[PDF] ANKARA, : THE SOCIO-SPATIAL MANIFESTATION OF REPUBLICAN WILL

1 ANKARA, : THE SOCIO-SPATIAL MANIFESTATION OF REPUBLICAN WILL A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIEN...

ANKARA, 1923-1950: THE SOCIO-SPATIAL MANIFESTATION OF REPUBLICAN WILL

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

AHMET TAK

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN SOCIOLOGY

FEBRUARY 2007

Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences

__________________ Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director

I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

________________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycıoğlu Head of Department

This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

___________________ Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya Özcan Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Özdalga

(METU, SOC)

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya Özcan

(METU, SOC)

Prof. Dr. Kayhan Mutlu

(METU, SOC)

Prof. Dr. Kurtuluş Kayalı

(DTCF, HIST)

Assist. Prof. Dr. H. İlter Taşkıran

(KÜ, CE)

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name, Last Name: Ahmet Tak Signature:

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ABSTRACT ANKARA, 1923-1950: THE SOCIO-SPATIAL MANIFESTATION OF REPUBLICAN WILL Tak, Ahmet Ph. D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya Özcan February 2007, 248 pages The social, cultural, aesthetic, and spatial aspects of the urban transformation in its specific relationship with a certain ideology is examined in the study. Ankara, as the capital city of a new state, is regarded as a materialized reflection of the modernization program of the Kemalist ideology which defined the main foundations of the Republic and shaped its formation. The formation process of Ankara is tried to be understood in a historical deepness. Therefore, in order to comprehend the nature of the social transformation, in a historical context, Istanbul is taken into consideration as a model for the traditional Ottoman city because it had represented the Ottoman urban ideals with its social, cultural and aesthetic aspects. From the Ottoman period to the Republican, the structural transformation of the cities is tried to be studied with referring to a notion of crisis which has covered the cultural area. Ankara had been the most important place where the endeavors of the Republican elite to build a nation and to create a national culture and identity had became manifest explicitly and in the most pure form. Therefore, the creation process of Ankara presents us an important exemple to understand social and cultural dimensions of the Turkish modernization in the Republican period. In the context of Ankara, the process of establishing a modern and national high culture and identity

in the tensions between modernity and traditionalism and its consequences are examined in the study. Key Words: Modernization, Urban Space, Culture, Tradition, Civic Initiative, Toleration, Anonymity

ÖZ ANKARA, 1923–1950: CUMHURİYET İRADESİNİN SOSYAL-MEKÂNSAL TEZAHÜRÜ Tak, Ahmet Doktora, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya Özcan Şubat 2007, 248 sayfa

Tezde modernleşme süreci içerisinde kentsel dönüşümün mekânsal, sosyal, kültürel ve estetik boyutları, belli bir modernleşme ideolojisi ile olan ilişkisi içerisinde incelenmiştir. Ankara; yeni kurulan devletin başkenti olarak, Cumhuriyet’i kuran ve biçimlendiren Kemalist ideolojinin modernleşme projesinin cisimleşmiş doğrudan bir yansıması olarak ele alınmıştır. Ankara’nın oluşum süreci tarihsel bir derinlik içinde incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bundan dolayı kentsel, kültüre, sosyal dönüşümün mahiyetini anlamak için geleneksel Osmanlı şehrinin ideal bir modeli olarak İstanbul dikkate alınmıştır. Osmanlıdan Cumhuriyete kentlerin yapısal dönüşümü bütün bir kültürel alanı kuşatan bir kriz nosyonu içinde incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Cumhuriyet seckinlerinin bir ulus, ulusal kimlik ve ulusal kültür oluşturma cabalarının açık ve en saf şekliyle tezahür ettiği en önemli mekân Ankara olmuştur. Dolayısıyla Ankara’nın inşa süreci Cumhuriyet dönemi modernleşmesinin sosyal kültürel boyutlarını anlamamız açısından önemli bir örnek teşkil etmektedir. Ankara bağlamında geleneksellik ve modernlik arasındaki gerilimler içinde modern ve ulusal bir üst kültür oluşturma süreci ve sonuçları tezde incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Modernleşme, Kentsel Mekân, Kültür, Gelenek, Sivil İnisiyatif, Tolerans, Anonimlik

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya Özcan for his guidance and also especially for his tolerance and patience throughout the study. I thanks to my thesis committe members Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Özdalga, Prof. Dr. Kayhan Mutlu, Prof. Dr. Kurtuluş Kayalı and Assist. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin İlter Taşkıran for their precious critics and comments. I thanks to my friends who do not get out of presenting their helps and encouragements during the writing of the thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAGIARISM ........................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ iv ÖZ ........................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 2. ISTANBUL: THE EMBODIMENT OF THE OTTOMAN CULTURE AND URBAN IDEALS ............................................................................. 9 2.1. Istanbul: A General View..................................................................... 9 2.2. The Ottoman Social Organization and Secularism .............................. 13 2.3. Multiculturalism and Cosmopolitanism in Istanbul ............................. 16 2.4. The Ottoman City ................................................................................. 18 2.4.1. The History of Urbanization in Turks and Anatolia ................... 18 2.4.2. The Formations of the Ottoman Cities ........................................ 23 2.4.3. Vakıf (Foundation) Institution and the Formation of Traditional City ............................................................................ 27 2.4.4. The Function of the Quarters (Mahalle) in the Shaping of Traditional Urban Life ................................................................. 29 2.4.5. The Social Role of Mosque and Imam in the Ottoman Muslim Society ............................................................................ 33

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2.4.6. The Social and Cultural Role of the Dervish Lodges in the Traditional Life ............................................................................ 34 2.4.7. Coffee-Houses in the Traditional Life of Istanbul ...................... 37 2.5. Architecture and Building Activity in the Ottoman Empire ................ 43 2.5.1. Historical Background of the Ottoman Construction Activity ... 43 2.5.2. The Ottoman Architecture from Traditional to Modern ............. 47 3. ANKARA: THE BIRTH OF A NATION FROM ITS ASHES ................... 60 3.1. Ankara before 1923 .............................................................................. 60 3.2. Ankara and National Struggle .............................................................. 64 3.3. Istanbul and Ankara in Nationalist Thought ........................................ 66 3.3.1. Istanbul and Its Nationalist Criticism.......................................... 66 3.3.2. The Image of Ankara in the Nationalist Discourse ..................... 68 3.4. The Modernization Project of the Republican Elite............................. 71 3.5. The Process of Declaration of Ankara as the Capital City................... 75 3.6. Building a Capital City and the Spatial Strategy of the Republic ........ 80 3.7. Social and Cultural Life in Ankara ...................................................... 106 3.7.1. The Formation of the Social Life in Ankara ............................... 106 3.7.2. Cultural Competition between Istanbul and Ankara ................... 117 3.7.3. The City of Dancing Ladies and Gentlemen: The Transformation of Intimacy ......................................................... 120 3.7.4. Familiarity and Anonymity in Ankara ........................................ 125 3.7.5. The People’s Houses: The Matrix of the Republican Modern People ........................................................................................... 128 3.7.6. Non-Muslims, State Policies and Secularism ............................. 132 3.7.7. The Places of Entertainment in Ankara ...................................... 136

3.7.8. Nevzat Tandoğan: A Profile of the Republican Heydays ........... 140 3.8. After 1950: The Decline of Ankara ..................................................... 144 4. CULTURE AND IDENTITY FROM THE EMPIRE TO THE REPUBLIC .................................................................................................... 151 4.1. Music and Politics of Identity .............................................................. 153 4.1.1. Music in the Last Period of the Ottoman Empire and the Arise of the New Forms ............................................................... 155 4.1.2. Ziya Gökalp and the National Music .......................................... 160 4.1.3. Traditional Ottoman/Turkish Music in the Republican Period ... 163 4.1.4. Polyphonic Music Studies in the Republican Period .................. 169 4.1.5. The Birth of Arabesk Music and Turkish National Identity ....... 177 4.2. Architecture and National Identity ....................................................... 181 4.2.1. The First National Architectural Movement ............................... 183 4.2.2. International or Modern Architecture ......................................... 189 4.2.3. The Second National Architectural Movement........................... 193 4.3. Sculpture in Turkish Modernization .................................................... 200 4.3.1. Ottomans’ Beginning of Awareness in Sculpture ....................... 200 4.3.2. Republican Sculpture .................................................................. 202 4.4. Language Reform and Its Consequences: A Short Assessment........... 212 5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 215 REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 224 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................ 235 A. TURKISH SUMMARY ............................................................................... 235 B. CURRICULUM VITAE .............................................................................. 248

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Halil Inalcık has notified that, generally disregarded by others, present culture and identity crisis in Turkish society is much greater than the preceding times (İnalcık 2005:387, 389). This is indeed a very open and a short explanation of what has happened from Tanzimat to the present. This identity problem is, in deed, a reflection of a general crisis that has taken place in Turkish society. It is not an exaggeration to say that, for a long time, there has been an unresolved civilization problem in Turkish society whose maturity and its long history made it unnoticeable to us. From the earlier days of Tanzimat to the present, all the solution statements of Ottoman political elites and intellectuals could not be considered only a development program or strategies; rather, it could be read as societal programs directed itself to bring forth solutions to this developing crisis. As a matter of fact, application of these programs did not bring forth solutions; rather they have deepened the crisis. This crisis has penetrated all over into the area of culture. It is possible to say that this crisis has never existed incidentally; but it has existed in different areas and periods and also depending on the changing periods it has reflected different characteristics. Thus, it has never ended with any definite solution, but instead, it has owned a general characteristic. Therefore, it is possible to consider this crisis, penetrated into the all areas of life during the late Ottoman period, as a civilization crisis of society, which was resulted from the collaboration of a different group of crisis. From the Tulip Age (Lale Devri) to the new Republican period, the difference between the modernization programs projected in order to reformation of country, has been directly related to the changing character of this crisis in different periods. Radicalization as well as the transformation of Turkish Republic’s modernization program into a type of changing civilization is the result of understanding of the crisis at the utmost level.

Initially, the crisis had started to have a partial reflection in the area of architecture. Yet, it could be said that the crisis in the area of architecture initiated immediately after the reaching of the Ottoman architecture to the highest point via Sinan’s monumental buildings and constructions. This crisis of creativity in the Ottoman architecture was indeed resulted from the absence of possibility to say a new kind of thing. Yet, for a long time, the canon of architecture, in terms of the achieved perfectness of Ottoman architecture, has successfully continued to produce the buildings that were able to satisfy either the spatial needs of social organization or the taste of that period. During this period, any crisis in the area of architecture had not been felt in the Ottoman society. Nevertheless, under the changing conditions of the time, especially during the last decade of the eighteenth century, despite the presence of both relation between classical canon of Ottoman architecture and Western one and good examples of synthesis, classical canon of Ottoman architecture was not adequate to the new building constructions, required by the Ottoman modernization programs. At the same time, the desire for innovation that was the result of the change in the taste of ruling elites, led to a new search for new architectural styles outside of the classical canon. In this sense, like other areas, in the area of architecture, for the Ottomans, the geographical site of newness and difference was the Europe. It can be claimed that one of the main reason of this transformation resulted form the fact that Ottoman high culture, in terms of newness, came to edge of its low cultures’ supplies. Ottoman “high culture” or “civilization” was unique in the sense that it was successfully constituted by the collaboration or the synthesis of different local factors. In terms of geographical factors and sources Ottoman “civilization” did not reflect hom*ogeneity; rather, it was raised on different cultural, social and esthetic formations. In terms of architecture, on the one hand, it represents the rupture from the former Seljuks architecture that was persistent in both the Iranian region and Anatolia; on the other hand, despite its development in both north-east Anatolia and Balkan regions, it has made itself different from socio-cultural sources of these regions. On the other hand, it could be seen that Ottoman poetry, named by many specialist as “Divan Literature”, the main source of which was the literary tradition,

developed during the period of the Seljuks. The influence of regional factors, peculiar to Balkan and Anatolian regions of the Empire, on the Ottoman poetry was neither clearly identified nor seriously evaluated by the researchers of Turkish Literature. In relation to Ottoman music it could be said that it was a synthesis of such regions as Middle East, Iran, Balkans and even Central Asia. The huge capacity of representation made Ottoman music a real unifying ideology in vast geography of the Empire. These syntheses in different areas were belonging to different times. It seems that Ottomans had directed their creative capacities and energies to different areas. Unlike to architecture, Ottoman music did not experience a big dissolution and transformation under the effect of Europeanization; but rather, it made not only a new creative progress but also a new spirit, and thus reached to zenith in the area of music. It has found out the sound that was lost in the area of poetry and architecture. Although the classic Ottoman poetry made its last great advance at personality of Sheikh Galip and then become quiet, it started to live with in the music as being the source of güftes (lyrics). The venture of Ottoman music had a totally different course than the architecture in the society. When we inspect the Ottoman state in regards to institutions of classical age and its philosophy, it reflects a synthesis that was resulted from such factors as the fashions of Central Asia, different local fashions and the Byzantium’s effects (Karpat, 2002: 152). Modernity, for the Ottomans, means both novelty and power in terms of returning to the earlier magnificent period of the Empire. Therefore, modernization, firstly, initiated in the area of the army: the creation of a new army (Nizam-ı Cedid) and the required educational institutions were the first step of this process; but later on, modernization has penetrated into the other areas and different groups of society not under the control of state. One of the main results of this was the existence of a rising intellectual legitimization crisis. Yet, after the mid nineteenth century, traditional worldview, grounded on religion, has lost its power of persuasion among the members of the society, especially individuals or the groups who had relation with western cultural forms and life style. During the Crimean war, the presence of Western confederates in Istanbul

to give support to Ottomans against Russia has contributed to diffusion and legitimization of Western culture and life practices. Consequently, the traditional institutions in conjunction with traditional worldview were under the objection and the critiques of a group of people who were either educated in Western type of schools or feeling admiration for material successes of the West. On the way to the Turkish Republic, most of the people were both strictly attached to traditional worldview and continuing a traditional life style; but, traditional life style and world view had lost its legitimacy among rising intellectuals, educated in Western type of institutions. When we evaluate Ottoman modernization process, lasted at least three century, the end of the Empire could be conceived as the death of a man from the poison injected to his blood. The given receipt of recovery led man to death. There were a huge difference between social-ethnic structure of the Ottoman Empire and the objected model of intellectuals, namely social organization forms of Western modernity’s. Therefore, the Ottoman Empire had never had the chance of taking into its agenda a total Westernization project. However, during the Republican period there seems a far more hom*ogeneous socio-ethnic structure in the society than the Ottoman one, because of the rise of new nation states in both Balkans and Middle East regions and relocation and the exchange of populations between these new nation states and the Turkey. Under such a condition, the constitutive elites of Turkish Republic had thought that they had a chance either to the building of a nation state and to implement a more radical Westernization program. Within this context, in order to completely overcome the civilization crisis the political elites of Turkish Republic tried to reconstruct the new capital of Republic, namely Ankara as a new model for the rest of the country. This study aims to analyze the process of modernization and the experience of modernity in Turkey. The study focuses on Ankara during the single party period, the examination of the Ottoman period and the traditional urban formation of Istanbul are considered for this purpose. That period is important because it represents the will that had taken a definite decision to transform radically the social, political, and cultural structure and identity of the traditional Turkish society into a new modern

one. Previous and subsequent periods will be referred especially by the comparative aims. Ankara will constitute the physical and geographical limits of the study. As a city with its urban symbols, its architecture, its culture, and social relations in it, Ankara is a very concrete realization of the modernization project of the Republican elites in a definite space. It covers the basic values and ideals of the new Republican regime. Capital city also represent the capital values of the new society. We can conceive the elitist project of societal transformation on the basis of its core values embodied in the new city, the capital of the new republic created ex nihilo. Therefore, it would not be a fault to take Ankara into account as the homeland of the Republican socio-cultural project. In the other studies on Ankara, it is generally examined in terms of its physical urban character, its history, and its aesthetic or architectural aspect. An interest for the socio-cultural dimension of Ankara is a new issue and examined very restrictedly in a few studies. Briefly, the focus of this study is on the social and cultural aspects of Ankara, on the public and private life and artistic and spatial constitution of the city on the basis of their Ottoman backgrounds. The physical, geographical, architectural and the other dimensions of the city are evaluated if they bear socio-cultural significance. In every place of the world, the city has become the natural home for the process of modernization and for modernity. Modern “civilization” is firstly an urban issue, and therefore it will be beneficial to look at the nature of the social relations and culture in the metropolitan city to observe the experience of modernity. Therefore, when the state elites, in 1923, have started their radical modernization project, the transference of the capital city from Istanbul to Ankara was not haphazardly taken decision. It represents the decisiveness of the new regime to break up the ties with the old regime and with its socio-cultural and economic organizations. Giving place to a new civilization needs a more neutral space than Istanbul that was full with the vivid memories of the old imperial regime. For Tankut (1993: 24), with its new emerging social group consisting of the mass of the state officials, the creation of Ankara can be called as an internal colonization as in other similar cities like Canberra and Brasilia, they were similarly created ex nihilo by the political elite as the capital cities of their countries. All these cities are in a sense a

spatial demonstration of the artistic power and will of the administrative elite on the creation of modern nation. Ankara was especially a city of officials whose loyalty to the Republican ideal and values were complete. Thus, in Ankara the chance of the realization of the modernization project was in highest degree among all other provinces of Turkey. Moreover, it was a direct result of the program itself. Therefore, it will be rather proper to choose Ankara for the subject in order to study the social, cultural and public goals and practices of the modernization project. To study the public geography of Ankara will be, as stated by Sennett (1977: 264), study on the “civility institutionalized” of the Republican sociality. Although the main subject of the study is restricted to the cultural and sociospatial practices in the period of the single party in Ankara, it should be given a special attention into the previous period because it represents the traditional sociospatial and cultural practices and also the beginning of the endeavors for the westernization or modernization. Therefore, that pre-republican Ottoman period merits certainly a special assessment in order to understand the distinguishing features of the new republican practices. Having made a comparison between these two periods of the Ottoman and the Republican will provide a foundation for seeing and examining the facts which form breaks and continuities, which characterize the distinctive aspects of the republican modernization. The Republican modernization project had been shaped in reference to a specific ideology, called Kemalism. In the study, Kemalism is regarded as a modernizing ideology raise on the past experiences of the long-termed process of the Ottoman modernization and take the modern western civilization as a model in defining its own direction of development. The term, culture, is used in a loose meaning, generally referring to the values and norms which shape the logic of social relations and institutions. The concept of tradition is used to refer to the practices which are rooted in the society from past to present. The term of “traditional” has a meaning referring all pre-modern societies in social sciences. In this usage there are some problems and weakness because it does not make any separation between the different non-modern social organizations and living practices. In fact, there may be a gap between the rural and urban way of life

in a single society. In the study, the term, “traditional” is generally used in a loose sense to refer to the non-modern character of the urban practices, social organization and institutions, or high culture of the Ottoman Empire, which were creations of a dialectics between its world view and material conditions before the Tanzimat period. Although it is possible that modernity could have some traditions, it could not be subsumed under the notion of “traditional”. The notion of modernity is a determinative and referential polar of the notion of traditional. It is one of the most ambiguous terms in social science. It does not have a single or a limited set of meaning. In the study, the term is used in the large margin provided by its uncertainty. The term of life-style is used in the study to define the ways of ordinary life depending on different values and norms. The term, tradition, refers to a specific period and geography and therefore, it defines institutionalized practices or values of a local culture or civilization existing in a historical period. There is generally a tension between the practices and values of the traditional life and those of the modern one. Kemalism as a modernizing ideology has existed on a ground where the values of different worlds existed side by side in an unharmonious situation. It is generally defined as duality in cultural and social life after Tanzimat by the students of Turkish modernization. The one of the main problem of Kemalist modernization was to give an end to this dualism. Therefore, it was necessity to reevaluate the traditions for Kemalist modernization, which accepted the west and its institutions and values as norm for itself in reforming state and society. In reassessment of tradition, Kemalist movement, in its reformation program, has rejected traditions depending on the Ottoman urban life and substituted rural or folkloric elements for them, because it was thought that those were not so much influenced from the distorted Ottoman traditions and they reflected genuine character of the nation. In the study, such concepts as anonymity, individual or civic initiative and toleration will be thematic notions to analyze the spiritual character of the transformation process of the cities from traditional one to the modern one. Anonymity is considered an important constitutive factor in the shaping of a town as a perfect city. This notion is related directly with the potentials which provide the

people a liberated field in public area to act freely. It provides a chance to the individual to be invisible in crowds and to erase his personal traits in such a way that he could behave freely outside of the communal ties. What anonymity implies in the context of city is that the urban area did not belong to an ideology or a community. Having not belonged to a monistic ideology or to a social/political group guarantees for a city to have an urban toleration on which diversities gain right to exist and appear in urban scene. Main problem is how much city life tolerates differences. The term, civic initiative is firstly related to the chance of a person to participate individually and collectively into the process of taking decision about the urban environment in which he lives and to design it. The term, toleration, defines the chance of ethnic, religious, linguistic differences and ethic-moral codes and customs to exist, to have visibility and to express their selves freely in urban space. It defines the possibility of existence of a pluralistic social organization in the city. In the first chapter of the study, I try to analyze the urban organization and social dimensions of the tradional Ottoman society, especially with the exemple of Istanbul and the conditions in which modernization emerged. It will provide a chance to evaluate Ankara in a historical and geographic context rather than in an abstract context. In the second chapter, I try to examine the understanding of modernity by the founding elite of the Turkish Republic and its reflection on the urban life and the formation of the city in the example of Ankara, the capital city of the new state. The constitution of Ankara as a modern capital represents the materialization of the social and cultural ideals of the Republican elite on the skin of the city. In the third chapter, I try to analyze the cultural issues and forms in terms of the aim of the state elite to create a national high culture and its success and failures and limits in realizing its aims.

CHAPTER 2

ISTANBUL: THE EMBODIMENT OF THE OTTOMAN CULTURE AND URBAN IDEALS

2.1. Istanbul: A General View

The traditional Ottoman life with its socio-cultural institutions, political-economic structure and spatial organization has great importance in examination of the later modernization practices. In the center of the Ottoman life, Istanbul had very specific place. In order to evaluate the Turkish experience of modernity or modernization, and also the experience of establishing a new capital city on the new socio-spatial and cultural principles, in the Republican period, we should firstly turn our eyes to the socio-spatial organization and experience of everyday life in the Ottoman Empire. The study of the practices of everyday life in the Ottoman Society will give us a chance to re-present or re-imagine the founding socio-cultural aspects of the Ottoman life that can be called “traditional”. Without an evaluation of the Ottoman “traditionalism”, to study the Turkish way of modernization will at the great extent be deficient. Ankara can be assumed a city ex nihilo created, as many scholars claim, in terms, in a plain area in terms of its special relationship with old Ankara city on which it has been built, but that not means that it is only self-referential and immune to each historical referents to the socio-spatial and cultural practices of the previous period. The Ottoman traditional life with its social, cultural, and political aspects and its experience of modernity represents an important one of the referents for the conception of Republican modernity. It is an inseparable constituent part of the selfimagination of the Republican identity formation. But its role is generally negative and its negative presentation plays a role to guarantee the legitimating and successes of the Republican regime in the presence of the public opinion. Therefore, a

comparison between modern republican life-style and traditional life-style of the past is a popular representation in media and official festivals to demonstrate the progressive dimension of the change in Turkish society and the successful role of the new regime in this process. The general representation of the Ottomans in the republican discourse has usually a negative connotation which signs what has not to be for the modern Turks. The Ottomans constitutes the dark side of the Turkish identity in its re-imagination as a modern one. Those Republican imaginations on the Ottomans have generally appropriated the assumptions which were produced in the discourse of the Orientalism as to the Eastern societies. What represents non-Western societies in the Orientalist discourse has now represented for the westernist-nationalist elite nonTurkic in the personality of the Ottomans. In order to understand the figuration of the new modern Turkish identity and the republican socio-cultural practices, the traditional practices of the Ottoman society should be examined and for this aim Istanbul as the peak of the Ottoman civilization in terms of its socio-cultural ideals and urban practices has a special importance. Istanbul was both as its micro-cosmos a mirror of the Empire and a model for the rest of the Empire for its socio-cultural and intellectual patterns and fashions were followed by the provinces (Cesari, 2001). There is a usual conviction, among modern Turkish intellectuals as to the socio-cultural formation of the Ottoman society, that the Ottoman society was divided into two parts between one which was elitist and belonged to the political and intellectual group of the Empire and other belong to the ordinary Turkish people. In the example of the famous shadow puppet, Hacivat and Karagöz, the justification of this separation has been seen. It is claimed that the figure of Hacivat represents the behavioral, linguistic and cultural norms of the Ottoman elite, and Karagöz does ones belongs to the man in the street. There seems a problem of representation. There is no explicit clues that the ordinary people identify himself with which characters. In the Karagöz representations, the strange and amusing aspects of the characters from the different ethnic origins were animated. The main problem of this formulation is its assumption on the nature of the public culture in the Ottoman society. It carries on a covert yet strong nationalistic sentiment which disregards the heterogeneous ethnic,

linguistic and cultural formation of the Ottoman society and re-imagines it as a hom*ogenous society in terms of public strata. It is a general tendency in the Ottoman studies in Turkey to pay no attention to the non-Turkic members of the Empire in evaluating its socio-cultural dimensions. Istanbul has a great significance in understanding the process of the construction of Ankara as the modern capital city of the young Turkish republic. For the figuration of the tradition and modernity in the mind of the founding elite of Turkish Republic, Istanbul had a determinative role as the representative of the social, cultural, political, and spatial dimensions of the old traditional order and also of a “distorted mentality” on the very nature of the modern world and modernity. In fact, Istanbul had taken hold of many such things that could never be admitted to live in the new Republic by the founding elite for they might easily become an obstacle before their aim to transform society on the principle of nationalism and the axis of the modern western civilization. Certainly, Istanbul had contained many elements that did not be reconciled with intents of the new elite. In fact, in terms of their point of view, besides its “erroneous” directions in modernization, Istanbul, with its social life, urban feature, and heterogeneous demographic formation, also represented a different world view and presented a different life-style, which had belonged to the past and certainly contrary to the modern world. The view of the Republican elite on the traditionalism of Istanbul was at a great extent true although its rightness in terms of its moral evaluation on the nature of this traditionalism of urban life could be discussible. In terms of values which were materialized in organization of its urban space and social life, Istanbul represented a non-nationalistic imagination of social organization. The social structure of empires stands essentially on multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-linguistic co-existences of the peoples. It demands heterogeneity and variety. As the capital city of the three Mediterranean Empires, Istanbul had always become a world city in terms of its population formation and its representational potentials. Throughout these three periods, its identity has continuously changed but it has always become a mosaic of religions and languages in which traditions live and coexist without mixing to the other. Istanbul was a divided city both geographically

and demographically (Keyder, 1999: 9-12). In the Ottoman period, it gained the position to be the capital city of three different organizations. It was at the same time the capital city of the Sultanate, the Caliphate, and the Patriarchate. First two became privileged to determine the identity and silhouette of the city. After the conquest, it gained overtly an Islamic identity and silhouette in the place of its previous Byzantine and Orthodox one. In this identity transformation, St. Sofia has been pedestal to hold new identity and silhouette in addition to symbolize the conversion of identity from Christianity to Islam by its conversion from church to mosque. In the most visible hill of Istanbul, it is inseparable part of and also a central point in the silhouette. By adding it some minarets, the silhouette of Istanbul converts to Islam. Although Istanbul embraces many different religious and ethnic identities, the Islamic identity is only in an openly discernible style represented in the general frame of the silhouette by the complementary aids of other great mosques. The tower of Galata represents the old cosmopolitism of Istanbul in the silhouette. The Topkapı palace in the fringe of St. Sofia represents the magnificence of the Ottoman Empire. The secular policies of Republic to change the identity in the silhouette transform St. Sofia to a museum that is a secular institution in character and independent from any religious association. Now, St. Sofia symbolizes the success of the secular Republic. Secularism is in the hearth of the city. However, the project remains uncompleted, as its minarets cannot be pull down because of the risk of the collapse of its canopy entirely. Throughout its long life as the capital city of two (or three) empires, and especially in the Ottoman period, Istanbul had become a homeland for many different ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, as giving them chance to preserve all those distinctive attributes which characterized and separated them from other groups. Istanbul was a micro-cosmos in which it had shown general characteristics of the Empire which had comprised a heterogeneous population from various ethnicities and religions. It was for the Ottomans a conscious choice for Istanbul from the conquest of the city by Sultan Mehmed II to the demise of the empire, in spite of the efforts to create a single Ottoman nation at the last period of the Ottoman Empire.

2.2. The Ottoman Social Organization and Secularism

The Ottoman social order consists of two classes one of which is military class and other is producer class (reaya). Its social structure transcends religious and ethnic boundaries. It had a hierarchical structure having for ranks; military, bureaucrat, artisan, and trader. This social order occupies on another structure that is called Millet system. Millet is a practical administrative system depending on religion which are officially regarded by the rulers in the Ottoman. Millet system comprise Jewish and Christian people which Islam regards these religions as “Ehl-i Kitap” in a “zımni” status. “Zımni” context has a meaning, beyond its juridical concept, that is a extensive principle for defining religion, culture and social organizations. The first and foremost target of government is to maintain this social order that depends on the diversity among groups (Karpat, 2002: 13). By taking into account the nature of the relation between state and religion, Kemal Karpat affirmed the presence of secularism in the Ottoman society in terms of the organization of state before the government of Kanuni Sultan Suleyman. He considered the election of the Sheik al-Islam without the intrusion of the state rulers by the members of ilmiyye class by the time of Suleyman as an open mainstay of his argument. Following practices, that is, both the appointment and the removal of Sheik al-Islam by the state elites is evaluated by Karpat as an end of this secular regulation. In reality, before classifying Ottoman state under the rubric of theocratic states, the relations between the state and religions (Islam and other religions) must be reevaluated. In comparison to other religions, Islam had an open priority in the Ottoman Empire because it was the religion of the dynasty and most of the members of ruling class. In fact, the reason of the privileged position of Islam in the Ottoman society resulted from the fact that it was the reason of religious tolerance by which different religious groups were inconformity with each other. Islam was, in deed, not the religion of the state; rather it was the religion of the community which was politically represented by the Sultan. As a result, when we do not pay attention to Islam’s privilege in the face of other religions, it could be claimed that Ottoman state had

carried out a far more egalitarian attitude by distancing itself from all legitimate religions. Although it is not possible to consider the Ottoman state as consistent in terms of its attitudes towards religions, there are the visible signs of this equality in practice. Just as other states, the Ottoman state relied on a dynasty and its Islamic character was resulted from its membership to the Islamic community. However, this does not mean that the ruling positions of the state were open entirely to the access for the all members of the Muslim community. After Fatih Sultan Mohammad’s seizure of power, this “Islamic Empire” had blocked most of its ruling positions to the members of the Muslim community. In terms of holding any position in ruling strata, the members of Muslim community were not much more advantageous than the Christian or Jewish one; rather, their chances were seem to be equal. This is the point that so much disturbs nationalist historiography in Turkey. Only holding positions in the İlmiyye class was totally open to the members of Muslim people of the Anatolia. When we disregard the organic relations of Ulema class to the state, this organization is similar to other religious communities in terms of being the ladder for promotion in hierarchy. For the members of all communities, they could rise or hold higher positions only in their own organized religious institutions because Ottoman rulers made only these religious institutions open to their access. The leadership positions in each community was the highest and legitimate position that one can attain in his life, since Ottoman rulers authorized that position with the highest authority and legitimate area. Within the system of Devşirme (recruiting of boys for the Janissary corps and administrative positions), the Orthodox Christian children were chosen among Balkan subjects of the Empire according to definite rules. Moreover, these converted subjects hold position in the state organization in proportion to their capability and cleverness: the ordinary ones could only become Janissary; but the talented one could attain important positions. Thus, they constitute a professional class without belonging to any religious community. These converted subjects could be considered as the natural member of Muslim community, but in reality they did not have any organic relation with Muslim community. As a result, only the state was the main reference of their

belongingness. Their bonding to Islam was by means of the state but not of community. As being the menservants of the Sultan they did together with their master belong to the same religion. The area of education was another area where the state has reflected a secular character. Yet, this secular outlook was not pertaining to the content of education; rather, it was a formal phenomenon shaped by state’s relations with the communities. Many events related to the area of public were consigned to the initiatives of religious communities via local communities. Similarly, apart from the education of the person who will hold position in the future within the ruling system of the state, the educational issues were also consigned to local hometown communities, constituted the substructure of the Ottoman millet system. In the Ottoman society, educational issues as well as the required infrastructures were virtually the responsibility of both vakfs (foundation) and the members of local community. Although it was not openly notified, in the Ottoman Empire, the sultan had double aspects: on the one hand, he was the head of the state; on the other hand he was the leader of Muslim community as being the Caliphs of the Muslims. Sultan’s actions were dissimilar in terms of what he did as being either the owner of the State or the leader and the member of Muslim community. The buildings by the Sultan such as madrasas, mosques and other social complexes, were also considered outside the realm of state activities, since the Sultan, as the leader and the influential person of Muslim community, finances these expenses from his own budget. This situation had continued until the time of Mahmud II and then, the state financed and supported not only the education of the people but also religious leaders of each community. Rather than the wishes of Sultan, only the desire of community determined the content of education before the Tanzimat period. But this state of education was not effective in supporting the requirements of a modern state and society. Therefore, it was a necessity to intervene to the formation of education by the state authority. But the main problem was its new character which excluded the civic initiative from the educational process entirely.

2.3. Multiculturalism and Cosmopolitanism in Istanbul

The ethno-linguistic rich diversity of the Ottoman society in Istanbul finds its wellexampled expression in Lady Montegu’s writings on her life in Istanbul:

I live in a place that very well represents the Tower of Babel; in Pera they speak Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian, Arabic, Persian, Russian, Slavonian, Walachian, German, Dutch, French, English, Italian, Hungarian, and what is worse, there is ten of these languages spoke in my own family. My grooms are Arabs, my footmen French, English and Germans, my nurse an Armenian, my housemaids Russians, half a dozen other servants Greeks, my steward an Italian, my janissaries Turks, that I live in the perpetual hearing of this medley of sounds, which produces a very extraordinary effect upon the people that are born here. They learn all these languages at the same time and without knowing any of them well enough to write or read in it. There is very few men, women or children here that have not the same compass of words in five or six of them. I know myself several infants of three or four year old that speak Italian, French, Greek. Turkish and Russian, which last they learn of their nurses, who are generally of that country (1993: 122-123). The ethno-linguistic, religious and cultural diversity was at peak in Istanbul. This feature did not only belong to Istanbul but it could be met in the many other towns of the Ottoman Empire. Especially, the settlements such as Smyrna and Alexandria were the foremost cosmopolitan cities following Istanbul. Especially, rising trade relations with European countries made them regional trade centers and important number of people from Europe had settled within these areas. Multicultural/ethnic social formation was quite elder feature of that geography. What give it its character was that diversity in a region from the Northern shores of Africa to the East of Iran, perhaps to Chine. Andalusia was a part of this geography before it was destroyed by the European military campaigns. The Eastern Roman Empire was certainly a part of this social formation. In fact, Emperium Romanium, for along time which governed two shores of the Mediterranean Sea, may be also assumed as a part of those world. If it can be possible to assess the Emperium Romanium as a part of multi-ethnic geography, this would provide us to criticize the relationship between

the Roman Empire as a multicultural state and the modern Europe founded on the principle of the nation-state which has aimed ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic hom*ogeneity for national integration. Perhaps, it may be possible to regard the Roman Empire as a western part of old world rather than a historical part of modern Europe. Multi-ethnic social formation was a specific character of traditional old world and Istanbul was the reel representative, reel capital city of this world. The most perfect form of the social ideals of the old world was materialized in the personality of Istanbul. The analogy made for Istanbul for the foreigner observers from Europe was the Tower of Babel. This analogy, the damned tower of Babel by Yahweh, in deed, does not sufficiently tell us what happens in the Empire. The bridge in Halic deserves a special attention for it presents into the eye of the voyagers all the colors of the “Babel”. For Amicis (1896: 45), “(t)he best place from which to see the population of Constantinople is the floating bridge, about a quarter of a mile long which connects the extreme point of Galata with the opposite shore of the Golden Horn through in appearance a river, in reality separates two different worlds, like an ocean.” The Galata Bridge had the function to be a micro-cosmos of the Empire and to exhibit human variety of the Empire within their ethnic and cultural differences. The colorfulness of human variety on the bridge for Amicis cannot be compared with the one in another place. “Standing there, you can see all Constantinople pass by in the course of an hour. Two human currents flow incessantly back and forth from down to sunset, affording a spectacle which the market-places of India, the Pekin fetes, or the fairs of Nijnii-Novgorod can certainly give but a faint conception of” (Amicis, 1896: 45-46). This confusing fact could only perplex the mind of the Europeans, because for the native people of the Empire, it was very natural and a part of everyday occurrences. “One point which strikes the stranger as being singular, although it is in reality the most natural thing in the world, is that all this queer multitude of people pass one another without so much as a glance, just as though it were some London crowd; no one stops…” (Amicis, 1896: 47). There was only one thing to do in front of this confusing fact, for our traveler:

In order to restore one’s equilibrium after the bewildering scenes of the bridge it is only necessary to follow one of the many narrow streets which wind up the billsides of Stambul. Here there reigns a profound peace, and you may contemplate at your leisure those mysterious and evasive aspects of Oriental life of which only flying glimpses can be obtained on the other bank amid the noise and confusion of European manners and customs. Here everything is Eastern in its strictest sense” (Amicis, 1896: 61). According to Mrs. Müller, another European traveler, Istanbul was like the Tower of Babel having fallen those days causing people pouring over them from the Plain of Shinar. There were the Arabs with their deep-lined face, their erect nose, their naked feet and the brown or white cloths they wrapped around themselves and thick white cloth around their heads in addition to every kind of Jews who represented the race of the Semites. Women and men in every degrees of ugliness had come from Africa and it was possible to meet the real Mongols, rounded-faced, small-eyed and squatted-nosed and the Chinese and the Malayans even though those sallow-skinned and flat black-haired members of the Kingdom were rare. The most remarkable of the Arian race from Europe and Asian were handsome Greeks with their short, white skirt gold/silver-worked Jackets, the Persians with their loosefitting clothes and black headgears, the Albanians in their rough sheep-fleece and the Armenians with a fez on their head generally dressed like the Turks. In addition to all those peoples there were the Circassians with their chest cartridge-ornamented, a sword on their side, a blade hanging on their waist, dervishes with a tall brown conical-hat on their head, the Turks in their national clothes with a fez and the Indians and the Bukharans among them.

2.4. The Ottoman City

2.4.1. The History of Urbanization in Turks and Anatolia The first residences in Kirghizistan in Central Asia had begun to be built two thousand years ago. It is known that the Sogdaks of the Iranian origin have

established trade colonies in the Çu, Talas and İli valleys. V. Nusov points out that during the Gök Türk and the Türkiş periods, the Turks were living together with the Sogdaks in the cities in the Çu region. (Cezar, 1977: 24) However at that time the difference between the village and the city was not that much. There were economical relations between the migrants and the people of the city. The start of transition of Turks from a nomadic life to a settled one was relatively late issue in the history of Turks. There were some reasons which prevented an early urbanization among Turks. An important reason for some Turkic people to stay away from urban settlements was military and strategical. Because of the military threat from Chine, they elected to remain nomadic. The nomadism provided them a competence to move fastly before the Chinian armies. When Bilge Khan intented to convert into Budism and to establish a town and settle in it, his Vizier Tonyukuk objected his intention. Since it would give an end the capacity to move, a settled life in town could result in a catastrophe (Sümer, 1993:7, 18). At the time before Islam, it is known that the Sogdaks who lived in the city in Central Asia belonged to Zoroastrianism and the Turks belonged to Buddhism. The common feature of the cities in this period was that they had an inner rectangular citadel and that they were surrounded by walls. And in front of some of these walls was a trench. The oldest city which the Turks had settled is known as Ak Beşim. In Ak Beşim which was a Turkish capital, the Turks have lived together with the Sogdaks who came to this region in the 6th century to establish trade colonies. Ak Beşim, in accordance with the city structure of the region, consisted of the citadel which contained the Palace and the administrative military units, the şehristan which was made up of the quarters and the residential districts, and the rabad (or birun) which contained the trading activities and the settlements outside the walls. Şehristan was in the middle of the city. The citadel was on the west of şehristan. And the rabad surrounded the şehristan. The houses in the quarters were built close to each other and the regular streets had pavements and were floored with stone. (Cezar, 1977: 31). The triad formation that consisted of the citadel, şehristan and rabad would become widespread after the 9th century and have an ideal-typical character.

One of the locations where settlements were dense was the Fergana region. In the Fergana region where the settled life started in the 2nd century B.C. there were about a hundred cities in the 4-7th centuries A.D. In the course of time these cities have turned into the triad classical structure that consisted of the citadel, şehristan and rabad. The cities of Koşoykurgan and Şirdak-Bek had appeared in the places where the migrant camps existed. According to Nusov, Koşoykurgan was a fortress city, the capital of the Turkish Khans. During the times of war, the Turks who lived an half-settled migrant life in tents outside the walls, used to take shelter inside the walls (Cezar, 1977: 39-40). In addition, the Talas valley in where the historical city of Taşkent was built was another region which contained the cities where the Turks and the Sogdaks lived together. The resident type in these regions was of two kinds as portable and permanent. The portable ones were tents called Yurd which were big enough to accommodate up to 200 people and originate from migrant life. The permanent residences on the other hand, consisted of houses and palaces. The houses which were usually adjacent to each other varied between one-storey and three-storey according to the wealth of the residents. The buildings were mostly set up on a hill and surrounded by walls. In the beginning of the Middle Ages these houses were being used not only for habitation but also for production, trading and religion (Cezar, 1977: 49-50). The house ornaments in the 10-12th centuries resemble the house ornaments of the Seljuk and the Ottoman period in Anatolia. The wooden floor structure with a few layers of clay made on a Soğdak house which was found out in the archeological excavations is almost the same as the floor used in the adobe constructions in Central and East Anatolia. Another kind of construction seen in the 5th century is the castle type seen in the Horezm region. The urban residential units established before were abandoned and a residence structure consisted of castles and farms surrounded by walls started to be used. After this period, many residential units started to be seen around castle type constructions protected by strong walls (Cezar, 1977: 59). Another region where urbanism was seen in the Turks of Central Asia is the Uighur region where the influence of Buddhism was intense. In this region, it’s not encountered the triad division seen in the other regions. With the Muslim Arabs coming to the region, the

trade region which existed outside the city in Turkistan and Iran was included inside the city walls (Cezar, 1977: 90, 94). The Arabian cities outside the Arabian Peninsula have arisen from the military camps established as an administration and defense mechanism. Basra, Kufe, Shiraz, Fustat, Cairo and Kayrevan are clear examples of this. The most important city that the Arabs established with a different logic is Baghdad. It was built in four years upon the order of Caliph Mansur with a large amount of workers dispatched. In the center of the city built on a circular plan, the palace and the mosque were placed. Around these the government departments are aligned. The streets that extend radiantly from the center to the outside reached the doors in the city walls which were built in the form of a circle as well. It can be seen that in Samaria an axial plan was applied. These examples are the signs of the fact that the world of Islam was not unfamiliar with the geometrical planning principles. As for the military camp cities, according to Cesar (1977: 89), it is not expected that there would be a planning like this since they were not established for a permanent residence. The trade region in the Anatolian cities under the administration of the Byzantium, on the contrary to Iran and Turkistan, is not outside the city walls but inside it. The history of urbanization in Anatolia goes a long way in the past. In the Hellenistic period it is seen that cities planned in a geometrical style appeared and became widespread. Miletos and Priene were arranged like a chessboard. In both of the cities the streets were placed parallel or perpendicular to each other. On the islets among the streets, there are residences and other buildings. The main characteristic of the Greek cities surrounded by walls is that they have theater, agora and acropolis. The acropolis where the administrative buildings and the important temples take place was built on a high place in the city (Cezar, 1977: 473). An important incident that influenced the development of the Anatolian cities was the conquest of the region by the Roman Empire. For the reason that the Romans considered the city as a means to maintain peace and spread the Roman civilization, they pursued a policy of establishing new cities in the lands which were captured by them. In terms of urban planning, there is certain continuity between the Greek and the Roman periods. The relation between the main streets and the walls of the city

differs in the formation of the block plots, the usage of the squares and the facilities presented to the people of the city for resting, entertainment and health. (Owens, 2000: 151-155, 166). The Romans, while protecting the Greek cities that existed usually in West Anatolia and the seaboard before them, built new cities in the interior Anatolia and connected them with a road system. There were improvement activities seen in Anatolia on large scale in the 2nd century A.D. With the eastern part of Roman Empire slowly becoming Greek after its division, the Roman character in the cities was gradually lost. The wars with Iran and the invasion of Arabs on Anatolia after the rise of Islam caused the residential units to completely retreat inside the walls and the cities to decline economically. At about the same period, it is seen that the phenomenon of planned urbanization was becoming out of date and the grid system was breaking down in many places. At the same, it is observed that the phenomenon of theater and agora/forum which were important urban public elements for the Hellenistic and Roman periods was slowly disappearing as well (Cezar, 1977: 498). Agora and forum, while being the market place of the cities in the Greek and Roman period, was also the center of public life and political decisions were made here. Besides squares, it is seen that the other important elements of the Roman city such as baths and gymnasium were not much cared and common as they were before. When the tradition of public bath almost disappeared in Constantinople in the seventh and eight centuries, in the Middle East, it has continued without interruption from antiquity to today. The gymnasium had vanished by the end of the fourth century (Kennedy, 1985: 8-9). When Islam appeared in the scene of history, the Greek and Roman urban tradition had already at the great extent disappeared in the existing cities. Therefore, an open influence of this tradition on the cities of the Islamic period can not seem.

