Shrine diplomacy

Turkey's quest for a post-Kemalist identity

Bibliographic Data

ID2156536
AuthorsBehar Sadriu (SOAS University of London, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume30
Issue4
Pages421-433
Publication date2019-08-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02757206.2019.1611572
OpenAlexW2945986249
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited19

Shrines are many things to different people: war memorials, places of pilgrimage and even venues for shared festivities. The Sultan Murad shrine complex in Kosovo was raised to commemorate the strategic Ottoman victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Over the past decade, however, it has assumed significance for Turkey as at no other time in the Republic's history. Not only is it a key part of state visit itineraries, it also hosts dignitaries of various kinds, tourists and even schoolchildren from Turkey. Taking inspiration from historical and anthropological studies on shrines and memory, this paper dissects the significance of the Sultan Murad I shrine complex in Kosovo to contemporary Turkish foreign policy imaginaries. The shrine allows us to explore the wider motifs and symbols used in presenting the state's attachment to physical spaces outside of its borders

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Battle · Diplomacy · Identity (music · Pilgrimage · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · Turkish · Victory · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy · Turkey's Politics and Society

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