Taner Akcam

Taner Akcam

In a HardTalk interview first broadcast on 29 August 2007, Stephen Sackur talks to the Turkish writer and historian, Taner Akcam.

Turkey's new president, Abdullah Gul, is a devout Muslim.

His success is proof that Islam and democracy can and do mix.

But there are powerful forces in Turkey with many in military uniform who see Gul's elevation as a threat to secular-nationalist values.

Taner Akcam, a Turkish historian, has experienced prison and exile at the hands of those forces.

He tells Stephen Sackur that Ankara's commitment to human rights and democracy has still to be tested.

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