2.4.2. The Formations of the Ottoman Cities According to Cesari, the Ottoman cities can not be analyzed according to the schemas constituted for the Western urban architectures. Here, the model is Anatolian-Balkan model, that is, the model of Euro-Asia which was rooted in regional reality, and it is not also an Asian model completed in it and closed to change. The Ottoman city attracts attention with its civilizational specificity which is irreducible into the cultures that it had borrowed some elements while it had created its original synthesis. Mature Ottoman urban culture is a mundane and architectural language, a language in a sense each person, separated from others in their regional and national particular realities, could ‘understand and speak’ (Cesari 2001: 14-16). Cesari points out the geography which gives the physical character of the Ottoman city and separates it from other Islamic cities. The Ottoman State had emerged in the fertile lands of the North Western Anatolia (Bitinia) which can not be compared with the geographies, consisting of deserts, plateaus, and caravan cities, where other Islamic civilizations had developed. As stated by Cesari (2001: 11-12), in the ‘new types’ of the short-lived but liveliness timber house, all social groups had grasped expressions having a common language and style with same taste of environment. Ottoman urban civilization was not only a mosaic but also a synthesis. And this synthesis had affected not only the cities in the regions of Balkan and Anatolia, but also ones settled in more far regions of the Empire. André Raymond has shows that cities like Algeria, Cairo and Damascus had especially enlarged and changed in Ottoman period. These cities protect their regional and Arabic specialties but in addition to this, “they also have many similarities with Ottoman city”. (Karpat, 2002: 16, 18) According to Egli and Kuban, the main great feature of the city of Islam in physical and social aspects, is that it is divided into quarters (Kuban, 1968). The quarter demography of Arabian cities is in a close relation with the tribal structure of the Arabs and shows that the residential units are limited by bond of kinship. In Arabian cities quarters appeared as units which separate the tribes physically from each other. The quarter of Ottoman city which resolved the tribe bonds in the urban

space, presents a different demographic and physical feature than that of the Arabian city. Therefore, quarters surrounded by the walls which isolates the residential units from the other parts of the city and whose doors are closed at night can not be seen in the Ottoman city. The analysis of Yerasimos on the traditional Islamic city presents to understand the ideal-typical features and logic of urban organization and the legal aspect of its relation with power. According to Yerasimos, the classical Islamic city was the arena of a battle between power and community to dominate urban space. By the reforms of Tanzimat, the power gained the battle and imposed its urban organization and its conception of urban administration. The one of most important differences, which separates ‘Islamic city’ from ‘Western city,’ is the lack of a public area in which public benefit is regarded as a responsibility. The second difference is the dead end street that is assumed as only a common possession of inhabitants living in an alley. The inhabitants can close the road to foreigner by an agreement among themselves. The third difference is the lack of the conception of frontier, which is the base for land property in the law of Rome. In the Islamic city, the notion of fina substitutes for the frontier. The part of road in front of the private property of a person becomes his fina and he gains a short term right for the possession on it. If he proves that this occupation provides him benefit and does not become an obstacle for community, he can attain a long term or even continuous right for occupation. In this practice, the loss of interest as a result of the prohibition of possession of a common area to a specific person is more important than uncertain loss for community. Thus, the emergency of dead end streets is a result of a play depending on gaining a place from common area by the inhabitants of street. Islamic city is not an area the men can arbitrarily cross from one side to other side or from one district to another. There is a gradual transition from the most public to the most private; rankly from market quarter or mosque to street to road to dead end street and to home. Dead end street embraces all advantages for intimacy and security. Shortly, for Yerasimos, the Islamic city is the space of “non-institutionalized quarrel” between community and power. The principles of Sharia on the city save individual from the desire of power to organize the city. The goal of these principles are not to reshape the urban space

according to an ideal schema but to save the interest of individual and thus, of community. The formal features of urban spatial organization create obstacles to the physical intervention of state power to community (Yerasimos, 1999). For Yerasimos, Westernization was a process commenced by the state government which aimed to bring back the power that was losen throughout the 18th century in the entire Empire and also in Istanbul. “And putting into practice an urban structure directly modeled on western models in Istanbul meant trying to put the capital directly under the control of the central power” (Yerasimos, ?: 51). The law reforms of Tanzimat and its spatial practices gave an end to this situation. New laws promulgated to arrange the legal status of the land and reorganize the urban space according to the necessities of modern life. However, the Ottoman modernization did not present the city as a part of its modernization project. Therefore, it is a ‘soft’ modernization project (Tekeli, 2001: 22). The planning projects of the Ottoman period were partial and they were executed only after great fires, which wiped out the old districts of the city where buildings were made of timber. The principles of modern urbanization at the great extent obliterated the ties of traditional community. With this destructive effect, the modern conception of urbanization became an important instrument for the social engineering whose goal was to transform society in a planned definite route. A city is a long term building process in a specific relation with the space. Though physically a city seems to be completed and showing its borders, it is not say that the urbanization process itself has been accomplished. Besides the space, the perpetual investment related to the time is the point where the process concentrated. For this reason, the design of the city as Lynch says (1960: 1) is a temporal art and distinguishes from other temporal arts such as music by the means of a less usage of the controlled and limited sequences. Nevertheless, Lynch’s comparison must not mislead us. Although any musical work is created once more in the process of performance and no performance is identical with other, and gains new meaning depending on the context of its performance, it is theoretically a completed work because of its continuous reference to a text of note. Especially in the western classical music, the note rather than performance represents work of art, the original

creation of composer. In this way, the western classical music differs from the traditional Ottoman music which takes insistently, as its foundation, the individual and collective memory of living people who performs musical works and the transfer chain of performance rather than a recording system relying on notation. In the understanding of western classical music, a musical work written in note text is a representation of the composer’s original and ultimate creating. Between the note text and the composer there is a direct and intimate relation which was consecrated by the Romantic Movement, yet there is no such a direct relation in the Ottoman music. The relation between the work and the composer is a mediated and indirect relation based on the performance of musical work which is rooted in the memory and the transferring from ancestors; it is no ultimate completed work (Behar, 1987, 1993). The relation between the original work composed by the composer and the work performed in public sometimes can only be a relation of naming because of its dependence on a memory which opens to influences from the periodical tastes and fashions. Therefore especially after his death, the composer has a limited control on his work, because its existence depends entirely on the loyalty of his students who takes places in the chain of transfer and the performance of other musicians. In general, I think, it seems that there is a strong correspondence between the logic of the building process of the Ottoman city and the logic of the formative process of the musical work, i.e. both are deprived of the certainty issuing from a design or plan. At the same time, same logic could be found in the formation of the Ottoman housing and gardening. Ottoman residential architecture and urban structure were a cumulative creation which included a temporary movement in the space. There was a domain of freedom makes possible for individual to manifest their wills and conceptions on the urban space. The wholeness of the urban formation did not come from a mental design which existed previously to the urban space. On the contrary, the parts had their autonomous individualities independent from any total designing and a relationship of mutual responsibility, rising on taking into account other individualities, determined their positioning in the space. The wholeness was a result of this mutual positioning and it had a soft and flexible character. The general

wholeness emerged not in the design of a house or of a complex of buildings but from the relationship of mutual responsibility of parts constituting it. In this aspect, the formation of town and house exists in the realm of morality. The wholeness to which the city submits is not a mentally designed plan but the “sacred” wholeness which exists in the nature. The architecture submits the “sacred” harmony of the nature and adjusts itself to it. In this point, the attitude of traditional architecture and urbanity toward the nature differentiates from the modern attitude because it submits the rhythm of the nature instead of subjugating the nature to its rhythm. The Ottoman city has not a formation of residence ranked around a single center but a formation of residence ranked around different centers in different topographies (Cansever, 2006: 117). It consists of side by side arranged settlements of housing which is called by Cansever as “constellations”. This formation of the Ottoman urbanity gives it flexibility in adjusting its development to the topography of the natural environment. It constitutes the foundation of the respect for the nature, which later has been almost entirely disappeared in the process of the modernization.

2.4.3. Vakıf (Foundation) Institution and the Formation of Traditional City In the transition from the nomadic life to the settled one, the vakıf institution had become the expression and basis of the new urban life (Karpat, 2002: 18). Before Tanzimat, contrary to the European examples, the municipal facilities were performed not by a municipal organization under the state control. The central government had generally left its members free to perform urban facilities. In performing them, individual enterprise was an important factor. From the most simple to the most comprehensive, expensive and complex, all municipal services were realized by individuals, even if the monumental urban building (külliyes, mosques, etc) or huge organizations (such as providing water for cities and founding a distribution system of water lines, etc.) can be seem personal activities of the sultans or high officials (although there was no separation between private ownership and state ownership, the huge properties of the sultan and high officials can be assessed as the goods only whose temporary usage right was given to the people for a

definite period limited with their life. Therefore, the state had the right to take back those properties and had made it almost always). Municipal facilities among Muslims were performed by individuals and among non-Muslims by the community (Ergin, 1936: 5). Individual attempt was the main base for providing local and municipal necessities, and therefore it had gained a character which had made it a matter of charity and prestige. The scope of these individual activities was rather comprehensive. All medreses, school for children (sübyan mektebi) and libraries were in the area of these individual auspices. In Istanbul, as a result of these activities, 147 libraries were founded for the use of the people of the city. Whereas, only 70 year later after the western type municipality has been established in Istanbul, in the duty period of Muhiddin Üstündağ, a library for general usage was founded in Bayazit Medrese, but it could not open for common usage in eight years. For Ergin (1936: 10-11), that example was an evidence for that when we can be successful in individual attempt, and not in collective one? In performing urban facilities, the institution of vakıf was very functional and influential. There is a much accepted comment on the vakıf institution which argues that it was a way to miss economic materials from the state intervention and usurpation and transfer them to the next generation as an inheritance. It was true but partly. Because this approach takes in to account only the great estates whose status were transformed into the vakıf by the high state officials. In the situation of the high officials, it was an investment of status as well as an economic one. But there were some other donations, quite smaller and moderate when compared with former, which were donated by the ordinary people. Vakıf is a special Islamic instution that provides a high level socio-cultural similarity in Muslim countries together with Shariah (Karpat, 2002: 27-28). Vakıfs were an important part of religious order and had a serious administrative autonomity because the centrel government could only control whether they were administrated according to their founding conditions or not. The 80% or 90% of its incomes was spent for social services, and the rest was spent for administrative issues.

In the framework of the centralization policy, Sultan Mahmud II had destroyed the local autonomy and private property. He established the Ministry of Foundation (Evkaf Nezareti) and made all foundations dependant on it. It means that their incomes and administrations become a part of the bureaucratic organization. In Muslim communities of the Empire, the formal education of the students was financed by the vakıf institution outside of the state control. In a late period like 1870’s, %15-20 of educational aged children was going to any school. By the time in modernization process the percentage of educated people got decreased and it was because of the devastation of education network that organized by reliance on the vakıfs. A last impact to foundation and educational system came from the Young Turks although they have got an effort to spread the modern educational manners. And just before World War I, the percentage of uneducated people was %90. According to Karpat the conditions of educational system was terrible and it was because of the reluctance of government. In the 19th century government by confiscating the vakıfs’ properties, have taken on the vakıf services as well as education. In spite of this obligation, government could fulfill only a little part of it. Thus Muslim people, has been deprived of both a modern and classical education system (Karpat, 2002: 104-107). Besides performing municipal facilities, the vakıfs had become influential in defining direction of city development because the great külliyes which had comstituted new town centers and contributed to reshaping of the urban space were vakıf properties.

2.4.4. The Function of the Quarters (Mahalle) in the Shaping of Traditional Urban Life In the Ottoman Empire, as a social unit, the quarter constituted the spatial foundation of social organization in city life on a form of community. The population of the quarter was, generally, hom*ogeneous and differentiated from others on the basis of their religion or sect and ethnic origin. In Istanbul, some quarters were constituted according to the geographical origins of quarter’s residents since they were settled in

Istanbul by the way of obligatory migration from definite location to Istanbul as result of settlement policy of the state in the re-establishment process of Istanbul as a capital city of the Empire. This social-communal organization was an extension of the Middle Eastern Islamic tradition and, at the sometime, had some parallelism with previous Byzantine conception of urban administration (Işın, 1985: 539). In some Middle Eastern cities, such as Baghdad and Damascus, there were fortified walls with doors separating one quarter from one other. In the Ottoman city, especially in regions of Balkans and Anatolia, the quarter, fortified with walls, can not seem. Moreover, we observe that the Ottoman cities had been expanded freely and securely outside of the city walls before such fact have occurred in the western cities. The residents of the quarter constituted a local community and religion was the most important principle among others for the communal organization of the quarter as a basic social unit. Its physical appearance, the religious buildings, mosque for the Muslim one, church for the Christian; Orthodox, Gregorian or any other, and synagogue for Jews, had central position in the quarter. To this privileged visibility of the religious building, some administrative duties had accompanied. The religious person, who was responsible for and executed religious duties of the quarter community, was the leader of the quarter and he was a mediator between local community and central administration. For example the imam was both representative of the quarter in the view of the Government and a messenger of the Government in the mosque before the community of the mosque. In the life of ordinary people, his quarter was more determinative than the city in which he had lived. Some scholars claims that there was no an integrated urban conscious in the “Islamic cities” and therefore, the most important area in which “civic society” had developed small local communities depending on a ethnic or religious base (Abu-Lughod, 2003:179). The city had generally consisted of semiisolated local settlement units with their unique local cultures. In the degree that quarters had hom*ogeneity, the city was heterogeneous in terms of religions, languages, ethnicities it had sheltered in it. The integral unity of the city had been provided by the grand bazaars or market places, separate from little local markets of the quarters, in which people had taken place a role as producers, sellers or

consumers. As stated by Cesari (2001: 11), as the center of the city, in bazaar where all ethnic groups and religions concentrated, a common identity and a common order of everyday life had emerged. In urban space, a strict class separation was not appears. In quarters, the people had lived together with other people from different economic position but same religious, ethnic and cultural background. The appearance of economic segregation in urban space has been a fact belonging to the later period that has begun with the modernization process. In that panorama, we can not meet a cultural uniformity which was a desirable process in Europe among nationalist governors and intellectuals. The water’s reaching only at the fountains and its not reaching at the houses resulted in its common usage; this made the fountain one of the main elements defining the quarter. The fountains became a complementary element of the triangle, which took place in the crossroads of the streets in the quarter, consisting of mosque square, coffee houses, and underside of plane-tree. They were the small places of communication besides meeting the need for water (Pilehvarian et. al, 2004: 24). Quarter, as the main area of everyday life in the traditional Ottoman society, had three constituent elements: a) mosque and other religious buildings; b) local bazaar; and c) civic dwellings. For Işın (1985: 541), if those three elements settled into the texture of dead-end-street, the physical environment of everyday life appears. In fact, the physical environment of the Ottoman quarter was a little more complex than Işın’s definition. The architectural objects which had constituted the physical appearance of the traditional Ottoman Muslim quarters were, ideal typically, besides the dwelling houses, a mosque, sometimes with the imaret surrounding it, a primary school for the basic, generally religious, education of the children, çeşme (fountain) for the water needs of people in their everyday life, hamam (public bath) for hygienic aims, a bazaar with shops of limited number for the ordinary needs of people of quarter, Sufi buildings (tekke, zaviye, or hangah) in some quarters, and generally as a most important social space for male sociality, kahvehane (coffeehouse) of the quarter. The fact which had fortified the integration of the quarters as a single communal unites was the dead-end-street. It was not a passage which was permitted to access for the aim to go from one place to the other one. The only way, it gave

permission to the passenger to access was the quarter itself. That was, it could not help to the passenger, if its destination was an area beyond the quarter, and contrary, it formed an obstacle for him in his route. It had given an introverted character to the quarter and therefore it can be seen a symbol of the traditional communal life of quarter. Those dead end streets must have a great influence on the mind of the inhabitants of the quarter in defining their local identity. They had given an antianonymous character to the district which constituted a quarter characteristics, identity, and strengthened the self-image of inhabitants in shaping their collective local identity referring to the settlement area. After the Tanzimat period in the Ottoman state and later in the Republican period, we observe some legal regulations made by the state to prohibit the existence of dead end streets in new settlements and some efforts to abolish existing dead end streets in quarters. The result of these practices was to give an anonymous character to the quarters and to weaken local identities. The each inhabitants of the quarter were successive guarantor for other inhabitants of the quarter. If a case had occurred and its perpetrator was unknowable, all inhabitants of the quarter were responsible to indemnify the loss. Therefore, a mechanism of auto-control in the quarters had developed and made simpler the job of the officials who were responsible for the public security. The traditional Ottoman quarter was not an open or free area where somebody, who wanted to live there, could easily settle down with his own will. The quarter was not an anonymous settlement and the person who wanted live there needed a trustworthy man from inside of quarter who could be guarantor for his behaviors. An important institution of the Ottoman quarter was “the foundation of the avarız akçası”. This institution has the character of fund. It was established for the common expenditure of the quarter people. The money for the common spending of the quarter was collected according to the number of the houses in the quarter. The money accumulated in the fund was borrowed to the people who need money with 15% interest. Those funds were transformed into the vakıf as a result of some donations made by the people. The expenses which were met by the people of the quarter by the way of foundation of avarız akçası were such: 1) the repair of the

buildings of the quarter such as the mosque, mesjid, school, fountain, etc, and purchasing the needs for them like wax and candle, 2) payment of the wages for imam, muezzin, and teacher, 3) paying taxes called tekalüfi örfiye and avarızı divaniye (Ergenç, 1984: 76). It shows that the traditional quarters of the Ottoman society formed a financial pool to finance its expenditures. It gave a responsibility and initiative to residents of the quarters in environmental issues.

2.4.5. The Social Role of Mosque and Imam in the Ottoman Muslim Society The Ottoman Muslim quarters were principle a settlement established around of a mosque or a masjid. The existence of a mosque was so much essential that if the mosque of a quarter was destroyed in any way, the statues and then existence of the quarter was under risk. For example, the Abacızade quarter, seems in 1546 dated Vakıf records, divided and absorbed by two other neighbor quarters, the Kasap İlyas and Kürkçübaşı quarters, after its masjid had been destroyed (Behar, 1998: 20). Principally each mosque did not have a quarter but each quarter had been formed around a mosque. The name of the quarter was usually the name of the mosque of the quarter which was generally called by the name of its ‘charitable’ founder. The spatial centrality of the religious building in quarter district indicates the central position of the religion in the organization of social life in the Ottoman society. This centrality of religion represented in the social position of the imam as the leader of the local community in the quarter. Imams were appointed by the kadis who were the representative of the central government. Appointments were made generally by the demand of the candidates for an emptied position because of dead or quit of existing imam. If there was a suspicion about the existing imam for his capability in performing the duty, or there was other candidates demanding same duty, candidates were tested in order to decide their competence for the duty. The duties of the imams were, beside their religious ones, to perform marriage ceremony, to perform funeral ceremony, to conserve the morality of the community, to perform requirements for the safety of the quarter and to provide peace and quit, etc. Before the state authority, the imam was the representative of the quarter and the

responsible person for the ordinary life in the quarter. It was imam’s duty to announce the state decrees to the people of the quarter and to provide obedience to the official decrees in the quarter. In the administration of the quarter, muezzin and kethüda was the co-worker of the imam (Taşkömür, 1995: 45). In the period of Tanzimat, the institution of mukhtar was established and first mukhtars were appointed as helper to imam and took place of kethudas. This practice was first time applied in Kastamonu and later it was approved by central government and made a widespread practice throughout the country. As time passed, the administrative duties of the imams passed to the mukhtars. This process had formed a part of the secularization of the everyday life in the Turkish society from the Ottoman period to the Republic. In terms of the position of the imams in the society, the process of modernization means a degradation of their responsibilities, authority and esteem. In that process, beside their administrative duties which were transferred to the mukhtars, they had also transferred their educational roles to the teachers who had modern educational formations.

2.4.6. The Social and Cultural Role of the Dervish Lodges in the Traditional Life Each power rises on some alliances made with various social, political, and economic groups. The Sufi orders had been one of the most important allies of the Ottoman state throughout its history from its founding to dissolve At the period of the establishment of the Ottoman State, the Sufi’s orders had played influential role in the Islamization, improvement and security of the Ottoman lands besides their supports as warrior Sufis for the Ottoman army in its military campaign. They had also became a colonizing force by opening desolate and barren fields for farming in remote and high lands, and establishing settlements or villages around their lodges (zaviye) in unsettled districts, maintaining safety in passages and mountain pass in their regions. Their such activities, especially the establishment of their lodges around the places which counted as dangerous for voyagers and tradesmen in order to provide the security, were generally encouraged and given them some privileges

compromising exemption of tax by the Ottoman administrators (Barkan, 2003). The Ottoman Sultans had generally had great respect for Sufi leaders and they had established lodges for them in new conquered regions. When Sultan Mehmed II had conquered Dimetoka, the first social and religious building erected by the Ottomans was the Abdal Cüneyd’s lodge (Öngören, 2003: 495). Sultan Mehmed II gave certificates to many Sufi leaders for their activities and exempted them from some taxes. He had a dervish lodges and public bath to build for Sheikh Vefa and his dervish of the Zeyniyye order. As time passed, in the parallel with the rise of the Ottoman State, Sufism had changed its some structural features and at the great extent transformed itself into an urban issue as different from its earlier nomadic and rural organizational form. By the sixteenth century, Sufism became one of the essential institutions of the Ottoman Muslim society. “Sufi brotherhoods were important in the organization of Muslim town and rural life where they provided a focus for devotional, charitable, and educational activities. In rural areas especially they represented a subculture centered on veneration of saints and folk religious practices” (Lapidus, 1992: 28). With the rising influence of the Sufi orders in society, the dervish lodges had been an important urban space with its services for the people. At the same time, the functions performed in the buildings named tekke increased the variety of their services. If we look at the functions performed in these buildings, we observe that the term, tekke, includes many activities unrelated with their known religious function. Therefore, Osman Ergin (1936: 18) assesses them worldly intuitions rather than religious in terms of their non-religious activities. And ask “could not these institutions which belong to the world rather than religion be modernized?” The functions met in the dervish lodges embrace a large spectrum from cultural activities containing especially music and poem to sport activities and to healthful services. Ergin presents the dervish lodges in Zeyrek (Pehlivanlar Tekkesi-The Lodge of Wrestlers) and in Okmeydanı (Okçular Tekkesi-The Lodge of Archers) as examples of the sport activities. According to the information, Muallim M. Cevdet cited from the last sheikh of the Lodge of Archers, the Lodges had opened each year in the sixth day of May (in the day of Hızırilyas) and throughout six months, sportive activities

and exercises had been performed by the regular visitors. The sheikh of the dervish lodges was the general director of the dervish lodges and the havacıs were the referees in the sportive exercises and matches (Ergin, 1936: 17). Some dervish lodges were appropriated for the aim of health, especially ones called den of idlers or layabouts (miskinler tekkesi). In those places, the people had the illness of leprosy lived and were helped. According to the Evliya Celebi’s observations, in the vicinity of each city, there were such lodges or districts for leprous people. In Üsküdar, there was a dervish lodges building, allocated to the leprosies, with twelve rooms having a stove in each one. Each leprous and his/her family had occupied two rooms for their everyday use. A mosque and a hamam (a public path) were complementary additions to the dervish lodges building (Ergin, 1936: 20). The director of the dervish lodges, who was selected among the inhabitants of the building, was called sheikh although he was not a religious person. The dervish lodges besides their religious function performed significant social and cultural functions. They took an important role in production and reproduction of the Ottoman urban moral-behavioral codes and cultural, literary and artistic forms. The Mevlevi and Bektashi lodges were the centers for the musical education and study. For example, in the last period of the Empire, what the olds has called it ‘ilm-i edvar’ or ‘fenn-i musiki’, researches about the theory of the Classical Turkish Music, has begun, which was for a long time left untouched. These researches were commenced by three mevlevi lodges’ sheikh; the sheikh of the Galata Mevlevi lodges Ataullah Dede Efendi (1842-1910), the sheikh of the Yenikapı Mevlevi lodges Mehmed Celaleddin Dede Efendi (1849-1908) and the sheikh of the Bahriye Mevlevi lodges Hüseyin Fahreddin Dede Efendi (1854-1911) (Aksoy; 1985: 1232). These researches about the theory of the classical music commenced by three Mevlevi sheikhs are continued, after their death, by their pupils Rauf Yekta Bey and Suphi Ezgi with joining Saadeddin Arel. Therefore, the abolition of the dervish lodges in 1926 was an important step for the Republican elite in order to constitude a modern and seculer culture.

2.4.7. Coffee-Houses in the Traditional Life of Istanbul One of the most brilliant social spaces of the traditional life in Istanbul was the coffeehouses. They attracted the attention of many European travelers, and in their travel books, there are many observation on the role of these coffeehouses in the traditional Ottoman social life. Among native writers, who presented firstly to the attention of the reader a rich depiction on this aspect of the traditional life as well as its other aspects was Balıkhane Nazırı Ali Rıza Bey. Coffeehouses had taken place in the centre of traditional male social life. They had a great variety and differences in terms of their functions in society. By way of this diversity in terms of their forms and function, they had addressed the people from different social, cultural and economic background and ranks and had drawn them into itself. Some writers call it, the introduction of first coffeehouses into the quarter life in Istanbul in 16th century, a certain revolution in social life. For Evren, It had transformed the nature of the everyday life. For Işın (1995), coffeehouses were the temples without god. The people had first time come together in the coffeehouses outside of home, bazaar, mosque, or dervish lodge. Those coffee-houses had transformed the peculiar character of the social life in the quarter, which was lived between the civic dwelling and religious building (mosque or dervish lodge) into the outside oriented one (Evren, 1996: 9, 47). Coffeehouses, at the beginning, were the waiting places near to mosque for the people in their passing time before communal prayer in the mosque. As a result of becoming prevalent of the consumption of coffee among people, coffeehouses had gradually gone away from the mosque had gained their freedom as autonomous social institutions. This distance from the patronage of the mosque gave it real identity and resulted in a differentiation or specialization of coffeehouses in terms of their aims, functions and the profile of their clients. The quarter coffeehouses formed a place for face to face relationship and conversation among its male dwellers and also a place in order to treat a guest with respect. They had contributed both conservation of intimacy aspect of social relation depending on the Islamic division of house as harem (for women) and selamlık (for men) and to the

communal solidarity in the quarter by means of fortifying social identity which refer to the quarter. There were a group of coffeehouses designed for different special functions. Among them, semai (musical) coffeehouses were designed as a part of Ramadan festivities. There are some recordings which state that some of them open also in Friday nights and in the season of winter. The preparation of these coffeehouses had been started for the month of Ramadan

after surre parade had departed from

Istanbul on twelfth day of the month of Receb, which carries the Sultan’s gifts for the people of the sacred lands of Islam, Mecca and Medina. Already existing coffeehouses were decorated for Ramadan as semai coffeehouse with different ornaments and illustrations by ordinary artist coming from the people of kayikcis (boatmen) and tulumbacis (members of a fire brigade). Moreover, the semai coffeehouses were designed alike a stage of theatre, and a group of spectator took places of the people of conversation. In the illustrations on the walls of coffeehouses, the figures took their subjects from some different mythological, literary, or everyday life issues such as Othello, the escape of Paris and Helena in port, Narcoses watching his own reflection on the water, Kamercan the son of Sultan of Isfahan, the Tower of Kız Kulesi, tulumbacis of the settlement meting in the surroundings of tulumbaci chest (as a inevitable part of decoration), etc were represented. The entrance to these coffeehouses was salaried and their most important feature was music with live performance. Throughout Ramadan month, in these live performances, at least four popular musicians performed their art in semai coffeehouses. The most popular musical instruments were used in these performances were generally clarinet, darbuka (a kind of drum), double kettledrum (çifte nekkare), and zurna (a reed instrument resembling oboe) (Evren, 1996: 66-67). Beside the musicians, there were some other brilliant figures such as meddah, minstrels, crier (çığırtkan) performing their arts. Some coffeehouses had functions alike European local or clubhouses. Entrance those places were informally restricted to the certain people. The most important examples of those coffeehouses were Janissary coffeehouses and tradesmen (esnaf) coffeehouses. The tradesmen’s coffeehouses were generally established near to the

trade centers of the city such as the shores of Golden Horn, Eminönü, Beyazıt, and Aksaray. The guild system formed the foundation of these coffeehouses and leaders (kethudas) of esnaf guilds directed them. The clients were generally of same occupations. The laborers, such as carriers, porters, workers of construction, etc who did not have ownership of trade office or store were regular visitors of different coffeehouses belonging people shared same position with them in the bazaar. Coffeehouses were for them a place in waiting a potential labor. The coffeehouses of the Janissaries had begun to appear by the middle of 17th century in Istanbul and continued to exist until the abolition of Janissary troops by Sultan Mahmud II. For Koçu (2004: 395), coffeehouses were the most important places in the life of the last janissaries. After the permission to Janissaries for getting marriage, Janissaries had been a part of the settled people and tradesmen association in Istanbul. In that process, some Janissaries established coffeehouses where janissaries got together. In these coffeehouses, there was a reflection of the discipline of the Janissary barracks. Having established a Janissary coffeehouse was a privilege of tyranny. A janissary coffeehouse was not only a place where janissaries come together for conversation and drinking coffee and other beverages and smoking tobacco or water pipe (nargile) but also was the headquarters of the tyrant who had ownership of the coffeehouses and the barracks of his band of janissaries. It was a necessity to be an outstanding, powerful and famous person in order to establish a coffeehouse. Without being a tyrant, it was impossible to furnish the coffeehouse. Tyrant had sent his men to the rich people, Muslim or non-Muslim, living in his district with a list in order to be supplied the things written in it. It was not much possible to reject to provide these things wanted by tyrant for nobody wanted to quarrel or get into trouble with Janissaries. In each coffeehouse of janissary, there were a Bektashi leader (baba) who stayed up all night there and throughout the night, coffeehouse was without difference from a Bektashi room where guests were treated with respect. Those coffeehouses were generally big and to a great extend they were decorated and elaborated They were established in the most beautiful places of Istanbul, generally on the city walls looking out on the sea, or on the pales struck on the sea. Musicians

and singers recorded to Ayvansaray guild, Kipti (Gypsy) or Rum köçeks (youth dancers in woman garbs), meddahs narrating popular stories, at least two barbers with three or four apprentices and garcons were among the personnel of the coffeehouses (Koçu 2004: 396). Those coffeehouses were for their visitor janissaries a place for pleasure and idleness, where beside conversation, some traditional genre of musical and audio activities such as saz, destan, koşma, semai, türkü and nefes were performed. After the abolition of the Janissary troops by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, those coffeehouses has become a part of the social history but they did not entirely disappeared. It may not be entirely an exaggeration if it is claimed that coffeehouses was a general social form of life left by the activities of household, economy, religion, and those executed in open areas. From its introduction to the society, in many societies, it became the subject of great interest and the center of the heated controversies. Its popularity and usual consumption much time resulted in a general mobilization against to the coffee and coffee-houses. Coffee had become one of the outstanding objects for the passionate discussions in the Ottoman social history since its first appearance in society. At the same time, it became the subject of heated discussions in Europe. Pope had accounted coffee as a Muslim beverage and declared that he would excommunicate the people who drink it (Işın, 1995: 238). Also, many monarchs had in different times prohibited their subjects, generally to the ordinary people, to drink coffee for different reasons such as economic or health of mind and body. In 1785 year, one of the most brilliant protests against coffee prohibition had occupied in Paderborn a small town of Westphalia. Ludwig von Paderborn, the Catholic bishop and feudal lord of Paderborn, had made a decision to exert the prohibition, already existing since 1777 but not exercised by officials and nobody knew about it. The prohibition against drinking coffee was strictly exerted. The shops having coffee were closed and the people who drunk coffee were penalized to pay a sum of money. In a night, bazaar places was equipped with lights and in each corner a coffee cases were established and all people of town drunk coffee without giving a salary. The next day, the soldier did not find any guilty when they arrived in the place of occurrence. Each people were occupied with their ordinary occupations. There were no clues as

to protest movement occurred in the previous night. The bishop did not encourage accepting the risk of a new protest (Heise, 2001: 68-69). Coffeehouses had become centers for the formation of popular culture, popular taste and popular fashions in traditional Ottoman society. First meeting of the people of Istanbul with coffee had become a problem for the official of the empire. First attempt to introduce the coffee to the people in Istanbul had became unsuccessful because the ships, which carried first time coffee from Yemen to Istanbul, were sink by the official in Tophane shores as a result of a juridical decision ,fetva, (Ünver, 1963: 43). In the period of Kanuni Sultan Suleiman, the officials thought it necessary to transform coffeehouses into reading-houses (kıraathane). Main anxiety was that the persons, who had some personal economic or material problems because of their inefficiencies, could accuse the government for its responsibility and gathers advocates for their personal problems and could provoke the people against the government. In order to prevent such annoying cases, according to a prevalent rumor, Sultan Suleiman had someone written some books having literal, social and historical content (Ünver, 1963: 44). Coffeehouses had become a home for gossip and conspiracy. They had been transformed into headquarters of the Bektashis and the janissaries for insurrection against the government (Berkes, 1978:44). Although the coffee was forbidden in everywhere by political authority, nowhere to drink it could be prevented. In 1675, in England Charles II forbidden the coffeehouses as the places where the persons who had malicious opinion and lie claims had met and harmful for the peace of ordinary people (Berkes, 1978: 551, footnote 2). A long time later after Kanuni’s interprise, Kıraathane firstly opened by an Armenian called Safarim in the place opposite Reşit Paşa Türbesi in Okçularbaşı. Only, there were in Kıraathane the books, the newspapers, the coffee, şerbet and lokum (Üçok, 2002: 284). After Safarim’s Kıraathane, other kıraathanes were opened such as Arif, Fevziye, Beyazıt Merkez, they were approximately 8-10. The café in the area of Galatasaray-Pera was called Baloz, Galata’s morning cafes were famous (Üçok, 2002: 289). Sabahçı Kahvehanes (coffeehouses staying open all night) were two kinds: 1. Lower class; these were the square cafes, of these mostly famous ones

were in Köprübaşı-Eminönü. The costumers of these cafes in general were drivers (arabacılar), and boatmen (sandalcılar), and some slovenly poor peoples. 2. Higher class cafes; these were in Galata. These were ordinary cafes, but the costumers had to pay money if they read newspapers or they sleeps. In these cafes, crossing over one table to another or bending to another people were forbidden because of the burglary, otherwise the café was closed (Üçok, 2002: 305). In the Kır kahvesi; which is not a real café, there was only a poor seller of coffee, a brazier, 5-10 cup of coffee tea. These coffee-houses were in Veli efendi, Çırpıcı, Kozlu, and Bayrampaşa (Üçok, 2002: 309). Théophile Gautier, French traveler who visited Istanbul, was surprised when he witnessed that in coffeehouses; some people like vagabond in ragged garments came and sit down cedar beside of the gentlemen in smart garments. He was fascinated with the case when he observed that those gentlemen could not draw back their arms in sleeve with golden embroidered away from the oiled hands of those vagabonds. Having made a comparison between Paris and Istanbul, he emphasized that Turks behaved respectfully to the strangers whereas a Turk would be met with scornful and rude behavior in coffeehouses of Paris (Birsel, 2002: 34). Coffee-houses were at the sometimes significant cultural centers of the traditional Ottoman society. The coffee-houses, which were constructed by Mihrimah Sultan, the mother of Sultan Selim III, of the Bostan quay in Eyüp district were the meeting places for some famous composers of the period. İsmail Dede Efendi and Eyübi Mehmet Bey almost everyday come together in those coffeehouses and trained music. Another musician, Zekai Dede, who would become famous later, was also among clients of those places and he made a part of his musical training in those places (Birsel, 2002: 40).

2.5. Architecture and Building Activity in the Ottoman Empire

2.5.1. Historical Background of the Ottoman Construction Activity Anatolian Seljuks who was an extension of the Big Seljuks, whose main hinterland were Iran and its environment, in terms of its political and cultural practices, brought experts up from the cultural basin of the Big Seljuks Empire to Anatolia and this is seen very natural. Only through this way the architectural canon of the Big Seljuks could be carried into Anatolia. It can be seen that there was an influence of this canon over the constructions such as palace, inn, caravanserai, and bath. Its influence was limited in the province and rural area outside of the cities as Konya and Sivas that were given importance by the Anatolian Seljuks and in these regions, Muslim or non-Muslim native adepts worked in the construction of civil houses. Acordig to Arseven (Türk Sanatı, pp. 33-34), this historical continuity could also be seen in Ottoman architecture, there seems big similarities between the form of the Blue Mosque in Tabriz and the early mosques Ottomans constructed in Bursa and Istanbul (cited by Koraltan, 1983: 98) The persons, contributed to the development of architectural activities, were craftsmen mostly coming from the outside of Anatolia in twelfth and thirteenth centuries. From the names of the architects and masters determined in the works, it is seen that many persons coming from Syria, Iraq, and particularly Iran, with different origins of ethnicity had took role in the improvement activities of Anatolia in the period of Seljuk. Among 80 architects, muralists, woodcutters, and stonecutters who constructed 1000 buildings, 23 % are coming from outside and 15 % are native. The origin of the rest is undetermined, and among adepts there are 4 non-Muslims (Madran, 1994: 2461). It is known that the architects and skilled workmen were employed for the state with the mosque that was constructed by Osman Ghazi in 1289 in Karaca-Hisar. Although many important architects and construction skilled workmen worked in the big constructions in Bursa and Istanbul, there is not adequate data whether a special institution was established in order to carry out improvement activities until the second half of the fifteenth century. According to Turan (1963:

157-158), such an institution was built within the body of the palace after the conquest of Istanbul. Since it was built within the body of the palace, this institution was named as Hassa Architecture Society (Hassa Mimarlığı Ocağı). The highest administrator of the institution was the Chief Architect (Mimarbaşı) who worked with the titles. In order to prevent the conflicts that might occur between the mayor and the chief architect, a division of labor was made among them. The mayor was responsible for the non-technical part of the construction activities. The gathering of workers to the construction, materials and financial affairs were among the duties of the mayor. Technical works related to art such as discovery, plan, and construction were dependent on The Chief Architect. In the Hassa Architecture Society, under the supervision of The Chief Architect there were different professionals specialized in different branches of art such as architect, minaret maker, marble maker, stonesman, plasterer, cutter, and muralist. The number of the society members was 18 persons in 1526, 14 in 1527-1528, 43 in 1633-1634, and 34 in 1664-1665. 9 out of 17 hassa architects who took part in the war in 1582 were non-Muslims (Turan, 1963: 160). Hassa architects were trained in the “Mülazım Ocağı”. The work field of the hassa included bridges, boathouses, fortresses, shrines and merkads belonging to the members of the palace, beside palaces, mosques, inns, bathhouses, and shops. In addition, the chief architect was responsible for repairing of the worship places of non-Muslims. Beside Hassa architects, there were “City Architects” engaged in the construction activities in the different settlement areas outside Istanbul, and “Foundation Architects” responsible for the repairing and maintenance of the big mosque complexes (Madran, 1994: 2462). The appointment and supervision over these architects were carried out by a center. The central control over the architects has an important role in the emergence of an extensive architectural application within the Empire, Anatolia and Balkans, and in Empire’s obtaining an all encompassing urban and architectural appearance. According to Cezar, European architects’ concern in the Ottoman architectural field carried out by the Hassa Architects, started in the period of Selim III. The appearance of the first Western engineers in the Ottoman construction field, started

in an earlier date, in the period of Sultan Mahmud I. French engineers were invited to work for the palace, they came with artisans and painters (Kuban, 2002: 689). In the period up to The Second Constitutional Monarchy, it is observed that in Istanbul, the number of Muslim architect and artist gradually decreased. In the “Oriental Trade Annual” (Şark Ticaret Yıllığı) the exact name of which is “Annuaire Oriental du Commerce de l’Industrie de l’Administration et la Magistrature”, there are found the registration of the architects and engineers working as private entrepreneur in Istanbul. According to the datum of 1895, in Istanbul working in the field of construction there are 38 architects and 36 engineers having trade addresses. Architects consisted of 11 Armenian, 10 Greek, 8 Italian, 3 French, and 6 persons whose nationality is not determined. Among the engineers, we see 4 names of Armenian and 1 name of Greek. Within the datum of 1895, we don see any Turkish name as private entrepreneur. Outside Istanbul among the 79 public officials and private entrepreneurs, only 8 were Muslim, the others consisted of 29 Greek, 21 Armenian, 25 European (majority Italian and French). According to the annual of 1900, in Istanbul, 81 architects, who worked private, consisted of 28 Greek, 21 Armenian, 12 Italian, 9 French, 2 English and 8 European whose nationality is not determined. Among them, we see the name of a Turk, Mehmet Vedat (Tek) first time. Among 64 private entrepreneurs, 47 were European, 7 were Greek and Armenian. For the first time 3 Turkish names are seen among the engineers. There are 79 architect names outside Istanbul; 39 of them are Armenian, 26 Greek, 3 Turk, and 11 European (Madran, 1994: 2465-2467). However from these data, it is impossible to get a very clear picture. In the annuals there is information only about the registered technique staff that has a trade office. It is also not seen possible that so few number of technique staff could carry the construction requirements of the Empire outside of the official buildings in Balkans and Anatolia. Especially, because of the civil houses made of wooden material, there were great needs of construction after the fires. Possibly there existed a big sector mainly consisted of native Muslims and non-Muslims who worked within a web of traditional methods and customer relations. But it should be accepted that as architects and engineers, Muslims were not given an important role in the process of producing official or public buildings.

The Hassa Architecture Society gave the construction license of the private entrepreneurs, who were outside of the institution. Besides determining the daily wage of the construction workers and skilled workmen, controlling construction materials and their quality, and determination of their price, every kind of construction activity in Istanbul was under the control of Hassa Architecture Society. Beside the construction activities of treasure and the selatin foundations, to secure the openness of worship places and roads and the license of the constructions of inn, baths, shop, and house, to be built by private persons in order to prevent the possibility of fire, were given by Hassa architects. If necessary, they had the authority to destroy those ones that were against construction rule (Turan, 1963: 171). In this matter they were working in coordination with the Qadi. For example, in the year of 1540, we see the destruction of the buildings constructed in and out of Istanbul walls, within the area of 5 “zira”, where the construction was forbidden. But since the construction of building were not prevented, in order to destroy those newly constructed a decision was sent to the Qadi of Istanbul and to Mimar Sinan in 1559 (Turan, 1963: 171-172). Making bay window in front of the houses more than 18 fingers, building arbor and shop were not permitted since they make the main street narrower. The decisions were taken about construction the new houses and shops in the place of those fired ones. By these decisions, the use of wood was forbidden in these constructions and the eaves of the houses must be made of brick or tile (Turan, 1963: 172). Declaration of such decisions frequently is the sign of the fact that to prevent wooden construction was not possible. Indeed, it is strange that, those of the rich persons who had enough wealth to construct big mansions did not abandon preferring wooden construction materials. As a general principle, the buildings of 5 “zira” distance to mosques and masjid were not permitted. The region forbidden to construction around Ayasofia were determined as 35 yards (arşın) in the left and right sides of the building, and 3 “zira” for the road in the direction of madrasa linked to Ayasofia. In 1573, the houses, which violated prohibition around the masjid known as Zeyrek Mosque and Old İmaret, were destroyed, even a religious decision (fatva) is taken from the religious

authority (Sheik al-Islam). An order of construction was the case for the waterroads of Istanbul. To construct building on in the both sides of waterroads were forbidden. The wage of sidewalk skilled workmen increased from 6 coins (akçe) to 8 coins but at the same time those sidewalks demolished in three years must be repaired free of wage by those sidewalk skilled workmen (Turan, 1963: 172). Hassa Architects Society continued to work under this name until the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1831, Mahmud II united Hassa Architects Society with Prefecture of the City (Şehremaneti) institution under name of The Hassa Architects Society and The Directory of Imperial Building (Ebniye-i Hassa Müdürlüğü), because for him there were not as much job as the two require. In 1836 this directory was linked to the Ministry of Trade and Agricultural Affairs. In 1834, Abdülhalim Bey, the director of Imperial Building, presents a report to the Sultan indicating the opening of an architectural school, for the reason that the existing engineering school (Mühendishane-i Berri-yi Humâyun) was constructed to serve for military purposes and has not the features required by the civil architecture. The Sultan accepted this suggestion but it could not be applied a long time. However, as a result of the efforts of Osman Hamdi Bey, the director of Museum and Suphi Paşa, the minister of Trade, architecture education started at Sanâyi-i Nefise Mekteb-i Alisi (Academy of Fine Arts) linked to the Ministry of Trade in 1881.

