire with location recordings from the two palaces of Topkapi and Dolmabahce on the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

Contributors to the series include Hannah Lucinda Smith, author Erdogan Rising; Professor Marc David Baer, author of The Ottomans; the Istanbul based writer Kaya Genc; Martyn Rady, author of books on the Habsburgs and The Middle Kingdoms; and Christopher de Bellaigue, former Tehran correspondent and author of The Lion House.

Misha Glenny is rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and author of McMafia. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Further reading:

Suzy Hansen, Notes on a Foreign Country Norman Stone, Turkey (a short history) Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul Martyn Rady, The Middle Kingdoms Christopher de Bellaigue, The Lion House Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans Soli Ozel, The History of Turkey's Future (in progress) Kaya Genc, The Lion and the Nightingale Hannah Lucinda Smith, Erdogan Rising Mark Mazower, Salonica, city of ghosts


We often take the world map for granted, but the lines that define nations are far from permanent. In How to Invent a Country, award-winning journalist Misha Glenny, presented by BBC Radio 4, digs into the fascinating and often turbulent processes that bring a nation into being. This isn't just a dry history lesson; it's an exploration of the powerful forces-political ambition, cultural narratives, and sheer accident-that draw borders and forge identities. Each episode takes you to a different corner of the globe, unpacking the specific moments when a place transformed from an idea or a territory into a country recognized by the world. You'll hear about the contested lands, the foundational myths, and the real people whose lives were shaped by these creations. This podcast reveals how the countries we know today were invented, showing that their stories are alive, contested, and continually being rewritten. Tune in for a compelling journey that changes how you see every line on the map.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

The Invention Of...
Podcast Episodes
China: The First Emperor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:20
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from."The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite. Thus it has ever been." The opening lines of a fourtee…
Turkey: Ottoman or Turk [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:54
A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny.
Turkey: A Balancing Act [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:43
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde take a ride over the Bosphorus to see the old Hyderpasha railway station - the Asian bulkhead of the Berlin to Baghdad railway which opened in 1909. The Ottoman alliance with Germany had impl…
Turkey: A Balancing Act [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:43
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde take a ride over the Bosphorus to see the old Hyderpasha railway station - the Asian bulkhead of the Berlin to Baghdad railway which opened in 1909. The Ottoman alliance with Germany had impl…
Turkey: The Military [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:19
On September 12 1683, an army led by Kara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire, lined up on a hill just outside Vienna. The Ottomans had been besieging the city for almost two months. This wasn’t the first t…
Turkey: The Ottomans: East or West [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:27
When Mehmet the Conqueror arrived in Constantinople, now Istanbul, he turned the main cathedral into a mosque and threatened to move much further west. Christian Europe was terrified. Misha Glenny travels to Istanbul to…
Turkey: The Ottomans: East or West [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:27
When Mehmet the Conqueror arrived in Constantinople, now Istanbul, he turned the main cathedral into a mosque and threatened to move much further west. Christian Europe was terrified. Misha Glenny travels to Istanbul to…
Russia: A Tale of Two Ivans [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:04
Countries look so cohesive on the map - sturdy borders, familiar shapes. Don't be misled; they didn't always look like this. This is the story of Russia, biggest contiguous country on the planet, told from the time when…
Russia: The Empire Strikes Back [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:36
Russia's empire was not like that of Britain or France. It was built by expanding across the land, so much more like the United States of America. Presenter Misha Glenny speaks to James Hill of the New York Times about t…
Russia: Catherine the Great and the Question of Europe [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:29
The extraordinary tale of how a small fortressed city became the centre of the largest contiguous landmass in the world, presented by Misha Glenny. It was Peter the Great who created a new capital on the Baltic, and Cath…