Early Republican Ankara”

Struggle over Historical Representation and the Politics of Urban Historiography

Bibliographic Data

ID11108209
AuthorsBülent Batuman (0000-0003-4921-3261, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume37
Issue5
Pages661-679
Publication date2011-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Urban History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0096-1442 • E-ISSN: 1552-6771
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0096144211407738
OpenAlexW2078747510
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited7

This article discusses the emergence of a particular historical representation: that of “early republican Ankara.” Becoming the capital of the newly born Turkish nation-state in 1923, Ankara was conceived as the symbolic locus of Turkish modernization. The old Ottoman town was rapidly transformed into a modern capital. However, “early republican Ankara” as a historiographic category is a product of the 1990s. In this period, two distinct representations of the city surfaced. One was the outcome of the incorporation of the postmodern critique of modernization into Turkish political history and was supported by the growing interest in urban studies. The other was a direct product of the nationalist call of the Turkish political establishment in the face of pressure from Kurdish nationalism and political Islam. Within this context, the notion of “early republican Ankara” emerged as a nostalgic image to promote national unity

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bulgarian · Capital (architecture · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Islam · Modernization theory · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Turkish · Historical Turkish Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society

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