2.5.2. The Ottoman Architecture from Traditional to Modern Architecture directly reflects the transformations in the process of Turkish modernization and thus it constitutes an aesthetic domain through which we can understand the transformations in the process of modernization in certain aspects. Architecture is never a pure aesthetic phenomenon independent of the social relations. It has a special relation to the space of which it is a part of it and the direction of the relation is double sided. An architectural element both contributes to the formation of the space of which it is a part and is signified by the other elements of the space and the social activities occurring in that space and its symbolic and hierarchical relation to the other elements is determined. It constitutes one of the

most important steps of the symbolic-ideological meaning of the space. Therefore architecture attracts the special concern of the political power. The change in the formation of the space and architecture provides us visible physical clues in understanding social and ideological transformations. The transformation within architecture from the Ottoman to the Republic and the new architectural elements helps us to evaluate the changes visually in the physical and ideological character of the state. Ottoman architecture had achieved a mature synthesis in the classical period when the Empire was in its peak. Especially, in the mosque architecture where monumentality emerged, by applying different scheme of plan (firstly the mosque space with converse T scheme, later multi-dome form of Bursa Ulu Camii, and lastly classicized plan of the big selatin mosques of Istanbul), it reached to its peak in terms of concept and creativity in the Selimiye mosque in Edirne which Mimar Sinan called as the work of his mastery. In this period, architectural problems had found a solution in a perfect manner by virtue of both the conception of space and construction. The function of the big monumental mosques indicating urban centers was certainly determined and the constructions achieved a formal unity (Alsaç, 1978: 12). The construction units, that carry a social function, had contributed to the formation of an urban space, where complementary units are placed to form a space where in the center is found the mosque. In this period, we see that along with the conception of architecture, the conception of urban central space also found a solution. We see that this central space scheme was influential in the emergence of multi-central space in Istanbul (However, it seems that historians are not adequately concerned with the same phenomenon for the non-Muslims). In the same period traditional housing architecture, reflecting the social, economic and cultural conditions, had achieved a scheme of plan and a form, including regional differences. The synthesis achieved in architecture, is a structure that were dominant in Balkans and Anatolia and the people in this region communicated through that structure. Mature Ottoman urban culture is a mundane and architectural language, a language in a sense each person, separated from others in their regional and national particular realities, could ‘understand and speak’ (Cesari, 2001:16).

The Selimiye Mosque, which was the peak of the Ottoman monumental architecture and called by Sinan the work of art of his mastership, merits a special attention. For Tanpınar, Sinan was one of the artists who consumes a tradition entirely and left to the next generation little thing to do. Therefore, the luckiest among his pupils were the one, invited to India. Only there, in different tradition from theirs, they could show their potent of artistic creativity (1987: 38). In its peculiar adventure from Bursa to Edirne and Istanbul, in the Selimiye Mosque, Sinan seems to realize the supreme ideal of the Ottoman monumental architecture. Inside the mosque, in the circle of light which surrounds you in every direction, there seems only one thing: the dome which was with a great talent fitted over eight pillars as if doing away with all other elements of the building. Under the dome, you could feel only the dome dancing with lights that comes and soars from the windows. As if the dome stands not over the columns but rising over the light. You feel lightness when you enter into the building. This lightness emerges from the fusion and solution of the elegance and purity within the light. This lightness that is felt in Selimiye is neither felt in Ayasofya, in the same degree, nor in the big mosques of the Empire including Sultan Ahmet Mosque that is constructed after Selimiye. With their huge bodies, all of these buildings are the heavy buildings nailing to their place without the possibility of any motion. European travelers said that the Istanbul mosques are full of light, but that mosques remains dim when they are compared to Selimiye. Selimiye is constructed as if it stands against gravity. The side domes are not used, which make the building heavy, the galleries dissolves and disappears so that their being are almost not felt. Le Corbusier, in his book “Le Voyage Orient” explains the main principles of forms of Turkish mosques morphologically as follows: “There is a geometrical discipline within all the masses: Square, cube, sphere. Plans are rectangular complexes that are arranged according to a single axis” (cited by Kortan, 1983: 12-13). When we look by virtue of the symbolism attributed to the building, the sovereignty of a single dome all over the building characterizes the understanding of unity in the faith of Islam. Selimiye Mosque represents the last moment of an architectural tradition. Therefore Sultan Ahmet Mosque and Yeni Mosque that were

constructed after Selimiye belong to the time before Selimiye in terms of its conception. In a sense the concept and aesthetics of Selimiye that make impossible saying any new thing in the same manner, had let the Ottoman monumental architecture into a hidden crisis that is not realized for the period, in terms of reformation and creativity. It was a requirement that architecture had to be directed to new notions, to new forms, and to a new conception of space. But, Selimiye was the constructed not in Istanbul but in the old capital, in Edirne as if to hide this truth. Remoteness of Selimiye from the eyes lengthened the life of the classical Ottoman architecture. That process continued until there emerged a desire for reform given way by continuous repetition and sameness that we can designate as the weariness of tradition and pleasure. Of course this does not mean that the construction activities of the period were without value. We can say that the Ottoman urban image continued itself successfully within the organic unity of the city. However, it can be said that, except the spatial phenomenon as coffeehouses that was newly added to the organic tissue of the city, there was the dominance of a routine feeding a mental weariness caused by the continues sameness. Besides the perfection it achieved, architectural tradition had consumed all the potentials within the standards it had, in a sense it had became an imitation of its classical age without reformation. Just in this point it can seem that Tanpınar’s explanations for Sinan and his pupils is very meaningful. When the Ottoman society faced the Western culture, there was a desire for the new especially in the domain of architecture and there was willingness for the new cultural-aesthetic forms, because of the weariness of tradition caused by sameness. The phenomenon of modernization or Westernization emerged from the desire for reform based on its internal dynamics. According to Doğan Kuban (1988: 10) the history of the last three centuries of Istanbul can be seen as an effort to develop a European image that is redefined in every period. Kuban insists that Ahmet III’s willing to construct a palace as Fontainebleau, Mahmut I’s willing to construct a mosque different than the old ones or Abdulaziz’s approach to railway all represents the attitudes that are dictated by European image. Kuban’s use of these examples in order to sustain the westernization thesis that identifies the long lasting walk of Turks to the West with

westernization is understandable, but it is a very ambiguous phenomenon how a mosque the only feature of which is its difference from the others or a palace contributes to some kind of Western context. These two examples are the signs of the fact that the people living in the same conditions want something different than the old one. Their orientation not to East but to West, is the fact that the East is indeed a familiar phenomenon and its being used in the formation of classical aestheticalcultural forms rather than an admiration of the West. In the same period, it was possible to benefit from the Babur Art in India or From the Umayyad Art in Andalusia but India and Andalusia was outside of the Ottoman’s field of concern. European architects brought both architectures to the urban scene of Istanbul at the end of nineteenth century with the movement of Orientalism. Consuming all the potentialities of the form peculiar to itself, the Empire’s search for new forms did not include any kind of westernization ideology or modernization effort in its orientation to West. For the Ottoman Empire West was seen as geography of difference, as a home of new aesthetic forms and possibilities. In the period, named as Lale (Tulip) Period by modern historians, under the administration of Ahmed III and Vizier Damat İbrahim Pasha, Ottoman art had gone under a change in Istanbul. According to A. Arel, the Baroque style in art had been introduced into the Ottoman society by the way of small arts. For Arel, for along time, architectural elements having a baroque character of style had been used as the decorative elements in the non-structural aspects of the building, such as frame adornments of calligraphy, doors, and windows (Batur, 1985: 1039). Although some minor changes in the plan scheme of the mosque and rise of the dome are seen in this period, classical conception of the space and traditional construction were not significantly abandoned. In this period, Ottoman architects, mostly used the decorative arts of Europe within the Ottoman architecture by transferring and adding new interpretation to them (Alsaç 1973: 12). The first field where Western influence is seen in the Istanbul Capital was the garden ordering. In relation to this first Western influence in the eighteenth century (with the Lale period), Alsaç claims that:

The first products of architectural thought that opened to the Western influences are seen in the field of decoration. The main character of the Ottoman Baroque or Ottoman Rococo architecture that started later is also its being decorative. In this period, although there is seen some minor changes in the plans of mosques, the rise in the pulley of the domes, it is seen that no solutions developed that is very distinguished from the traditional space formation, the methods of construction. Curvilinear elements used in the formation of the structures and plasticization were started in details. Especially in the time of Mahmud I, traditional decorative elements were gradually replaced by the decorative elements of the European Baroque and Rococo. This period can be designated as a period that Turkish construction artists added European decorative elements to the Turkish architecture with a new interpretation, a new synthesis (Alsaç, 1976: 8-9). A new large garden ordering was carried out in Kağıthane, by looking at the scheme of the garden design of rococo and baroque character brought by Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi who lived in France as ambassador. Though the formative influences of the French garden ordering is seen in this arrangement, it was not a simple imitation or transfer. We can state that in many aspects it was a successful synthesis preserving Ottoman character. Within the garden orderings of Sadabat, the influence of French Gardening is saluted within the Ottoman conception of garden and nature, so a new ordering both new and Ottoman character emerged. The ordering of the garden was carried under the supervision of Mehmed Ağa, the chief architect and engineers. The ordering took Kağıthane brook as center. The brook improved and was turned to a canal with two marble quays in its both sides. The water of the canal named as “Cedvel-i Sim” by the famous poet Nedim, was gathered in a pool. Contrary to French gardening, the pool was not artificial but a garden element formed by ordering a part of the brook. Afife Batur sees a formation of a deliberate intervention to nature in waterfall, and in the pool, conserving its natural line and spontaneous flow (1985: 1039). The new is integrated into the old by transforming the old to a degree. As a consequence, as a part of the classical Ottoman worldview, we see the traces of a conception of a respectful attitude toward the habitat and some soft orderings, rather than a will of absolute disposal over the nature. We are still face to face with an Ottoman ordering on the basis of traditional worldview. This Ottoman attitude is differentiated from the attitude of the modern

world. It is possible to see the same tendency in the social organization called by historians “System of Nations”. The world is not a neutral area that should be reconstructed according to the subjective will and wishes of man. With a simple expression, there is an independent divine order called “Sünnetullah”. Man should adapt himself to this order and should not permit the distortion of this order. The Ottomans were far a way from the romantic conception of the world. The world is never a work of art created and produced by human actions as against the conception popularized by the European Romantic Movement. The Ottoman intervention to the world is not an intervention that aims to transform the natural order or to reconstruct it. In our traditional cities the public construction is made of the stone of a material that has an expression of infinity, private construction is made of wood, of a material that is vulnerable. The Ottoman attitude is a conservative attitude that tries to prevent the emergence of “disorder” (fitne) out of the existing order. This attitude is devoid of the notion of progress, and this makes the Ottoman a part of the traditional world. The concept of novelty (bidat) having Islamic roots indicates a suspicion against the reformation. It becomes the expression of conservative attitude against change. But this conception of “bidat” is not completely a notion that is closed to reform, though it constitutes a framework for the conservative groups in their objection to modernization. The distinction between good or acceptable novelty “bidat-ı hasene” (or “bidat-ı makbule”) and bad or pervert novelty “bidat-ı seyyie” (or “bidat-ı mertude”) requires not closing the doors to reform but a moderate and cautious attitude. Parallel to the decrease of the legitimacy of traditional worldview among the Ottoman intellectuals, we also see the disappearance of this cautious attitude. An important development that fed the change in the aesthetic perception of the city in the Lale Period when the first serious contacts with the West were seen was the spread of the construction of fountain and spring (sebil), and their being turned to an important unit of aesthetic creation. This point was clearly identified by Alsaç (1976: 9) as follows: “It can be said that the introduction of this new and first language of form reflecting Western influences to the masses of people were realized through many Baroque-Rococo decorative fountains and through small objects”. They emerge as important plastic elements having limited monumentality in the

festivity of the urban space. Fountains and springs are the urban public elements that directly represent the artistic and aesthetic influences in the interaction with the West. Indeed, the change in the form and aesthetics of fountains and springs started earlier. The fifteenth century Istanbul fountains that were constructed after the conquest, were very simple and made of küfenk stone. A change in the appearance of the fountains was seen in the second half of the sixteenth century. As it was seen in the other construction of the period, the stylized motifs such as cypress, bonito, tulip, and carnation were processed on the mirror stones of the fountains. The inauguration of the decorative feature belonging to European baroque and rococo architecture can be considered as a continuation of an earlier process. In the eighteenth century, we see some changes in the positioning of the fountains, and appearance of the square fountains as complementary part of the urban landscape (Pilehvarian et al, 2004). Then, besides their function of meeting the need for water, the fountains are small works of arts aiming at the decoration of visual urban space. In a sense, they can be seen as the corollaries of the statue that are found as plastic monuments in the Western cities. There is a difference; when the main function of statue is symbolism that it merely carries a certain idea and aesthetic, the fountain was constructed for a function in daily life for its use, besides its satisfying the aesthetic taste of man it also satisfies a physical need. It is possible to think that the watchtowers appearing in the later periods and constructed in many cities, in a sense replaced the fountains and springs in the urban panorama. Function and monumentality are fused. Towers show both the objective time and contribute to the formation of the urban space as a plastic element. It is not possible to see plastic monuments that have not function yet in the urban space, as pure intellectual instrument of expression. However, the spread of fountains and springs as the instruments of artistic expression “indicates the differentiation of the norms and symbols in conceiving the city and in urban image” (Batur, 1985: 1042). Beside the public buildings of fountain and springs, the other field where we see the initial Western influence was the houses of the civil architecture such as pavilion, and summer palace. The emergence of the Western influence, in pavilion and in summer palace that are the houses of the rich strata indicates that westernization has a class base.

The art historians see Nur-u Osmaniye Mosque and complex that started to be constructed in 1749 in the period of Sultan Mahmud I but finished in the period of Osman III, which can be designated as baroque in terms of construction characteristics, as the start of second step in westernization. According to Batur, it is possible to consider “the mosque as an architectural phenomenon independent of its religious function and as an artistic phenomenon aiming itself” (Batur, 1985: 1043). Though its building complex included traditional elements such as shrine, library, fountain and spring, with its polygonal form similar to cut ellipse and by virtue of its proportions and its not including water tank with a fountain (şadırvan), it is completely a new application. An important feature of the backyard is its presentation as a circus surrounded by the walls as continuation of street rather than isolating the building from its environment. Cornices, rich wipes, belts, and the design of the front, door decoration, minaret balcony, plasticity, are the clear expression of the baroque style. But, although baroque elements are heavily used, the fact that it does not follow the Western baroque, and the distance with European baroque, it gains an original identity (Kuban, 2002: 689-690). A new approach “search architecture in tectonique expression and evaluate the structural phenomenon of the classical Ottoman conception by virtue of its plastic potentiality” (Batur, 1985: 1044). Laleli Mosque (1759-1763), the work of chief architect (Sermiamar) Tahir Ağa, Ayazma Mosque in Üsküdar (1757-1960), and Beylerbeyi Mosque (1778) are the other important buildings of the period constructed by using European style and decoration. The new fashion emerged in the capital spread into the province. The architectural works in Anatolia and Rumelia shows that ayans were following the reformations and fashions in the Capital. Cihanoğlu Mosque in Aydın (1756), Çapanoğlu Mosque in Yozgat, Gülşehir Karavezir Mosque (1779) are the well known examples that include baroque decoration (Batur, 1985). In Anatolian mosques, in general, baroque and the other features of Western styles are used in the decoration of the internal space. Although the buildings such as Recai Mehmed Efendi Sıbyan Mektebi, Hasan Pasha ve Beşir Ağa Medreseleri, Simkeşhane, Hasan Paşa Hanı having the eighteenth century’s characteristic architectural features,

preserve the simple typologies of the traditional models, they are the models where we can see baroque influences by virtue of the elegance and decoration (Kuban, 2002: 691). After this period, we can say that the decorations on surface of buildings were the expression of an increasing this worldly concern, in other words, an expression of a more secular concern compared to the traditional simplicity. Particularly, in the later century, new mosques have reflected parallelism to the other architectural works, with their extremely detailed decoration, are the monuments of elegance, beside their world orientation expresses that they have broken the ties with the conception of the traditional mosque architecture. In the simplicity, except the decoration caused by the mosque construction itself, it is possible to see the reflection of what the prophet of Islam said, “Construct your home decorated and construct your masjid simple”. The baroque decoration of the new mosques, which hides the construction similar to ivy, is as a herald of a transformation in religious conception from the viewpoint of the upper class. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, we witness the construction of huge buildings that could compete with the Selatin Mosques, on the basis of a wholly different conception, which might change the urban landscape completely. Barracks that were constructed in neo-classical style, as the open face of the military reforms of Sultan Selim III mark its influence in the appearance of the city. Moreover, in this century, there were the occupation of the all fields of architectural activities and subordination of the Turkish architects. This condition had given way to the coming of the European architectural forms to the country freely and to the emergence of an eclectic architecture at the hand of secondary architects. Moreover, the interpretation of Turkish-Islamic architecture by European architects on their own behalf widened the form and content distinciton of the period within Ottoman architecture. Therefore the Western influence in the architects of this century, contrary to be in the earlier cases, could not be turned to a synthesis (Alsaç, 1976: 10). With the increasing modernization in the nineteenth century, we see that the Ottoman will to develop a peculiar synthesis were weakening. Architecture becomes one of the areas where this weakening of the will is clearly seen. Being devoid of the

technical knowledge and equipment required by modern buildings, Empire seems to abandon the area of architecture to personal experiences, caprices and passions of the foreign architects. Istanbul turns to be a laboratory in which different architectural languages and contrary styles freely and eclectically used. Insufficiency of the Empire in following the new technological developments in the field of construction and the limited of economical resources brought the dependency on the foreign experts in that field. As a consequence of the dependence on the foreign experts and architects in the construction of new modern buildings after the Tanzimat, architectural form of the buildings reflected the foreign architects’ own preference and tastes and architectural culture was broken off the canon developed within the traditional Ottoman architectural formation. In this period the technological developments in the West tired to be adapted to Istanbul were, but there is not an exact parallelism with the West. In the period after the Tanzimat “the movement of Art Nouveau that showed its best example in clipboard adornment in Istanbul, became dominant and obtained richness beyond its examples in the West” (Sözen; 1984: 4). In this period in Istanbul there are the famous architects such as Gaspare Fossati, Aléxandre Vallaury, Raimondo D’Aronco, Jachmund. Gaspare Fossati (1809-1883) who has Italian origin came to Istanbul in order to construct the building of the Russian Embassy (1838-1847). He worked in the repairing of Ayasofia in the years between 1847 and1849 with his brother Giuseppe he also worked in other jobs. The building of Hazine-I Evrak in Babıali, the building of the Directory of Post and Telegraph, the churches of San Pietro and San Paolo in Galata, and a military hospital are among his important works. Aléxandre Vallaury in Babıali, beside being architecture teacher in the Academy of Fine arts, has most important works in Istanbul such as Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane (Haydarpaşa High School, with Raimondo D’Aronco), Duyun-u Umumiye (Istanbul High School for Man), Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (Old Museum of Oriental Works), Istanbul Archeology Museum, the buildings of Ottoman Bank in Galata and Eminönü, the building of Union Française, Yıldız Hamidiye and Eminönü Hidayet Mosques. Raimondo D’Aronco (1857-1932), who has Italian origin, is the most important representative of the movement of Art

Nouveau in Istanbul in the end of the nineteenth century. D’Aronco coming to Istanbul in 1894 in order to prepare the projects of the Ottoman Exhibition was appointed as the chief architect in 1896 by Abdulhamit II (Sözen; 1984: 5). Among his important works in Istanbul can be counted Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane (with Vallaury), some parts of Yıldız Palace, Italian Embassy in Trabya, Karaköy Mosque, Botter Apartment. The Sirkeci railway station is the well known work of German Jahmund. In the nineteenth century, after the revival of the Baroque and Rococo styles of architecture and ornamentation, the styles of Art Nouveau and Orientalism had been influential in the urban scene of Istanbul. Orientalism in the Abdülaziz period, started to be influential in the Ottoman architecture seeking revivalism for its own architectural past. In the Orientalist architectural form in Istanbul, the influence of the Far East is very limited. The influence of India shows itself in the domes and towers. And the influence of Iran and Umayyad does not go further than a few examples. The one that sticks out is generally the influence of Andalusia and North African Magrib (Saner, 1998: 30). An important architectural building which reflected the character and plan of the movement intensively was the Sirkeci Station and the Haydarpaşa Medical School.

Sirkeci Station reflects an Islamic eclecticism unrelated with the Western architectural forms except that it includes the needs of a station structure and for that time new methods of construction were applied. The Ottoman and non-Ottoman architectural features and decoration elements were mixed and used. In addition it must be pointed out the stylization and compositions that the architect fit the exotic spirit he had created…Besides the forms of the construction that make up the material for the Ottoman revivalism such as the sharp arch at the entrance in the middle and the Bursa arch, the horseshoe, onion-formed arch, polygonal corner towers, the baldachin-like finishes of the towers and the high onion-formed cap stones not present now are the architectural components that makes the Sirkeci Station “Orientalist”.” As the last point of the European railway, “the Westerns step on the “East” at this point. Jasmund… must have created a design filled with Eastern associations to give the visitor the image of “exotic East” that he expects at first” (Saner, 1998: 84-85).

According to Saner (1998: 121), the Haydarpasha Medical School likes an Islamic city out of multi-mosque on its own, with its “minarets” and domes. Istanbul was dressed an artificial exoticism by the architects with Western formation. Thus, the city was decorated with the images which the Westerns wanted to see and Istanbul was presented with an “Oriental” identity as much that it really is not. It became a catalyst in seeking a unique, “national” expression, and the same tendency with some changes turned into the First National Architectural Movement in the beginning of the 20th century. The main importance of the Orientalist applications for the Turkish Architecture is that it has paved a way to the First National Architectural Movement. In this period, we see that the design of mosque and külliye on the classical manner were completely disappearing from the scene. A phenomenon of secularization was reflected itself in the area of architecture. A very good example of the secularization of the space and architecture was the existence of separation between the spaces of education and worship. Another issue seemed in this second period of the nineteenth century was awakening of an interest for the traditional Ottoman architecture. In the book named The Ottoman Architectural Styles (Usul-ü Mimari-i Osmani) that was prepared for international Vienna service in 1873, strange examples of the Ottoman architecture were exhibited in 189 plates. As this publication shows, the Ottoman architecture was an issue of research in a very early time, and taken as a source of inspiration (Sözen; 1984: 29)

CHAPTER 3

ANKARA: THE BIRTH OF A NATION FROM ITS ASHES

3.1. Ankara Before 1923

Although Ankara was a fortress town established with military aims throughout its long history from Roma to Ottoman Empire, Ankara had generally been a trade center on the ways of caravan. In the 4th century B.C. Anatolia was undergone the invasion of the Persian Empire. In this period the Persians have made a road that started from Susa, Iran reaching out to the city of Sard of the Lydians in Anatolia. The distance of this “King Road” was 2500 km long and had 111 places of accommodation on it (Cezar, 1977: 468). The city of Ankara is one of the cities on this road and it gives Ankara a chance to be a trade city on the road of commercial caravans through its long history. In the beginnings of nineteenth century, Ankara had 1584 stores and shops and 20 inns. Population was between twenty thousand and thirty thousand. According to the census of 1830, which took into account only men, 6300 Muslim men and 5150 non-Muslim (Greeks, Catholic Armenians and Jews) were living in the city. Muslim people lived especially off agriculture and stock-breeding. Great lands were in the usage of Muslims. Muslims were engaged in the occupations of miller, butcher, greengrocer, spice-merchant, and coal seller. Great scale trade was under the control of Dutch, French, and English traders in the seventeenth century. After the eighteenth century, Armenians and Greeks from Kayseri had taken in their hands the significant amount of abroad trade in the city. Additionally, Christians were occupied with the professions like money changing, work of goldsmith, usury, construction, carpentry and textile. The production of the white silky wool of Angora goat was most important item in the exportation of the city. While its production was under the

privilege of Muslims, its exportation was under the control of non-Muslims. The coming of railway to the city strengthened the place of agriculture in the economy of the city. Ankara was a county administratively dependent on the Bozok province until to the date of 1836. In this date, Ankara was uplifted to the statue of province administrative center. After Bozok became the center of province again, Ankara became the center of a new province consisting of four counties; Ankara, Kayseri, Yozgat, and Kırşehir with 83000 square kilometer and the population of 900000. In Ankara province, non-Muslims had generally inhabited in the city center. Although Ankara province had the least people of non-Muslim among other provinces in Anatolia, it was a city more cosmopolitan than many Anatolian cities in terms of its ethnic and religious profile (Georgeon, 1999). Non-Muslims could join the rule of Province and of the institutions of local government equally with Muslims. By means of foreign schools, Ankara had more mature strata of elites than many other Anatolian cities. Before the National Struggle, the rate of Muslims in the population of Ankara rapidly increased by refugees from Macedonia after Balkan wars and the deportation of Armenians in 1915 and the conflagration of 1917 that devastated great part of Armenian district of the city. The old Ankara had typical characteristics of the Ottoman cities. In this sense, its streets, quarters, and mosques reflected the urban order of a traditional Ottoman city. Ankara’s within-quarter streets were constituted of about 2.5, 3, 4.5 meter lines deprived of a geometric order. Depending on existing social relations, within a hierarchy from the most general to the most special, there was a spatial structure from public to private that can be traced as square-street, courtyard, hall, room (Denel, 1989: 1426-27). A European traveler, Ainsworth who came to Ankara 1835 in the first half of the nineteenth century says that the most well-cared building were in the Ankara castle, and streets generally were “narrow and disordered”, houses were “poor and weak”, the city was full of historical remnants (Denel, 1989: 1427). Beside Ankara castle, the market places were significant places. Saman Pazarı, Koyun Pazarı, At Pazarı, and Karaoğlan Çarşısı were the central places of commerce.

During Mahmud the Second period, the number of vehicles was increased in Istanbul with the permission of phaeton, but the enlargement and leveling of roads in a proper way were not accompanied. The articles about the ordering of roads started to take place in the Regulations of Buildings (Ebniye Nizamnameleri) after 1839. The practice of giving door numbers to houses was first time discussed in Mahmud the second period, too but did not become a common practice. Theophile Gautier who came to Istanbul in the mid-nineteenth century had to find an address he was looking for by asking people because of the lack of door numbers. 1864 dated Regulation of Road and Buildings’ (Tarik ve Ebniye Nizamnamesi) 35th article was concerned with the decision of putting signs of names to the streets and squares and giving door numbers to houses (Denel, 1989: 1433). The Regulation of Road and Buildings, which was prepared in 1864 and the Law of Provincial Municipality dated 1877 were first applied into the 50-housedBosnian Quarter (now it is called Sakarya Quarter) which was one of the locations settled outside of the castle and built for immigrants. This quarter can be regarded as the first example of the application of orderly, geometric “grid” plan (Denel, 1989: 1426-27). In this quarter, it is seen that the buildings constructed according to a plan, were different from traditional housing. The plan of these houses was constituted of three rooms one of which has kitchen (cooking, eating, drinking) functions and an open space. The quarter was planned so that 8 roads divide and included 14 building island one of which has 40 building units. This application of planned public improvement (imar) would remain as the only sample in Ankara for a long time. The year of 1873 was the year of calamities. First there was a flood, excessive snowing and subsequently, a famine occurred. There was life causality of 18.000 people with these disasters. 179 000 soldiers from Ankara and Ankara Province participated as reserved soldiers to the Ottoman Russian War which is known as 93 War between 1877-1878. These participants were seen off from Akköprü. Most of them no longer see the land they were born. A new disaster happened in 1881. A big locust herd invades the territory. They did not leave out any grain and vegetables in fields and vineyards. The region was being abandoned and the population was gradually decreasing. Soldiers were sent to the Balkan War subsequently started

instead of Akkopru, from Ankara Train Station by a train, which came to the city in 1892. “The one who went like a plane tree comes back like a dried branch” (Erdoğan, 2004: 360-361). Cosmopolitanism reigned in the old Ankara as it was the case in Istanbul. There were quarters, where people from same religion live in as well as the quarters Muslims and non-Muslims live together in Ankara. As we learn from Beki L. Bahar (2003: 84) the Jewish quarter in Ankara was a typical Ottoman quarter. Along with buildings, there were a synagogue, a Talmud Tora school for children and a public bath. Jewish quarters in the Ottoman Empire were not locations encircled by walls of which gates were closed during nights like Jewish ghettos in Europe, but they were integrated entirely as an open space. Jewish quarter in Ankara used to be called with the names of Hoca Hindi, Hacandi Oksuz. Later on, the quarter known as Yegenbey named as “Istiklal” (Independence) Quarter. The Quarter had narrow streets without sidewalks like many other Ottoman quarters. Not only Jews, but also Greeks, Armenians, Catoliques, Gregorians, and Muslims lived together in this small Ottoman city. There were also European people who come from different western countries for the aim of trading. Traveler Horvart, who was in Ankara in the date of 1913, presented a vivid expression of that cosmopolitan environment:

People of all sorts are running around the fish market, Europeans with their plastic raincoats; a black African bargaining hard at the corner, on the other side, an Armenian seller (shopkeeper) and Greek restaurant owners calling out to attract customers with their sleeves folded up to their elbow, Arabian traders with their yellow kaftans, tall and strong Kurdish mule, everything and everybody is melting together, in the incredible rhythm of the market all the people are trying to sell, buy or carry things or finish their business (Horvarth, 1997: 112). There was a theatre in Ankara, and Horvart saw that Shakespeare’s theatrical work, Othello was played there. Especially Jews (Musevis) had good relations with Muslims and this continued in the early Republican period. For example, when the National Forces (Kuvayı Milliye) affiliates came to Ankara first time, they were only able to find pensions to

stay in the Jewish Quarter (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 262). Another example is illustrated by, a Jew, Fuli Eskenazi tells that “he heard from his father, Ataturk comes in secret in a late night, stays in their house for the night, and he leaves” (Bahar 2003: 86). The soccer team of the Jewish quarter was playing soccer games with the Turkish team of the lower quarter in the Ayyildiz field where Genclik-the Youth-Park was subsequently built on in 1935’s. (Bahar 2003: 92). Mehmed Kemal (1983: 263) says, “We have childhood friends in Jewish quarters. We used to play ball, go to school… when the loafer kids of the far quarter came to the Jewish quarter for raid, we were backing, supporting them” The quarter gets emptied by time. They move to Sıhhıye. The poor ones went to Israel. Armenian quarter in Ankara is in Hacıdogan. According to the witness of Mehmet Kemal Armenians were much more mingled with Turks. There were Turkish youth falling love in Armenian beauties and get married. Even there were Armenian craftsman whom everybody needed. Hamparsun kalfa-charge man was one of them and until Hungarian craftsman came, everybody was referring to him to have a house built (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 263). When the Yegenbey quarter where Greeks used to live, burned down by the big fire, almost all Greeks left Ankara (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 159). Thus Ankar lost an important group which contributed into its cosmopolitant charecter.

3.2. Ankara and National Struggle

Before Mustafa Kemal came to Ankara, Ankara demonstrated its merit and trustworthiness to be a center for the National Struggle. Rıfat Hodja the Ankara mufti and Mayor Kütükçüzade Ali Bey, in the name of Ankara people, declared to the Government in Istanbul under the control and occupation of European powers that the People of Ankara would not accept a Governor appointed from outside of Ankara. The people of Ankara were openly devotee to a struggle for the independency of the country. Moreover, Ali Fuat Pasha who would be one important figure of the War of Independence transferred the headquarters of 20th army corps

from Ereğli of Konya to Ankara. Now, Ankara was “a most secure asylum” for the National Struggle with its strategic military position and its relatively hom*ogenized population and its decisiveness for the independency. The people of Ankara came across with enemy troops in December 1918. First, a British military company comes in, followed later by a French one. After their coming, the 20th the Ottoman army corps under the command of Ali Fuat Pasha in Konya came to Ankara and settled in Sarıkışla. By the invasion of Smyrna by Greeks, Ali Fuat Pasha contacts Mustafa Kemal Pasha by telegraph and due to the decision taken, “Demonstration of Cursing the Greek” organized. Meanwhile, as they could not speak with the Sultan in a telephone contacts with Istanbul, Ankarians told the Grand Vizier Ferit the Son-in-Law Pasha that they do not recognize Istanbul anymore. They dismissed the governer Muhittin Pasha whom they are not pleased with and they appointed the head of the province’s financial department, Yahya Galip Bey in place of him. There were no longer ties with Istanbul. The imams secretly announced to the people of Ankara who were disturbed by invasion forces in Ankara and their practices that the Friday prayer would be held in congregation in Namazgah on Friday. Namazgah seemed to be a city council all Muslim men participated. Haji Mustafa Efendi gave a exciting sermon to people. He sermons that the way of independence, the chastity and honor of families, fatherland, religion and nation could be protected within a unity, for this, he says, the day of armament has come. Then, by kissing the Holy Banner of Prophet, he invites the congregation to resistance. The congregation who met there by bringing Takbeers took an oath and subsequently prayed (Erdoğan, 2004: 363-364). After this meeting the people of Ankara started to organize for resistance,. A National Regiment (Milli Alay) was founded. The mufti of Ankara Rıfat Efendi (Borekci) registered as the first private. Haci Atif Efendi undertook the position of Regiment mufti, Hafiz Mehmed Efendi, the Imam of Haci Bayram Mosque was appointed as the imam of the first company. Many people from Ankara notables registered as volunteer privates. City notables, retired and reserved officers, province officials voluntarily participated the Regiment. In addition, new regiments started to be founded in the towns in Ankara province (Erdoğan, 2004: 364-365).

Right before Mustafa Kemal came to Ankara, as it was seen in some cites of Anatolia like Maraş and Antep, an existence of a resistance determination and will which came with initiative of the people could be observed. The organization of Ankara for resistance and getting out of the control of Istanbul which was under occupation created an appropriate atmosphere for being the center of National Resistance for Ankara. Mustafa Kemal when he comes to Ankara first time, went directly to the tomb of Hacı Bayram from Kızıl Yokus on December, 27, 1919. In here, together with some people from Ankara, he prayed (Erdoğan, 2004: 275). “Mustafa Kemal Pasha, parliamentarians, officers, officials, and Ankarians met at the front of Haci Bayram Mosque towards midday on April, 23, 1920. After they prayed Friday prayer, they came to the building of Grand National Assembly by bringing Takbeer together, with the Holy Banner at front, behind it, Sinop deputy scholar Abdullah Efendi holding a rahle with the Holy Qur’an and holy beard, in his two sides, a squad of soldiers” (Erdoğan, 2004: 275). Most people who came to welcome Mustafa Kemal on December 27, did not know the name of the person who was coming, they say one statesman will to come (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 276). Mustafa Kemal’s coming to Ankara has given way to the start of new modes of attitudes around him. Between the young men there has happened the fashion of kalpak and cravat called ‘the fashion of Mustafa Kemal”, the beginner of this fashion also was Karaveli (Karaveli, 2004: 59).

3.3. Istanbul and Ankara in Nationalist Thought

3.3.1. Istanbul and Its Nationalist Criticism The discussions, on where the place of the capital city would be after the war, were much heated and as if they discuss some thing more different. For the nationalists, those discussions are an opportunity to criticize the governments of Istanbul and even the most basic institutions of the Ottoman Empire. For the nationalist criticism, Istanbul can be easily identified with the Ottoman Empire. They do never

comprehend space as a neutral issue. For them, a city is determinant on the thought of politicians. For Besim Atalay, the delegate of Aksaray in the National Assembly, it is inconvenient to live in Istanbul as long as the mentality of Istanbul that fosters Damat Ferit and his friends continues even partly. Istanbul must be disinfected before living in there. For Atalay, there are two kinds of capital city: self-capital of a country and the colonial one that takes place in a frontier of country such as Congo, Calcutta. Atalay implies that Istanbul is one of colonial capital cities. The life in Istanbul under the occupation of the western power presented many materials for the natiolast criticisizm. According to Armstrong, who was in Istanbul in that period as an English military officer and later who wrote a book about Atatürk titled “Bozkurt”, “Istanbul is a wound that in this city there are no ideals or inspirations. Here is the city of vulgar people who live in dirty streets. This is the barrack of intrigue, fear, scandal and cheat. Traitorous man and dishonest woman” (cited by Atay, 1969: 134). All these things that Atay states for “light Ottomans, Turk of freedom and conflict and Christianity of Pera.” It is worth to think that there is no criticisizm for Ittihatians who are the foremost responsible of the terrible position of Empire. Amstrong depicts the life in Istanbul such as: “Life in Istanbul was joyful, sinful and pleasant. Casinos were full of drinks and dance. There is no one thinking of country.” It also comprised to go Tokatlıyan and listen orchestra and to dance with beautiful girls, to go islands and swim, to join parties in Şişli where Turkish ladies also participated. But, who could not appear in this décor in any way were the ordinary people of Istanbul It can be observed that the attitude expressing negative sentiment against Istanbul is very spreading in the nationalist discourse on the capital city. In two editorial article of the daily journal of Hakimiyeti Milliye printed in Ankara, as a reply to the article of Hüseyin Cahit who argued that the declaration of Ankara as the capital city was not reasonable or rational for it resulted in the disappearance of the world, it was stated that Hüseyin Cahit must look for artificiality in everything, which existed around the palaces and mansions. Its language, literature, music, lifestyle, rules of behavior, family, life of community, shortly everything belonging it was alien to the nation and to the country. Neither people understood something from

them nor did they understand the people. The factor, which separated Anatolia and Anatolian people from the benefactions of civilized world with a Great Wall of China, was the governments of Istanbul. The government of Istanbul has a Babylon composition. It assumed Anatolian people as Gog and Magog, and its relation with people depended only on violence and oppression with the intention to usurp whatever they possessed. Istanbul was more international and deprived of virtues inspired by the nation. In such conditions, anticipation for the development of national virtues entirely and healthily was an absurdity (Şimşir, 1988: 245-249). For Yücel (2000: 103), the attempt to administrate all country from Istanbul is a turn to Ottoman thought of the period of decline. The natural attractiveness of Istanbul and its political and commercial milieu is convenient easily to degenerate the statesmen. In the nationalist literature, the Ottoman Empire was transformed into an occupier power and the Ottomans represented the 'Other' for the Turkish nationalism. It was banished outside from the Turkish history or transformed into the representative of the dark age of Turks. The Turkish nation was the last nation gaining its independency from the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire had lost its Turkic character and became a follower of Byzantium with its traditions, culture, politics, and arts after the conquest of Istanbul. The Ottoman civilization, in the formulation of Ziya Gökalp, was not an Islamic civilization because Islam was only a religion, but an Oriental civilization like the Byzantium civilization that it imitated. In fact, there are important and incompatible differences between an empire and a nationstate in terms of their mentalities.

3.3.2. The Image of Ankara in the Nationalist Discourse The works of literature has importance to comprehend the mentality and values of a period. If looking at the literal works of the intellectuals on Ankara, It can be beneficent to understand what Ankara represents and symbolizes for the intelligentsia and the image of Ankara in their mind can be grasped. In his early writing on Ankara in 1924, Ankara, Eğlence Şehri (Ankara, the City of Entertainment), for Ahmet Haşim, in Ankara, there is a malady like “malaria,” called

“politics.” The personal hatred, jealousy, irascibility, friendship, and hostility constitute the core of politics. Ankara is a place where many people caught up by the passion of politics while they are sane and moderate people in their previous life in Istanbul. In Ankara, people is political, roads political, gardens political, water, moon, and sun all of them are political. There are not socialists who do not come to an agreement with capitalists, or reactionaries who distresses reformers or royalist annoy republicans. In there, everybody is united and in agreement and consensus. He asks why, in Ankara, peace and quiet cannot survive? For Haşim, the reason of this situation is that Ankara is a city of boredom and annoyance. For the sake of the country Ankara should be immediately made a city of entertainment (Haşim, 1993: 238-239). Later on, in his new short essay, in 1929, Ahmet Haşim writes, “Ankara, now, is not a city but an endless will which takes the shape of building, road, and garden” (2000:36). For Haşim, Ankara is spiritual more than material, and hopeful and thoughtful more than beautiful. Ankara seems as a manifestation of a will as a spatial strategy on the body of earth. According to A. Şinasi Hisar (2000: 60-61), in Ankara, we observe the genius of Turk to give form and order. With its roads and buildings, Ankara has international values as in Europe. For some Istanbulites, Ankara is a sacred place that should be visited within the feels of indebtedness. Şukufe Nihal Başar lives most honorable, most exciting, even mythological days of her life with highest feelings when she visits Ankara after the national victory. For Başar (2000: 99-100), those lands, that old ruined city, which creates clear fortune of Turkish nation is the most sacred place. It was holy and beautiful for it had embraced the army of independence and its leader, the great hero. In the journal of İkdam, in 12 June 1923, Ahmet Cevdet writes that Ankara that rescued the patria from enemy was the kıble of Turk (Şimşir, 1988: 221). The War of Independence is an inseparable part of the image of Ankara. The importance of Ankara does not root in its physical or urban features in the mind of the nationalist intelligentsia, but its spiritual relationship with the National Struggle and also in being chosen by the revolutionary staff to be the capital city of Turkey. For Hasan Ali Yücel (2000:104), Ankara is the administrative center of the National Struggle and starting point for revolutions, and

cradle of new renaissance for Turkey. “At the top of a thousand and one remembrances, it is a holy country with its Çankaya and Anıtkabir at its bosom.” The observation of some foreigner writers and journalists reinforce the nationalist image of Ankara. For Ellison, what exists and affects man in Ankara, but just lack and always will be lack in Istanbul in spite of its beauty, comfort, respect, and even its spiritual and historical atmosphere is extraordinary mood of “a holy birth” (1999:169). Same emotions are shared by Selma, the hero of a Turkish novel, Ankara, by Yakup Kadri. For Selma, Ankara, with the ardent revolutionary soul that reshapes it and all the country, is ‘a second creation of the world.’ God had said ‘let there be light’ and everything has been illuminated. For Paul Erio, a French journalist, Ankara will always remain a sacred city. Pierre Benoit writes that there are some reasonable men who want to turn Istanbul and let Ankara remain the candle of freedom and the Kâbe of Turkish nationalism (Şimşir, 1988: 355-357). In the Ankara image of the nationalist intelligentsia that has an organic relationship with the Republican nationalist and the secularist ideology, Mustafa Kemal, with the title of Gazi, has great importance to complete the image. Atatürk has a center in the nationalist image of Ankara for it is Mustafa Kemal’s Ankara (Araz, 1994). In Ankara, in his life, everybody occupied with Mustafa Kemal; where did he go, what he wore, whom he met, what he ate? Ankara expresses the decisiveness of the national will that is especially represented in the personality of Gazi Hazretleri. In Ankara, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1987: 224) trips with the image of Atatürk in everywhere. A single fact, a single time, a single man dominates the imagination. For Tanpınar, it is as if the city fired its history comprising the era before the National Struggle. Same thing is stated by A. Şinasi Hisar (2000:58), when he argues that the history of the real city begins with the Treaty of Lausanne. In the nationalist discourse, Ankara is briefly the center of the National Struggle, the cradle of revolutions, and the most sacred place of the Turkish nationalism, the modern city of Republic with the universal Western values. What Ankara represents is rooted in the personality of Atatürk. In the mind of nationalist elites, It is the Atatürk’s Ankara, the Republic is the Atatürk’s Republic, Turkey is Atatürk’s Turkey. They feel thankful to Atatürk for he shares all with them. It is Mustafa Kemal represents Ankara in his

personality. In its earlier period, Ankara represents the will of Mustafa Kemal who attempts to establish a modern country. In relation to the modernization of Ankara Hasan Cemil Çamlıbel states “Ankara is the body of a new world’s spirit. It is also body of a movement…it is not a target; rather it is the point of a greatness. The sublime Gazi has found out the point of Archimedes in this city and after throwing away the old and addled world he built the new and fresh one…the spirits of different worlds, i.e., the spirit of both West and East got married here…” Similarly, the French writer Berthe G. Goulis who was invited and hosted in Ankara by Atatürk has stated in his book named Çankaya Nights that “for all Turks Istanbul represents only the past but Ankara represents the present. Istanbul is at the hand of enemies; the other is the castle of the Resistance Movement” (cited by Özdenoğlu ?: 181). In these lines there is a big estimation about future of new Turkey although it was in the stage of development. These lines also imply that in the near future Ankara will be the capital of Turkish people. Moreover, Goulis previously realized that the values, represented with Istanbul had no place in the modern Turkey. Ankara also represents for some people a much pure national traits and it is not affected by the cosmopolitan character of historical Ankara. “By the way of the settling of Oğuz tribe near the Ankara, this city protects itself against the foreign influences and the spirit of Ottoman and preserves the higher Turkish tradition in a freshness over decades” (Karaveli, 2004: 20). After the National Struggle, for the nationalist elites, there was another great duty to develop Ankara as a capital city according to requirement of a modern life and national genius such a way that it shows the competence of the nation to be a member of the civilized world.

