About this episode

The episode features Dr. Sezai Ozan Zeybek discussing his book on the complex relationships between humans and animals in Turkey's modern history.

Animals, Justice, and the Politics of Violence: Shared Struggles in Turkey (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) by Dr. Sezai Ozan Zeybek explores the intricate relationship between humans and animals in the context of modern Turkish history. From drafted animals in war, to urban stray dogs and the role of cattle in the Kurdish conflict, the cases developed in this book show how animal lives are deeply entangled with human affairs, including complex social organisations such as families, states and nations. In doing so, the book exposes power dynamics, exploitative practices, and the discursive regimes that underpin development, nationalism, and urban growth. This book offers a timely exploration of human-animal relations, critically revising a number of concepts such as human rights, productivity, health and efficiency from a multispecies perspective. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your…

People in this episode

Host: Miranda Melcher

Guest: Sezai Ozan Zeybek

Topics covered

• human-animal relations
• politics of violence
• Turkish history
• social organizations
• nationalism
• urban growth

Keywords

• animals
• justice
• violence
• Turkey
• human rights
• multispecies perspective
• Kurdish conflict
• urban stray dogs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Palgrave Macmillan

Places: Turkey

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