3.4. The Modernization Project of the Republican Elite

The modernization project of the Republic is an attempt to save society from the image of the “Oriental” backwardness. In the comprehension of the Republican intellectuals, the Ottoman modernization movements represent an “Oriental”

mentality toward social change and progress for it is selective in the application of its reform program. The Republic aims to break the continuity with the Ottoman Empire and its culture and mentality. For a genuine modernization, all institutions of West have to substitute for the traditional institutions. This assumption of the official Turkish nationalism about the character of society and its institutions makes its modernization program so much radical that it results in a severe tension between the ordinary people and the state elites. The ordinary people of Anatolia are the uncivilized “pagans” that should be converted to real civilization and its “secular progressive faith” by the words of Gellner (1996: 86). Now, it was a historical necessity and duty for the westernist elites to civilize the Oriental minded “barbarian” people of Anatolia. For the new regime of the country, there was the problem of constructing national identity. It is firstly the matter of actualizing the nation as constituent principle for individuals in their daily life. The identity is a self-definition of individual so that it determines to which community he has a sense of belonging or loyalty. The existence of different identities means different commitments to various communities such as class, ethnic, linguistic or religious. Therefore, the existence of these kinds of identities distorts the purity of national identity and they form a continuous threat for the loyalty to the nation and state. However, in the political discourse of the National Struggle, the terms, Turkish, Turkish nation, and Turkish nationalism were never enunciated. The people of Anatolia was called ‘Camia-i Osmaniye,’ ‘Memalik-i Osmaniye,’ or ‘ekseriyet-i İslamiye’ in the declaration of Sivas Congress, the Ottoman Muslim majority in Misak-ı Milli. The people of Anatolia were not assumed a monolithic mass but a composition consisting of different elements (bilcümle anâsır-ı İslâmiye). The basic message of fundamental texts of the National Struggle was ‘the unity in variety.’ After the establishment of the Republic, this pluralist discourse disappeared after the regime was consolidated (Özbudun, 1997: 63-66). The new regime desires hom*ogeneity that absorbs religious and ethnic identities into the frame of Turkish identity. This new hom*ogenous Turkish identity would not be projected as an “Oriental” identity but a Western one. Its Westernness

would stand on the appropriation of modern life-style and patterns belonging to the West. The modern life-style and patterns of attitude belonging to civic society begin to spread to parallel with the declaration of Ankara as capital city. Since there was not a strong bourgeois class that would represent these new patterns in the daily life of society, the political and administrative elites became especially the carriers of those new patterns (Nalbantoğlu, 1984: 296). The modernization project of the Republic has generally disregarded the individualism that is the one of the most important ingredients of the modernity based on the Enlightenment’s ideals, and shows an anti-individualistic character that excludes the initiative depending on individualistic will and interest. The Republican elite conceive the socio-cultural dimension of the modernization as a construction of a monolithic community which liberates itself from individualistic demands in addition to those in the agenda of the tradition. The nation is defined, in the party program of 1935, as a political and social whole consisting of citizens combined together by the unity of language, culture, and ideal (Köker, 2000: 151). In the definition of nation, the existence of the unity of ideal reflects the desire of the Republican elite to eliminate unintended demands and initiatives of individuals in the sake of the nation. The Republican modernity project reflects on the space as an organization of the public area that is isolated from each kind of difference and the existence of foreigner. “For the ruling Kemalist elites, the unity of society achieved through “progress” of a Western sort is the ultimate goal. Thus, throughout republican history, all kinds of differentiation-ethnic, ideological, religious, and economic- have been viewed not as natural components of a pluralistic democracy but as sources of instability and as threats to unity and progress” (Göle, 1997: 84). The Republican notion of modernity has very restricted access and is quite exclusive kind of modernity. It does not accept the entrance of something accidental into the modernity save the planned. It does not permit the elements out of project to gain a modern form. Therefore, the logic of its spatial organizations depends not on a dialog between people of different world-view or ideologies but on a monologue which represses and compels others into silence.

The Republican elite tries to constitute a hom*ogenous community based on a monological modernity. It reverses the sociological formulation, made by Tönnies, of modernization based on the polarity between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. As stated by Germani, Tönnies’ Gemeinschaft category is not limited to the rural areas, but it can also install a city. The city of community, the sacred city, has, although it is very limited, an internal differentiation based on the existence of surplus. This surplus permits to the creation of an upper strata consisting of aristocrats, soldiers, priests, and men of learning. In this hierarchical organization, elites and ordinary people are united through communal bonds. For Tönnies, when these bonds are broken and then class struggle appears, Gesellschaft replaces Gemeinschaft. An economic transformation which separate agriculture from trade and industry, and increase inequality is the basis for transition from “community” to “society”. In the new organization of the social hierarchy among other elites, a new social group of merchants has more power over the common people (Germani, 1973: 18). In this case, Tönnies consider the bourgeois class as one of the most basic factors for the transition from “community” (traditional society) to “society” (modern society). In the absence of the bourgeoisie, to accomplish this transition become a duty for the bureaucratic elite of the state. When the project of modernization combines with the project of creating a nation in a defensive strategy, it confuses its target and pursues a direction toward Gemeinschaft. The imagination, by the Republican elite, of a society isolated from classes and privileges can be seen as sign for the search of Gemeinschaft. The desire for community gives a closed and exclusive form to the modernization project of the Republic. In the process of the seeking for a hom*ogenous community, secularism and nationalism becomes moral principles, communal bonds which give to community its coherence and unity. The lack of a powerful bourgeoisie that can impose its demands to the political power result in seeking for a community and in the efforts to freeze the modernity, which is essentially ephemeral, transient, and contingent as defined by Baudelaire. In reality, the promises of modernity do not correspond with the psychological motives of the Republican elite. What modernity promises is an incessant transformation that means a constant instability and insecurity. Let’s remember Berman’s statements on

Faust who seem as an allegory for understanding the nature of modern era based on the continuous progress: “Faust feels that the crucial thing is to keep moving: “If I stand fast [Wie ich beharre], I shall be a slave”” (1982: 50). For the developer, giving an end to moving means death. This Faustian view finds its echo in Mustafa Kemal’s statement: “No more we can stand, in any case we should go further” (Artık duramayız, behemehal ileri gitmeliyiz). In two statements, there is an obvious parallelism. However, there is an ironic situation, stated by Berman (1982: 70), “once this developer has destroyed the pre-modern world, he has destroyed his whole reason for being in the world… Once the developer has cleared all the obstacles away, he himself is in the way, and he must go.” Once the way to modernization has been successfully paved, there will not remain raison d’être for the Republican elite to insist on having a monopoly on the political power because of its extraordinary role in the civilizing process. In order to save his privileged position, the state elite must prove that his existence is indispensable for the beneficence of the society. Therefore, the modernization process must be transformed into an unending project, and the masses must be convinced that traditional values and patterns of life is still a vivid threat to the requirements of the modern life. Ironically, a constant search for security transforms itself into a constant stress and fear because of the unreachable character of the security. In turn, it strengthens internal solidarity and hom*ogeneity but results in communal closeness and antagonism toward the one different, stranger, and heterogeneous.

3.5. The Process of Declaration of Ankara as the Capital City Istanbul, the capital city of centuries, was left aside and Ankara was declared the new capital of the young Republic in October 1923, in spite of external pressures from great Western powers and internal oppositions from some intellectuals and deputies. In the National Assembly, only one person spoke against the proposal for the declaration of Ankara as the capital city. The selection of a new place for the capital city was not a new fact for it had been often discussed in the last period of the

Ottoman Empire before its transfer to Ankara. After each new threat to Istanbul, there were some projects to transfer the capital city to more secure another place. In the period of Abdülhamid II, Said Pasha offered to transfer the capital to Bursa. Von der Goltz Pasha, a German general having a duty in the Ottoman army, proposed Konya or Kayseri for the new place of capital in 1897. After the declaration of the Meşrutiyet II, the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat ve Terakki) considered Salonica as the capital city for they did not entirely dominate events in Istanbul. In the time of the Balkan War, there was a new search for the most suitable place to transfer the capital in Anatolia (Şimşir, 1988: 50-55). After the occupation of Istanbul by the Western powers in March 1920, by the reason that a city open to the attacks of enemy from three sides could no more remain the capital, the duty to choose a saved place where even enemy’s air force cannot arrive at was firstly charged to General Staff. When first time the proposal to transfer capital city from Istanbul to Anatolia came to the discussion in the National Assembly, the proposal was rejected by 26 votes in favor and 71 votes against in January 1921 (Şimşir, 1988: 205). The national security was the only visible reason; in fact there were some other motives in the mind of the nationalists to demand the transfer of capital city. A day ago before Sakarya War, in 22 August 1921, the National Assembly took a decision to transfer itself to Kayseri because of the march of the Greek army in a secret sitting. Regarding the negative effects of this decision in country and abroad, the execution of decision was deferred and it was never executed (Şimşir, 1988: 212). In reality, this event shows that the transference of capital city to Anatolia by the reason of national security is not reasonable and meaningful for the enemy can easily arrive at even a place in the core of Anatolia. Only when the proposal was again introduced to the National Assembly as a draft law by İsmet İnönü, it was promulgated as a law with the majority of votes in October 1923. It was said that Istanbul would remain the center of the Caliphate and Muslim-world to the opponents who discontented with the decision of the capital. After the abolition of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, the decision of the capital appeared in the constitution in April 1924. The only parliament who opposing to make Ankara capital and voting against is Gümüşhane’s Deputy Zeki Bey.The

problem of the capital city was, in fact, related to the view of new regime on the character of the nation. The construction of the new capital would be an expression of the new spirit that represented the genuine nature and genius of the nation. Only a capital created from nothing could symbolize the reborn of the Turkish nation and the establishment of the 16th Turkish state. It had to be necessary as it were to create a new city from nothing in the steppe. “There were no trees, no water, no sub-structure systems, no avenues and even no streets. And the most important there were no tradition and monuments of Ankara other than the remains of Rome. According to some, Ghazi has embarked on a job which is impossible and he will annul it ultimately from this passion” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 21, 25) City is the social space where human nature appears with its full potentials. In the city, the most fundamental preferences as to ‘civilization’ such as mores, life style, and patterns of attitude, etc seems like a skin on the space. The city expresses the genuine character of a ‘civilization’ and people. Republican rule give an important role to the spatial strategies in achieving the creation of a nation-state, which is western but not under the control of western powers. As one of these strategies, the transfer of capital to Ankara was a radical decision. It means the rejection of the experiences of the Ottoman modernization. The anxiety of the new regime was to save itself from the ‘Oriental’ images of the declining Empire and the abolished Caliphate. The most modernized district of the country was abandoned and a low-urbanized place in the core of steppe has been selected as the capital. The Ottoman modernization is assumed degenerated and for a “true” modernization, a place in the bosom of Anatolia far from every kind of effect from degenerative forces was chosen to accomplish to create a “really” enlightened nation-state (Tekeli, 1984: 322). The difference of Ankara from many other Anatolian cities lies in its historical background; it did not have the ineffaceable, strongly prominent clues referring an Ottoman or Islamic past nor did it have more monumental buildings that referred a historical identity. The development of Ankara is at the great extent identified with the successes of the new regime in creating a new modern nation on the ground of the western values. In fact, in a city full with the clues and vivid memoirs of the Imperial past, the new regime would not feel itself on a firm ground in order to

accomplish its goals. At any moment, it could be exposed to a threat from those who would have a desire to turn back For Atay, Ataturk did not choose Ankara as the capital; he decided only to live in Ankara. Ataturk prevented a possible competition that may occur among cities by not going out of Ankara (1969: 418-419). There are two points in the Mustafa Kemal’s expression which was published in the newspaper Milliyet about why Ankara has been chosen as the capital: a place which is firm to any kind of attack and invasion, and a place which the government is able to equally watch every region of the country (Arcayürek, 2005: 236). On October 13, 1923, in the next day of Ankara being announced as the capital, the newspaper Hakimiyet-i Milliye wrote “The Byzantine spirit is in Istanbul, not in Ankara” as an answer to the reaction shown by the Istanbul press (Koloğlu, 2003: 16). In 1924, we see that Mustafa Kemal shared the thoughts of the Ankara intelligentsia about Istanbul in a letter he wrote to Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu who was in Istanbul:

The Republic will certainly and surely rectify the Byzantine which had lost its natural state, true colour, priceless value because of being used to filth, hypocrisy and falsehood. It will return it to its natural and clean state. “However the process that it will carry out to do this is that, it will scrape off and blow out the deep ground filled with filth and for the purification of its waters, perhaps it will overflow the Black Sea into the Bosporus with all of its ebullience. (Aydemir, 1999: 279) On December 19, 1926, in the New York Times, according to Ernest Marshall, who regarded the announcement of Ankara as the capital as worthy of being one of the most significant incidents in the world history in terms of politics, “Mustafa Kemal is the Moses of his people. He shows a new promised land.” Again for Marshall (December 28, 1926) Ankara “is such a symbol made up of the brick and mortar of a dream, that when it is completely realized it would mean that a whole nation has changed entirely” (Koloğlu, 2003: 20-21). For such a change, Ankara was more suitable place than Istanbul, because Istanbul had the most cosmopolitant social urban structure in the country and had a specific living practice supporting it. Istanbul had also a social and cultural atmosphere which degrades each kind of the

project of social transformation. It was an uncontrollable city with its historical memoirs of the Ottoman past, population density, long history of modernization, and acquaintance with different social and cultural manners and life-style. The republican socio-cultural practices would be one among many others. In the urban space of Istanbul, the founding elite of the Republic could easly lost their will of revolution in order to re-form the country. As stated by Öngider (2003: 70):

Of course the new government staff was afraid of Istanbul. The intellectual knowledge, the old elite of the empire and the life style were frightening them. They were hearing the words “They had better not come and enter the palaces” and probably became really afraid of Istanbul. In a town like Ankara, they were everything, there wasn’t anyone who had better knowledge, who was superior to them, however Istanbul was different, it was not unlikely to be drowned and strayed in it. The reasons affecting the decision of choosing Ankara as the capital city of the new state, according to Tekeli (1984: 324-325), can be subsumed under three groups: in first group, to escape from economic control and military threat of imperialist powers, to save itself from the image of Ottoman and to reject the Ottoman Empire as a symbol for the transition to a nation-state, and constitution of a new national bourgeoisie and its life-style on a new cultural elements and rejection of cosmopolitan values of Istanbul. The second group is related to the general spatial organization of the country, to provide the integration of the domestic market by means of creating a national economy, and providing economic development in middle Anatolia and to prevent interregional inequalities. The third group is related to the scale of city, to establish a new exemplary city where a modern, western life style can flourish, to develop the life patterns of bourgeoisie so as to become a model for the rest of Turkey, and to symbolize the successes of Republic in the birth of a modern city.

3.6. Building a Capital City and the Spatial Strategy of the Republic Modernity is the one of the most problematic issues in the discipline of sociology. Since the sociological analysis of modernity almost every time has been effected by their personal position of the social researchers toward modernity, it results in hot discussions. Therefore, there is no a single definition or limited number of definition of the modernity. Like its definition, its content has also been discussable; there is no more a consensus on the very nature of the modernity. There are many social scientists who propose a new kind of definition of modernity, in the notion of “modernities”, based on pluralism and more sensitive to the different historical and cultural backgrounds instead of the old notion of “modernity” based on a single universalistic model. Modernity is filled with some contradictions between its some different objectives. In one hand, trying to make him a potent subject who has a control on his goals and actions, modernity aims to liberate human being from the control of an external authority, on the other hand, it transforms the individual into a non-potent, passive object which is subjected to the decisions of an external authority on the direction of his life. The one of the areas where that contradiction appeared is the city planning, which is the one of the invention of the modernity. Imposing them how they could live their life, planning gives an absolutism to the will of the planner over the wills of the individuals and transform them into subjugated objects of the planning. As in the exemplar of Berman’s New York, we observe that an absolute authority, as the result of its city planning which had weakened the chance of the inhabitants to intervene the decision making process for the reshaping of their settlement, which is subjected to the plan, convert the people of the settlement into involuntary objects, like the leaves which is thrown by the wind. We meet the absolute tyranny, irresistible total will of the planner. We observe same attitude in some modern architects who were also city planners having socialist orientations. They had imagined the urban utopias which were planned functionally and thus where the evil, inequality, and unfairness were dismissed from the social life. In the space which surrounds the environment of the human being, we can trace the clues of

everyday activities and relationships among men. The space is primarily a social fact and then a physical or architectural, etc. City planning is at the extreme point a reorganization of the social relations in the society beyond the reorganization of the physical environment. What define which settlements deserve to be called city and which not? Is the city only a spatial organization consisting of roads, civil and official buildings, gardens, and public areas? Or it is simply an unintentional projection of organization of complex human relations on the body of earth? Or it is a very intentional human creation as a realization of a will or of wills or instincts intersecting each one another? Or a city is a settlement, which has some particular features making it unique between others? Or it is sui generis an individual organism independent from the intention of people living in there? Or it is a spatial appearance of a metaphysical principle, which regulates the spiritual field of the human relations with other human beings and physical world? In reality, the degree of relationship and interaction of all those factors give to a city its identity. An identity stands upon a vivid memory and defines the state of belongingness. In the situation of cities, the memory is engraved on its historic and artistic monuments, its roads, its civic and official buildings, the names of its street and squares, and the tombs or mausoleums of its saints. The city is a repertoire of symbols, images, memoirs, and associations. The city manifests its identity by means of those items. However, this does not mean that all these items will be a part of insistently united whole. Therefore, there is no necessity that a city has to have an integrated coherent identity, which is the one of the ideals of modernity. Sennet (1970: 9) calls the attempts to build a coherent and hom*ogenous identity a search for purity as a modern Puritanical attitude. In a city, there could be more ones than one identity; even these identities could be in conflict one with another. Therefore, it is to be kept in mind that a city may be both ideally a peaceful amalgam of various spaces, where different identities lives side by side with minimum contradiction, or a conflict area where the representation of an identity needs a firm struggle over urban symbols for visibility in the city. As stated by Nas (1993: 6) “the symbolic ‘order’ often proves to be an ambiguous, amorphous, fragmented and incoherent, a symbolic

configuration of hybrid and shifting, deconstructed images arisen from tensions, conflicts and social changes.” The modern city planning is an important part of this struggle for it can decide which identity or identities has legitimate right to represent itself in urban area. Planning is a product of Enlightenment, which aims to establish a world entirely dependent on the principles of reason, and free from religion and irrational traditions of the past. The modern state is not a simple apparatus, which has the power to rule, but the materialized body of the universal reason on the earth. Because the modern state could only has an opportunity to execute a plan and reorganize an urban space according to the pre-defined ideal project. In planning, the exercise of geometry to the urban space has provided a great chance to power to take city under its full control. Now, under the domination of geometry, the modern cities are captured by power. When Voltair had been writing his famous novel, Candid, he was right in criticizing the Leibniz’s assessment on the existing world, at least in terms of a moral point. For Leibniz, existing world was the best among all the possible worlds. In there, all the possibilities of the being had a chance to exist and to be entirely fulfilled. In terms of a formal point of view, Leibniz was absolutely right; the excellence has to include not only positive but also negative elements. Only in this way, it can have a unity and completeness. The evil is necessary as much as the good is. But it is unacceptable in terms of a moral point of view, because the evil is never legitimized in any way for no aims. Politically, to the strict moralism, a utopianism accompanies. A world purified from evil is possible only in utopia and it is also an end in history or isolated intermission suspending the history. Like Leibniz’s view on the best world, a victorious city is a place where all the potentials of human nature, without discrimination between evil and good, have a chance to accomplish their selves. We observe in it all kinds of human relations and differences. It is victorious to the extent that it has established a pax, a relative peace between the different ethno-cultural, religious, linguistic, and moral identities. In there, we salute the co-existence of contesting facts in same place. The faith and blasphemy, piety and profanity exist together. A saint and a killer breathe the same

air. There are together villains, saints, religious men, prostitutes, thieves, gangsters, beggars, every kind of people from every kind of nature and occupation. Therefore, paradoxically it is also a “state of war” as defined by Raban, in his famous book, Soft City. The metropolitan city is a continuous challenge for human being, especially for modern subject who has a coherent self because the metropolis call him in seductive ways to participate in its anonymity. Therefore, the very basic aim of the city planning is to transform the incalculable, inestimable ambiguity to the certain and controllable order for the power. As a modern ideology, for Kemalism, the creation of a new city was a problem to create a space which can be controllable in terms of its density of population, physical dimension and social relations. Therefore, in the Republican conception of city is based on a moderate and easily controllable town rather than an uncontrollable metropolitan city with its enormous unsolvable problems. Therefore Jansen, the planner of the city, could not make them accept the notion of a city with 750 thousand populations and Ankara was planned for 300 thousand people. The establishment of a modern capital in a short time rather than a great city was more important for the state elite. On a barren land to arise a modern city, to create a modern capital, would be a major symbol in the first ten years of the young Republic (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 32). For the improvement of the new capital city, it was a necessity to look for a solution outside of the old settlement of Ankara. There was no possibility to apply a plan successfully in old settlement because of the land speculation which arrived in high prices for lands (Bademli, 1985: 11). There seemed some search for a suitable plan in making a modern city. There is an anecdote that famous architecture and cityplanner Le Corbusier was invited to Turkey for improvement-planning for Ankara. It was said to him that they imagined a city with a population of 150 thousand when he asked how many people the city would include in the plan. Then as he said that “there is no need to make a plan for a city with such a population. Let’s complete this work with 40-50 buildings”, then he was sent back (cited by Bağlum from Ekrem Kırdar, 1992: 151).

The first mayor of Ankara, Mehmet Ali Bey was removed from office because he was seen inadequate in performing requirements of the new capital city. In 1924, June, Haydar Bey was appointed as new mayor of the city. In his period, 400 hectares land was nationalized in Sıhhıye by the municipality. By the Lorcher plan for Ankara, prepared in 1924-25 (Cengizkan, 2002: 220), the developments in the emergence of the new city were accelerated and Sıhhıye followed a development course outside of the traditional structure of Ankara (Bademli, 1985: 11). In the new district, there seemed limited construction activities with this planning. Single stored houses for state officials having three or four rooms had begun to settle up in 1925 and had been built 148 units, and been cost about 4500-5000 liras, these houses have been sold on the condition by 50 lira payment in eight years (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 25). At the same time, the old settlement was in separate pieces improved without a planning. Although a plan for the old city was prepared by Lorcher due to the want of administration, it had not been send back because of finding it inapplicable. The importance of Lorcher plan was great in the creation of the new city. It become definitive for later two city plans of Ankara made by Jansen and Ubaydın-Yücel, because they followed the routes drawn by it. An important aspect of Lorcher’s plan was its sensitiveness toward historical formation of the city. In plan, there seems existence of a mosque and public bath (hamam) in the crossroad whereTuna Street and İzmir Street intersects other on the boulevard in Kızılay district. By this plan, in the district of Kızılay, construction of a mosque had first time became a current issue and, for Cengizkan (2002, 233), it was possible one of the reasons in leaving aside and changing the plan. According to Cengizkan, the plan which has been leading in the development of Ankara is not Jansen’s plan but Lorcher’s plan. In 1927, for a more comprehensive city plan, the deputies contacted with Prof. Hofmann in Berlin, and as a result of his advice to apply to Herman Jansen or M. Brix, an idea of competition for city planning emerged. Besides Jansen and Brix, by participating of Leon Jausseley, the main architect of the French Government, a competition for city planning was organized. Along with the committee for the competition, Mustafa Kemal was examining the plans that came from the competitors for Ankara city planning (Atay, 1969: 421). Mustafa Kemal was the last

person to whom the official decision about the conclusion of the competition could be referred. Jausseley’s proposal for the planning of Ankara offers to annex the old settlement to the plan and to reconstruct it denser. It was openly contrary to the manner which was considered by the administrators of the municipality. Brix’s proposal has a protective character toward the old city, which does not intervene to its traditional structure. Jansens’s proposal as to the old city is more limited and moderate and looking for a balance between two other approaches. It was suitable with the approach of the municipality to improve the old city in separate pieces. The competition came to conclusion by the winning of Jansen in 1928. In 1932, during the stage of preparing final plan, Jansen’s approach toward the old city changed and became more protective. In the plan proposed for competition, the citadel was focal point of the city. In the final plan, the development direction of the city was shifted toward the south and the citadel remained in the north point of the city and the emphasis on Çankaya was increased (Bademli, 1985: 14-15). In 1928, with the law numbered 1351, the Directorship of Development (İmar Müdürlüğü) for the city was established as depending on the Minister of Internal Affairs. The dependency of the Directorship to the Ministry instead of Municipality shows the importance given by the central government for the development of Ankara. With other members for the committee of the Directorship of Development, Falih Rıfki Atay was appointed as the president by the Ministry. In 1927, save the constructions of electric and gas installations, the expenses per man were 27 or 28 multiple of average of the country. At the beginning of the twentieth century, two important sources that feed the planning discourse were Anglo-Saxon and German planning experiences. AngloSaxon planning that was depended on British capital had planning opportunity of new cities in rural areas out of the existing settlement areas. Hence, the creation of new settlement locations that have more access to green areas in comparison to existing cities was possible. In this way, these recently constituted cities in rural areas were apprehending a picturesque view. This planning experience would subsequently feed garden-city imaginations of city planners in the twentieth century. The second orientation of the Anglo-Saxon experience was City-Beautiful Approach

that carries implications and affects from Baroque age of Beaux Art and emphasizes power and monumental in authority centers. On the other hand, German planning approach was concerned with the improvement of existing cities because the foundation of industrial areas next to them.

Important figures in German approach like Camillo Sitte, Karl Henrici,

Theodor Fischer were emphasizing the re-foundation of spiritual atmosphere that lost in cities and the necessity of the re-constitution of the city as an aesthetic-artistic object. Within an urban area of which spiritual content emptied by modernity, spiritual values and excitements that keep society together can be re-supplied again by the reorganization of public spaces like squares and streets and saving them from becoming meaningless and senseless spaces. The second trend in the German planning tradition which is represented by figures like Rudolf Eberstadt, Theodor Goecke were pointing out the problem of housing which was one of the important social problems of the age. The third trend in the German planning tradition was represented by Reinhard Baumeister and Josef Stübben. They were advocating the necessity of the planning of cities as a whole through framework planning (Bilgin, 1997: 81). According to Bilgin, the Ankara planning that was made by Herman Jansen was like a mature and soft synthesis of all these different approaches. Green areas, monuments, major axis, function, decomposition, housing islands, houses for workers and officials were successfully brought together without exaggeration and transgression of one of them over another. Jansen was able to constitute a total city imagination that did not diverge to nostalgic obsessions. In spite of those praises of Bilgin, there is some outstanding criticism for the Ankara city plan made by Jansen. Gönül Tankut assesses the success of the establishment of Ankara as a capital city in two aspects in terms of its political success and in terms of urban planning. According to Tankut, the establishment of Ankara is in a sense a sightless courage. Its aim was not only to create a city but also create a décor in which a new western life-style would grow and live in. It was a risk, a choice and a will (Tankut, 1992: 108-109). Tankut implies inharmoniousness between the political will and the plan.

With its motto “in the limits of the possible”, Jansen designed a quite modest plan for Ankara. Ankara is a city planned in the conception of Siedlung, a garden city. Tankut’s criticism to the Ankara plan is one of the most severe kinds. She criticizes Jansen’s behavior in planning. In the plan, firstly, there are some problems in estimating the future population of the city. For next fifty years, the population estimation given to competitors was 300 thousands. In 1927, the population of Ankara was 74 thousands and according to a population census, the population of the city arrived in 157 thousands in 1935. The plan of Ankara does not have flexibility for the unplanned high rising of population density. Jansen made plan of 1932 for a city whose population density suitable to 150 thousand people according to the notion of Garden City but he could not define the direction of urban growth. He only claimed that if the rate of population raises two multiple, the plan would be adaptable to and tolerate it. It was a bad conduct of planning. For Tankut, it is an important lack of the plan not to have such flexibility in terms of its macro-form and internal structure. Another trouble for the plan was the absence of a new town center. The absence of a new center and depending on the old town center, Ulus, was a deficiency in the development of a new urban district. For Tankut, the pre-planning of 1929 made by Jansen was more developed than the final application planning of 1932. The macro-form of the former plan was more ordered than latter. It consisted of great streets with radial axes between them. For Tankut, some aspects of the plan were stranger for the society. The quarter of workers was unnecessary because there was no industry in Ankara of the period. Another deficiency for the plan is its blindness toward cheap housing, public housing. But, we should take into account that the quarter of worker (which was never built) could be transformed into the quarter of public housing when it was needed. The plan also has problem in terms of traffic axes. There is no alternate to the Atatürk. Boulevard. For Tankut, another lack of foresight in the plan was the place, the Tandoğan Square of today, which was chosen for the airport. According to the plan, in the place where later the Gençlik Park was established, a commercial center had to exist. Another deviation from the plan was the unplanned building activities in Altındağ which was designed as green area in the plan.

The integration of the old district and the new is a positive aspect of the plan. The other positive aspects of the plan were its respects for green and its consideration of the fact of urban healthy in designing open areas, parks, sport areas, green areas and a green belt near to the city. For Tankut, negative aspects of the plan were more than its positive aspects. For Tankut, Jansen was a man of previous century and it was an important misfortune for Ankara. For Tankut, the development of Ankara was a success in terms of politics and a failure in terms of city planning (Tankut, 1992: 108-114). In the failure of the practice of the plan, for Tankut, an important factor was, by the elapsing time, the weakening of the bureaucracy’s desire to perform the plan. In comparing the views of Bilgin and Tankut as to the plan of Ankara, it seems that Bilgin understands more clearly the spirit of the plan, although the criticism of Tankut for the plan is correct in a perspective which takes for granted the existing situation of today as a basis in assessing the plan. As stated previously, the Republican elite wanted to establish a moderate and easily controllable town rather than an uncontrollable metropolitan city, and then rejected Jansen’s proposal for a city with 750 thousand populations. Therefore, the “political success” has great responsibility in the failure of the plan that could not make true population estimation for the future. There were some social interventions which affected negatively the developmental process of the city. For Atay (1969: 356), who was a member of the Committee of development (İmar Komisyonu), if the Western experts were not driven away in hurry and as it happened in Istanbul last time, speculators and land traders did not pick on the plan, Ankara would be several times more progressed city in comparison to its actual situation. At the same time, Jansen was discontent with the situation arrived in the construction process and he told Atay that “you can now erase my sign from the plan” (Yavuz, 1952: 59). After the competition of Ankara planning, Jansen came to Ankara and he met with Atatürk. Jansen was speaking with the translator. As cited by Atay, he asked:

-Do you have a strong will to put into effect a city plan? Atatürk has got angry. -We have saved a huge country from the entire gigantic States. We have ruining a middle age sultanate instead of it set up modern state. We are

executing so many revolutions. If a regime could do all these, how is it possible to ask such a question about completing a city plan? The obstinate Prussian answered hard: -Maybe, said, you are right, we have so much difficulties even in Germany, I have asked for this reason. The time would prove Jansen to be in the right in his anxiety for the application of the plan. Nevzat Tandoğan, member of the committee, “has revolted at the first day because of, as a mayor, being not able to do all what a foreigner experts says. Since he could not oppose openly, he has preferred always just provoking” (Atay, 1969: 424). At the first Republican period, the most visible morphological feature of urbanization was characterized by the existence of some definite elements. In the great cities, the main constituent elements of the town center were a city square, called Cumhuriyet Meydanı, on the main street of the city, called generally Gazi Boulevard, and an Ataturk Statue in the square. In the small towns, the application of the model was more modest. In a corner of the garden of the Municipality building, which was environed by geometrically shaped flower beds, a Atatürk a portrait sculpture was placed. The other elements completing the scene were a governor’s office, a building of the People’s Houses, and a Gazi Primary School (Batur, 1983: 1384). The uniformed applications of the period to give a modern character to the urban areas resulted in the annihilation of the historical environments of the cities. This ideological approach did not change more thing than adding an axis to the city center with a modern appearance (Batur, 1983: 1385). In the new notion of town, squares have a special importance in the formation of the city as having in the western cities. From ancient Greece and Rome to today, in the West, the square has been one of the most important public areas. Its most important aspect is to give chance to each people for free access. Therefore, more perfectly developed squares are microcosms of urban life. They are the places giving excitement to the people in terms of the activities performed there. They are multifunctional places for reposing, marketing, performing public ceremonies and festivals, meeting with friends and watching the world go by (Webb, 1990: 9). What

has been contributed to the shape and formation of the square is the needs of urban people, ruler’s whim and desires, topography, and artistic and architectural fashions. Physically, the square, as its name imply, submits to a geometric visual principles. In the Greek classical period, we can not find a regularly planned square (agora), it was irregular and loosely defined by the buildings. With the emergence of the planned settlements in Asia Minor, “the agora was regularized and tightly enclosed on at least three sides by arcades” For Munford, with a perfectly rectangular space and the grid plan Greek planner Hippodamus have “thought of his art as a means of formally embodying and clarifying a more rational order” (cited by Webb, 1990; 29). In the third century BC, regularity and enclosure had become a norm in the shaping of the square. For Webb, with rising wealth and weakening democracy, the rulers compensate loss of liberty of their subjects by building more magnificent squares. This “triumph of form over function” was repeated “in Imperial Rome, the princely states of Renaissance Europe, and by the totalitarian regimes of this century.” Square is an unfamiliar concept for the Ottoman cities. In the organization of the Ottoman city, the mosque substitutes for the square that the roads are opened to and for the center of one or more districts in the western cities (Kuruyazıcı, 1998: 89). In the period of the Republic, squares have a special function for the new regime. In the cities of Turkey, they generally represent the sovereignty of the Republic with a monument and their names such as cumhuriyet (Republic), hürriyet (Liberty), millet (nation), etc. For example, in Istanbul, the most important symbol of the Republic is the Taksim Square. According to Kuruyazıcı (1998: 97), it represents laicism, modernity, republic, and democracy. In the last period, Taksim Square also became the symbol of secular solidarity contrary to Islamic activism. The name of the square were often heard when some people suggest to build a mosque to a side of the square. The severe rejection to build a mosque means more things beyond the pure aesthetic anxiety. To build a mosque in Taksim Square means to violate and degenerate the secular sanctity of the square and to dislocate the republican values that are represented in it. With the monument of Atatürk, the Taksim Square had an important symbolic meaning within its place in the city. It is settled at the finish point of the Cadde-i Kebir (now İstiklal Street) in

Pera which was the most cosmopolitan area of the Ottoman Istanbul. It was the place of Sodom and Gomorra (described in Yakup Kadri’s well-known novel), which was the place of traitors the collaborationist people of the occupation powers, the place of immorality and anti-nationalism, in the period of the National Struggle. Now, the new name of the street and the monument which holds the exit of the street in an imperious standing signs the end of a period which was full with intrigue and treachery. The squares in the new district of Ankara were settled according to the Lorcher’s planning. In the old district, in the opposite side of Taşhan, the empty area, called Taşhan Meydanı, has been arranged as a city square with a statues of Atatürk, called the Hakimiyet-i Milliye Square (later the Ulus (Nation) Square). Although Lorcher designed some other squares in the old district, they could not be constructed because of the density and crowdedness of the district and the difficulty of transforming urban structure. The squares designed by Lorcher for new district are sıhhıye Square, Zafer Square, Cumhuriyet (now Kızılay) Square, Lozan Square, and Cebeci Square. (Cengizkan, 2002: 231). Although all those squares were designed as a product of the western conception of urbanization, they seem more akin to the traditional conception of meydan rather than the western one. The lack of a geometrical order in their structure, because of the density of construction, keeps them apart from western style of the square. It shows that in spite of all attempts of the Republican elite to establish a modern city far from the traditional formation of city, it can not entirely become immune to be exposed to the influences of the traditional conception of urbanism. The social, cultural and spatial formation of Ankara has been shaped by the tension between modernity and traditionalism. In the city plan of Jansen, the region of Kızılay was designed as a district of residence. In the residential district Yenişehir, the residences comprised two or three floor houses with garden, or four or five floor apartments. In Jansen’s Plan it was taken care for Yenişehir to be a green city. According to the Plan, all of the main avenues and streets would be afforested. Besides the private houses and apartments would also have gardens and these gardens would have been afforested compulsorily

by their owners. In addition, public gardens and parks were built as well (Öymen, 2004: 77). Modern housing with its modern furniture, comfort and equipments came to be a symbol of status and modernity. A modern house meant the transformation of lifestyle together with the residence. By the modern notion of dwelling, a transformation occurred in the structure and functions in the houses. In the traditional houses, save a room which assigned to the guests, the rooms had a hom*ogeneous character by their multi-functional usage without a hierarchical rank. In modern housing, the rooms are separated from others with their definite functions. In Ankara, many people removed to the flats in the modern apartments in the new district of the city from the traditional houses in the old district. Altan Öymen compares the wooden house in which he lived his childhood and the modern flat which they moved to later: while the wooden house was detached, had a high ceiling, and its floor was wooden and it was possible to walk on barefoot, the flat was small with its “three rooms and a hall”, had a low ceiling, and its floor was made of stone. The carpets in the house wasn’t enough to cover the floor and the stove which was burned in the hall in cold weather wasn’t enough to warm the flat completely. In 1938, Öymen, who was pleased with this movement that signified a rise in the status, says that he would have chosen the reverse if it were for today (Öymen, 2004: 65). After 1950, Kızılay district become new center in the new district of Ankara with many new shopping stores. In a short time, it has lost its character to be a residential district contrary to the city plan. It is a sign of the defeat of the “grand” planner in the urban space. By the first plan designed by Lorcher, an intensive construction activity has started in Ankara. In 1925, The bazaar of Karaoğlan has been broadened and been turned into Anafartalar avenue, from Ulus a street has opened to Yenişehir, Istasyon and Samanpazarı streets were widened. Captive soldiers of Greek were employed in building the road between Ulus and Çankaya (Bağlum 1992; 127, Aksan, 2001: 18). Also in that year, there were activities concerning draying the marshes and the preventing the malaria. In the year of 1927 on the avenue of Kazim Özalp the constructions were begun (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 29). In order to complete his education, Ihsan Sabri Çağlayangil came to Ankara in 1925. When his train has

arrived to the Ankara railway station, he was very disappointed with the landscape of Ankara. As he told, at that time he was even unable to find taxi and the only luxury transporters of the city were phaetons. After he has graduated from high school Çağlayangil returned back to Istanbul. In 1931 he again went to Ankara. In this time he was very surprised because of the development in the general landscape of the city: “I did not see the city for four years. I was even unable to identify the city. I was surprised to how all such developments happened in such a short duration of time. The city population has increased to seventy or eighty thousand. The city was so much changed (Çağlayangil ?: 105-108). So Ankara was changed to the degree, as stated by Noélle Roger “they have did all the things...but with such a small amount of capital...they stand on their own (two) feet and created themselves…that is (Turkish miracle) (cited by Özdenoğlu ?: 185). This new Ankara is not old Ankara of the National Struggle. New Ankara has been imagined and planned not as a socio-spatial extension of old Ankara but as an entirely new and different city (Keleş, 1971: 2). Ankara as the actual capital of the National Struggle has had a positive effect on the rest of the country. The new regime relying on this respect of Ankara declared it as the new capital city of the country. Ankara, the spatial symbol and headquarters of the Dependency War, now, will be the capital of the salvage from the ignorance, the Oriental mentality, incivility, and degeneration. However, since it is a part of the old degenerated traditional world, the new capital city will not be Ankara of the National Struggle. Time will form a deep abyss between two towns of Ankara in terms of their lifestyle, their architectural styles and spatial organization, and their mores and values. There are two Ankaras: one is of the state elites with its institutions of official culture, and other is of the ordinary people. It was partly a result of the town planning made by Jansen for Ankara. Herman Jansen had planned the castle of old city as a center and as a crown for city and, in the course of time, the old city should be excluded from being an area of settlement and transformed into a museum, therefore, it should not have been much changed (Keleş, 1971: 164). In his conception of town planning, “the new sections of the town should be clearly separated from the old. Theoretically, the old town should be

covered by a bell jar”. For Gülsüm B. Nalbantoğlu (1997a: 195), this “metaphor of the bell jar summarizes the monumental narrative of modern Ankara that silenced “other” narratives in its own interest”. These two Ankara were divorced and each was isolated from one another. If said with right words, when one rises up to the heyday of its life, the old town will have exposed gradually to be a ghetto. In the spatial practices of the Republican elite in Ankara, we observe a radical break with the old notions of the national identity. When we compare those practices with the idea of nationality argued by a significant figure of Turkish poetry, it may be observed clearly. In his conception of nation, Yahya Kemal saw Islam or Muslümanlık, as pronounced by him in its Turkish form, an inevitable constituent of the Turkish nation. For Yahya Kemal, the azans, minarets, the days of Ramadan and Kandil, the worship in religious Bairam are the warning signs for the children to define their conscious of the nationality (1985 [1922]: 121-124). Growing up in a district without the azan, for Yahya Kemal, is a reason to lose later the nationality. On the contrary to Yahya Kemal’s notion of the Turkish nation, in the imagination of the Republican elite, religion does not a constitutive element in the definition of the Turkish nation. It seems in the Republican urban practice as the absence of mosque in new Ankara until 1950’s. The absence of the mosque in the spatial design of new Ankara is an important fact that presents some significant clues for the Republican conception of secularism. Like other traditional elements, the mosque, the most important formal religious place of Islam and traditional city, is left into the area of the old city. However, the relationship between the old and new cities occurs in the zone of the Hacı Bayram Mosque after a death of person from the new city. Mosque is not related to the life of modern man but to his/her death. By the death, he makes, in a sense, a symbolic return to the traditional from which the life had sent him away, in such a way that everybody now tolerates him. The refutation will end by the death. Then return to the lands of ancestors occurs. The funerals are seen off to their last travel from the Hacı Bayram Mosque outside of the new city. “Sinister” traditionalism captures the modern man in his death, and in a sense, it becomes identical with death. By the death, he returns the lap of the repressed. The modernity do not has a relation with

the death. The death cannot be rationalized, secularized and then modernized. In the Hacı Bayram Mosque, the residents of the new modern city did generally accompany the funeral ceremony as spectator; the religious process of funeral functioned by the participation of the people of the old city and gecekondu areas (Keleş, 1971: 107). When the dead is seen off to the lap of the tradition, the rest of the modern people of the Republic watch the ceremony as a theatrical event. In the past, almost all funerals in Ankara were taken from the Hacı Bayram Mosque. The most crowded time of the Hacı Bayram was the time that a funeral of a high ranked bureaucrat or an officer of military ranks was lifted. In these times, military band was ready, after funeral prayer in the front of the coffin that was put on artillery cart or taken on shoulders congregation was to walk slowly towards Karaoğlan shopping center keeping up with Chopin’s funeral march (Bilgili, 1996: 278). Is it Chopin’s funeral march that gives a modern meaning to the death? Another issue that does not seem in the design of Ankara is the dead end street. Although it is used in the modern town planning and advised by Jansen for the construction of Ankara, it is impossible to apply it Ankara because the 2290numbered law prohibits its practice in the cities (Yavuz, 1952: 57). The reason of its prohibition is its powerful association to the traditional urbanism. Dead end street has a special position and function in the spatial organization of community in the Classical Islamic and Ottoman cities. It does not give permission the men who can arbitrarily cross from one side to other side or from one district to another among the quarters. Thus it consolidated a communal identity and social control based on a closed and introvert quarter. However, in modern urbanism, dead end streets are used for special aims. In the western countries, the dead end streets generally in the form of horseshoe are used to provide calm and quiet spaces of residences and saved game areas for child (Yavuz, 1952: 58). The juridical prohibition of dead end street denotes a logical transformation on the structural characteristics of city in the modernization period from the Ottoman to the Republic. The opposing and the prohibition to the dead end street, one of the most important sign of the traditional life in the city, shows a significant change in the understanding of city and space in the process of modernization from the

Ottoman to the Republic. A desire for transition from the multi-cultured and pluralistic urban structure standing on the traditional Ottoman quarters (mahalle) having atomized and segmented charecter, to the monolithic and integrated urban structure with a single culture is observed. It means also opening of the roads belonging the neighboring community living in same quarter to the big crowds, to the urban public usage. The expense of this change in the long term is the disappearance of the communal and other specific characters of the quarters, which constituted their distinctions from others. We can say that the secularist views of the Republic overlaps with this fact. As stated by Mardin (1993: 370), the dissolution of the mahalle ethos and its intellectual climate is an important aspect of the Turkish secularization. We observe the birth of the modern individual by the collapse of local communities of the quarters. When the Republican administrations solve the traditional tissue of the mahalle, it has liberated the individual from the restrictions of the auto-control mechanism of the traditional local communities. There was no other way to introduce into society new set of relations of sociability and intimacy and cultural patterns depending on modern Western norms and values. The dissolution of the local communities was an important step in the secularization of the individual and everyday activities. Thus, the influence of religion on the everyday life activities and behaviors of individuals is weakened. It expresses that new kind of bond which connects the people and gives them a social identity is not religion but the nation. It could be said that the nation which is liberated from religion is the basic reference of the secularism. Basically, the transition is here from the secularism tolerated by religion to the religion to be tolerated by secularism. Actually, we could say that the Ottoman social organization has a specific formal secularism, though it is not at the individualistic level but at the level of the high communities called Millet. Although the old settlement districts of the city remained untouchable, some public places of the old city have gained new meanings and important functions in the structure of the new city. One of them was Namazgah Hill in the south frontier of the old city. Namazgah Hill was one of the most important public locations of traditional Ankara in terms of the religious and social functions it carried out. According to the information given by Alptekin Müderrisoğlu:

As Turkish quarters of Ankara were filled with mosques and praying rooms, Muslim congregation were scattered to them. Everybody prays, makes praying, have the Mevlut recited in the nearest mosque or praying room. Although there were big mosques for the congregation to come and pray together as were in other Anatolian cities, the biggest mosque of Ankara, Haci Bayram Mosque has only a capacity of taking couple of mosquecongregation inside. That is why people of Ankara arranged Namazgah as a place to pray together and make praying all together… In its center funeral stones, there was an exalted pulpit, which the imam can ascend on and give sermon. Crowded congregation funeral prayers are held here. In the days without raining since Friday Prayers are prayed here altogether, imams give speeches and sermons. Since Friday Prayers bring scattered congregations of different mosques together, Namazgah is the place for the meeting of friends and conversation. Another feature of Namazgah is that it is the Square of brave man (er meydanı). According to Ankara tradition two young people who do not get on well with each other, settle their accounts here, withdraw their knives, and fight (cited by Erdoğan, 2004: 359). The end of Namazgah Hill that was an important public space of traditional Ankara and undertook an important mission in the National Struggle constitutes a part of new regime’s spatial strategy in Ankara. Namazgah is a land assigned as a foundation (vakıf) land. The foundation properties that had immunity in the Ottoman Empire for a long time lost an important part of their civil status and immunity by its transfer to a ministry founded during Mahmud the second’s reforms. By the Republican period, the selling of foundation lands to other institutions and their transfer without payment started. Namazgah Hill and its surrounding foundation property transferred from the General Administration of Foundations to the Ministry of National Education with November 15th 1925 dated council of ministers decree. Ankara Ethnographic Museum’s building construction completed at the Hill in 1930. Next to it, the Turkish Association (Turk Ocağı) building constructed. Afterwards, the buildings of Ankara High School, the Institution of Turkish History, the Turkish Air Institution, Ankara Radio House and Zübeyde Hanım Institute for Girls were built on the foundation land. Meanwhile, the cemetery of martyrs where died soldiers in the Independence War were buried in was transferred to a location not known today (Erdoğan, 2004: 367). The area undertaking a function of public space

belonging to the people of the city stripped out of its traditional and religious functions along with the School of Language, History and Geography which was built on a Christian cemetery, called “maşatlık”, and they became the complex of the spatial appearance of new regime’s cultural and educational policies. In one context, it was turned into a space where new life’s spiritual atmosphere is inspired. This can be seen in the speech delivered in the opening ceremony of the Association by the General Director of the Turkish Association, Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver (2000: 128), who called youth to meet around the location of its sacred mihrab. Another historical square (meydan) which was subjected to a transformation was the Hergele Meydanı. It was a very green plain area surrounded by the trees of poplar and comprised an large area spreading in the land between the buildings of the Sanat Okulu (Technical School) in Ulus, Ankara Gazi High School, the Numune Hospital and the Ministry of Culture. The national sport, the game of jeered, was played in this area in the traditional Ankara. In the previous times, the people who went to army to make their military service were seen off. The name of Hergele means herd of cow or horse. The herd was gathered in this area and conveyed from here to pasture in the ridge of Maltepe. When fire department settled in this area, the name of the square became İtfaiye Meydanı and later when the Opera House established, the name has become the Opera Square (Opera Meydanı) (Erdoğdu, 2002: 73). Another place which was swallowed by the new city was the historical settlement area called Hacettepe. The district, which comprised seven quarters with four great mosques, masjid, medrese, historical mansions, and tombs, was nationalized and, then, was wrecked in order to build a hospital. Thus, according to Erdoğdu (2002: 91), one fourth of the historical settlement of Ankara vanished. Some researchers claim that the main reason which became influential in the end of the Hacettepe settlement was a quarrel between the residents of the settlement and the students of the Military School (Harbiye), which occurred as a result of making an improper innuendo to a girl by the students (Cantek, 1996). Some historical buildings of the old Ankara were also destroyed for making modern buildings. One of them was the complex consisting of buildings such as the mosque, school, and tomb established for the name of a historic person of Ankara, Kızılbey. All those

historical buildings were damaged and the building of Ziraat Bankası has been establised in the place of them (Erdoğdu, 2002: 111). The historical memory of the city was reduced by the way of capturing its historical places and buildings. In the determination of the urban identity of Ankara, the names of streets, squares, and settlements have a defining role. In addition of the nationalist persons and elements, we observe the engraving of the important events from the personal history of Atatürk on the body of the city, such names as Anafartalar, Misak-ı Milli, İnkılâp, İstiklâl settlements in old Ankara, Kurtuluş, Sakarya Street, İzmir Street, Selanik Street, etc. in new Ankara. In a sense, Ankara becomes a spatial extension of the body of its founding board. The names constitute an important part of the Republican strategy of space. Especially, the names expressing traditional memories such as Hacı, Hoca, Bey, etc. are chanced with new names having more modern, national, and secular connotations. According to a story told about the change of Hacı Bayram Square’s name, one of statesmen recommends that: Let’s change name of this Square, take Hacı’s (pilgrim) conical hat (külah) out of heads of our streets. Let the name of here be Ogüst (Augustus) Square” (Erdoğan, 2004: 276). According to the witness of Prof. Hikmet Tanyu, “The name of Hacı Bayram was abrogated and the name of the street started to be Bayram Street, street signs happened to be changed. This square was named August Square and signs were hung on the streets. Due to complaints they were taken off and the name of the street remained as Bayram Street” (Erdoğan, 2004: 277). When the Democratic Party came into power some of the street names were changed. İsmet Paşa Street became Mithat Paşa Street, and Kazım Özalp Street became Ziya Gökalp Street (Öymen, 2004: 128). A debate on the names of the streets and parks has remained a heritacy from the establishment of the republic to the present. The change of non-Turkish historical names of some villages after 1980 coup d’état is a reflection of a nationalist sentiment relying on those old practices. The names have been an important spatial factor in constituting a memory about the historic persons and past events for the different ideological approaches. According to Atay, two features of Kemalism’s cause of urbanization were plenty of trees and modern heating (Atay, 1969: 359). In the description of Ankara

before the Republican period, we observe an emphasis on its character to be a steppe without tree and green areas. In reality, there are some recording which claims that Ankara was not a land entirely deprived of the green areas. It was reported in the statements of Kazım Mıhçıoğlu, High Forest Engineer, that Ankara was a greener place. He says that there was a forest of chestnut by the brink of Hacı Kadın Stream and that his grandfather used to carry chestnuts from there in order to sell them in the city in the past. He states that there was a forest of black pine in the mountainous zone in the ridges of Dikmen in 20’s and 30’s and he used to go there for hunting. There was nothing left from that forest in 40’s when he was back from Germany where he went to get an education. The name of the valley coming to Kepekli Boğazı on the Konya Road was Black Brook because it didn’t take the sunlight due to oaks and wazelnut trees that covered the entire valley. Besides the region from Beynam to Öveçler was a groove at the time of his father. It was used as a fuel in periods of cold winter (Bağlum, 1992: 79). The location of hippodrome used to be a forest area in the past. When trains started to come to Ankara, trees were burned up and used as fuel. In the course of the Independence War, Mustafa Kemal signing the saplings and the flowers beds says to Ali Fuad (Cebesoy) Pasha coming from Moscow ‘ Fuad Pasha, these are the victories on the soil of Ankara’. Up to the year of 1933 hundred thousands of liras has spent and the big streets were afforested (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 38). “A new work has been created signing the modern Ankara and signing, as far as Ghazi’s victory to the soil, also the new state’s inclination towards the modern agriculture, between the years of 1923-1933, It has been founded on a marsh and reedy valley, on the middle of it there is a railway and it is far from Ankara 4 kilometers. “Ghazi has decided to set up the farm here in order to show overcoming the soil and to prove one can create flourished lands on the steppes” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 75). The trees that had been planted didn’t survive despite all their effort. An engineer of agriculture said: “My Pahsa, let’s plant trees of acacia that have grown to a tree, because you want to afforest here, these types of trees are favorable for this place.” So grown trees of acacia were had brought and planted in the farm of forest.

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In a short time, the trees grew (Bağlum 1992; 135–136). The name of the farm was previously Ghazi farm. After Italian acacias subsequently planted grew, it was called Ghazi Forrest Farm. When Mustafa Kemal’s name changed from Ghazi to Ataturk, the name of the farm changes into Ataturk Forrest Farm (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 268). To look like Marmara Sea in the farm, Marmara pool was built. When some people from Ankara who do not know swimming attempted to swim they would be drowned (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 269). Atay who was not pleased with the consequences of the construction of Ankara, points outs its reason as the “oriental mind and character” (Atay 1969: 422). This mind and character even was to melt Ataturk’s energy and extinguish his most beautiful dreams. Atay worries about the changes in Ankara: “The condition of the city which I have not seen for two years has given to me despair. The plan has been collapsed from its basis. The new city quarters and the squatter’s houses districts were in chaos. On the lands building more than two storied is forbidden are raising eight stored ugly and unpleased castles. The gardens have been wiped and been plugged with large and small back street shops” (Atay, 1969: 526). In a short time, the principle of planning left aside and the development of the city went out of control. The speculators were the main obstacle in Ankara for a planned nationalizing the lands. “Since we got involved in speculations, everybody was seized with the ambition of buying land and to sell it subsequently. We were not in the mood of thinking that the most obvious enemy of city planning is land speculations” (Atay, 1969: 421). Most of the lands were been captured before the municipality. The state departments have been unified according to Jansen plan. The speculators having the lands were opposing harshly this. They were aimed at the high benefits by sending the lands they had got low price to the state at high prices. According to Falih Rıfkı Atay, the first source of engaging in influence peddling in Ankara was the land speculating. It was an example for such practices to buy a cheap land in Cebeci and to send costly it to the education of ministry for building a conservatory. There has happened such kind of discussions and gossips about the quarter of state and 3000 residence of state officials in the Jansen plan, even some parliament members said that all these could be damaged in an air attack, Ataturk

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himself opposed this saying “I will guard all, instead of partly guarding them” (Atay, 1969: 424). Although, it has had a more cost than what has expected and the place of the parliament building couldn’t be changed, because opposing of some members of parliament, and the nationalization of these lands has cost 2 and half billion liras instead of 20 thousand liras (Atay, 1969: 425). Jansen has decided the place of railway station seeing the future development of city across to the Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Faculty, hence changing plan itself. He claimed that a Railway passing in the center of the city caused a big problem in building main roads in the future (Bağlum 1992; 156) but Jansen’s proposal was not taken into account. The Minister of the Public Works objected to this change saying that “I do not want such an expert who alters his thoughts” (Atay, 1969: 425). The new city was divided into two when the road was completed. There were important reactions to the application of Jansen Plan. For example, Nevzat Tandoğan was saying, “I have built road in the mountains of Malatya. Will Jansen teach me building Street within the city?” Contrary to discipline of the plan, Tandoğan expended very much money to the boulevard Atatürk always passed (Atay, 1969: 424). According to Jansen plan in Ankara there would be a field including cheap lands for homeless poor people, but this project abandoned by municipality among many. The lands will be delivered to the poor people but the houses will be built without the control of the engineer. Besides houses, the schools, the market and the health houses will be constructed. The municipality will never perform this project. Instead, people’s practical solution squatter’s houses quarters will have occurred. Though the Committee of Development, İmar Komisyonu, has decided to destroy the squatter’s houses, the municipality never will take into consideration this decision of the committee (Atay, 1969: 424). This unplanned construction of houses was also an issue seemed in the journals of the period. In an article, named Ankara'nın Büyüyüşü (The Development of Ankara), published in a journal, Hakimiyet-i Milliye, it was talked about the new established quarters in Ankara. “In the surroundings of the city, about a thousand and five hundreds houses were build by the workers and petite commodity producers that were outside of the plan and occupied the hills besides

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Bentderesi named Altındağ and Yenidoğan quarters” (cited by Bilgen, 1985: 21). Atay (1969: 427) argues that “there is now an illegal city in Ankara, all the entire city, a city surrounding the mountains of the castle. No thief could escape from our police, but a house, a quarter, and a city can do this. Who is able to understand that matter?” Mustafa Kemal, when he finds opportunity, was closely concerned with events in Ankara. He was walking around in Ankara like a mayor involved in everything. Say, for instance, when somebody is constructing a building, He would come and inspect the building. Even, he was giving commands like “open the window from here, make the door right here” (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 267). Though Ataturk himself has opposed the ones who intents constructing a built outside of the city plan, even they are the familiar of him. Contrary to Atatürk’s meticulousness on the application of the plan, some members of parliaments for their some advantages and the municipality itself never executes the plan in its all details. According to Falih Rıfkı Atay, all these contractions outside of the plan have shattered “the dream of the most advanced city of the entire earth”. “It is certain that Mustafa Kemal has succeeded to set up a management for the revolutions of hat and Latin letters, but he is unsuccessful to set up a powerful management in executing a city plan” (1969: 428). He also claims that:

Ankara, according to Jansen plan, because of constructing on an empty land, would be the most modern city of the world. Not only to the East but also to the West it would have honor of being a model both in traffic and in the order of settling matters. After for a while, some benefits conjoining has affected the problem of the Committee of Development by turning it into a useless matter. They have left the foreigner expert no choice but to abandon by means of reducing his payment. They have themselves controlled the directors. We have struggled much more; nevertheless we have failed in slipping the plan from its basics. But the wide-ranging factors were in issue (Atay, 1969: 525-526). It is interesting that Falih Rıfkı thinks that the Jansen plan is promising the most advanced city of the world, which shows that the idea of the city is considered entirely beyond the local-cultural and social facts and figures. In this reflection, a city

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plan is considered afar the people’s customs and life practices in that city and as a technical issue. In a sense, when such a plan is intended the definite people who are living in that country is not taken into account as concrete men, but they are thought of as if western ones. If we do not think the failure in the estimate of the future population of the city, the main reason of being unsuccessful of the plan is that in the plan the wills of the people who will live in the city never taken into account, and these people have always tried to put theirs social, cultural and economic interests, needs and aims into practice outside of the plan in any way. Of course, we observe here also the marks of a long-termed Ottoman city conception. The planning in the Ottoman city conception could be viewed as a fact which is not a total and the public issue, but as an individual issue only concerns the man owing land as an economical and architectural, on the condition that he never violates the rights of the neighbors, and he is restricted by just the relationship between the traditional norms of construction and the options he has. There was some lack in the phase of the planning rooted in the attitudes of the rulers. There was a net of drainage in old Ankara that reached İncesu Stream. That drainage of centuries saved the people from disquiet the smell of drain could give. However cesspool hollows in modern Ankara achieves the function of the drainage. Building of a net of drainage had been neglected in modern Ankara having built in accord with the modern city-planning. As a result, when heavy rain falls, water of drain overflowed the streets from cesspool hollows. Sıhhiye was the city where cesspool overflow often occurred in summer and the smell of the drain made it impossible to live in the district (Bağlum 1992: 77, 153-155). Drainage had been neglected in the contract of the Municipality of Ankara. When Jansen pointed out the subject, he was said to: “Do build the top of the ground, don’t meddle with the underground.” The problem of drainage of Ankara was solved in the period of Democrat Party contrary to the complaint of the people for the problems of construction. It was a harmful occurrence, as stated by Nurseven Yurtman (1994: 405), to which Ankara was exposed. The construction of drainage resulted in excavation of the “beautiful” roads and gardens. The approach of the rulers to the subject of drainage gives some clues for the primary issues of the modernizing elite

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in construction of a new city. For them, the visible aspects of a city were more urgent because it was a problem of prestige in front of foreigners to develop the visible aspects of the city rather than its background outbuildings which were invisible. After the establishment of Turkish Republic, in relation to urbanization, the Building and Roads Law was issued by preserving some items of the Building Law. According to this new Law, each city and town council was obliged to make map and a building plan. Although economically convenient municipalities started to work in this direction, these works were restricted with the issuing of maps that were the bases of ordering building plans and they did not make the arrangement plans of the government. Afterwards, government has not only issued a law numbered 2763 but also constituted a municipal building committee that was dependent to Ministry of Internal Affairs. On the one hand, central power has taken steps in order to carry out such activities of the cities as building plans, water and canalization, and mapping by one hand; on the other hand, it has established the Bank of Municipalities to provide long term bank credits with low interest levels to municipalities because all these activities have loaded heavy burdens over them. Yet, all these protections were remote from the planned objectives; thus, in 1945 İller (Provinces) Bank was established by unifying Banks of Municipalities with the Building Committee of Municipalities (Yenen ?: 8). According to Bilgin (1997: 79) the importance of Ankara experience was that the construction of Ankara symbolizes a critical threshold of planning practice in Turkey.

The city plans made during the Ottoman period were directed to the

reconstruction of emptied spaces generally came out because of fires or they were limited practices in order to improve a more ordered rational view in modernizing cities by saving them from disorder. In this process, “the function of public works was to save the process of public work from personal tones, namely, “impersonalization”, to settle it in an anonymous and “objective” way.” As Bilgin mentions, the cost of regularization was alienation from its identity in the name of a familiar and safe place. The researchers have generally assessed the Jansen plan for Ankara taking into account the present situation of Ankara and criticized its success and failure from this

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perspective. In reality, this evaluation means an injustice for Jansen, because he made what the rulers wanted him make. They wanted to him make a city plan for 300 thousand population. In evaluation of the plan, we should take into consideration previously the aims of the rulers in designing a new city. They wanted to construct a moderate and ordered but secure city with low density of population such as to be a model for the modernization of the country. It would be a “showcase” city which would exhibit “pure modernity” and would be a safe shelter for the rulers who were the first moderns of the Republic. They did not estimate and want that this city would be a city attracting people from the other areas of the country because of the degree of the development and its social and economic possibilities for people. The attractiveness of the new city has resulted in its plundering and been its end.

3.7. Social and Cultural Life in Ankara

3.7.1. The Formation of the Social Life in Ankara At the beginning of the establishment of Ankara as a modern capital city, one of the big problems was to find suitable buildings where the institution of a modern state would be settled. The Ministry of National Defense into the building of Ankara High School for Man, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into the upper floor of the Office of General Loans building, and the Ministry of Education into the School of Education for Women have been settled. There is also here a dormitory and a cafeteria for the parliaments. Other ministries are all located in the building of the Ankara Governorship. One ministry is only provided with three rooms. “Ministers who live far are given a horse. When he comes to work, he ties up his horse in the front of the Governor’s building and he comes in like a cowboy entering a Saloon. They made a favor to Fevzi Pasha and gave him a horse for one man.” There was also lack of garment to dress by the members of the high bureaucracy. “There is only one dark colored, civilian ceremony dress called “jacket-atay” in Ankara which Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver had taken with him while he was escaping. When an important

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foreign visitor came, the ministers used to welcome the guest by wearing this dress in turns, thus keeping the dignity of their position” (Arcayürek, 2005: 8). In the beginning, in Ankara, there was a traditional religious separation of gender between men and women. In the city center and public areas, women were invisible. “Not only were the meetings, the houses, hotels and the streets womanless. I have thought that during the early migration time of the U.S.A, whether have such a condition. Once upon a day, a member of the assembly was seen with his wife dressed in Istanbul style in Karaoğlan Bazaar, has caused to some gossips in the assembly” (Atay, 1969: 353). Beside some deficiencies, also women were lack in the streets of Ankara. For Atay (1969: 354), Ankara was a place without water, without tree. Dry and wild. Ankara was a city womanless for ones who immigrated. “First time, the brigand women and the courageous and civilized wives of the military officers train and refine the tradesmen of Ankara by starting to appear in the market square.” (Arcayürek, 2005: 9). In spite of all of the entire building effort, “capital’s being an amusing and a cultured city would take a long time and even in 1933 couldn’t please ones who were accustomed Istanbul’s amusem*nts and promenades” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız:78). “Ankara was empty and ruined, the life was overflowed. This was the condition of the revolutionist. Ecstatic, eagerness and always alerted….” And he states that the life in Ankara was not escaped from being a rough draft. It was necessary to produce the city” (Atay, 1969: 415). The quarters of Kurtuluş, Fidanlık and Yenişehir are field and earth-brown. The most widespread vehicles are the donkeys, only rich ones could travel with phaeton (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 25). The residence places were extended to such districts as Anafartalar, Kaleiçi, Samanpazarı, Ulucanlar and Jewish quarter. The extension of city in Cebeci direction ended at the ‘coffeehouse with ladder’ in Hamamönü. It is difficult to find a house to live in. Many families were living one within the other. In comparison to other cities the house salaries were so high. Electric were cut-off at 22 pm and then we light either a candle or kerosene lamp. Although the city was like a building site, Ankara’s landscape was more close to a small town. It did not become either a capital or a city. However, as Celal Bayar told, this was a far more developed period of the city. The previous Ankara was so

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primitive and replete with the memoirs of the War of Independence (Çağlayangil: 107). In the traditional quarters of Ankara “they didn’t talk to little girls even if they were very young.” In the 1930’s the old streets of Ankara were still full of peddlers: sellers of water, yoghurt, eggs, watermelons, sugar, brooms, dishes, etc. There was a also “service sector” which was consisted of experts of professions such as cotton fluffer, tinner, knife grinder (Öymen, 2004: 16). The word “asri-modern” has become a fashion: Asri Bakkaliye –Modern Grocery, Asri Kasap-Modern Butcher’s Shop, Asri Pastane-Modern Pastry-Shop. A newly-built Turkish hamam-bath in Ankara was called “asri hamam”, the newly-built toilets were called “asri helâ” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 113). “Ankara was observed for a long time as a crooked city. Neither the Turks have brought their families, nor the foreigner in reality settled here other than the Russians” (Atay, 1969: 412). According to Atay, for the natives of Ankara, the people were all ‘wilds’ (yaban) joined them afterwards. “That our ‘wildness’ era has continued till Ankara been turned into a little bit civilized city” (Atay, 1969: 523, 524). The natives calls the new people of Ankara as yaban and do not take part among them. There were some difficulties which prevented a clear communication with the natives of Ankara. Atay have wanted from one of them to buy a land to build a house. “He has taken me to his land over the Çankaya Yokuşu, he has told about the length and breadth, borders and the trees inside the land, yet I have understood nothing of them. We were also foreigner them in regarding to dialect and accent” (Atay, 1969: 352). For the yabans of Ankara, the main entertainment was the game of bridge. “The only consolation was to go to Istanbul sometimes!...When we see the green land of Kocaeli and the gulf’s blue waters, as if we were reborn again from the death” (Atay, 1969: 354). “We have fully gone backward by migrating from Ankara to Istanbul which feel the authority of its all the people working in it, with its tradition and more or less quick-witted people and its décor” (Atay, 1969: 386). The mood of Ankara was very boring for the people coming from Istanbul. “Most of them “living as if a prisoner here, were wasting time by drinking alcoholic beverages” (Atay, 1969: 505). “We were so being exhausted in our speech that we

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were unable to about what to do if a new Istanbul traveler didn’t add a fresh air” (Atay, 1969: 354). In that period, the word of Yahya Kemal, the famous poet, “in Ankara, what I like most is the return to Istanbul” expressed more than a personal feeling. It seems that if the will of Atatürk to develop Ankara as a capital city were so much exact, it would be impossible to establish the city. Atay says that he and his friends coming from Istanbul were always bored. Ataturk, either. However, to settle the idea of new capital and have the eyes away from Istanbul he was living a life of exile in the steppe. “We were consoled little bit by going to his house. He was living in a medium size summer resort, which has a pool in its courtyard. The only attraction was Ataturk’s circle, conversations, his vitality and will to create. Mountains, hills, roads, carts withdrawn to stables and people who go behind fretworks with sundown, all this desert vacuum looked like an eternal silence and sulking. Almost only his voice is heard, his glance is shining, and only his infinite and sacred wishful spirit heats cold, fills up emptied, and removes desolation. He was giving Ankara an atmosphere of waiting a traveler who brings all good news. It looks like that everything will come here from beyond horizons and descend from out of heavens” (Atay, 1969: 505). In the course of time, a modern vision appears in Ankara. Contrary to the people outside of Ankara, the native modernized people of Ankara were pleasant to the development of the city. “During the 1930s, Ankara was a modest but a regularly developing and an enlarging city. It was the city of Ataturk” (Karaveli, 2004: 107).

The peoples of those times Ankara, as if Ataturk in any moment distinguish and condemn them, were very careful, respectful, polite and well-kept ones, and does not spit out on the land, and not make big fuse, not push another. They did know that they were living together with him in the same city. Due to this, they had to have clear garments if they had have not much more clothes. The men always had been dressed in dark blue suit. The women were always eloquent and beautiful with their hairs and hats…” (Karaveli, 2004: 107). The people of Ankara were a nation so much sure of themselves and their future at those times. “So much had an honor. So that, were not a nation since someone says

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but a real nation as we have felt so, and we were so happy with our Turkish being. And much more, we were truthful and diligent…Our law too was to prevent the little ones and to respect the older ones…our being was a gift to Turkish being.” “We were all believed of this whether be a man or a woman or a young or an elder” (Karaveli, 2004: 108). At that time, Kemalizm was the official ideology of the state. Therefore, “Anyone could not make any discussion, critiques and even interpretation of it in a wide dimension. Both the rise of young generations, accepted a secular and revolutionary philosophy in an atmosphere nourished by Kemalist elements and Kemalist idea was satisfying individuals’ hunger of belief, were enough to make people happy” (Özdenoğlu ?: 185). “The thought that everything would be better while Atatürk was in charge” was a common belief that made people hopeful and happy. Ankara of the 1930’s, as described by Altan Öymen, “was with Atatürk, with “March”, with constructions, believing and therefore a much proud Ankara.” (Öymen, 2004: 19-20). In Ankara, in his life, everybody occupied with Mustafa Kemal; where did he go, what he wore, whom he met, what he ate? Ankara expresses the decisiveness of the national will that is especially represented in the personality of Gazi Hazretleri (Araz, 1994). A new generation who equipped with a nationalist consciousness emerged. The gossip concerning some people and parliament’s help to Armenians to fled abroad was spreading in the media” as a scandal. The youth was against this kind of misuses and enthusiastic to protect revolutions. They were stoning the building of Vagon Li Company to protest its director who was blamed to insult the Turkish language. In order to oppose the destruction of the Turkish cemetery in Razgrat by Bulgarians, they were leaving wreath to the Bulgarian cemetery. They were responding to any assault against the revolutions. 1923-1933 youth was a nationalist and excited (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 105). Another event indicates that despite the gossips about the beating in police stations and the abundance of complaints, police officers were not to address anybody even criminals with the expression of “ulan-dude”, even newspapers used to mention thieves’ and murderers’ names with a kind of respect like “Mehmet Efendi” in those days (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 106).

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The rulers were more sensitive to oppositional movements against the new Republic, which could result in anarchy in the city. Therefore, many civil polices were strolling around the corners of the city. But the people developed some strategies for the following of the civil police.

National Security Service (Milli Emniyet Hizmeti) was being called MAH as an allusion written in old letters. Most of the intelligence officers belonged to that organization. Mahi means fish in Arabic. There was a similarity between the names. The people in town used to pass by Ulus Square once in a day, see and know each other. Everyone learned the agents and the civilan officers in a short time. In the pastry shop (on the right side of the statue) the visitors, whomever they sit by, used to take out a picture of a fish made out of cardboard from their pockets and put on the table, wanting to tell that they were aware of the situation. They tried to make the agents unidentifiable as a precaution. But it can not be claimed that this effort was successful (Çağlayangil ?: 109). Even studens cannot avoid police pursuit in Ankara. Mehmed Kemal describes (1983: 258), one of the places students coming from out of Ankara live was Kırşehir Inn which called Aşiret Inn, too, which was a wooden building located in the Hergele Square. Students living here feed themselves with products like boiled wheat, dried yogurt, and lentil. Students take shelter in winters, study, write, read and play stable at the fifteenth Year coffee shop in the same square. These students who were known as leftist were always under police pursuit. “Once upon a time, it was feared from the government and even the watchman in Ankara” as different from today (Arcayürek, 2005: 230). One among the visions the people of Ankara often met was the hanged corpses of the people who were opposite to the new regime. The Court of Independence (İstiklal Mahkemesi) was a small house, working in the square of province. In that court, often, governmental decisions were given. ”We often came to face with both scaffolds and hanged dead bodies” (Çağlayangil: 107). In the Samanpazarı Square, death sentences were executed (Bahar, 2003: 85). According to Erdoğdu (2002: 63), possibly since the square of Samanpazarı had taken places in the intersecting area of five roads, the gallows for execution of death sentence were often established here.

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The Unionist Nail Bey was executed with the decision of the Court of Independence in the front of Ankara Prison in 1926 (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 54). An Important aspect of the social life in Ankara was carried and represented by the restaurant called “Karpiç”. Yuri Georges Karpovitch, called “Baba Karpiç” by the people of Ankara, opened a restaurant in Ankara in Taş Han with a special order of Atatürk. We can say that The Karpiç Restaurant is not merely a place of eating; it is a place symbolizing the coming culture and society. It played a role of “civilizing process” in the words of Elias. The Karpiç contributed to the development of new social and cultural interactions that were the objective of the Republican elite. According to Çağlayangil, “Karpiç is the father of restaurants in Turkey. He is the person completing the line from cookery to restaurant. He taught people that eating is not to gorge oneself, it is a matter of taste” (Çağlayangil, ?: 108). There is an anecdote told by Çağlayangil on this subject:

I never forget that one day I saw him rebuke a waiter like this. Saraçoğlu Şükrü Bey had drunk a rice soup. And then he had ordered shish kebab. They had brought pilaf near it. Karpiç was saying: -The Prime Minister had his daily dose of rice with the soup. How come you bring pilaf again. Why didn’t you bring vegetables? Even he did not tell, shouldn’t you have thought that? For Çağlayangil, “In Restaurant the meal and the service were perfect. In the guidebooks of foreign countries, its name is mentioned as the best restaurant of not just Turkey, but the Balkans.” It is not wrong to say that Karpiç is a state restaurant. “For a city that has not rescued the Ottoman kitchen and cannot overcome the level of cooker shop, it is a necessity a European restaurant. If the private people could not accomplish it, the state must it… [By the opening of Karpiç] the foremost people of state can taste the delightful Western foods” (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 62). But Karpiç restaurant has some other functions for the people who want to adapt himself to the necessities of the modern life in Ankara. The formation of modern life has given way to the emergence of dance as a fashion. The members of the parliament who could not

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dance, started to learn dances like tango, charleston, waltz, and goes to the dancing courses here in their leisure time. The Karpiç restaurant was a much-frequented place for the famous peoples of Ankara. Most of the information about newly developments of the politics was firstly disclosed here. “The father Karpiç has known everyone whoever was or everyone had the impression that as if the father knows everyone. Every costumer needs the father’s greeting or any some words when he stands on the door. The costumers esteem their value according to father’s compliments. Any minister could decide according to father’s behavior whether he is permanent or short-term. The father was quick to pick up news and has known everything before everyone” (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 64). The event that happened to journalist Şinasi Nahit Berker shows fabulously this case, at the times when Recep Peker is prime minister, and he has taken parliamentary confidence, and Father Karpiç says Berker that who will become prime minister instead of Peker. Though nobody trust this information, in a few days Peker resigns from prime ministry and Hasan Saka becomes Prime Minister (Berker, 2001: 129). Karpiç was financially supported by municipality. According to journalist Mehmet Kemal, the young peoples if they have no together with mature ones cannot step into the Karpiç. Only after the 1950’s Mehmet Kemal’s generation was able to come into the Karpiç, and only after that it was said that democracy has come to the Karpiç (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 63). In the new district of the city, Governor Nevzat Tandoğan was giving no respite not only to the ones who act against the Law of Clothing, but also to the ones walking around with untidy cloths in the center of the capital. “The visions which dominated the city were the visions of men wearing tie and women wearing tailleur…” (Öymen, 2004: 81). From Tanzimat to the Republic, for many intellectual and political figures of the period, the formal aspects of social change formed the essence of modernization and the external appearance of people, the freshness of streets and environment, and the structure of institutions exhausted an excessive amount of their time and effort (Kasaba, 1997: 24). In 1938, Yaşar Nabi [Nayır] describes the situation when he writes “there is a discontented point in the very modern and civilized view of Ankara: in the time of the evening, untidiness of

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garments of workers and peasants who are met in boulevard as a group… The worst probability, a foreigner, as looking at these dresses, may assume that all Turkish peasants are so much poor and misery” (Yaşar Nabi, 2005: 445). Whenever they seemed in the streets of Yenişehir, they caused a discontent for the elegant gentlemen and graceful ladies of the capital city. The solution of the problem was to remove these people by the coercion of police or gendarme (Şenol, 1998: 91). In the paragraph written by Yaşar Nabi, we observe a significant aspect of the Republican modernization in terms of its mentality: it is the gaze of foreigner, especially Europeans who represent the modern civilization, which constitutes a threat to the modernization spectacle of the civilizing elite. The feeling of shame has deep roots in the unconscious of the Turkish intelligentsia and statesmen. They have an anxiety to fall in a contemptible and disgraceful position in the gaze of a foreigner as an uncivilized or “barbarian” people. “What do the Europeans talk about us?” is the one of the great motivational factors, which gives impetus to the cultural transformations achieved by the state elites in Turkey. The western observers have become fulllength mirror to evaluate in it the self-image. According to Atay, Kemalism is a big and substantial reform of religion and he is the most fortunate man of the last age Islam. Since Mohammed was the last prophet, the right of abrogation (nesih) falls on human reason after him. That is why Muslim scholars make the ijtihad that laws be changed by time. What Mustafa Kemal did, was to use this right of abrogation. Hence, Mustafa Kemal seems that he is charged with the mission and privileges of the ‘ulama class. Kemalism abrogates all regulations of Quranic verses except worships (Atay, 1969: 393). Liberalization seems also in worship with the advance of the Republic. From now on people can make ijtihad for themselves individually. Orhan Karaveli’s father had a special one rak’at prayer (namaz) prayed once a day and constituted of prayers in Turkish (Karaveli, 2004: 13). There are some worries about the attitudes of the state elite toward religion. For some people, it is very difficult to reconcile religion and modern life. “My grandfather for me as the symbol of people of Ankara he was a symbol of changing Ankara…He was with necktie and suit. He was an official or representative in Ziraat

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Bank. He appeared to be devoted to traditions. As he was praying five times, he was wearing leather sock under his suit. Though he was praying five times, when I grew up and insisted to pray, he created uproar to say “No!”” (Taşpınar, 1996: 67). There are also contrary occasions. “From the years of my childhood to 1950’s, I didn’t see that the people were condemned for they went to Mosque, or fasted, or prayed. My father who fasted, prayed, and read Quran with his excellent Arabic during the month of Ramadan was a state official in high degree. I did ear nobody to condemn him” (Aksan, 2001: 117). All those show that there is no a standardized attitude toward religion among the state elites. In spite of the developments in the modernization of social and cultural life, the clues of the traditional life-style can not easily disappear. In Ankara, sometimes, there seems that some unwanted events occur, especially old district of the city. To change old habits, attitudes and memory with modern ones is very difficult for the ordinary native people of Ankara. According to Hikmet Tanyu’s hearing from a sixty-one-year old devout lady, between 1938 and 1941

A Ramadan day, after midday as inside the tomb was so dusty because of its closure for years, when the Muazzin opened the tomb with the purpose of wiping and cleaning, taking advantage of it, people rushed inside the tomb. People, who entered this entirely dusty place, rubbed this dust on their faces, hands, cloths even by stretching out the iron railing which is higher than human length and taking dust from its places their hands can reach. They said “his blessed dust”. Even though guardians, police officers, some people shouted, they tried to avoid by shouting, this rush could not be stopped. As the congregation was so crowded because of the month of Ramadan, forget about end of the line, on the contrary, the number of rushers increased. Though there was a police station just across the tomb, they could not manage to control this. The majority of people who rushed inside the tomb were women.” (cited by Erdoğan, 2004: 278). During İnönü’s presidential period, many people are being saddened with the slow disappearance of “Ataturk’s pretty looks” out of moneys and stamps. They would have difficult time to get accustomed to the expressions like “Eternal Chief, President, National Chief” appeared and repeated every day in newspaper bulletins (Karaveli, 2004: 171).

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For us the advance of İsmet İnönü became evident for us with the change of courses in schools. Ataturk’s name had been told us as a “myth” in mythology for 18-19 years. The people around him -including İsmet Pashaconsiders this as a comfort for themselves. An untouchable, unreachable “myth” will live in Cankaya, whatever is done, his doings and sayings will be said, large and small everybody will obey this. This did not mean little force in state administration. From now on, İsmet Pasha will substitute himself with this untouchable, unreachable power. We were accustomed to live in love with Ataturk. We were reading one history book and learning one political science. History, for us, was the adventure of the spread of Turks from Central Asia into the world. All Sultans were traitors and all nations who did big achievements in history were rooted from Turks…Next, we were reading “revolution history” in middle and high schools. This was the story of angry generals who defeated imperialists and capitalists. There was neither information nor idea except them. Ataturk’s pictures started to disappear in money and stamps and substituted by those of İsmet Pasha. The idea that İsmet Pasha is knowledgeable and Western person was being spread around. İsmet Pasha was taking Physics course. İsmet Pasha was learning Chemistry. It means that Ismet Pasha was interested in science). İsmet Pasha was taking violin class. It means that İsmet Pasha was interested in art). İsmet Pasha was studying English (It means that İsmet Pasha was western). Our ears filled up with these words. These kinds of rumors were spreading among people (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 199-200). After the death of Atatürk in some houses, İnönü’s picture with the same size as Atatürk’s was hanged beside it as well. (Öymen, 2004: 96). In the İnönü period, a moderate understanding of religion appears. In this period, construction of a mosque was pronounced first time. On December 8, 1944, Ahmet Hamdi Akseki, the VicePresident of Turkish Religious Affairs established a society to build a mosque in the modern district of Ankara. The impacts of modern life in the city of Ankara did not reach into its villages. To see this was shocking experience for some. “I caught natural beauties in villages I visited but I was so influenced by the difficulties of people’s life conditions! I was one of happy minority and I was indebted to them, I felt shamed to these people…Such poetry were taught in schools like “if you travel Anatolia, (you hear) continuous splash of streams” However, it was not the Anatolia I saw!” (Taşpınar, 1996: 71, 72).

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Not only in the villages of Ankara, but in urban area of Ankara, has the differentiation of life-style seemed. The Ankara was divided into two district and this division has along time continued even it was weakened in 80’s. The line which divided Ankara into two was the railroad bridge passing near the Faculty of Language and History-Geography. When the children of the old city passed over the bridge and entered the new city, they had to venture fighting with the children of the new city. The children of the old city who were beaten used to return the next day gathering their friends and take revenge. In Arcayürek’s words (2005: 50) “the consciousness of neighborhood was much intense.” The people who live in Ankara are divided in two according to their life-style and living district as Ankaraians (Ankaralılar) and Angaraians (Angaralılar) (Bilgili, 1996: 281). The spatial strategy of the Republican elite in establishing a new capital city has constituted duality in Ankara in terms of social and cultural practices and continued it today.

3.7.2. Cultural Competition between Istanbul and Ankara National ceremonies, especially national days play a vital role in the emphasis of national culture and identity. On the national days like April 23rd and October 29th the banners were hung, which were written on slogans like the one with a social context “the real owner and lord of the country is the real producer villager” or the one with an economic context “Native Product, Fatherland’s product, Every Turk Should Use It”. Especially the one that written on a white clothe with reddish big letters “One Turk is Equal to Whole World (Bir Türk Dünyaya Bedeldir)” or “O Turk, be proud, work, trust (Türk Övün, Çalış, Güven)” was increasing the self-esteem of people who were accustomed of being servants of Sultans and slaves of occupiers and reminding them that they are humans, too” (Bilgili, 1996: 280). One of the biggest excitements that Ankara ever lived was 10th anniversary celebrations. To make celebrations vigorous Ankara was mobilized, too like other cities. While founding triumphal arches in major streets, all places were decorated with flags. People living in Ankara were participating to this enthusiasm. As houses expected to be decorated with lights, everybody enthusiastically set to work weeks

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before. Bringing a technician to our house, my father had him put electric colored bulbs in the face opposite to the Station. Days before the Anniversary Day, when we turn on the lights with big pleasure, our neighbors were amazed and the day after they also brought the same technician and decorate their houses (Karaveli, 2004: 111). Celebrations would take a shape of mobilization. People going beyond just to be audience would directly participate in the celebrations. Would participate and pass at the front of Atatürk and greet him with love and gratitude” (Karaveli, 2004: 112). The Classical Western Music was the one of cornerstones in shaping the new growing life of the modern people of Ankara. Classic Music Concerts were regularly performed in the Faculty of Language and History-Geography. Classical music funs were going concerts with their children and a big crowd was attending concerts. Next to people sitting there was audience standing and there were a lot of them who could not enter the hall staying outside. Among people who come to listen to the concert there were some politicians like Ismet Inonu, Kazım Gulek (Taşpınar, 1996: 71). For a long time Ankara was the only city that had opera, theater, ballet, symphony orchestra. Some people, in their private life, were the loyal followers of the cultural policies of the state: “my father did not give permission for playing other than western classical music. In those times, the broadcasting of mono-phonic music on radio already was forbidden” (Karaveli, 2004: 93). The band used to come and play waltzes from Strauss and light pieces from other composers in the garden of the Assembly in Ulus towards evenings and in vacation days and the people around used to gather and listen to them. (Öymen, 2004: 17, Bilgili, 1996: 278) To establish an opera stage in accordance with the ones in the West was one of the purposes of Atatürk. In the early 1930’s he had ordered operas that were based on the subjects from the Turkish history. However he couldn’t attain the result he’d desired. He was expecting this from the new conservatory which was established with the contribution of famous musicians like Hindemith. Two years after Atatürk’s death, at the night of June 21, 1940, “The students conducted by Carl Ebert, performed their first opera on the stage of the Ankara People’s House, in the presence of İnönü. All of the high officials of the government and the Diplomatic Corps were there with İnönü. Though in this first performance only the second act of

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Puccini’s Madame Butterfly was presented. In addition, Mozart’s one-act Bastien and Bastienne opera was performed as well (Öymen, 2004: 226). Opera quickly became an activity that attracted everyone’s interest in Ankara. From now on the main subject of conversation during the visits or the bus stops, offices in Ankara was opera. Still, the people’s interest was more about the subject than the music. The three acts of Madame Butterfly opera were performed now and the suicide incident at the end of the third act attracted the audience’s interest more than anything. The audience was feeling sorry for the situation. In the course of time they would learn not to get caught on the subject and enjoy the music itself. The opera arias aired frequently on the radio were effective on the people of Ankara like the opera. Everyone used to dress carefully while going to the theater and the opera. At the first nights of the opera the majority of the people were wearing evening dresses and dinner jackets. Arcayürek says that he hasn’t met anyone wearing sweater until the late 1960’s in the opera, ballet and the theater. (Arcayürek, 2005: 15). The privilege of watching the opera lively performed was special only to the people in Ankara. The people in Ankara could be proud against the people in Istanbul on this matter (Öymen, 2004: 228-229). Though the stars of the Turkish music such as Münir Nurettin, Hamiyet Yüceses, Müzeyyen Senar were in Istanbul, they used to come to Ankara to give concerts, then the people in Ankara always had the chance to listen to these artists, but Ankara’s opera artists didn’t go to Istanbul. For Öymen, there wasn’t a stage suitable for opera in Istanbul. However, it was possible that Ankara was envy about its cultural assets and imposed an embargo on the cultural issues against Istanbul. For the people of Ankara, to understand opera and classical music was more important compared to the traditional Turkish music. In fact this was quite natural. The most important cultural phenomenon that Ankara could feel superior to Istanbul was classical music. Even in theater, although it was one of the activities that the government attached the special importance to, the stage of Ankara, though new young talents were growing in the conservatory, was very limited compared to the Istanbul Town Theater which had the most famous actors of the time such as Muhsin Ertuğrul,

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Hazım Körmükçü, Vasfı Rıza Zobu and Bedia Muvahhit. (Öymen, 2004: 229). The things that Öymen says in his comparison between Istanbul and Ankara are as if he’s questioning Ankara’s claim to be the cultural capital. Besides theater, it was hard for Ankara to rival Istanbul on the other branches of culture and art as well. Well-known poets, authors, painters, journalists were usually from Istanbul.” (Öymen, 2004: 230). It was possible to bring these Istanbul originated poets and literary men to Ankara by collecting them as deputies in the Grand National Assembly but this still wasn’t enough to make them belong to Ankara. Perhaps the period that Ankara was nearest to being the cultural capital began with the establishment of the “Translation Office” in 1940. In this office, many significant intellectual figures of the period worked and they translated many classical works from different Western and Eastern and Classical languages. It is an important activity that has opened a great world before Turkish readers and has remained from the past to today. However, they could not be sufficient for Ankara to eliminate the superiority of Istanbul in cultural issues. According to Çavdar (2003: 40), Istanbul has had a cultural dominance over Ankara and Anatolia during the history of the Republic. The cultural institutions established in Ankara, such as the National Theater, the Presidential Orchestra, the Opera and Ballet, didn’t change this situation. With the end of The Single Party period, a cultural migration from Ankara to Istanbul occurred. Ankara which represented the spirit of the revolution was defeated to Istanbul in the cultural area

3.7.3. The City of Dancing Ladies and Gentlemen: The Transformation of Intimacy The republican balls have great significance to show that modern life is appropriated most willingly. These balls show that the nature of all human relation and the comprehension of intimacy, the character of the relationship between man and woman have to change in a modern way. Every men and women are constantly dancing in these balls. Now, dancing and Ankara is identical. For Lindsay, the Ambassador of England, the man who does not dance is seen as odd as a man who

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does not like Ankara (Şimşir, 1988: 327). But these modern patterns of life did generally belong to the bureaucratic elites and some wealthy tradesmen. The ordinary men are too far from the “necessities” of modern life, and for them, the situation will not change for a long time. The republic is to create its model of the nation with a very restricted group. The chance of entrance to the modern spaces is restricted by some principles based on knowledge and experience of the modern behavior, garments, good manners, and mores. This absence of knowledge and experience on the nature of the modern do not only exclude the ordinary people from the balls and funs but also from the public spaces of the new city. Mustafa Kemal gives a special attention to the organization of ball in his civilizing mission in adopting the Western mores and manners. Mustafa Kemal, at first, has invited the familiar people to Turkish Association (Türk Ocağı) building, Hamdullah Suphi turned it into which was in deed a school. According to narration of Falih Rıfkı;

On the one side women and the other side men were sitting gathered. Only waiting on foots there were a few smart women. Even, Women have not gone to the buffet for taking something. Nobody was presenting each other as a family. The women were kept under surveillance by men. Mustafa Kemal said us: “Children, esteem the women on foots, be kind them, maybe sitting ones be jealously of, slowly all rise.” Gradually, but never that night, in one or two years they all have raised from their places and joined to the community. Of course, we would loose some people in this inauguration but eventually they will be accustomed. The women action has quickly developed. About the idea of woman, Atatürk was not so much a western. Even, he was unwilling of woman’s fingernail polish. Even, he had not patience for the ones who has married with the foreigner woman or man. He will save the woman. For saving one must firstly uncover her. One of the initial issues have done was abolishing the curtains steamships and trams. Even, one of the chief women writers of that period Halide Edip would oppose this action of the regime action for saving woman and would say “why you are dealing with our veil and curtains. The new and the real liberation period will begin by means of the woman. The women will have take part in the life. But when we have gone to the Ankara in 1923 we have observed the life there as to a great extent undeveloped from Istanbul. The street was entirely womanless. The gender morality, because of this, was very inferior (Atay, 1969: 410-411).

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Not only in Turkey but in Russia women’s visibility in social activities were organized by the ruler in order to give the society a Western identity. The practices made in Republican Turkey were not originally to be invented by the Republican elite. With the reference to Charles Seignobos, “the Big Petro has given significance to saloon meetings together men and women in order to make Russians be westernized and be liberated from Asian traditions.” As aims of the ruling elite were alike, the responses of the people were also alike in two countries. “He has made being compelled to the aristocrats for coming to these meetings with their wives. But, the men and the women were sitting down apart from others in the meetings and they had stayed silent and motionless” (Atay, 1969: 407). In the first years of Ankara the social life wasn’t developed very much. Atatürk used to arrange meetings in İnönü’s house with both men and women present, and try to make men and women not sit in different places, make them become friendly or dance. (Arcayürek, 2005: 22). In 1927 Atatürk requested İnönü to arrange a ball in his house and invite the government high officials and the ambassadors in Ankara with their wives. According to Arcayürek (2005: 192) this ball which was held in the Pembe Pavilion was an act aiming to show that Turkey has stepped into the modernity. In 1954, Infantry Cemal Akarsu, The Turkish Headquarter Commander of the American Military Aid Comitee told an event that occurred in 1933, the night of 29th October.

We had just graduated from Military Academy. I was working as a team commandant in 28th Military Division in Sarıkışla for training. We spent days and nights in Division because we were all bachelor and had no home there. That night the duty officer made us get up in haste at about 11 o’clock p.m. At beginning we didn’t understand why we were waked out of deep sleep in this way because of weariness of the day. At that time of the night, the officer of the watch commanded us: “Put on your big uniforms at once and come to my room.” After a while, clothed in our big uniforms and with swords, we were ready in the presence of the officer. In the room of the duty officer, we met an officer in uniform with an epaulet in gold, who we hadn’t seen before. The officer looked over us one by one. He looked at our swords and boots. The officer, who we learnt later was the aide of Atatürk, gave every one of us 50 liras. And he said:

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-Gazi Pasha Excellency demands you. When you enter the hall you will go to the table of the President of the Republic. After you salute him you will take his directions. When we entered the halls of the Ankara Palace the aide, our guide, took us to the presence of Atatürk. Seeing officers with higher ranks and men in swallow-tail coat and women in evening gown, we felt all the fear of behaving wrongly. The High Commander looked over us one by one. He told us to sit down. All the while we felt that all the eyes had been on us. Looking directly at our eyes, Atatürk commanded that: -Today is tenth year of the establishment of our Republic. 10-12 years before today, young officers with your rank had sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country, without seeing such a happy day. Now you are here as their representatives. The ladies in the hall are inviting you to dance. Young Turk officers have the right to enjoy themselves, too. So you will enjoy yourselves. That night, none of the ladies we invited to dance refused our request” (cited by Bağlum, 1992). The effort of Atatürk to educate people in the way of the modern civilization was great. For it, there was no special time and place. As told by an officer the guest of Atatürk: “A lady has brought from Switzerland, called Baver, as a director of an office. She was speaking French, a tall, grave, kind one. She will teach western manners to the girls of Ataturk”. “After rising up the lunch, they have said ‘let us dance’. He has danced well by taking lady Baver. I have learned that the name of this was foksfort. Then, it has given some break. He has signed to take me the lady to the dance. Though I have said that I don’t know, like it or not we have danced. Since, I have lived my early years in the east region, the first dance in my life, was a fortune with this 55 years old lady” (Mehmet Kemal, 1983: 20). Even, dancing gain a sacred character like military service which is a secret duty for Turkish people. “Kemalists are soberly dancing as if they perform their military service for fatherland (vatani görev)” (Atasü, 2001: 98). One of the conditions of the being modern was conceived as the ball and the dance. In the great cities, there was an invasion of dance which has terrified the conservatives. Charleston, tango and rumbas did not shake but swing the society (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 104). Cağlayangil states that in 1925 “City was neither developed nor improved; rather there a very active life. In the society, there was great interest

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about modernization. In our high school, there were two French teachers who were teaching French to students. Some times, the Girl High School students come to our school together with their teachers as quests and then students were dancing in the ceremony hall (Çağlayangil, ?: 105-106). For the Republican elite, the organizations of ball were a sign of appropriation of the western values by the individuals, the citizens of Turkey. At the same time, it was also an open expression of the transformation of the country on the western values before the Western world. No opportunity in demonstrating this change could be missed. In 1926, the ship, called Karadeniz, went to a tour in some important European harbor cities with an official mission to exhibit the modern face of new Turkey for the world. Besides the exhibition of many manufactured goods produced in Turkey, the balls become an important issue in the presentation of the modern face of Turkey. In each harbor, a ball was organized in the meeting saloon of the ship and European invited guests participated in those balls. The organizations of balls had signification value in appropriating modern (western) norms and in exhibiting that fact to the world. There seemed a certain will to substitute modern ones for the traditional relations of gender. No opportunity left by the state elite and their adherents. In the year of 1929 the newspaper Cumhuriyet, has asked “who is the beauty queen of Turkey” and said “why we do not this also” and arranged the first beauty contest. On the first page of the newspaper news about the contest has appeared for days. The queen has come into sight it the first page for days, the queen of 1929 was Feriha Tevfik Hanım. In 1932, Keriman Halis’ being chosen as the queen of the world “in all the country has caused a great joy and the new queen was treated with great respect and honor” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 101-102) As well, all the firs page of the newspaper Cumhuriyet covered this news only with the news about “Ghazi has come to Istanbul last night”. The contest of beauty has been the symbol of the liberation of the women. The event of the Keriman Halis’ being chosen as the queen of the world was the mark of the Turkish women gaining in the society an equal place and Turkey’s being placed in the western world. Halis’s proudly welcoming more than 20.000 people was the event of those years.

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In the modernization of the country, there were some obstacles to be overcome. For the Republican elites, “the dictatorship was the curtain. The dictatorship was the veil. Those living as the Eastern slaves under the dictatorship of vulgar force were reacting to the revolutionary who saved them from this dictatorship by saying: “did I want freedom from you?” Of the Republic’s politics of women was a flexibility related to villages. Even, the plural-matrimony was condoned. The evolution in the village was seen as a long-term change. The saving of the village women has been defined on the economical and training conditions (Atay, 1969: 411-412). Already, in the countryside, the ottoman urban custom of harem-selamlık was generally not at issue, for the women were in the working life. In this period, many regulations were made to develop position of women in society in order to make their equal with men in the realms of economy, politics, education, culture, etc. But, some well-bred witty remarks were made to criticize the reel situation in country. Due to the anniversary of the endowment of women rights, the Association of Women organized a demonstration. Since the participation was limited and its time was short, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Sukru Kaya who was looking at the demonstration from a window was unpleased with the situation. He tells to his friend next to him “It is not good as I wished”. Hence, his friend responds, “if you endow these rights to men, then, you will see what we are doing” (Karakuş, 1977: 22).

3.7.4. Familiarity and Anonymity in Ankara One of the most important features that define the spiritual and moral dimension of a reel city is its character of anonymity which gives chance for people to disappear, to be invisible among crowds in the streets or public places of a city. The witnessing of many people who lived in the first years of Ankara shows that Ankara did not reach anonymity and did not go beyond a communal life with intense acquaintance and familiarity even in mid-1950. There was an atmosphere dominant in Ankara streets that almost everybody knows each other. Whereas for many people this acquaintance

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feeds up the feeling of security, it was the expression of boredom for people who were accustomed to the anonymity of Istanbul.

There was plenty of acacia and linden. Ankara was not green like it was today. However, it looked prettier, there was warmness. Perhaps this warmness was resulted from its unbelievable desolation and familiarity of everybody with each other. College students, high school senior students, young officials…It was called “taking tour in Ankara” with the relief from work, in spring dusks, in beautiful autumn dusks, everybody was going to Kızılay. An unbelievable thing, we see all people we know. It was very nice. You walk with pleasure. A Road with trees, a real boulevard, nice sidewalks, pastry-shops in sidewalks, sidewalk coffee shops. You come across with your friends. If you wish, you drink tea somewhere. It was such a city (Atasü, 1996: 54). In modern Ankara, where everyone used to greet each other from Kızılay to Bakanlıklar, a lonely lady leaving the theater at night could walk alone from Kızılay to Kavaklıdere with complete safety and comfort. These safe night walks began to decrease in 1960’s, ended before 1970 (Arcayürek 2005: 15, 135). According to Kutlu (1996: 310), you can still see all theater players of the city in streets when you go out to Kızılay in 1950’s Ankara. According to Cağlayangil’s memories, “every body at least once in a day passes away from Ulus square. People were in acquaintance with each other because of meeting many times in the city. The streets were like the corridors of each house. Faces were familiar. The individuals, came from other cities were easily appreciable and treated as a strangers” (Çağlayangil ?: 106). The situation for the people, coming from Istanbul, was an object of complaint. One among them, Atay (1969: 352) states: “Ah, if only we are anonymous and are lost in the crowds….” The object of complain, for the people from Istanbul, was an ordinary situation for young generation of Ankara. Contrary to the coldness of anonymity, they used to the warmth and safety of familiarity depending on close relationship or acquaintance with social and physical environment. Rationality does not leave a place for bad surprises and it is generally not possible to meet urban surprises in Ankara which is established on a geometrical rational plan. An important

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aspect of modern Ankara is that it achieves to dissolve the coldness of geometrical planning in the social relations which gained a communal mood in the city. However, it is not a “soft city” as defined by Jonathan Raban, where living “is an art, and we need the vocabulary of art, of style, to describe the peculiar relation between man and material that exists in the continual creative play of urban living.” For Raban, “cities, unlike villages and small towns, are plastic by nature.” And it is also not Simmel’s metropolis giving people the feelings of alienation and estrangement until 1950’s. Toward the 1950’s ends, there would be dramatic change in this non-anonymous atmosphere of the city. “Ankara was very small city at that time. You would see anybody you wish to see in Kızılay. It was a meeting place. [Later on] feeling cold and frightened people [because of the terror] are concerned with their lives” (Atasü, 1996: 54). Although it has a pioneering role in the process of modernization, Ankara is in fact a conservative town in terms of its sociality and relations with strangers. “For a new person, Ankara is like a closed door. Because of this, people who stay in Ankara for a short time don’t like Ankara at all, for they had seen Ankara from outside. However Ankara is a quite different, rich, colorful, warm, bright world for people who know it from inside.” (Arcayürek, 2005: 11). Knock door and enter the heaven with a recruiting ceremony. For a city which is expected to be a model for the rest of the country, it is not a feature to be praised. It gives the city an intimate character and restricts the entrance of strangers. Therefore, it remains a fortified shelter against unwanted interventions from the outside and the uncontrolled which has a capacity to create destabilization and chaos. This introversion character prevents it to be a metropolis and makes it a provincial town close to the differences which threaten the purity of social space. By the 1960’s, there had been a change in the spiritual mood of the city. It was no more the warmth city of the old days. The traces of the psychological dimensions of the Simmelian metropolis have been seen in Ankara. But who has anxiety in the city are the people already living there for a long time. “Because of the life experience of somebody, his alienation to a city which he calls “my city”, as you sense this feeling, you can not live with it but you try to live with it…I think this

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feeling belonged to Ankara” (Taşpınar, 1996: 77). On the other hand, the state of the terror was an important factor in estrangement of people from the city. “My negative feelings against Ankara I think started in the years of anarchy. The city received an enemy identity in those years. Nobody was able to go to friends and acquaintances for visitation. It happened impossible to sit at home with open curtains. We have started to put chairs behind doors to take ourselves in safety. The outside of your homes have completely become enemy to you” (Atasü, 1996: 55-56). According to Şenyapılı (1996: 248), opened and closed spaces, buildings, stones, trees, parks, gardens, restaurants, bars, night clubs, bookstores, they and similar ones are cornerstones in the definition of the city. “All these provide for inhabitants of the city a feeling of acquaintance to the city. And he asks who can claim that he lives in the city without a feeling of alienation toward the city. I try to explain the lost of the elements that provide warmness in relations between city and man.” Under the social, moral, and physical pressures of urban change, the people of the new Ankara who grow up in a familiar environment and in the modern uniform culture of the Republic, feels a threat from and alienation toward the new reshaping of Ankara. In the period of the single party rule, what is repressed and disappeared from the urban scene come back to the scene as a threat to the life-style and customs of the modern Ankara people. What rural, provincial, and traditional started to surrounds the city and leaks into urban scene. As a date line to the sunset of a utopia, in 1946 Tandoğan’s suicide can be seen a symbolic beginning referring an end of a definite period. It is not only the suicide of a Governor, who was one of the symbols of the Republican Ankara with his long-termed administration, but also a suicide of a city dream.

3.7.5. The People’s Houses: The Matrix of the Republican Modern People Since the Turkish Associations (Türk Ocakları) had not corresponded to the expectations of the new regime in supporting its cultural and social revolutions project, the ides of the establishment of the People’s Houses had been a current issue. Some members of the association were opposite to the reforms such as change of

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alphabet and dress and were members of the Serbest Fırka (Öztürkmen, 1994: 162). The Turkish Associations was opened in 1912 when nationalist Ittihat ve Terrakki was in rule. Although there was a parallelism between the nationalist policies of the Committee of Ittihat ve Terrakki and the cultural goals of the Association in awakening a national conscious among the people and consolidating a national identity, the Associations had never been an official organ of the Committee. Later, for the leaders of RPP, this autonomous organization of the Association was tiresome situation, because the some practices and actions was not in parallelism with the policies of the party. Thus, a letter was sent from the party to the administration of the Turkish Associations

Let you change its regulations such as the Turkish Associations are followers of the Republican People Party in the domains of science and culture.” We do not accept it, and say “in the Turkish Association, we give the courses for literature, painting, music, aid to poor student, send student to Europe, we do not interest with politics” On the other hand, in the Turkish Association in Istanbul, the members of associations made propaganda against the Russians (Koyunoğlu, 1977: 14). The membership of some Pan-Turkist people to Turkish Association creates some problems. Soviet ambassador Surits complains to Minister of Foreign Relations that Turkish Associations be politically concerned with Turks living in Russia. There were some expressions in the marches written for the Association opposite to the principle of “peace at home, peace in the world” (Yurtta barış, dünyada barış) like “flag at sky, banner at hand, we want to rule the world” (Gökte bayrak elde sancak, biz dünyaya egemen olmak isteriz) (Mehmed Kemal, 1983: 27). They brought forward that they were involved in politics and they were institutions against the People’s Party. According to these claims, people who oppose not to Ataturk but to his colleagues were sheltered in the Turkish Association. During municipality elections, the election of a member of the Association against the People’s Party candidate in Bandırma was confirming this assertion. Due to complaints, Ataturk commanded the Turkish Association to call itself off in 1931. The general director of the Association, Hamdullah Suphi, was sent abroad as an ambassador.

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After the abolition of the Turkish Associations, in 1932, the institution of the People’s House was established as an organ of the RPP instead of the firmer. The main aim of its establishment was to educate people in parallel with the social and cultural program of the party. In a short time, many branches of the People’s House were opened in different regions of the country. The association was organized in villages under the name of the People Room (Halk Odası) as well. The properties of the Turkish Associations were transferred to the organization of the People’s House. The directors of the association were appointed by the administrative staff of the local organization of RPP. Only exception was the Ankara People’s House. Its director was elected and appointed by the general administrative committee of the party (Çavdar, 1983: 882). In protocol, the director of the People’s House comes after the Governor of the city. The building of the People’s House was an important element in reshaping the formation of the town center and was second important building after the Governor’s office (Yeşilkaya, 1999: 188). There were nine branches of activities consisting of: 1) Language, History and Literature, 2) Fine Arts, 3) Theatre 4) Sports, 5) Social Assistance, 6) Public Classes and Courses, 7) Library and Publishing, 8) Village Development, and 9) Museums and Exhibitions. At least three of them were necessary to open a new branch office of the organization. The People’s Houses were established as the secular counterparts to the traditional cultural center of the Ottoman society such as dervish lodges and coffeehouses. It was also a social place, where people come together, alternative to the mosque, as stated by Çeçen:

The masses of the people who used to come together in the mosque as ümmet now in the People’s Houses and in similar social centers would come together not as ümmet but as nation. Once laicism became the main principle of the Republic and the state, there was a need for the new social center where the people come together outside of mosque. The People’s Houses were being organized in such a way that it would respond to such a need (cited by Yeşilkaya, 1999: 75).

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The People’s Houses were established as an ideological, cultural and social mobilization of the nation in such a way that the people would appropriate the Kemalist principles and revolutions. Besides a transformation in thoughts, habits, taste and life-style, a transformation in the mentality was aimed. The building of the Turkish Association in Ankara was converted to the building of the Ankara People’s House. After this time, the Ankara People’s House had significant role, with the activities and organizations made there, in the social and cultural life in Ankara. Atatürk had attached a special importance to the activities in the People’s House. He used to enjoy watching the plays staged here with his foreign guests. Some important meetings such as the congresses of RPP were held here. (Arcayürek, 2005: 55).

When we hold position in the Ankara People’s House in 1940, it seemed to be the culture temple of both young Kemalist generation and the people…together with such studies as literature and culture, there were all type of activities from köycülük to sports under the roof it…each Saturday, we were organizing both literature and poetry meetings. We were reading our poems in front of notorious man of letters and poets. Afterwards, the poems were evaluated. These notorious persons constituted a kind of Jury. At the end, the admired poem was published in since and art Journal of RPP, namely Ülkü Journal. And for each published poem, five Turkish liras were given to the poet as a payment (Özdenoğlu ?: 186). Among the members of jury there were people such the following intellectuals as Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Ahmet Kutsi Tecer, Ömer Bedreddin Uşaklı, Kemalettin Kamu, Tahsin Banguoğlu, Behçet Kemal Çağlar and Bedrettin Tuncal. At that time, the younger generations of People’s House often organized memorial days for such Turkish intellectuals as Namık Kemal, Tevfik Fikret and M. Emin Yurdakul and also among the participants of this memorial days there were İsmet Inönü, the president of Turkish Republic, Saraçoğlu, the prime minister of Republic. After the program, they saw these young people in the director’s room of the People’s House and listened their ideas, critics and suggestions (Özdenoğlu ?: 188). With the organizations open to the public such as concerts, theatrical performances, balls and courses, the Ankara People’s House had been one of the significant space where the

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old and new people of Ankara had come together and joint with other (Tanrıkulu, 1985: 26).

3.7.6. Non-Muslims, State Policies and Secularism In order to understand the state policy on the issues of nationalism and secularism, the problem of minority give us some important clues that is generally not regarded by the social researchers in examining the secular character of the state. After the National Struggle, the rights of the minorities were defined and guaranteed by the Lausanne Treaty which gave an end the war between Turkey and the European powers. The three non-Muslim group consisting of the Armenians, Greeks, and Jews were recognized officially as minorities. For along time from Tanzimat to the establishment of the Turkish Republic, the problems of the minorities (Millets) with the government of the Ottoman Empire had constituted an excuse for their interference the domestic issues of the Empire. Therefore, the subject of the minorities has perceived a sensitive question by the nationalist elite in building a nation-state. In the 1943 issue of the journal, La Turquie Kemaliste, It was proclaimed that “Ankara is a city of the future; Istanbul is a city of the past.” In the article which made a comparison between Istanbul and Ankara, it was claimed that:

The average visitor who has spent a few days rushing from Hagia Sophia to the Great Walls and quickly around the old Hippodrome goes home to tell the folks about Turkey. He is no better equipped than the-stay-at-homes who get their ideas out of novels about the sultans. For in Istanbul he has probably eaten Russian food, got his views on the government from a Greek porter, been guided by an Armenian courier, and concentrated exclusively on the relics of a past now intentionally forgotten by the average Turk, who looks ahead to better days. He who really wants to know the Turkey of today and tomorrow should take the first train for Ankara (cited by Bozdoğan, 2001: 67). Whereas this passage points where the true nature of modern Turkey should be discovered, at the same time, it impresses a nationalistic sentiment which

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demonstrates negativity toward yet a cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic social formation of Istanbul. Article’s history is important because it was published at the time when the Wealth Tax (Varlık Vergisi) was in force. There was a serious discontent toward the “non-national” elements which left an inheritance from the Empire. In many different practices toward the non-Muslims, the clues of this discontent could be easily followed. On the issue of citizenship, Article 88 of the Constitution of the Republic declared that “The people of Turkey regardless of their religion and race are Turkish in terms of citizenship” (Toktas, 2005: 398). But the regulation of some special minority rights in the Lausanne Treaty was seen an obstacle in front of the building of a hom*ogeneous nation. The existence of minorities with special rights represented a splits and weakness for the national unity and coherence. Therefore, the regulations on the social and cultural issues did not make an exception for the minorities in such way that accept their all specific communal rights given them by Lausanne Treaty. In a situation in which the only communal bond is national being, the local, religious and ethnic bonds can not have legitimacy. It would be determinative for the state policies toward every kind of minorities, whether it was religious, ethnic, linguistic or local. Besides nationalism, secularism has formulized as important social cement in binding the people together. As stated by Toktas (2005: 399), “As secularism became one of the cornerstones of Republican Turkey, any connotation of religious communal identification in the public sphere, either Muslim or non-Muslim, was strictly forbidden.” Although all people of Turkey are equal according to the Constitution, in practice, there seem some problems rooted in application of administrative double standards to non-Muslim minorities. We can see one of examples of this in the memories of Bahar who was a member of Jewish minority in Ankara: “During war, with the request of the governor Tandoğan the commerce company that my father was partner was founded in the lower flat under the name of “Ali Ercan and his partner Automobile and Truck Agency”. The word “partner” was used instead of my father’s name in both two tables.” Even though there was the name of “Jak Morhayim” in the major street in Taksim, Istanbul, she can not understand “whatever

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the reason is this was seen appropriate in Ankara” But, there was “Madam Marga Fitness Center” in a division at the lower level of the store (Bahar, 2003: 106). It shows that in the imagination of a modern urban stage of the Republican elite, the nationalist sentiment does restrict the visibility of items, which destabilize the formulation of the nation, in the public space of Ankara. The negative feeling and attitudes among ordinary Muslim people has been seemed in the period of the Republic against to the Jews, which was not current issue throughout the Empire period. In 1934, an anti-Semitic campaign began in publications and unsigned letter had distributed. The Jewish citizens were executed to physical violation in such cities as Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli, and Tekirdağ in the region of Thrace. Their houses and shops were destroyed, their goods were stolen and they were attacked and roughed up. The Jewish people, their estimated number was between 15.000-20.000, emigrated from those cities to Istanbul (Toktas, 2005: 402). An official discrimination towards the minorities seemed in military services. In the atmosphere of the World War II, in 1939, a decision had been taken that to the people serving in the army from minorities would not be given arms in their military training and they recruited in support services. When they worked together with Muslim soldiers in the support service, they were, under the name of Yirmi Kur’a İhtiyatları, worked in some construction activities and public services such as building parks, roads and collecting garbage (Toktas, 2005: 403). For example, in Ankara, Jewish citizens doing their military service were worked in building the pool of the Gençlik Park in military uniform with pickaxe and shovel for days. (Arcayürek, 2005: 73). In the Republican period, when some Jews went to the Population Administration (nüfus idaresi) to take last names, they were sometimes exposed to saucy behaviors of officials. According to Bahar, this was intensely lived among Ankara Jews. To a Jewish citizen who wanted to take last name of “Güler” (laughter), the official tells him that this name is already taken, instead of it, they will give him the last name “Ağlamaz” (not cries). On his opposition, saying “either Güler or Ağlamaz, no difference, same thing, he finishes the discussion. Isak

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Almaleh was told that there is no last name any more, only Umu, I registered, OK.” Another example, Rifat Behar of Istanbul was given the last name of “Paracanlı” (money lover). Because of this last name, his mother Esterina permanently scolded him. However, according to the law, unethical and ridiculous names were banned to be given (Bahar 2003: 128). In reality, there are many examples of this attitude of the officials in their practices toward the Muslim-Turk citizens as well. The government’s desire to make the citizens speak Turkish increased after the suppression of the Sheikh Said Rebellion. The main desire was to apply this to the Kurds. However, upon the understanding of the fact that it was hard to reach that goal in a short time, they began with the easier part. “The non-Muslims in some of the big cities, especially in Istanbul, were in sight, and also it was easier to influence them. The majority of the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews in Istanbul knew Turkish, but were usually speaking in their own languages. The campaigns of “Citizen, speak Turkish” started aiming at them in the first place (Öymen, 2004: 283). The most important practice of the discrimination against non-Muslim citizens was the Wealth Tax. The Wealth Tax was a tax which would be collected only for one time. Similar ones had been applied in other countries under the conditions of war. Such an attempt was initiated in Turkey during the First World War, but it was aborted. In the application of the Law, the people issued to the Tax were subsumed under four categories as Muslims, non-Muslims, converts (dönmes), and foreigners Toktas, 2005: 404). This practice of the Wealth Tax seems as an extension of the Unionist’s policy of Turcification in the domain of economy. In the Republican period, “Even if the weight of the government’s enterprises increased in the economy, the capital of the private sector wasn’t “Turkicized” enough as desired” (Öymen, 2004: 332, 335). According to the notes taken by the deputy from Trabzon, Faik Ahmet Barutçu, from the speech made by Prime Minister Şükrü Saraçoğlu at the secret group meeting, the main purpose of the law was to supply the government’s needs and to call in some of the money in circulation in order to be able to keep the increasing prices under control. However, there was another purpose of the law that wasn’t

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announced to the public. According to Barutçu’s notes, Saraçoğlu went on with his speech as follows:

This law is at the same time a law of revolution. We are facing an opportunity that will bring us our economical independence. We will leave the Turkish market into the hands of Turkish merchants and the Turkish people by eliminating the non-Turkish elements that dominates our market with this method. We will also assure the transmission of the real estate in Istanbul to the Turks again with this method. Only the one forth of the tax applied to the real estate will be applied to the Turks. Special instructions will be given to the mayors in this manner” (cited by Öymen, 2005: 336). People who didn’t pay the tax applied by the government to them were sent to Aşkale to work in building the roads. The government gathered the ones who couldn’t pay the tax which was applied on February, 1943, in Istanbul Sirkeci. 1869 people were brought to Sirkeci until September and 1229 of them who didn’t pay the tax there as well were sent to Aşkale by train. All of them consisted of the nonMuslim citizens of the Republic (Öymen, 2004: 348). What all those show is that secularism is theorized a communal issue in defining the Turkish national identity. What determines the relationship between the state and the minorities (the extensions of the old Millet system) is not secularism but nationalism. The secular character of the state can not guarantee them to save their social, economic, cultural, and political rights from the attack of the nationalist sentiment rising on the religious differences and resulting in discrimination. Contrary to what should be, Secularism in Turkey could not restrict and hinder the nationalist negative feelings toward the minorities.

3.7.7. The Places of Entertainment in Ankara “There was no place other than the Great Assemble in day times. In the evenings we want a call from Mustafa Kemal. If we were not invited, we have come together at the corner of the cooker shop for having alcoholic beverages. The law of the Men-i Müskirat (The Law of Prohibition for Drinking) was at issue. We were providing the beverages from the men of the directors of police. Another name of this was ‘the

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water of Dilaver,’ Dilaver was the name of the police director” (Atay, 1969: 352). The words of Atay can not entirely summarize the condition of leisure in Ankara. There were some places of entertainment which Atay did not talk about. There were many people that could never take a call from Mustafa Kemal. Someone had to be among people in order to know the life of entertainment of Ankara. In the period of national struggle and the republic era in Ankara the bars as social places are the vital places. These bar places in the period of national struggle and especially till the year of 1922 are not the permanent places because of the law of the Men- i Müskirat but passing and temporal spaces. According to the main important sources of these bars, i.e. Gündüz, as portable bars they have not a significant matter. They are as the same as the Konya’s oturak and Kastomu’s screen. The basic difference is that the others have a unique form but ones in the Ankara have three types. The sorting of these bars is made by Gündüz according to costumers social status and their class, that is, the bars of high class, of official civil servant and of tradesman’s. Regarding to high class they have no any restriction or any difficulty in bringing any artist to the bars. The members of the high class society, if they will they have the ability of bringing any artist in any age and from anywhere of the country and they are able to set up a bar in any place. In those times the Russian gold are still current and the rate of exchange difference between Ankara and Istanbul was the main capital source for the need of bar parties. The Russian gold which gathered seven lira in Ankara is sold in Istanbul ten or eleven lira and this benefit is enough to financial supplies. The whisky was the favorite beverage of these high class persons. The ones who firstly taste the whisky though they does not please with the pleasure and the smell, since it has a high cost and a beverage of the polite class they are seem to be pleased. Although the favorite beverage is the Western kind still the party had to have a Turkish and native color. The dances like Tango, Foxtrot, Chimi, Charleston was seen only in the limited places of Istanbul. For the most part in the portable bars of Ankara was generally the fashion the telgrafın telleri, Ankara koşması, zeybek, sepetçioğlu, Yozgat havası, karakuş, Çarşamba, yıldız as the native, local dances and as the local tunes.

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The artists who cannot find the profession in the high society groups or the ones whose opportunity finished in these high groups could be favorite of the civil servants or be favorite of the penniless young mans whose income is low. In the bars of these penniless class the outcomes were shared which is essential. If any one’s house the bar is set up, the others also informed and they bring the foods and beverages. The foods, beverages, beds and sometimes the garments of the artists are got together by the community. In these groups people give another unlimited and unreturned loan. If any have no money he has credit. If any costumer of the bar has a financial difficulty, the artist gives credit to him dependent on a definite interest. The beds and the foods of the one who gives credit are supplied by the borrower. The main point which upsets these penniless people is four multiple high cost price of the rakı in the black market because of the prohibition. According to Aka Gündüz, the tradesman’s bars are quite different. They always maintained the traditional form. The accessories of the musicians are the saz, bağ sekisi, bağlama, wooden spoons, unhandled teacup, anzarot earthenware water jug, dirk, pistol and yataghan. In these all bars never were seen any unpleasant occurrence which needed the policeman’s interference. The intention of that era of Ankara were three; to fight in the fronts as lions, to work as the machines in the back sides labors and finally to enjoy fully if there is any opportunity. During the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, the mobile bars of the Ankara were the main places of enjoyment life. After the annulling the validity of the law of the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, the first modern and the stable bar of Ankara was opened up by Fresco Efendi. The bar of Fresco is wide, contentment and imposing place. It has the excellent music, the delightful waiters, crystal service set and the perfect kitchen (1931: 11). But also the civil servant bars endures. The bar of Fresco is criticized as being monotone and one faced. To break away from the competition it was needed that some new artists had to be brought to the meetings. But, the bar of Fresco also has taken part in the competition and brings a swarthy and skinny shrewish Levantine woman as if it shows sign of a step forward. People say ‘a famous girl had come to the bar; she has had yellow large ring earrings’. There was in Ankara a big excitement and a curiosity. The step forward of the Fresco bar remains in half. Since,

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the coming ‘milky chocolate’ is only servicing alcoholic beverages in the American bar. Because of the old familiarities alcoholic beverages are serviced in a secrete manner. In the time of 1923 the only western manner enjoyment place in Ankara was the place of Fresco. In this bar which was run by the Levantine who called Fresco and his wife, the B-girls were servicing and the wealthy people of Ankara were always comer of this place. The building that includes that bar will be pulled down later and the place that a new building will be constructed which includes also Karpiç. And later, the bar called Elhamra has opened on the Çankırıkapı Street, which bringing the B-Girls from Istanbul and Europe will become rival of the Fresco Bar (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 80, 84). Coffeehouses carried different functions, for example, Ziya Gokalp gives his conference under the topic of “Is it possible to make a reform in Islam?” in a cafe in the Government House Square in Ankara. This coffeehouse was used later as the building of the “Union of Teachers” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 54). The need of promenade and amusem*nt for a definite period has been fulfilled in the old coffee-houses in Bentderesi or the like as in the past in the opposite corner of Taşhan. But only men had gone these places. The women had gone to the picnic in Hatip Çayı and İncesu Dereleri with their husbands and children in Friday or in festivals. Someone who has cars or renting phaetons had goes away to the Kayaş gardens. When the railway has been lengthened to Yahşihan that journey had made easy (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 80). The present Kızılay was known as Havuzbaşı in 1927. Havuzbaşı was the chief place for outing of Ankara. Here, a pool has been built and its center a monument with a pipe (fıskıye) was placed. Havuzbaşı was designed as a park. The symphonic orchestra of the president of republic had given concert here” (50 Yıllık Yaşantımız: 62). After the year 1926, Ghazi Forest Farm would become a new promenade place for Ankara’s people. From the station to the Marmara pool inside of the farm had been built a perfect asphalt way. Here a pleasant restaurant was opened up and Marmara had taken a style of night club. The arrival was accomplished by train,

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minibus and the cars. Then, a zoo was added to the farm. Also, Ghazi’s frequently coming here, had made the farm an attractive place. Poets and writers come together either in Şükran restaurant on Posta boulevard in Ulus or in Acem’s saloon. On the other hand, there were two very important nightclubs for the upper classes of Ankara: Süreyya in Kızılay and Ankara Palas nightclub in Ulus. On the other hand, ordinary people were attending to Gar casino. Later on, Bomanti and club 47 were opened. There were also casinos with an orchestra in Gazi Çiftlik, Dikmen, Keçiören and Etlik. As Özdenoğlu states, “different group of people had a good time at that places in a civilized manner” (Özdenoğlu ?: 189). Cubuk Dom is also a pleasant excursion spot with its wholesome gardens. Under willow trees’ shadow, to sit next to the big pool was pleasant as well pride cause for Ankara people. However, gardens in this place are not crowded as private cars are few and most ordinary Ankara people cannot benefit from these spots (Bahar 2003: 103).

3.7.8. Nevzat Tandoğan: A Profile of the Republican Heydays In relation to Ankara it could be said that one of the most notorious politician of the city was Nevzat Tandogan whose name was identical with one party rule of the city. He was the child of a migrated family: his mother was born in Belgrade and his father was born in Sarajova. Tandogan was continuously both governor and mayor of Ankara for seventeen year from 22 June 1929 to date of his suicide on July, 9, 1946. He was an exceptional character because of his colourful identity, his declarations, practices and his discussion, especially with Jansen, the urban planner, about the building activities in the city were beyond his responsibilities during his leadership (Bahar, 2003: 78). What had been stated in regards to his personality were as follows: honest, dutiful, hardworking, pursuer, practical, respectful to his rulers, helpful to his subordinates, authoritarian personality, and orderliness in his life. Together with these positive characters that each ruler must have he had negative characters such as far more groundless fear and suspicion, results in an obsession to control everything personally. According to Kocabaşoğlu (1990: 196) this character

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has directed him not only to positive results but also to negative consequences. Nevertheless, it could be considered as a reductionism to relate the sacrifice of basic rights to security problem in Ankara to the negative dimensions of his character. He was on the one hand not a politically elected leader, but on the other hand, was the member of State’s bureaucratic organization. Therefore, he was not in an obligation to give an account to the people; but the persons who commissioned him, were physically so close to him to see and be aware of all his activities. For Karakuş, his entire sayings were like a law in Ankara. His decisions were unquestionable and therefore beyond the contours of law. The books are replete with many anecdotes about Tandoğan’s activities in Ankara. These anecdotes do not only reflect his personality but also the spirit of his period. Therefore, the anecdotes about him are valuable because they are far beyond simple stories. The arbitrary as well as unlawful character of his activities could be seen in the activities and relations of famous persons (especially the judges of İstiklal Mahkeme (Independence Court)) of his period towards ordinary persons among whom journalists were. Even the activities of ordinary government officers towards the ordinary people were so arbitrary that could be easily changed into both violence and sauciness. For example, a result of a conflict between the municipality of Ankara and himself a building constructor, Emin Taş, has applied to the Council of State (Danıştay) to suspend the execution. Whenever the corporations did not execute the decision of the Council of State, he himself applied to Tandogan to complain the actions of them. Taking the decision text of the Council of State from the hands of Emin Taş, Tandogan scratched and thrown the text to the face of him. And he showed the door by saying “here I am the rule.” Behind the Tandoğan’s courage to see himself over decisions and law there were the personal support of both Atatürk and İnönü. He owed this support to his cooperation and pragmatism. Governors always gratified him. When Atatürk was introducing him to the Persian king, he said, “he is my revolution friend…he is my dear, devoted and faithful child” (Kocabaşoğlu: 1990: 196). The purpose of long pages Karakus attributes to “Mr. Tandoğan” was to describe all the Republican period with the personality of the governor of Ankara (Karakuş, 1977: 17). According to the news published in the newspapers, the

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governor had the police to bring journalists, interrogated them, using a rude language and had the police to follow up. Although he had not any direct connection with the construction of Çubuk dam, the following words were placed in front of the dam: “This dam was build at the time of Atatürk, the Prime Minister İnönü, the Minister of Internal Affairs Şükrü Kaya and the governor of Ankara Nevzat Tandoğan.” There are also some other examples. On the right side of the Güvenlik Monument in Kızılay, an inscription on iron take places with an information note: “The Güvenlik Monument is built with the help of the provinces to show the Turkish Nation’s love and contentment for its Gendarme and Police while Kemal Atatürk was the President of Turkey, İsmet İnönü was the Prime Minister, Şükrü Kaya was the Minister of Internal Affairs, Nevzat Tandoğan was the Governor and Mayor of Ankara” (Kozanoğlu, 1995: 31). For Karakuş this was İnönü’s honor to Tandoğan. İnönü has often published their arm in arm pictures in Ulus journal. These pictures indeed point to the fact that behind the power of Tandoğan there was the support of higher Turkish bureaucracy and the rulers. Every one has been obliged to know his/her own place not to direct the wrath of such a governor, supported by the state on him/her self. He was seen as a minister without a chair. He was one of the most refrained persons of the Ankara because of his well-known activities. In the nights, drunken persons were afraid of walking in the streets because of his wrath. More over, not only the drunken individuals but also other persons were afraid of him: as it is narrated, one a day he invited a complained druggist to his office and ordered him to leave the city immediately and at that night that druggist left the city and never returned back to Ankara again. In addition to his words of threat, he roughs individuals up by himself. What Mehmet Kemal has said about Tandoğan seems to be the impressive summary of all the stories given above. According to him, “Governor Tandoğan scratches the decisions of state council and throws them to the face of persons, do not let villagers to walk on asphalted way with their donkeys, the drivers who incidentally bumped into the locust tree had been harmfully abused and then expelled to the region of Elmadağ in the chilly nights…Governor Tandoğan was such a person!” (Mehmed Kemal 1983: 171).

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As Karakuş (1977: 12) states, Ankara was only the boulevard of Atatürk and he kept his eyes on the region between Çankaya and Ulus. Even the observations of Falih Rıfkı Atay affirmed this testimony, since says, “Contrary to the plans, He spent much of his money to decoration of the boulevard that was used by Atatürk” (Atay, 1969: 424). It was swept and watered in every day and also in the nights it was carefully lightened. Summer seasons, the two sides of the boulevard were occasionally washed by street sprinklers in such a way that a German woman with his two children walked shoeless in the boulevard (Bahar, 2003: 78). The governor was so much careful about it. One day he has seen a stack of sand in front of a house on the boulevard and then he woke up and brought municipality personals to the place of crime scene. They woke up householder and cleaned to him the stack of sand in the midnight. He did not restrict himself with the cleanliness of boulevard; no one could see any untidy persons walking on the boulevard which also a rumor among the people of the city. Tandoğan was the powerful eyes of the new regime as well as was its ears in Ankara. He beholds and hears not only the ordinary peoples but also the foreign spies walking around the streets of the city. The people of Ankara knew that the he was following the new comers wake in the city. In relation to this, there is an anecdote told by Beki L. Bahar (2003: 79): Before the 1940, one of his father’s relatives went to Ankara to find a job. When he was searching a job he notified that some persons were following him where he went. He though that this was resulted from his purse and then he opened his purse and began to it oranges in the street. Thus, the following was ended. According to Kocabaşoğlu (1990: 197) Tandoğan’s relations with the people of Ankara were based on “guardian and ward” relation because he had such objectives as “education and modernization of people” and “saving people from the evils.” The same concern could be seen in state elite’s relations with the people of country. It can also be said that Ankara had been successfully achieved the duty of becoming a model on this issue to the rest of the country. There is not much information about whether the people of Ankara were complaining about this mode of relation or not. After all, Tandogan’s all activities were aiming such objectives as conform and security of his people. Yet, the conformity of modern Ankara was

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totally remote not only from the conformity of country but also the conformity of old Ankara. As Melih Cevdet Anday has told, Tandoğan has expelled the journalist Ertuğrul Şevket from Ankara for the reason that the journalist has published news about poor children who were trying to watch the dance in Palas from the avenue (Oktay, 2001: 282). It was the possibility of any murder attempt in Ankara that too much worried Tandogan. Therefore, he neither gave permission of building construction in the areas that were close to İnönü’s house in Çankaya nor allowed Bahçelievler Cooperative to build houses because he feared that if a person settles to a close area to the city could easily organize a murder attempt. For the same reasons he objected to the construction of Ankara radio station on Boulevard.

3.8. After 1950: The Decline of Ankara

From 1950 to 1954, Arif Benderlioğlu, the mayor of Ankara has told about a frightening landscape he encountered with during his early day city walks. The migration of individuals to Ankara every day has disturbed the mayor. Even the governor Necati İlter of those days was complaining about inadequacy of the laws to prevent the migration of people to Ankara with the hope of finding a job in the city. The municipality neither was able to settle these people according to a settlement plan nor had enough number of personal to prevent the rise of gecekondus (Benderlioğlu ?: 23-24). The government issued a law in 1948 numbered 5218 that gave Ankara municipality to provide cheap houses for homeless individuals. The reflection of law in practice was the building of Yenimahalle district. The persons who want to make use of the provision of law must be pertinent to the following qualifications: “he had to be living for ten years in the district of municipality, neither his wife nor his child had a house or land to build a house or any other economic sources” (Benderlioğlu, ?: 25). The individuals to whom the municipality bestowed them an area had to build a house that was appropriate to the measures of municipality. In terms of both municipality and individuals the Yenimahalle project will create some problems. First of all, although the inability of municipality to

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conduct infrastructure services created disquiet among the settled persons, the reason of municipality’s disorder was resulted from such conditions as the individuals were building their houses without taking into account the housing measurement of the municipality; rather they built their house according to their personal whims and advantages (Benderlioğlu: 26). Benderlioglu has considered this situation as the misbehavior of individuals. Nevertheless, the main reason of the problem was resulted from the fact that planners determined the house styles according to their own perspectives without the participation of the persons that would be house owners in that region. This was indeed one of the central problems of city planners. In the modern times, behind the basis of mass housing there lie the following conditions: the planners do not take into the account not only the personal and social customs but also the personal taste and demands of the individuals; rather than considering each individuals needs and characters, the planners built houses in line with their own ideal-type, general and abstract, and silent individual conceptions. The Fordist mass production’s abstract, passive and characterless individual has substituted for the living individuals. According to Benderlioğlu, this Yenimahalle practice, in terms of Turkish city Planning is indeed an important experience area. After the building of Yenimahalle quarter, some planners had learned that it was a necessity to take into account the roads’ infrastructure services with the planning of them, which also decreased the general expenses. Yet, it is not known whether this experience or its results have been taken into account in the following urbanization activities. This is indeed another point of discussion. After the Democrat Party government, especially after the 1951, Ankara lost its previous privileged share in general budget. Afterwards, Ankara municipality’s budget had become unable to solve either the problems that were resulted from the presence of many state, educational and the foreign institutions or water problem of the city. After Municipality had reported to the government its lack of economic or other resources to substitute the requirements of the city, the government accepted principally to add an entry to the aid section of 1951 budget. But this suggestion did not easily accept. Legislators have objected by saying that within the map of Turkey besides the Ankara there are other cities such as Van, Erzurum, and Hakkari

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(Benderlioğlu ?: 28). After the long discussions, they accepted to give 500 thousands Turkish liras for once as an aid. Afterwards, this budget aid to Ankara was given up; Ankara started to live only by using its own resources. Many aspects of the early Republican Ankara have been missing in the course of time. Many monuments of the early Republican period look like loosing their influence on people today, as their proportional relation with environment was broken such as Victory Monument in Ulus or Kızılay Güven Monument. According to Şenyapılı (1996: 234-235), these works, which were considered as monuments for a while, have lost their monumental features. In the past, it was impossible not to notice these art works. However, right now, many people do not notice these works, at all. Since, “monumental” buildings surround their environment nowadays and their sizes were rightly proportional with messages they want to give once they were built. However, they do not fit to the measure of their environment at all today. The unexpected grow of the city obviously swallowed many of comparatively small monuments of the Republic. An important development is the appearance of a new type of sociability among people in the urban area. The fellow countryman, hemşeri, associations have been founded in many cities and they can be assessed a spontaneous and nonideological counterpart, which are coming from below, of earlier organization of the People’s Houses. The hemşeri associations demonstrate the fragmented character of the process of urbanization in Turkey. These associations show that the urban integration has not been entirely completed in Turkey, i.e. the rural and local origins are still significant in the urbanizing process. Those kinds of associations actually function as the centers of spiritual and psychological mutual support for the immigrant people coming from the same area to live in the city. These associations sign the two sided relation of the urbanized peoples with the city, i.e. they are both the native and the foreigner of the city. The anonymity of the city lived in stands in front of the familiarity of the geographical region where family roots extended. On the other hand it is not wrong to say that these associations have emerged in the blanks remained back as a result of annihilation of the traditional quarter (mahalle) communities and their cultures by the political elites in the course of modernization

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voluntarily or involuntarily. In could be discussed that possibly the Arabesk music is a result of this social occasion. Urbanization seems to be a kind of ‘deterritorialization’ but at the same time to be not able to achieving a new reterritorialization. The hom*ogeneity of homeland culture of the people coming together in the fellow countrymen associations takes place of the hom*ogeneity of quarter culture. . In the cities which have grown with the immigration but not just acquired an anonymous character, in the mind of people, a separation between native and foreigner seems. On the contrary of the partial hom*ogeneity of the natives, the foreigners are deprived of a cultural and a social hom*ogeneity. The fellow countryman associations have taken the role to be basic spaces where familiarity takes place of anonymousness and hom*ogeneity place of the heterogeneity. The fellow countryman communities are opposing the urbane ideals and national community of political elites. Ankara seems to lose its early optimistic impression on literate men/women. “There is a stereotyped idea in my mind that Ankara gives no inspiration for literature to man…At the first look, it seems to me that Ankara is an artificial city” (Atasü, 1996: 49). For Teymur (1996: 351), Ankara was not a city that excites people. On the opposite, it was a tedious city and its buildings fit to this. “We can say that to what extent the Official Newspaper was literature; Ankara was a poem in such manner. When Ayla Kutlu came to Ankara for higher education in 1956, Ankara was a city in mud and wet clay. The time that Menderes was saying “İmar-improvement” and nothing else.” (Kutlu, 1996: 310). Although a second planning was made Ankara in 1950’s, it continued gradually to lose its character to be a planned city. “1970’s Ankara was not a city that supported by public funds and developed according to a plan. It showed the use of mixed lands, was exposed to land speculation, buildings without quality were built in, could not cope with shanty towns, with plenty of illegal constructions, electric and water services are broken often, muddy, dusty, with broken roads, without pavements, in sum, it was city of which municipal services were totally hindered” (Şenyapılı, 1996: 253). In Ankara, there were huge chestnut trees between Sıhhıye and Kızılay on both sides of the boulevard. One night after the year 1950 these trees are torn down in order to broaden the road. According to

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Arcayürek (2005: 11), “as if everything was gone badly after the death of these trees. The beauties began to fade. Lots of things evaporated.” The Republican intelligentsia, today, generally makes a differentiation in the history of Ankara between the period of the Single Party and the multi-party period. It seems clearly that as stated by Kepenek (2000: 423), Ankara has begun to lose the position to be the capital of modernization, development and revival of Turkey since 1950. Moreover, Ankara has gradually transformed into the symbol of an obstructing power with its clumsy bureaucracy and its conservative nationalist policies, its “notion of the national security” and its incapable politicians. Now, the governments and bureaucracy of Ankara cannot produce solution to the problems of the country. On the contrary, they produce more problems with every day that passes. For Erdost (2000: 395), Ankara is not a city, but a house of torture (işkencehane). The most important, it has lost its will to transform the country in accordance with the necessities of civilized life. For Mumcu (2000: 428), Ankara become the one of cities which is most affected by the general degeneration in Turkey. When it was a city of university, a city of officials, a European city, now, it was transformed into an Arabesk city. By the end of 1930s, Ankara has begun to witness a “barbarian invasion” that will later develop its arabesk culture that is contrary to the elitist culture of the Republic. This general degeneration declares the end of the Republican project. As a city created ex nihilo, Ankara is a laboratory besides being a model for the urbanization of the rest of the country. It can be assumed as a work of art, perhaps, limited numbered one of the greatest works of art in the world when its size is regarded, in terms of its idea and execution. Nevertheless, even as an artistic work it is the very conscious production of a will with a positivist ideology and project of civilization, and thus, it is an artificial creation beyond every kind of spontaneously developed city. After the great siege of non-modernized ordinary people around the city with their gecekondus, even if it lost more things from its modern character, it can transform itself into a real, a natural city beyond an utopist city, an ideal city. It saved itself from the search for purity and hom*ogeneity. It has gone beyond being a saved enormous site having non-degenerated hom*ogenous culture. After 1950, in the period of multi-party regime, the governments of right wing tried to revitalize the

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image of Ottoman instead of the politics of previous period in order to efface its clues. This means an obvious departure from the project of creating a new nation. The decline of Republican Ankara is a general consequence of the worldwide intellectual and moral fluctuations. For a long time, the ideals and moral principles which Ankara represents has lost their values. The Republican conception of nation has pushed it in a search for purity, hom*ogeneity and coherence. The Republic has become insistent and envious to defend those values of the Enlightenment. It was a part of attempt to establish a “community” on the secular values. In the mind of the Republican elites, the Turkish nation is not a phenomenon of the past but a phenomenon that will appear in future with its all magnificence. This nation is saved from all the concrete historical, ethnic, or religious ties of identity. That project makes the Republican elite more sensible and but negative to the demand of different identities to be visible in the public area. It was, as stated by Robins (1997:70), “the image of a unitary and unified people, the People-as-One, that figured in the project to create a new life in Turkey. There was no place for ethnic and religious differences in this project, but neither, too, was there room for social and political differences.” The fear of separation has always become a dominant psychological motive to hate each kind of pluralism. Therefore, each kind of demand which would come from below was generally perceived as a threat to the modernization project of the state elites and then generally disregarded by them. Since they aimed to control entirely the social events exposed to the effects of the modernization process, they had narrowed the domain in which civic and individual initiative took place, and deferred the demands coming from the people into uncertain future at the end of modernization of the country. Ankara with the values it represents belongs to the period before the WorldWar II. The republican elites have seen themselves as the real and privileged owners of the modernization project and they are unwilling to renounce this role. Therefore, they are opponents to the social and political transformations outside of their control. Ankara is one of the exciting experiences in the human history with its success and failures. The role charged to Ankara was to be a model with its modern civilized life for the nation. Contrary to the attempt of its founder, life is not a matter to be planned

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in advance. Ankara fails to transform the country in the way that the republican elite desired. The city has been occupied by the ordinary people and they and Ankara mutually transformed other. Although, the Turkish state continues to demands from its citizens to prove their loyalty to the republican ideals so as to gain the real rights of citizenship, many different identities have flourished in Ankara. With its new distorted modernity, it has become not the ideal city of the elites but a city of the people.

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CHAPTER 4

CULTURE AND IDENTITY FROM THE EMPIRE TO THE REPUBLIC

For the republican elite Ottoman modernization is distorted process consisted of imitation and emulation and should be stayed far from. For a Republican intellectual, contrary to the Ottomans, modernization/Westernization is a problem of existence, being exist beyond a powerful state. Either as a whole nation we were going to be westernized and take our place among the nations as one of them which constitute the modern Western civilization, or it would be to loose its liberty as a society of Middle Ages ignorant of reason, science, and civilization. In order to save itself from the domination of the Western powers which threats the national freedom the nation had to take place among them by being equal one of them. This is a project that its realization is possible by the society’s emancipation from its entire demoded historical and cultural institutions, tradition and customs and their substitution with the ones entirely Western. This is the radicalizing aspect of the Republic’s modernization project. The purpose was to create a new modern man, create him almost out of “nothing”. The aim was that when a European looks at, he will see across a European man equal to himself instead of an Oriental being ontologically in lower status. For this, not only a material change but also a spiritual, ethical-moral reformation needed. Artistic products constitute an important part of spiritual transformation of the society. To take western arts is the precondition of perfection. In the Bursa speech given on January 22, 1923, Mustafa Kemal clearly declares this: “People need some things to become perfect. A nation that do not make painting, a nation that do not make sculpture, a nation that do not behave accordingly with the rules of science, it should be stated that this nation do not have place in the path of development” (cited by Saygun,?: 35). It is quite meaningful that two artistic branches chosen for improvement and development were painting and sculpture. This is an expression referring to the necessary transformation of the traditional

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Islamic view, which bans the figuration of any living creature. Although in addition to miniature painting, western style painting came to the Ottoman society through the Tanzimat period, sculpture was still considered as a foreign element for the society to the extent that not having a place in public consciousness. The society was going to be spiritually transformed in such a way that they accept this artistic form, which used to be considered as the symbol of idolatry, as an ordinary form of art, this was the thing wishfully wanted. Artistic styles would be transformed into symbols of being modern and definer and complementary components of a modern identity by the attribution of political and cultural meanings beyond their existence in modernity. For this “European” Turk the most dangerous threats were the traditional Islamic view and Ottoman inheritance with its Oriental mind. The Republican intellectual understanding of the Ottoman presents a complex view. This approach is dependent on the difference of Ottoman and Turkish clearly theorized by Gokalp. Ottoman centuries are not seen as a past from which the Republic raised nor to which they belong. On the contrary, the Ottoman Empire is thought as an external imperialist enemy that took Turks under its exploitation. Meanwhile, it is also a rival that permanently constitutes a fatal threat for the Republic of Turks. It is seen as a strange creation that symbolizes negative, false, everything should not be happened in its personality. The historical enemy of Europe is also the enemy of “European” Turks. To destroy all footsteps of this common enemy and eliminate remnants of this Oriental mentality and despotism is the duty undertaken on its own by modern Turkey, which is excessively wishful to take its modern place among European nations. From the view of the political elite who founded new state the Republic is not simply a problem of a regime change. If the problem were only a transition from the monarchy to the republic, there would be continuity between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. On the contrary, the Republican elite sees the Ottoman period as a dark age that all ties should be broken from, in which Turks were living in under the slavery of dewshirmes. The problem here to be spoken about is a war “to create a society again, which was insulted and oppressed by the administration of Ottoman lords within the feudal understanding of centuries” (Saygun: 34). For this

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reason the Republican elite rejected the Ottoman high culture and turned its face to folklore as a raw material that should be processed within Western cultural forms. In order to understand the program of the Republican elite for the cultural transformation of the society, the aesthetic domains of culture present important clues. Therefore, in the following section, three esthetich issue and language as a constituent part of culture will be examined. It also constitutes the strategy of the Republican elite to cope with the intellectual-cultural crisis which has continued for a long time. Those aesthetic and cultural elements had a special importance for the Republican elite in creating a modern society as a national entity. Whereas the new ways of architectural and spatial design of the cities could not be generally met a resistance among the ordinary people and intellectuals, the domains of music and language has become the area of heated discussions and oppositions toward the cultural program of the Republican elite. Although it has lost many things of its traditional forms in the modernization process, the domain of the music has become main resistance point of traditional culture toward modern cultural forms. Therefore, the situation of the music in the modern Turkey merits a special attention in evaluating the success of the endeavor of the Republican elite to create a modern nation depending on the Western social and cultural norms.

4.1. Music and Politics of Identity: The Emergence of Modern Man from the Rhytm of the Music Music constitutes an important aspect of the cultural and identity policies in the Republican period. The founders of the Republic had a special interest in music. In his opening speech for the new period of 1934 of The Grand National Assembly, Mustafa Kemal had stated explicitly what music has to stand for in the Turkish modernization. “The measurement in the change of a nation is its ability to accept, to comprehend the change in music” (Oransay; 1985: 26). Music had been stated as the measurement of the success of the Turkish modernization by Mustafa Kemal himself. We would consider music and understand how much we had modernized. It is not expected that music would transform according to the new living conditions as

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a result of the society’s modernization. Like the other cultural institutions of the society, music is also an object of the political intervention. Mustafa Kemal put forward a very clear and yet equally hard goal for the success of the revolution. For this reason, one of the main cultural areas of measurement for the success of the Republic’s identity policy to form a western, hom*ogeneous, and coherent Turkish national identity and to impose it to the public is undoubtedly the condition which the Turkish music has arrived at. Turkey is not the only country that treated music as an important aspect of cultural policy. Music has been considered as a political uniting factor to create a hom*ogeneous national identity in the societies which are composed of culturally and ethnically heterogeneous elements. Afghanistan which was affected by the Kemalist reforms in Turkey represents an unusual example. In Afghanistan which is made up of different ethic groups Like Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen, Baluch, Kazakh, etc., music had been considered as a useful tool to form a common national identity to unite these people which share no ethnical aspect. The synthesis achieved by the systematization and improvement of the music cultures of Pashtuns and the Tajiks that make up the two large ethnic groups in Afghanistan, in the leading of the theory and practice of the Indian music, would constitute the basis of the national music that represents the Afghan identity (Baily; 1994). This experience would be aborted as a result of the Soviet intervention to Afghanistan in the late 1970’s. Another country which is in a more similar situation with Turkey is Greece. Like in Turkey, the Greece nationalist intellectuals had internalized the Orientalist expression and looked at the “oriental” components in the public from this perspective. A similar attitude of the Republican elite in Turkey involving contempt and despise against the Classical Turkish Music and later the Arabesk Music, can be seen in the manner of the government elite against Rebetika which is made up by the synthesis of eastern and western elements.

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4.1.1. Music in the Last Period of the Ottoman Empire and the Arise of the New Forms Along history, although the Ottomans had the opportunity to contact with the Western music by various causes, the effect of the Western music on the Ottoman music had been limited to the adaptation of some musical instruments like violin and clarinet, to the Turkish music. The permanent penetration of the Western music into the Ottoman society would be by the reforms of the Sultan Mahmud II in the early 19th century. In 1826 while the Janissary corps was being brutally abolished by the Sultan, the Mehter organization was to be abolished as well because of its historical relation with the Janissaries. With the establishment of the military band as a part of the military reforms, western music would try to take a place in the Ottoman society firstly as an official music institutionalized in the state. Mehter music, besides being a military music, was a popular music functioning in the daily life of the people. The army mehter bands involved many musicians who worked only at the times of war and performed among the society at the other times, and these musicians had enriched the mehter repertoire with many works that do not have any military character. Mehter bands had quite a rich repertoire that consisted of bestes, semais, peşrevs, nakışes, murabbas, türküs and kalenderis belonging to traditional/classical music, folk music and dance music. Furthermore it had a character of open-air orchestra with its crowded staff (Sanal; 1964: III, Aksoy; 1985: 1214). Mehter performers were divided into two classes as the “tabl ü alem mehters” who were included in the official institution, and the “artisan (esnaf) mehters” who were only included in the Mehter band at the times of war. The Mehters of the second class made their living by joining marriage ceremonies, parties, festivals and amusing the people with musical instruments like davul (a frame drum), zurna, nakkare, daire (tambourine) (Sanal; 1964: 4-5). Haydar Sanal claims that the number of the artisan mehters in the Empire is appropriate to be expressed by ten thousands. Mehter music was a popular music which was performed for everyone and had the largest listener support in the society and listened by the men from all the layers of the Ottoman social hierarchy from the sultan to the ordinary people (Popescu; 1996: 50).

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The Mehter, as stated by Evliya Celebi, was ready everywhere the prophet’s flag was waving. Mehteran-ı Tabl-ı Alem-i Hassa which took part at the official ceremonies represented one of the obvious symbols of the empire’s might and magnificence (Popescu; 1996: 54, 56). The abolishment of Mehterhane and quitting one of the symbols of power can be seen as a sign of the decisiveness of Sultan Mahmud II to leave the old claims of superiority against the West and to transform the Empire in order to take place among them. Nevertheless, the marks of a music which had been so familiar with the whole society would not fade easily. The traces of Mehter music have reached the present time under the names like ceng-i harbi, seymen havası, koşu havası, çirit havası, etc. (Sanal; 1964: VI). Eighty-eight years after the abolishment of Mehterhane in 1826, it is re-established in 1914 by the influence of the act of Turkism with the name of Mehterhane-i Hakani which is related to the Müze-i Askeri-i Osmani (the Ottoman Military Museum). Mehterhane, which is closed again in 1935 by Zekâi Apaydın, the Minister of National Defense, for the reason that it was a bad copy of the original, is re-established for the third time in 1952 as a nostalgic institution. By the 1990’s, it would gain the interest of nationalist and Ottomanist-Islamist groups because of its symbolic value rather than its aesthetic value. In the newly formed army, a military band called Muzika-yı Hümayun, which was designed in a European style, was established instead of Mehterhane. In 1828, Giuseppe Donizetti who was the brother of the famous opera composer Gaetano Donizetti was brought from Italy to be the head of the military band. He was given the title Pasha in 1833 and made to establish the Palace Music School (Saray Mızıka Mektebi). With the addition of orchestral instruments to the band, the first and the only orchestra until 1944 was established (Oransay; 1983a: 1519). Donizetti taught his students the Western musical notes and brought new instruments from Italy and instructors for each of them. Although with a quite limited repertoire, the Western music became the government’s official music. From now on, the band was present wherever the sultan went, joined every military training and ceremony, played at the official dinners, festivals, marriage ceremonies and in the streets (Aksoy; 1985: 1216). Mahmud II, who was composing songs and playing ney and tambur,

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continued to listen to both the Western music and the Ottoman music. The institutional duality, which had arisen in almost all cultural and political areas from education to judiciary through the Ottoman modernization, emerged in this period in the music as well. We see musical plays, operettas and operas in Istanbul in the late 1830’s and the early 40’s. The two leading places presenting the Western shows has been the “French Theater” in Galatasaray which was belonged to a Venetian called Giustiniani, and the “Bosko Theater” in Beyoğlu. In this period of time many artists and bands from Europe came to Istanbul and performed on stage. Dikran Çuhacıyan (1836-1898), who has completed his education in Italy where he was sent by his family, established the first operetta theater and composed operetta and opera for the first time. His compositions which are under the influence of Italian opera-buffas, involved a search for forming a compound between the characteristics of Turkish music and the Western technique (Aksoy; 1985: 1218, 1222). Callisto Guatelli, another Italian who was brought to be the head of the band and the orchestra after Donizetti’s death in 1856, directed the members of the band to compose marches respecting the traditional musical intervals and using local patterns. The opening of the theater that has a capacity of three hundred people which was built by Sultan Abdülmecit in Dolmabahçe Palace was held in 1859 with an opera performed by foreign artists. Sultan Abdülaziz was to define Western music as “much ado about nothing” and canceled all the activities of music except the band. In the era of Abdülhamit II, the interest of the palace to the Western music revived. Abdülhamit built the Yıldız Theater in 1889. He established a permanent team of opera and operetta in the palace. The first Turkish operettas, Arif’in Hilesi by Dikran Çuhacıyan and Pembe Kız ve Çengi by Kemani Haydar Bey, were staged at Gedikpaşa Theater which belongs to Güllü Agop. Kanto was another type of music which was presented first in Güllü Agop’s theater. It is widely accepted that the begining of Kanto is in 1870. The name of kanto was inherited to Turkish language from the Italian word ‘cantare’ which means to sing a song. Kanto songs were sung in the intermissions of the play to cheer the stage, to liven up the program and to draw more audience. Afterwards, canto

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became widespread and established itself as the main way to satisfy people’s desire to be amused in all the theaters and musical entertainment locations. In Kanto songs it is possible to see all kinds of people from every kind of profession reflecting the rich ethnical structure of the empire. Sellers of roasted chickpea, boza, halvah, pickle, rag and ice-cream, carters, Persian and Jew traders, Lazs and Gypsies were all there in the songs. Kantos might be duet as well as solo. The subject of the duets is focused more on the artisan and the event (Hiçyılmaz; 1999: 22, 38). Many elements ranging from the new professions of modern life like typewriter girls to wife-husband quarrels and reconciliations are used to entertain the audience. Kanto is a stage show in which personalities that we may encounter anytime in urban daily life are characterized and the funny elements are displayed. Kanto has a character of “a type of musical journal, animate caricature, and funny comment” and is the most “current” type of art seen in the Turkish society (Belge; 1983: 375). Kanto, influenced by a wide variety of types, was an art including dance. Kanto singers presented their songs to the audience while dancing on the stage. Kanto, which we can define as a synthesis consisting of a free combination of Western musical elements and native elements, lost its public interest in 1920’s. Another popular music, which appeared in the same period with Kanto as an extension of the new urban culture which emerged as a result of interaction with Europe and became popular among the Greek citizens of the Empire, was Rebetika. The first Rebetika songs, especially the love songs, would rise upon the Greek folk music and the urban songs of the Greek people in Istanbul and Smyrna. We see the type of music which is called cafe amanes or amanédhes (because of the Turkish word Aman which was frequently sung in it) and was performed in the Greek coffee houses in Istanbul and in Smyrna in the early 1900’s as the first form of Rebetika. The name of the style is coming from the Turkish refrain “aman, aman” in the music. Instruments like violin, kanun, santur, ud and bağlama are played by the band which accompanies the singer. The fact that Rebetika, with its hybrid characteristics, was a kind of music that could not satisfy the demands of any nationalism looking for cultural authenticity and purity, can be thought as the reason for its being insulted in the time of Metexas. It is a phenomenon that represents an anti-national character

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from its rhythms to its instruments, melodies and performers (there are Orthodox Albanians and Jews among its musicians and soloists), dances and even the land where its roots entrenched. For a long time it would wait for the returning of its esteem in Greece until two musicians, Theodorakis’ and Hacıdakis’ use of the Rebetika rhythms, instruments and musicians in their music (Holst; 1993: 79). Afterwards it would be treated as the original Greek music. After the abolishment of the house of Mehter in 1826, following Sultan Mahmud II’s reign, the music activities have begun to be performed outside of the Ottoman Palace as being less dependent to the palace, mainly at the mansions, waterside houses, special People’s Houses as a result of the palace’s decreasing interest in traditional music. It can be seen that orientations emerged in the music in order to adapt itself to the changing social conditions. Dede Efendi, who did works in all the forms of the traditional/classical Ottoman music, besides these, sought the ways to answer the tastes of the ordinary urbanite people with his compositions on the forms of the light songs, köçekçes, and folk songs. In the meantime, the works, considering the melodic structure of the Western music, were composed as well (Aksoy; 1985: 1230). Dede Efendi’s songs Görsem Seni Doyunca, Yine Bir Gülnihal, Emin Ağa’s Acemaşiran Peşrev, Şakir Ağa’s Ferahnak Yürük Nev and many more can be counted among these. In the second half of the 19th century, by Hacı Arif and after him by Şevki Bey, the song form which the olds regard as a lighter kind began to become widespread. This leads to a decrease in the compositions that were made in the other classical styles. Individuality and sentimentalism began to dominate the music and the heavy and “solemn” style of the classical fashion was left (Aksoy; 1985: 1231). The song form also changed in time and decided on the type called fantasy in the Republican period. Another aspect of the song form leaving the old was its direction to the new poem style which came out under the influence of the West, instead of “divan” poem, thus it has changed its language and adapted it to the period. The man problem of the Classical Ottoman-Turkish music was the need to transform itself according to the popular taste such a way that it could reach more people outside of the palace in order to survive.

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In the Second Constitutional period the palace orchestra and band in the body of Muzika-yı Hümayun, began to arrange public concerts. The orchestra toured in Europe under the administration of Zeki Bey in 1917 for the firs time. After the tour the orchestra began to give regular weekly concerts in Istanbul. In 1918, Kenan Çobanları, the first Turkish opera whose libretto was written by Halide Edip, composed by Vedi Sabra, was staged. Again in this period, there were innovations in the educational field. In 1915 music lesson was involved in schools. In 1917 the Ministry of Education established Darülelhan which is an educational institution open to public, where both traditional and western music was to be taught. In 1920 folk music compilations were began to be made in Darülelhan. In short, this was the scene in music on the threshold of the establishment of the Republic: It can be seen that the song form called “nevzemin” in traditional/classical music has became the dominant style with Hacı Arif; there are music performers qualified to constitute an orchestra that can tour in Europe, even its composition ability in the style of Classical Western Music is not much improved; and in stage music, there is the operetta style with many operetta companies that can stand with audience support besides Kanto.

4.1.2. Ziya Gökalp and the National Music As depending on its politics of culture and identity to constitute a nation, in the applications of the newly established Republic in the domain of music was in parallelism with Ziya Gökalp’s views on the issue. Ziya Gökalp, in his book called The Principles of Turkism (Türkçülüğün Esasları) which was published in 1924, stated that there is an irreconcilable dispute between what is Turkish and what is Ottoman, and the complete elimination of the cultural legacy of the Ottoman is the thing to do. Gökalp, like in many other subjects, put forward thoughts in the matter of music on the basis of this distinction. In fact, thoughts like Gökalp’s about what to do to form a national music were expressed by others as well. Necip Asım (Yazıksız) in his article entitled “Our Language, Our Music” which he published in 1919 in Türk Yurdu journal, had stated similar views (Behar; 1987: 94). Necip Asım defends that national operas have to be composed depending on the Anatolian folk music. He

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even defended that to achieve this, a music professional have to be brought from Hungary and the complete works of folk music which was compiled have to be given to his skillful hands; this reminds immediately the famous musician who was invited from Hungary to Turkey in 1934, Bartok. For Gökalp there are two kinds of music living together in Turkey. One of them is folk melodies which live among the people and is the continuation of the old Turkish music, and the other is the Ottoman or Eastern music which was translated and cited from Byzantium (Gökalp; 1990:32, 145). For Gökalp, while the Turkish music was grown among the people by inspiration, Ottoman music is taken from outside by means of imitation. In Gökalp’s distinction of culture and civilization, the folk melodies belong to the national culture, the Ottoman music belongs to the Eastern civilization. National culture consists of emotions and their works that can not be taken from other nations. These are conceptualized by Gökalp as free creations that are not made according to any style and system. In short, culture, in a more modern expression, defines what is “authentic” and “original”. And civilization is defined as the whole of the concepts and techniques that are made with style and transferred from one nation to another by means of imitation. From this distinction, Gökalp describes Ottoman music as “a science consisting of rules”, and says that Turkish music is “made up of melodies without any rule, style or science, intimate melodies that emerges from the Turk’s heart”. The description of Turkish music as without rule, style and science, is a usage which is to leave no doubt on the virginity, being away from any intellectuality, and the truthfulness of the authenticity of folk music. This amorphousness of folk music far from models is a proof that it is not taken from any other nation. In Anatolia, which is a region that many nations and ethnic groups are blended and combined, Turkish folk music was able to maintain its ethnic purity and is presented as protected from any kind of influence. On the other hand the Ottoman or Eastern music which is taken from Byzantium, as stated by Gökalp, is music that is both “ill” and anti-national. The reason of the illness of Eastern music is its lack of harmony and inclusion of the quarter sounds (çeyrek sesler). These two flaws in Western music that was left from Greek music are removed by the Opera institution developed in Medieval Europe. Quarter sounds

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were dropped because they did not fit in opera, and at the same time harmony was included in music. In any case, the reason for the insistence and sensitivity of the Republican founder elite to develop a national opera institution in the beginning has to be looked for here. Because opera is perceived as the basis which Western music raised upon, it is thought that the first thing to do is to constitute a powerful opera tradition in Turkey too and efforts were made in this direction. A rather heated subject matter of discussion remained from Gökalp as to music is the subject of natural sounds. In fact this discussion is also an example of looking at the matter completely in an unaesthetic perspective. According to Gökalp the quarter sounds are not “natural” and so they are not encountered in any nation’s folk melodies. The quarter sounds were invented by the Greeks and Greek music is not natural but artificial because it uses these sounds. Accordingly, although Gökalp does not express it clearly, Greek music has to be ill like its unchanging successor Eastern music. In the end, what this imputation of illness implies is that the people who produce this kind music and the civilizations which it was grown in are ill, pathological. This ill music is foreign to the nation and then anti-national. In fact Gökalp’s distinction between Ottoman music and Turkish (folk) music and the arguments that he brought for strengthening this is quite meaningless in their own. Those are only what are cut as a share for music from his theory of nationalism depending on the dichotomy that he conceptualized as an irreconcilable dispute between the Turkish and the Ottoman. The class listening to the Eastern music, is the Ottoman class which is a cosmopolitan and imperialist class alienated to the nation, who holds the benefit of the class over the benefit of the nation (Gökalp; 1990: 38). This never reconciling structure of dual columns covers all of the cultural area, even the morality, and separates the Turkish type whose everything is beautiful from the Ottoman type whose everything is ugly (Gökalp: 35, 38) by strict borders. As a result, the melodic basis for the national music to be built upon is the primitive folk music. National music will come out by the process of the folk melodies in the forms of Western music. On the contrary to the Ottoman music, the western music is not a foreign music. That is the music of the new civilization of the Turkish nation. Harmonizing the folk melodies with the styles of western music is what must be

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done (Gökalp: 146-147). This musical view of Gökalp, although it does not have any scientific value in terms of the claims involved, would form the general frame for the applications of the Republic about music.

4.1.3. Traditional Ottoman/Turkish Music in the Republican Period Only one year after the proclamation of the Republic, in 1924, Musiki Muallim Mektebi which gives education only about the Classical Western Music and its instruments was established. In an educational institution which is established to train musical teachers for the junior high school, traditional music is completely excluded and polyphonic music is accepted as the government’s official music. The practice bears the first sign as in what direction the government’s interest in music would be. 1925 would be the year of the beginning of bad luck for the Classical Turkish music. The abolishment of the dervish lodges in 1925 means the destruction of one of the important places where Classical Turkish Music found life. Mevlevi, Bektaşi, Rufai, Kadiri lodges constituted one of the traditional music production places in the Ottoman society. Especially the Mevlevihanes became one of the important centers of the art production throughout the Ottoman Empire and trained many important poets, composers and performers. Large scale kinds of religious music performed in these places were dependent on the lodge’s circle of rite and its space. When its natural place is destroyed, yet another important musical tradition which constitutes a part of the Turkish music was to become lifeless after Mehter music. Lodges were important centers in production and transfer of other secular (lâdini) forms of music as well as religious music. Since the lodges had an identity of school for the Classical Turkish Music, by their abolishment, an important source of the Traditional/Classical Turkish Music was destroyed. According to the decision that was made at the Sanayi-i Nefise Encümeni meeting organized by the Ministry of Education in the summer of 1926 in Ankara, traditional music was canceled from all of the educational institutions in Turkey and musical education based on western methods began to be given. Besides this, the

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Eastern Music Department of Darülelhan was also closed ending the education of Turkish music and transformed into Istanbul Municipality Conservatory. After a year, a staff of three people consisting of Rauf Yekta Bey, İsmail Hakkı Bey and Zekâizade Hafız Ahmet Irsoy was formed “on condition that it would not be in an instructional and educational character”, and it was allowed to work in the conservatory when there is no lesson (Tanrıkorur, 1998: 59). From this year until 1979, except a limited education allowed in Istanbul Municipality Conservatory administered by Saadeddin Arel in 1943 (Tura, 1983: 1515), The Classical Turkish Music education is not given officially in any governmental institution (Behar, 1987: 140). One of the important years for the denouement of Turkish music would be the year of 1934. Mustafa Kemal on November, 1, 1934 during the speech he gave at the opening of the Grand National Assembly, called attention to the issue of music, by saying that: “The music that is tried to make the world listen is not ours. For this reason, that is far from making us proud.” He expressed his wish for the Ministry of Culture to take care about that with the help of the public (Oransay, 1985: 26). Atatürk, in the same speech, stated what must be done like this: “We must collect high folk poems, folk songs that tell about national, refined emotions and thoughts, and then rework them according to the general laws of music as soon as possible. Turkish national music can only rise and have its place in the universal music in this way.” Instead of the Ministry of Culture that was called to attention, the Ministry of Interior would take action and at the other day would forbid broadcasting of the Classical Turkish Music. The message of the Anatolia News Agency (Anadolu Ajansı) about this subject dated on November, 3, 1934 goes like this:

Ankara (A.A.) – The Minister of Interior inspired by reverend Gazi’s guidance about alaturka music, have informed that alaturka music would be removed from the radio programs from this night on and only the songs with national patterns composed in the western technique would be played by artists who know the western technique (cited by Oransay; 1985: 49).

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Considering the content of the Anatolian News Agency’s message, it can be seen that the prohibition is not only on Classical Turkish Music but all music which is monophonic; so that the prohibition includes the folk music which is given a special importance by the Republican music project. Only the other day when Istanbul and Ankara transmitters which belonged to the Turkish Radio and Telephone Incorporated Company were earned by the government on September, 5, 1936 because its ten-year assignment was not renewed by the government, the prohibition was removed and folk songs and belly dance music began to air on the radio (Oransay; 1985: 125). It is an interesting situation that the date of the removal of the prohibition was just after the transfer of the radio to the government. It is a controversial matter whether the intention of Mustafa Kemal in this opening speech is a prohibition addressed to Classical Turkish Music. The memory of actor Vasfi Riza Zobu relating to Ataturk in this matter tells that Atatürk’s intention was not a prohibition. At the time that Vasfi Zobu came from Istanbul to Ankara especially on Ataturk’s invitation to read İsfahan Yürük semai of Dellâlzade in 1936, some of the words that he claimed Ataturk said during their conversation are as follows: “Unfortunately, they misunderstood my talk. What a beautiful song is this. I listened to it with pleasure. You did as well. But is there a chance to give any pleasure to a European by singing this song? I meant that there should be found a way to make them listen to Turkish compositions that we gladly listen. By their technique, their knowledge, their instruments, their orchestra…” (Oransay, 1985: 105-106). However, Mustafa Kemal said in his opening speech in 1934 that the music being listened to that day does not belong to them and so does not have a value that would make us proud. Then what was “the music attempted to be listened to” According to Nazife Güngör (1993: 65) what was intended here was not the music of Itri’s or Dede Efendi’s but the music which is their diverted and corrupted forms. The declaration of Mustafa Kemal in an earlier date in 1930 might be more explicative.

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Reporter: I told about the strange aspects of the eastern music for us westerners and said: If there is the only one knowledge of the East that we can’t understand, it is its music. Ghazi contested and said so: These are all remainders of Byzantine. Our original music can be heard in Anatolian people (cited by Saygun, ?: 9). This declaration which he gave to the reporter of Vössische Zeitung shows that Mustafa Kemal does not make discrimination between Itri or Dede Efendi and the others and treats all as Byzantine remainder. “Atatürk repeats often the expression that there is no revolution without music. He used to say that the music of our children and future generations is the one of Western civilization. Although he was pleased with the lightest types of Western music, I do not remember he has made any comparison in the favor of Turkish music that he understood almost all its details with it” (Atay, 1969: 410). The fact that Mustafa Kemal does not enjoy Western music that much, and listens to “alaturka” music gladly, showed by many people’s witnesses, does not change the character of musical revolution. He distinguishes between his special taste and the thing he thinks it ought to be, he does not allow his own appreciation damage the revolution project. Mustafa Kemal, in his speech in 1934, probably had not intended to have a music ban imposed, but did not contest after it was once imposed; he even behaved in an opposite manner. The answer of Mustafa Kemal to Yunus Nadi who said: ““My Pasha, please they do not deprive us of alaturka songs. We are so sad and hurt because of our pleasure and feelings being interfered.” would be “this generation who makes a revolution should be able to abide some sacrifices” (Oransay, 1985: 81-82). This prohibition in 1934 was cancelled upon understanding that the musical revolution was not a job that can be succeeded at once and that it would take time. Neither the cancellation of the prohibition nor even the personal love of Ataturk did make an affirmative change in the negative attitude of the Republican elite towards the Traditional Turkish Music. Even so many years that have passed by could not prevent the hostile competition. In a textbook approved by TrainingEducation Institution, in the work titled Music for High Schools (Liselerde Müzik) by Ekrem Zeki Ün, we still find reflections of Gökalp’s views. In opposition to the fact

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that the subjects of Turkish Folk Music are always “alive” and “guiding”, “Alaturka Urban Music” is a “simple and groaning music that creates in the internal world of a man cheap pleasures and the tendency to yield to destiny” and “represents a pause of minimum nine-ten centuries” (cited by Tanrıkorur, 1998: 51). An intense debate broke out as a result of the demand of the Cultural Minister Talat Sait Halman to arrange an Itri concert in the Conservatory in 1971. Halman’s attempt had led many musicians who had taken education of western music to rebel. Suna Kan had declared that he would return her title of the state Artist (Devlet Sanatcısı) in case of the realization of this concert. By the mediation of İsmet İnönü, the Prime Minister Nihat Erim was convinced and the Itri concert in the Conservatory was cancelled. At the night of the concert Suna Kan would perform in the National Concert Saloon, Itri concert then would be realized in another place, in Big Theater. By special interference of Suna Kan and his neighborhoods modern Turkish Republic would be saved from being introduced to “foreigners as a visage of Ottoman remainder” (Hekimoğlu, 1997: 64-67). Ministers of Erim government would be divided into two, one group would go to the Itri concert and the other would go to listen the recital presented by Suna Kan. Yet the debate would go on in the press. Among the supporters of the debate, Hasan Ali Yücel, the old Minister of Education, authors and musicians such as Ahmet Kabaklı, Adnan Saygun, İlhan Usmanbaş, İlhan Arsel would take place. The supporters of polyphonic music had always talked of the Traditional Classical Turkish Music as music of “Alaturka”, “Eastern”, “Byzantine”, “palace”, “bar room” (meyhane) or with similar scornful expressions. With the best probability, it is seen as a museum piece completed its life span which had lived its brightest period in 17-18th centuries and then degenerating more and more and turned into today’s Turkish Artistic Music. Supporters of the polyphonic music claim that Classical Turkish Music is a music which is more likely to be listened to in Istanbul by the palace circle and an influential cosmopolitan intellectual group who are alienated to society and a music that in no way listened to or understood by the public and accordingly, claim that real Turkish music consists of folk music. Yalçın Tura who is a composer himself and uses the Classical Turkish Music melodies in

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his polyphonic compositions sees this claim as a complete sophistry. He does not admit that folk music is a different type of music from Classical Turkish Music. Because the sound systems, scales, styles and many other aspects that both of them are based on are common. Folk music is not more than a performance of music according to local accent and attitudes (Tura; 1983: 1514). The regard of Classical Western Music from the other side is not much different. Just in 1924 when Mozart’s Requiem was performed in Dar-ül Elhan, Rauf Yekta wrote that “Church music is played and sung in Dar-ül Elhan” (Ali; 1996: 27). Çinuçen Tanrıkorur drew attention that polyphonic chorus in Western music is based on church. The debate between the supporters of polyphonic music and the supporters of monophonic music usually happened in a manner of justifying one’s own and convicting the opposite and mutual accusations formed by prejudice. Education of traditional Turkish music being excluded from education institutions of the government have been carried on by the mediation of civilian voluntary institutions like: “Musiki-i Osmani Mektebi”, “Şark Musiki Cemiyeti”, “Gülşen-i Musiki”, “Üsküdar Musiki Cemiyeti”, “Eyüp Musiki Cemiyeti”, “İzmir Musiki Mektebi” which are established at different dates. It would not be an overstatement to say that in opposition to the formality of polyphonic music, the civilian character of traditional music constitutes an area of freedom outside and sometimes against the government. After the debates in 1971 the government’s resistance would break down and 50 years after the prohibition of its education in official institutions, it would begin to be taught in National Conservatory which was established in 1976. This means that the government gives over the way it pursued to make musical revolution as an official policy. In fact, the year 1950 should be seen as the beginning of the end of the government’s official policy of music, when opponents against CHP had gained the power in a democratic way.

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4.1.4. Polyphonic Music Studies in the Republican Period Atatürk invites Muzıka-i Hümayun composed of an orchestra, band, and a group of musicians and singers who were unemployed after the abolition of Caliphate and the Sultanate to Ankara. In April 1924 its name was changed to Riyaset-i Cumhur Musiki Heyeti and it carried on activities under the patronage of the Republican Presidency. In 1933 the band of the committee would take the name Riyaset-i Cumhur Armoni Mızıkası, the orchestra Riyaset-i Cumhur Filarmoni Orkestrası, and the group of musicians and singers Riyaset-i Cumhur Fasıl Heyeti. After a short time the group of musicians and singers would be abolished and so after the traditional Turkish music’s education its performance would also be excluded from the national institutions. On September 1924 Music Teacher School was opened in Ankara in order to train music teachers for junior high schools. The school was only giving Western music education and contented with teaching instruments of Western music. In 1925 as a first step for creating a national music, studies of compiling folk music melodies were embarked and melodies which were recorded as notes were published. The same year as a result of an exam, ten students were sent to various European countries for music education. In 1926 Darülelhan was transformed into Istanbul Municipality Conservatory. Beginning from the year 1927, in many towns, bands were established. Meanwhile fundamental theoretical books explaining the principles of polyphonic music were published. The People’s Houses which established in 1932 ordered into various activities and provided educational courses in order to give the people polyphonic music culture. In 1933 Josef Marks came to Turkey as a guest of the Istanbul People’s House. He examined Istanbul Municipality Conservatory and presented a report. On November, 20, 1934, in Ankara a committee administered by Abidin Özmen, the Minister of Education, was gathered to determine the policy to follow to constitute a national music. Atatürk was closely interested in the decisions that would be taken in the committee and during the meeting by calling the ministry from Çankaya time to time it is asked what kind of a conclusion came out (Altar, ?: 72-73). In the commission apart from technical subjects related to music “ways to ban the Alaturka music that is being played in

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public districts or records after radio” and subjects like “control of operettas in terms of music, morality and theater” are held (Üstel, 1994: 51). Among the events of 1934 that are important in terms of music are opera studies pioneered by the government. Beginning from directing towards Western music, among the Turkish intellectuals there is a dominant conviction that the highest form of music is opera and so the most important goal to be achieved must be to compose a national opera (Aksoy, 1985: 1225, Oransay, 1983a: 1520). For the Russian example just near to Turkey, the first successful pioneering studies in the creation of a national Russian music school came out in opera style. In 1836 the day on which the first presentation of the opera of Glinka named Life Devoted to Czar was performed, had become the birth day of Russian national school in polyphonic music. Although the work is under the influence of Italian, it contained Russian folk melodies, polonaise and mazurka rhythms, and reflections of Poland styles. This work which was caricatured as “music of cabmen” because of its elements coming from the folk music would be presented exactly 577 times until the death of its composer. It would be followed by another masterpiece of Glinka, the Ruslan and Ludmilla opera in 1842 whose theme was taken from a story of Puskin. Glinka would lay the foundation of national Russian music with these two works of opera (Yıldız, 2001: 24). It’s likely that those who attempt to create a national polyphonic music school in Turkey followed Russia who had presented the most successful example in this way in the world. Yet one aspect of opera attracting attention is that when compared with other music types it presents a considerably brilliant and monumental posture with its whole setting and clothes, its theatrical aspect, narrative expression, its being an art addressing to the eye beside the ear. Opera in this respect is the most important unique art which has the power to reveal the world the European modern identity of the Republic. Like in Russia, in other countries of Europe there can be seen attempts to constitute a national music school by utilizing folk music melodies for a long time. In this respect it should be indicated that the method applied in Turkey to constitute a national music is not special to Turkey alone. Adnan Saygun composed in 1934 his opera Feridun (Özsoy) on a subject ascertained by Atatürk himself to be performed before Iran Shah who had come to

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visit Turkey. The first presentation of the work which is based upon an Iran myth handles the opinion that Iranian and Turks are full brothers was performed before Iran Shah and Mustafa Kemal on June, 19, 1934 in the Ankara People’s House. The faults in the presentation of the opera are disregarded due to the shortness of time, insufficient education of the performers and various negative factors. However after the subsequent opera attempts the situation would change. For the celebrations of the anniversary of Atatürk’s arrival to Ankara three one act opera plays are planned. Although the order has been given to three persons, only two of them were to be completed and staged because of Ulvi Cemal’s refusal of the order. Atatürk personally overviewed the opera texts and changed some words. Necil Kazım Akses wrote his opera composition named Bayönder, and Ahmet Saygun wrote his named Taşbebek. Many ministers closely dealt with the preparation of operas, went to the rehearsals. According to Akses there was only one reason for their regular attendance in the manner like a group of student: fear (Başeğmezler, 1993: 29). Three scenes of Bayönder opera and the whole of Taşbebek opera were exhibited on December, 27, 1934. The result was a disappointment for some people. The article of Burhan Belge that appeared on December, 30, 1934 in Ulus newspaper reflected the evaluation of the case by the revolutionist staff. In the article it is indicated that it would be a fault to get into modern before creating a classical period in national music, that in both dramas this fault was made and that a long preparation is needed to play even the simplest pieces of such a matured presentation type like opera (Oransay, 1985: 34). Afterwards, opera attempts would be given a long pause and the direction of constituting the necessary sub-structural institutions would be taken. Tatbikat Theatre, established in accordance with the National Conservatory Law which was accepted in 1940, would start opera shows in 1942 in Ankara and Izmir. Paul Hindemith, who was offered for sub-structural organizations, would come to Turkey from Germany on April, 1935. Between 1935 and 1937, he came to Turkey four times. In fact Hindemith was quite a right choice in terms of the views of the Republic about National Music. Because Hindemith thought that it was an appropriate method to work firstly on folk music and harmonize them for making the public familiar with the polyphonic music. Another name instead of Hindemith

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might have paralyzed the Republic’s music project from the start. We see one of the best examples about this in the meeting of Necil Kazım Akses who was one of the Turkish fives with the famous contemporary musician Sir William Walton in a co*cktail given in the honor of his name in England. This meeting would change Kazım Akses’ point of view about the activities made in the name of the official musical policy in Turkey. Sir Walton’s statement about polyphonic play of the folk music is very meaningful. He compares it to “collecting huts to build a palace” and adds that the palace can not be built by this way. The conclusion that Akses derived from this unforgettable meeting is that folk songs have to remain as they are and it is not possible to write a symphony by bringing them together (Başeğmezler, 1993: 34). There were about twenty foreign instructors besides approximately fifteen Turkish instructors in Ankara National Conservatory which was built according to Hindemith’s advices. The National Conservatory building which Hindemith insisted on and thought to be necessary was built forty six years later (Altar; ?: 67-74). Carl Ebert who came to Turkey by the mediation of Hindemith joined the establishment of the Theater department of the Conservatory and prepared a report on what had to be done to build a national opera and theater. The famous Hungarian musician Bela Bartok, who is a folk music expert, came to Turkey in 1936 upon the invitation of Ankara People’s House to study on Turkish Folk Music. Among the reasons for the invitation of Bartok was an effort to make an alternative to the increasing influence of Germans on the country’s cultural life, besides that he sees folk music as one of the sources of national music (Erol, 1988:572-573). He strolled in Anatolia with Adnan Saygun and studied the music of the rural people and made some phonograph records. During the 26 days in Turkey he collected 93 folk songs and gave three lectures. He presented the study results and a report that included an offer for the establishment of an institute of folk music to the Ministry of Culture. Bartok, in his report, advised the musicians to go to villages and live there for some time. According to an anecdote, although he tended to settle down in Turkey, it didn’t come true as a result of the attempts of the German Embassy (Oransay, 1985: 125).

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Among the composers making polyphonic compositions, Cemal Reşit Rey would be the person who had a close relationship with the people and earn a public kindness with the operettas he composed. The person who gave a start for a period of operettas was the governor of Istanbul, Muhittin Üstündağ with his demand for an amusing musical play to be staged in Istanbul Town Theater (Darülbedayi) in the season of 1932-1933. First, the operetta called Üç Saat, whose lyrics written by Nazım Hikmet, whose libretto written by Ekrem Reşit and which was composed by Cemal Reşit was played. It held for a hundred and twenty performances. In 19321938, Rey brothers left their mark on Istanbul’s life of musical theater. Lüküs Hayat (1933), Deli Dolu (1934), Saz Caz (1935), Maskara (1936), Havacıva (1937) operettas followed Üç Saat, each of them staged in the Town Theater. While Ekrem Reşit, in his answer to the interview made for the journal of Darülbedayi Dergisi, said that he wrote operettas to entertain the people, Cemal Reşit stated that his aim is to get the public familiar with theater and music. He said that he added foxtrot, tango, waltz, blues, eastern music and dance parts to his works which everyone can easily sing along and dance (Ali, 1996: 43). But there was a bitter surprise waiting for Rey brothers. The most ironic aspect of the prohibition of monophonic music in 1934 was that it would affect Cemal Reşit Rey too, who was not slightly aware that it would include him as well. Two songs from Lüküs Hayat and Deli Dolu operettas would not be aired on the radio, for there was a song (gazel) in one of them and a partition of zurna imitation in the other (Oransay, 1985: 78). The censor on a polyphonic work which was composed by the most well-known one of the Turkish fives who were the representatives of the state’s official policy of music in society, and which would gain the largest popularity throughout the Republican history, shows that the government elite does not show respect toward what the people likes, and the people toward what the state elite likes. The operetta period of Rey brothers in Istanbul was also an important fact in terms of another aspect. The fact that the operetta period was experienced in Istanbul far from Ankara stands as an answer of Istanbul to Ankara’s claim of being the capital city of culture. In a sense Istanbul stood at a distant point to the policy of culture in Ankara and declared its cultural autonomy. Mustafa Kemal himself treated

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this Ottoman aristocrat (Cemal Reşit Rey), who considered the Republican period as a recession compared to the last era of the Ottomans and knew the French culture comprehensively and disliked what was not French (Ali; 1996: 8), as a tatlısu frengi and did not make him the head of his orchestra (Oransay; 1985: 76). The Republican elite in Ankara glorified the kind of opera against the operetta which was considered as light, and spent most of their effort to form a national opera institution. The time of operetta in Istanbul, in a sense, can be seen as disregarding the music policy of the Republican elite, and instead relating again with an amusing type of music originated in the West, which had been in its own cultural history of the city and gained popularity after Tanzimat. Although it was late, Ankara’s answer to Istanbul’s claim of autonomy would come. The period of operetta in Istanbul came to an end with Rey brothers being invited to Ankara in 1938, Cemal Reşit was appointed to the head of the Department of Western Music at Ankara Radio, and Ekrem Reşit to the head of the Performance Department. Cemal Reşit Rey would not compose any operetta for a long time after he came to Ankara until 1970. It seems that Ankara did not have much interest in the operettas of the Rey brothers. When the names of these operettas are considered, it can be seen that they have a sense of humor, but at the same time lightness in terms of what the Republican elite expected of music. Although Mustafa Kemal, in one of his speech, said that “Now in front of me the music of the civilized world is heard. The public which seemed lifeless against singings called Eastern Music until now immediately went into action. All of them were playing and joyful, doing what is required by nature” (cited by Saygun: 6), what was expected of music before the requirements of nature, was its being aimed at education. As stated by Saygun (?: 88) “It is so sad that some people could not understand that music is not a tool of entertainment but a tool of education.” What was expected from polyphonic music was to get the Turk into action, but this must be an enthusiastic, joyful walk into the modern civilization being a whole. According to the Republican elite, the music which is suitable for this walk would be marches rather than the operettas of the Rey brothers. Music accompanies the national progress with marches that strengthens the sense of “togetherness” (Üstel, 1994: 43) Üstel states that the marches which reflect

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the main tendencies of the musical policy of one-party era, can be summed up in three titles: ““homeland” marches which generally aim to reflect the spirit of nationstate, loaded with the cult of Turkism, heroism, nationalism, Ata and state, “sector” marches which is an expression of the main goals of the national progress ideology, and marches of various educational institutions.” The common point of profession marches like March of Agriculture, March of Economics, March of Art, March of Farmer, March of Teacher, is to impose the public “a military mobilization... a complete and prolonged “war” mentality”, as expressed by Füsun Üstel, against underdevelopment. The five polyphonic composers, who were mentioned most in the middle of 1940’s, began to be known as the Turkish fives. This naming is said to be inspired by the example of “Russian fives”. An important fact that separates the Turkish fives from the Russian fives who are the founders of the Russian national school is that the Russian fives were engaged in a common work with an ideal to form national Russian music with the leadership of Balakirev. The togetherness of the Russian fives is completely came out by their own decisions and continued independently from the interference of the state officials, that it depends on a non-official civilian attempt. As for the Turkish fives, it is completely different. If they have anything in common to be able to name them as fives, it’s just that they took place in the official project to create polyphonic national music in Western style from the Turkish folk music and present it to the world. This is not a civilian project that came out by their own desires to come together, on the contrary this is a national mission consigned by the government to artists who compose in the forms of the Western Classical Music. The Turkish fives were to satisfy, even if partially, the expectations of political authority outside the music. Whereas the Russian fives do not have any exchange of ideas with the Russian government on any subject of art. The people whom they were to satisfy were not the state bureaucracy, but the public itself. But in Turkey, what do interest music are the demands of the government rather than the public. The government is possibly seen as the appearance of a universal mind -the mind of Enlightenment- on earth which wants the goodness of the public. But at the same time practically the state is the biggest customer too. If you can not reach any group

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of customers except the government and you do not make your living out of different jobs like the Russian fives, then the government is your only employer. But the relationship between the state and the musicians is not a relation of employeremployee or customer. There is a more private, more intimate relationship between the rulers and musicians, resembling a familial assembly, as a result of sharing a common fate. As the existence of the Republic is threatened by the people who longing for the Ottoman past or theocratic administration, the universal polyphonic music is also threatened by monophonic “alaturka” music. “The defenders of “Alaturka” music cry out “Turkish music is about to be lost”, just like the ones who cried out “religion is about to be lost, Shari’a are about to be lost” (Saygun: 74). The founders of the Republic seem to have a strict control over the artistic and cultural activities originally come from the West. Special care was taken in the progress of the Western arts in Turkey which is described as a part of the Civilization project. So that the D group, formed by a bunch of painters gathered together, caused discomfort for they did not respect much to the official view of the Republic in their works, and Halil Dikmen, another painter from outside of the group, had to explain Mustafa Kemal what the group aimed to do (Ayvazoğlu, 2002: 82). Creating works that is appropriate to the government’s official policy and demands is what is expected from the intellectuals and the artists. When the government excluded traditional style from the music and directed all of its support and investments into the polyphonic music, and made this consciously for the sake of modernization, a relationship of debt was born between the state and the musicians. The musicians would see presenting their creative energies to the service of the government as a debt of conscience in return to its protection. The government’s demand is that they would show their loyalty and devotion. The names and content of many works composed during this time have a character that expresses the composers’ gratefulness to the Republican regime, its ideology and its rulers.

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4.1.5. Arabesk Music and Turkish National Identity The prohibition of Turkish music on the radio in 1934 would tend to result in a different, even in an opposite way that the Republican elite desired. It is a widespread point of view that the fact that the people who could not listen to Turkish music on Turkish radio turned towards the Arabian radios and began to listen to Arabian music which is closer to Turkish music than Western music, is the starting point of the way to the Arabesk music. But another factor which is as important as radio prohibition is the influence of the Egyptian films which began to come to Turkey in 1930’s. 130 Egyptian films would be shown in Turkey from 1936 to 1948 until their prohibition. The Egyptian films had musical characteristics and their leading roles were occupied by the popular singers. In 1938, the Press and Publication Department prohibited the music of the Egyptian films to be sung in Arabic. So the time of writing and dubbing Turkish lyrics on Arabic compositions began. Among the musicians who made songs to Egyptian film music or directly dubbing and recording Egyptian songs with Turkish lyrics, were names like Saadettin Kaynak, Münir Nurettin Selçuk, Selahattin Pınar, Sadi Işılay, Artaki Candan, Şerif İçli, Şükrü Tunar, Kadri Şençalar, Zeki Müren, Hafız Burhaneddin, where most of them were the leading people of “Turkish Art Music”. The roots of the Arabesk music which began to become widespread in the late 1970’s were to be laid at this time (Tura, 1983: 1512). The songs which were not understood and so not completely adopted before the prohibition of Arabic language, when translated into Turkish after the prohibition, began to be memorized and so be permanent (Stokes, 1992: 94). As a result, the government’s radio prohibition in 1934 and the Arabic song prohibition in 1938 would cause a reverse effect and the main reason for Arabesk music to advance in Turkey would largely be the state’s own cultural policies. As stated by Stokes (1992: 96), it is wrong to see Arabesk as Arabic music with Turkish lyrics, as its name associates. Arabesk generally is a style that emerged from the synthesis of melodic elements and instrument techniques that belongs to Arabic and Indian music, to Western music, to Turkish Folk Music and Turkish Art

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Music. This style has become free from Turkish Art Music’s limitations as Gencebay aimed. However the discussions about this kind of music, often wanders around the experience that it gives to people and the lifestyle that it offers, beyond aesthetic boundaries. Themes like alienation, separation, unrequited love, rebellion against destiny and submission which are treated by Arabesk music, make up the ethical aspect of the discussion. In fact the reason for this is in a sense an uncontrolled stream of emotions lying in the lyrics of Arabesk music. There would be an intense criticism towards Arabesk music from various circles. The aesthetic aspect of the criticisms would be less and the ethical and political aspects would be more. The world view and lifestyle that Arabesk music and films offer is regarded as a serious threat to the national Turkish identity (Markoff, 1994: 225). In fact this is the point where all the discussions spin around. But it could not escape to have an ethical view. It would be claimed that it encourages fatalism, imposes negative values such as alcohol, entertainment, debauchery, pessimism, and passivism. In fact similar accusations were made for the traditional Turkish music as well. The expressions such as “drinking, gambling, opium addicts of the music that expressed undisclosed emotions of the men towards women under the guise of “art” and dragged the society to the marsh of “earthly love”, “lustful love”” which Saygun (42-43) used for “Alaturka” music while explaining what Atatürk expected from the musical revolution are not different from ethical accusations directed towards Arabesk music. For the Westernist elite, who saw a threat in Arabesk to the national identity which they were trying to build, the state that the music reached in 1970’s and 80’s, was a scandal because the Arabesk music has been the most popular music in the society. Arabesk has meanings beyond being simply a low and inferior taste for the Republican elite. It carries a sign that refers to the a formation that the cultural and identity policy of the Republic tries to remove. It is a return of the “Oriental” under new hybrid appearances in a most “primitive” way. Moreover, this returning oriental is not the Orientalness of the Ottoman whose traces were tried to be wiped out for years. This is something completely different; an “imitation” of the Arabic Orientalness. The popularization of Arabesk in the society as a music and as a “lifestyle” shows that the identity policy of the Republican elite has been paused,

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even paralyzed, and has not related to the ordinary people. Arabesk music is an expression of the people’s indifference against the Republican high culture which has an elitist character. The Turkish nation which does not yet exist as planned in 1920’s, namely as a respectable member of the Western civilization, could not be seen after all this time except a small limited group forming the administrative elite and a restrained educated people from the high and middle class. Arabesk music, in which Oriental and Western elements are synthesized together, at the same time have overcome, as a presentation of identity, to the project of building a pure and hom*ogeneous Turkish identity upon the European values alone. In fact the relation of the government with the polyphonic music and its method of presenting it to the society offered a rather problematic situation from the beginning. In Turkey the polyphonic music had always been under the guardianship of the government and felt beholden to the Republic and its founder leader. Polyphonic music has a symbolic value for the Republic. Polyphonic music would be an expression of the success to the world in creating a new nation on the Western norms and tastes by the Republic. In the debate of progressivism-reactionism, we witness that Mustafa Kemal himself is substituted for the aesthetic criteria by some people from both sides. Searching for what determines the legitimization or value of an art form beyond its own specific traits, in speech of a person who is out of art in his daily way of life is also a sign of the existence of some other motives beyond artistic concern. The attitude and expectations of high officials towards art and artist have caused the discussions to become excessively political, the works of art to turn into political symbols. Just in early 1980’s it had clearly come out that music improved in a way which was independent of the aesthetical principles determined by the state and in accordance with what the market requires. There emerged an irreconcilable gap between the goals which Republic had set and the point reached. The main reason for this was the fact that the Republic elite refused the existing urban values with an Orientalist point of view and attempted to substitute the values of the postenlightenment Western urban upper class which they treated as universal. The West itself was taken as an absolute model, what should be and what should not be was

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determined according to this model. In Westernization, there is an orthodox approach which does not allow any heresy or heterodoxy. This is a project which aims to realize a pure, absolute westernization that never accepts any synthesis of “East” and “West”. Such an attempt would be a return to imitating, eclectic, and distorted and thus an erroneous modernization. In music, for example, kanto is a western imitation (Saygun: 70) and Arabesk is an Arabic imitation. The Republican elite however aimed not to be an imitator of West but to be the West itself, to have a European identity liberated from all kinds of “oriental” features. This is the will lying under the Republican revolutions. And it treats this identity as a problem of existence for the whole nation. In music, Arabesk has been an important sign which shows that the attempts of the state to create a polyphonic national music have become ineffective. The Republican project of music was an elitist but egalitarian project: in a time when new popular music styles appear in the world, its purpose was that from the prime minister to doorkeeper all of the nation would listen to polyphonic music. It was possible to expect from music to be the sign of the emergence of the society as a classless, egalitarian community. A single music; hom*ogeneity in music would be quite an appropriate tool for creating a hom*ogenous national identity. However, the necessity of music to take root also in daily life had been disregarded. Beginning from the late 1980’s the outbreak of folk music in Turkish music market is paradoxically the other forerunner of the failure of the cultural policy of the Republic in the area of music, besides Arabesk. There is a paradox here since the Republican intellectuals have always defended that folk music is the real Turkish music, and have always accredited folk music against the Traditional Turkish/Ottoman Music and regarded it as the melodic basis of the national music to be formed. However, the role attributed to folk music was not to be national music but just to be used in the content of the national music for giving it its identity. For folk music was seen as a primitive, underdeveloped music, it did not possess the efficiency of representing the Turkish in the international arena, thus it had to be transformed according to the norms of the Western Music which is the more developed universal form. It had to be converted from monophonic to polyphonic

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music. This is nothing but the other sign of the fact that the Republic could not succeed in what it attempted to do. A music which had to be performed polyphonically is still performed monophonically in the market. As a result, the position where music has came in Turkey is where the cultural transformation which the Republic wanted to make is still not to be completed with success and with relation to this, a pure hom*ogeneous “European” Turkish identity is still not to be accepted by the society, instead different hybrid identities that includes both eastern and western elements has emerged.

4.2. Architecture and National Identity

The architecture was one of the most important aesthetical domain, the founders of the new state gave a special attention. It constituted an important part of the new politics of establishing a national identity and giving a national character to the cultural creativity. The view of Atatürk about art and architecture is important since he is not only the founder of a new social and political regime but also the founder of a new cultural and artistic policy of the new society. Although Atatürk has stated his views about many fields of art, he did not clearly express his ideas on the issue of architecture. It can be claimed that his opinions about architecture was influenced by and can be assessed on the context of Montesquieu’s statement that Atatürk frequently repeated; “…unless there is a revolution in art, revolutions are not completed” (Alsaç, 1973: 14). After the establishment of the Republic, there was a duty for the founders to improve Ankara as a modern capital in western style. It was an urgent need to constructs buildings that were required by the state apparatus and modern life. Insufficiency of the Empire in following the new technological developments in the field of construction and the limited stock of economical resources brought the dependency on the foreign experts in that field. As a consequence of the dependence on the foreign experts and architects in the construction of new modern buildings after the Tanzimat, the architectural form of new buildings reflected the foreign

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architects’ own preferences and tastes and architectural culture was broken off the canon developed within the traditional Ottoman architectural formation. In this period the governors tried to transfer and adopt the technological innovations developed in the West to Istanbul, but there was, as stated by Sözen, not an exact parallelism with the West. For example, after the Tanzimat, “the movement of Art Nouveau that showed its best example in wooden adornment in Istanbul, became dominant and obtained richness beyond its examples had in the West” (Sözen; 1984: 4). From the Tanzimat to the Second Constitutional Monarchy, private and public buildings had been constructed, generally by foreign architects, in free styles and eclectic forms which were depended on the architectural movements such as Ampere, Baroque, Rococo, and Art Nouveau in Europe (Sayar, 1973: 20). After Balyan Family’s numerous works decorating Istanbul, we witness that the domain of architecture were almost taken from the hands of Muslims or non-Muslim Ottoman architects and numerous construction activities had been completely realized by the foreign architects. After the declaration of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, the Turkist thoughts of the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki) had found a chance to affect the cultural domain of the Empire. In this period, the Turkish architects, Mimar Kemalettin and Vedat Tek were most famous and leading figures among others, had thoughts and practices in architecture in parallelism with the cultural program of CUP. The architectural movement, had been formed by Mimar Kemalettin and Vedat Tek, was called Ottoman Revivalism or the First National Architectural Movement. The movement of historicism developed within West European architecture in the eighteenth century, activated a great concern for the architectural traditions of Ancient Greek and Rome. Among the others, Johann Joachim Winkelmann (17171768) nourished this concern through his works (Sözen; 1984: 2). In Turkey, this movement, which took into account the past as an inspiration source for itself, flourished an interest toward the Seljuk and Ottoman past and their artistic forms in architecture.

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4.2.1. The First National Architectural Movement In the first years of the Republic, the activities of building were at the great extend formed on the style of the First National Architectural Movement which had been developed and been widespread by the Turkish and some foreigner architectures in the last period of the Ottoman Empire. It had been, for a definite period, a leading program for the many of the limited numbers of architects in Turkey. One important reason of this situation, for Sözen (1984: 28-29), was the content of the architectural education. The school of Sanayi-i Nefise (Fine Arts) and the School of Engineering were the most important institutions of education in that period, and their native and foreign teaching staff was concentrating their educational attention to this kind of architecture. They contributed to the training of that generation of education in the direction of the National Architectural Movement. The main features of the First National Architectural Movement were shortly defined by Ünsal:

The building was to be stone character; even if the construction was not stone, an artificial stone division would be made, the doors and windows were to be covered by basket handle, Sinan or Bursa arch. In the front side, arch pediments were to be covered by bas-relief ornaments or by piece of faience. Electric lamps were to be ordered as lighthouses, especially in both sides of the entrance door lighthouses were to be placed. In the building, stalactite/diamond-shaped heading colon or plasters were to be used. In internal architecture, the timber or porcelain, at the wainscots (lambirs), the Classical Ottoman motif-drawing and colors were to be applied and at the ceiling, at the plasters and carton-pierre the same figured motifs were to be repeated. Railings and staircase was to be made of stone or marble and were to be formed by the Ottoman network or crown post. Flooring was covered by marble in public spaces and by wood in rooms. Roof was to be made with fringe, and fringe was covered by wood and multiple of salient parts, at the beginning or center of the roof were to be placed domes. In brief, though technique was new, the style was to be presented historically. These were outer appearances and case dressed to the building. Okay, what was the plan! In the plan, the meaning of being Turk was not determined. Indeed, there is nothing as the maturity of the plan. Mongeri was saying that “we should see primarily not the plans but the facades, my deer.” Indeed, architecture was being interpreted as the art of facade, it was given priority. If facades, or more correctly the main facade

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was hopeful, an inspection for plan would be made. On the other hand, in the critique of plan, one were looking at aspasses, to the ratio of lost spaces and used spaces, to the formation of real entrance and to the situation of the real staircase. The aesthetics of plan was rather the most important matter. The conditional plan was not so important. Vedat Bey said that make a good project, a good project suits everywhere (Ünsal, 1973: 35). In the National Architectural Movement, according to Sözen, “beside stone, porcelain, and metal adornment, the point of emphasis is to mobilize sometimes entries, sometimes corners with domes, to strengthen the vertical lines. Some parts of these domes are ordered as pretended domes, they are considered in order to give an absolutely monumental visuality. The frequently used feature in the fronts is the projections”. The main principle in all is the solutions of the fronts through thinking its details. The solution of the settlement and plan according to necessary works comes after the fronts. “Although the new construction techniques and materials were used in an important part of the buildings, in order to give a place to the elements we speak of, this situation was hided, it was not reflected to outside” (Sözen; 1984: 30-32). Within the Movement of National Architecture, beside Turks there were persons from minorities and foreigners; Aram Hanciyan, Guillo Mongeri, J. D’Armi, Kavafyan, Kiryakidis, Leon Güreğyan, M.D. Çurvidas, Nafilyan, Nesim Sisa, Papa, Peçilas, Rafeal Rus, Tanaş Yamas, Taşçıyan, Terziyan, U. Ferrari, Vangel, Yorgiadis (Sözen; 1984: 33). This approach that was successful in public buildings in a degree has not the same success in houses (Sözen; 1984: 41) One of the widespread and noticeable applications within the movement of the First National Architectural Movement is the existence of the towers in numerous buildings, which contributed to the appearance of those buildings. These towers that were a visual part of application in the state buildings of the last Ottoman period have become a part of the housing architecture in the new capital with the establishment of Turkish Republic. As a part of the apartment houses in the newly constructed part of Ankara, in Yenişehir, these towers were widely placed. In a sense, it is possible to say that these castle-like houses resembling the European Middle Age chateaus, have given a rural appearance to Yenişehir since a large part of this region were empty. The widespread use of these towers in civil and state

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buildings by a movement that insisted to be national architecture is noticeable issue. Indeed these buildings do not constitute a part of the traditional Ottoman urban architecture. We see towers in Ottoman urban architecture as an element of the Ottoman palaces in Istanbul and Edirne, which are called the Tower of Justice (Adalet Kulesi). The other examples of these towers are only seen in some rural areas. In Aegean and Balkan regions there are found many towers constructed at the period of Ottoman notables (Ayan). Examples of these towers are Mustafa Pasha Tower (1602-1603) in Bodrum peninsula, Osmanbey Tower in Donduran (Ortası) village in Yenipazar town of Aydın, the Tower of Osman Beyler Konağı in Nazilii, Mehmet Bey Tower (1763) in Yazıkent (İnebolu) village, Cihanoğulları Tower in Koçarlı, Cezayirli Hasan Pasha Tower (1782) in Ezine Yerkeseği, Pırgovata Tower in Köstendil region of Bulgaria, Mescit Tower and Kurt Pasha Tower in Vratsa, and the towers in the Teselya, Macedonia, Epir regions of Greece. The oldest examples of these towers were the towers of inhabitance constructed for defense purpose and with these features it is possible that they were belong to the administrative class consisting of the polices, contractors, tax collectors (Arel, 1994). The phenomenon of tower is mostly seen in the notable mansions. The towers that became a kind of symbol of these mansions were raised side by side with the big palaces or mansions where notable families lived in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when notables were powerful. These towers, which served as transitory strong houses at the times of danger, functioned as observing, defending, storing food, weapon, and tools (Arel, 1994: 2331). These towers which were integrated to the state buildings as a symbol of power, sometimes successfully sometimes superficially and falsely, completely represented an anachronism and ruralization in civil buildings. With their rural and Middle Age appearances, these houses were contrary to the aim of creating a modern urban image in Ankara, in time these houses were completely disappeared except a few examples. The First National Architectural Movement is generally appreciated as a reflection of Gökalpian view on the synthesis between the Turkish culture and the Western civilization (Aslanoğlu, 2001: 30; Tekeli, 1994: 22; Bozdoğan, 2002: 49). Ziya Gökalp also assessed it as a reflection of his views on culture and civilization

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and he was among the members of selection committee formed for the Turkish Association’s building to be constructed in 1927 (Sözen; 1984: 28). From the point of the Turkish architectural history, Tekeli argues that in the years, 1926-1927, the Republican administrative elite left the Gökalpian view of the synthesis and went toward entirely Westernization. I think that there are some problems in that argument. Firstly, it seems that, even contrary to Gökalp himself, the First National Architectural Movement, called also Ottoman revivalism by scholars, does not correspond to the requirements of the Gökalpian synthesis, because this movement tries to make a synthesis between the elements of the classical Ottoman imperial architecture and those of the western architecture. Gökalp sees a contrast between those that belong to the Ottomans and those that belong to the Turks such as poetry, literature, music, ethics, etc. Although Gökalp considers architecture among such branches of artisanship that belongs only to the people as calligraphy, engraver, bookbindery, painting, dyeing, carpet weaving, embroidery, etc. (Gökalp, 1990: 37), it is very easy to apply the Gökalpian logic to the issue of architecture as in the issues of music, poetry, and ethics, and make a separation between the Ottoman imperial architecture, represented in the buildings of palaces, külliyes and mosques, and civic architecture, represented in the housing building of the ordinary people; contrary to power and magnificence, simplicity and sincerity. Therefore, the First National Architecture Movement can not represent the Gökalpian synthesis, but the Second National Architecture Movement, based on a synthesis between the Turkish civic housing architecture and the modern architectural techniques and concepts, represents it more appropriatelly, even the Modern Architectural Movement also can represent it to the extent it regards the regional and local properties and adapts some features of “national” architecture. Therefore, on the contrary to what Tekeli argues, the abandonment of the First National Architectural Movement does not show that the Republican elite leave aside the Gökalpian view of synthesis in the years of 1926-1927. The practices proper to the synthesis between the motifs of traditional Turkish culture and the forms of the modern civilization have continued for a long time. In the efforts of the state elites to create a national Turkish music, it can be clearly observed. In the first

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half of 1940s, in journals, there were some articles that applauded, as the representatives of the new “national taste”, the studies towards the use of traditional motifs and materials in the design of the modern clothes and costumes and embroidery (Navaro-Yaşın, 2000: 70). Consequently, perhaps, it may not be a fault to claim that the two ways toward the modernization, Gökalpian modernization and pure modernization (westernization), in the same period, found opportunity to be exercised in the Republican modernization project. A short time after the establishment of Republic, the architectural practices, which were on the line of the First National Architectural Movement, were given an end because of its borrowings from the Ottoman-Islamic tradition (Tekeli, 1983: 15). This architectural movement was not consistent with the “nation-building” project of the Republican leaders who aimed to leave behind each kind of image referring to the Ottoman-Islamic traditions. Around the end of 1920’s, the national architecture was started to be seen as an art of decoration and imitation and there was a tendency to call it as “Reactionary Architecture” among many writers (Ünsal, 1973: 36). After this date, the First National Architectural Movement was left aside both in the construction of the public buildings and in the educational institutions, and the buildings were constructed according to the principles of the newly-developing Modern Architectural Movement by the foreigner architects. The choices of the new government would be in the direction of modern architectural practices. For Bozdoğan, it is very meaningful that modern architecture was immediately defined as “cubic” when modern architecture was assumed more suitable for the construction of official buildings. “The novelty and revolutionary rhetoric of cubic or prismatic forms, reinforced concrete construction, wide terraces, cantilevers, and flat roofs, all without historical references, conveniently complemented the Kemalist “revolution” (inkilap)” (Bozdoğan, 1997: 137). In this period there were many foreigners who began to come to Turkey as the experts of architecture and urbanism. Among them we see “René Danger for regional building plan (1923) in İzmir Alsancak, Heussler for two regional building plans (1924), one in old Ankara, and one in Yenişehir, Hermann Jansen for the Advisory of the Directory of Ankara Developments, for Ankara Development Plan and Report

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(1928-1932), and also for the Development Plans of Mersin, Adana, Ceyhan, Gaziantep, and İzmit (1930-1939), Herman Elgötz for Istanbul Development Plan and Report (1933), Donat Alfred Agache for Trabzon (1933), Martin Wagner for the Advisory of Istanbul Development, as the City Planning Advisory of the Ministry of Development (1935-1938), Ernst Reuter for giving City Planning lessons in Ankara Political Science School (1935-1946), Henri Prost for Istanbul Development Plan (1936-1950), the economist Gerhard Kessler who prepared a report named the Lack of House in Istanbul, Poverty of Houses, House Construction, Jean Walter for Ankara Hospital, Ankara Faculty of Medicine (1940), (1938) Violi Vietti, (1940) F. Hillinger, (1948) Le Corbusier, (1955, 1958) Luigi Piccinato, (1956-1960) Hans Högg, (1959-1961) Bodmer, Stefan Ott, (1956-1961) Bernard Wagner” (Sözen; 1984: 168-169). In the years following 1930 the foreign experts taking role in the Academy of Fine Arts are Guilio Mongeri, Ernst Egli, Hans Poelzig, Martin Elsaesser, Bruno Taut, A. Vorhölzer, Gustav Oelsner, Wilhelm Schütte, those who worked short or long time in Istanbul Technical University are Clemens Holzmeister, Debes, Paul Bonatz, Friedrich Hess, Tiedje, Rolf Gutbrod, Gerhard Graubner, Dilz Brandi, Bruno Zevi, Jürgen Joedicke, Wilhelm Landzettel, Hans Koepf (Sözen; 1984: 168). In the period after the National Architectural Movement, we see that the foreign architects completely reoccupied the domain of architecture and we see that these architects constructed many buildings of official institutions of the state. In a sense, there was a return to the preceding period of the Second Constitutional Monarchy. Sayar (1973: 21) states this situation was determined by two causes; on the one hand there was a desire to imitate foreigners and on the other hand there were not enough Turkish architects. Indeed it is not so difficult to see that main problem was not the desire for foreign architects and the lack of qualified architects, although these were influential to a certain degree. One of the significant points of the matter is the fact that National Architecture Movement has some symbolic implications in ideological aspects that were not supported by the new regime. The references of the First National Architectural Movement are linked to the Ottoman and Seljuk background and such kind of a symbolism that rooted in the past was contrary to the

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will of the Republican regime to create a new modern generation that is supposed to break all the ties with the Ottoman past. Moreover, another factor that should be taken into consideration is the struggle of the new regime with Unionism (İttihatçılık). For the same reasons, the state refrains from employing qualified architects though the number of the architects and experts in country was limited. Because many of them were prepared to their profession, through passing the processes that gave way to the architectural manner that was abandoned. Therefore, employment of the foreign architects who were never influenced by the National Architectural Movement was seen as a practical solution in order to break with all the references of Ottoman past in construction activities. In the same period, closing of Vedat Bey’s and Mongeri’s Workshop in the Faculty of Fine Arts is a clear indicator of state’s attitude toward this movement. According to Sayar First National Architectural movement was a late “Turkish revival”, for this lateness it could not be successful. Europe was leaving the experiments of architectural style in the same times and the Turkish architecture should have followed the same path (Sayar, 1973: 20). The tendency of the state administration was clearly in this direction.

4.2.2. International or Modern Architectural Style When the Turkish architects were returning their eyes to the West with the new Republic, they found an atmosphere that was dominated by the ideas of the Bauhaus school initiated by Walter Gropius after the First World War. Bauhaus School were emphasizing over simplicity, economy, rationality, and functionality. It has an approach to all aspects of architecture. It was interested not only in the design of the building, but also in its design, in the plan of the furniture used in daily life and many thing else. That school was defending the development of a design, which was adaptable to industrial development (Alsaç, 1973: 14). In this period the modern architecture that was developed in the West had a view that was based on the conception of an art that defended the clearance of the building from unnecessary decoration on the basis of practical, speedy and cheap solutions. In a period of economic crisis all over the world that also influenced Turkey, the modern

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architecture that promised to build cheap buildings was welcome to the administrators of the Republic. The thoughts of the Turkish architects about housing architecture were launched to be determined by the influence of the FunctionalistModernist Architecture. The leading one among foreigner experts influential in the new formation of the Turkish Architecture was the German Ernst Arnold Egli. Especially his role in the Academy of Fine Arts was important. In 1927, Ernst Egli was appointed to the Faculty of Fine Arts. The architecture education that was carried by Guillio Mongeri and Vedat Tek until that day in the framework of the movement of national architecture, reached at a new level with Ernst Egli, and works were started considering within international relations (Sözen, 1984: 169). He resigned from duty in 1936, since the necessary changes were not realized, and since the academy was not financed adequately. The Modern Architecture Workshop, that was arranged similar to those in German architecture schools in that period, reflected a conception of rational-functionalist architecture. Behcet Ünsal explains Ernst Egli as following:

He was a young researching teacher who conceived what modern architecture was. Egli’s insight was on the side of modernist architecture, he was a good planner; he was not a defender of style. But he was suggesting a regional architecture; therefore he was insisting on the scientific researches on the old Turkish architecture; he lead the establishment of national architecture within The Academy of Fine Arts” (cited by Sözen, 1984: 169). Ernest Egli had works in different fields. He has many buildings beside his books on Mimar Sinan (1954) which was a first, The Essentials of City and Country Planning (1975), Geschichte des Staedtebaues/The History of City Planning (19591962). Among his applications and designs, Music Teaching School in Ankara (Muallim Mektebi/Devlet Konservatuarı) (1927-1928), The Government Accounting Bureau, (Divan-ı Nuhasebet/ Sayıştay) (1928-1930), Trade School for Men (19281930), İsmetpaşa/Zübeyde Hanım Girl Institute (1930), Faculty of Political Sciences (Mülkiye Mektebi/Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi) (1935-1936), Atatürk Forest Farm Marmara Pavilion and Turkish Bath, Embassy of Sweden and Iraq, Bebek Râgıb Devres Villa in Istanbul (1932), the city plans of Niğde, Tavas, Kzızılbölük,

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Yeşilyuva, Kale, Balıkesir, Edirne. Ernst Egli was one of the first persons, in Turkey, defending that the buildings should be considered with their environment, and that modern architecture should be based on international science and technology. He is emphasizing this as “… in my opinion, in terms of the matter of taste the period of Levantine should be strictly abandoned. The young generation should be inspired by the honest and logical ideas, by the divine identity of the natural form and the youth should be adapted to this” (cited by Sözen; 1984: 172-173). By giving the simplest example of the international functional architecture, he reflected this attitude in all of his buildings. Clemens Holzmeister (1886-1983), went to Ankara in 1927 in order to construct the building of The Ministry of National Defense. He had been a member of Istanbul Technical University between the years 1946 and 1949. His works can be counted as The Ministry of National Defence (1928-1930), General Staff Presidency (1929-1930), Ankara Military House (1930-1933), War School (1930-1935), Presidency Pavilion [Çankaya Köşkü] (1931-1932), Güven Monument (1932-1936, with Anton Hanak-Josef Thorak), Central Bank (1931-1933), Ministry of Internal Affairs (1932-1934), Ministry of Improvement (1933-1934), Ministry of Trade (1933-1935), Supreme Court (1933-1934), Estate Credit Bank (1933-1934), Embassy of Australia (1934-1936), Grand National Assembly (1938-1960). Simplicity is dominant in the buildings. Though Clemens Holzmeister used some elements of monumental dimension in public buildings, in others he had an inclination toward regional architecture. An eclectic attitude in order to express the power of the state are reflected on the big part of Clemens Holsmeister’s constructions (Sözen; 1984: 170, 173). Bruno Taut (1880-1938) left Germany and settled in Japan because of his political views. He comes to Turkey in 1936. Two years later he died and he was lapsed into the Turkish martyr in Edirnekapı on his will. He constructed the building of Language, History-Geography Faculty. He completed his book named The Knowledge of Architecture in 1938. His other works are Atatürk High School in Ankara (1937-1938, with Asım Kömürcüoğlu), Cebeci Middle School (1938, with Franz Hillinger), Girl Institute in İzmir (1938), High School for Man in Trabzon

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(1938), Catafalque of Atatürk (1938). Another German architect, Hans Poelzig (1869-1936) had been in Turkey in 1935 and worked as a member of The Faculty of Fine Arts. The German Martin Elsaesser (1884-1957) came to Turkey in 1935, become a member of the Faculty of Arts and constructed the building of the general directory of Sümerbank (1935-1936) in Ulus. Seyfi Arkan (1903-1966) who was among the Turkish architects having works in this period, became the special architect of Atatürk after he won the competition of Çankaya Hariciye Köşkü, and carried many works for the state. Şevki Balmumcu (1905-1982), “won the competition organized by The Society of National Economy and Investment (Milli İktisat ve Tasarruf Cemiyeti) with the project he prepared for the Ankara Exhibition House. He developed a modern and advanced interpretation into this competition. Sixteen Turks and teen foreigners participated to this competition and it had great echoes in that period, in a sense, Turkish architects proved that they exist (Sözen, 1984: 176). Later, Paul Bonatz’s Şevki Balmumcu’s transforming Ankara Exhibition House to Ankara State Opera gave an end to a building that was the symbol of a period. The main problem for the native architects in the field of architecture is the heavy employment of the foreign architects in construction activities. The main objection of the architects of that period such as Zeki Sayar, Sedat Hakkı Eldem is linked to this employment policy of the state. They defended that foreign architect could not contribute to the constitution of a National architecture that would reflect the Turkish spirit. They also insisted that Turkey should benefit from the foreign architects in the educational institutions in order to develop and establish the conception of the modern architecture. We find the standard evaluation of the Turkish architecture about the foreign architecture in the statement of Behçet Ünsal (1973: 39):

Primarily we owe to them many things, I mention them with respect, they created an aura a generation. Even sometimes in negative direction, their influence should have warned us. Their work both as teacher and as builder on the one hand, our keeping of them very long on the other hand, was not as beneficial as we thought. We needed only their methods and techniques. We

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can say that their tests on the new Turkish style have paused us. Everyone tried to be like his teacher who has a big fame, and can be himself a long time later. Probably, this may be the problem of the general architectural education. But in any case academism encircles creativity. In the 1930’s, though in other countrie’s governments had some suggestions for the formation of architecture, in Turkey there was not such a thing (Sözen, 1984: 177). Establishing ties with environment, forming according to function, purification from adornment, the transfer of the modern construction methods to Turkey, and using cement and iron more than necessity are important features of this period (Sözen, 1984: 177-178). Another feature is the increase of the institutions training in architectural education, and the increase of architecture. The rationalist attitude that give priority to function, determined the period in a certain degree.

4.2.3. The Second National Architectural Movement This movement shows loyalty to the modernist and nation-state lines of the Turkish Republic, and tried to develop a new conception of the architecture on the base of the studies of Sedat Hakkı Eldem on the traditional civic Turkish house (Tekeli, 1994: 22). The idea of the Second National Architecture has emerged as a result of the influences of the new national architectural approaches raised in Europe on the one hand and the influence of the foreign architects employed in Turkey. In Europe totalitarian regimes were in rise and these regimes had a special interest in architecture in order to show the strength of their power. Architecture gives numerous opportunities and promises, which no other art could provide, for the powers that want to express themselves visually. In Germany and Italy a new monumental architecture that is called as national, and known as the Neo-Classical Style came into the scene. Nationalist Socialists in Germany and Fascists in Italy, were constructing huge buildings, emphasizing monumentality to influence the great masses, stressing symmetry, preferring use of stone material. From then on the great protests, important meetings, the announcements that require reaching at the great masses were formed in these buildings; architecture was being used for political

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purposes. In short, the power of the state was shown to the masses in these places. Beside these huge public and state buildings, the propaganda of the movement of the new national architecture was being carried on as a show of power and superiority, through international exhibitions, mobile German architecture exhibitions and different organs of publication on the other hand. Similar applications were seen from the United States to Russia though by different reasons. President Roosevelt was saying, “American national architecture should indicate the highest level of architecture”. The president of American Association of Architects was saying that they “determined a style of architecture for official works in their congress, and waiting aid from the state”. In this period, the book prepared by the famous German architect, Albert Speer, titled Neue Deutsche Baukunst (The New German Architecture), published in Turkish in 1942, was an extension of the engagement in Turkey. Again, Paul Bonatz’s coming to Turkey in order to present German architecture exhibition, and his giving two conferences reflect the spirit of the period (Sözen; 1984: 243-244: Alsaç, 1973: 15-16). The Second World War has also a great influence in the acceleration of the Second Architecture Movement. Because many construction materials, brought from outside, then could not be brought as a result of the change of the conditions, there was a necessity to turn to the possibilities at hand. Therefore, those defending this movement by an assumption of turning to native material found the necessary conditions. Alsaç (1973: 15) states that the Second National Architectural Movement did not emerge suddenly in a day and in this development, Bruno Taut’s coming to Turkey is very important. Opposing to the eclectic architecture of the nineteenth century, Taut defends that architecture should be modern and it should not imitate the past. He thinks that architecture is an art of proportion and it should be regional. Architecture should be suitable to its region in its use of the material and form. Taut states that an international architecture that do not consider regional conditions and that purposes the same form all over the world is not modern. Taut tried to spread his views through his teaching in the Academy of Fine Arts, through his applications, and through his book “The Knowledge of Architecture” (1938). According to Alsaç

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(1973: 11), The Second National Architectural Movement was based on the principle of consolidating Turkish national consciousness that was one of the most important aims of Atatürk revolutions; it found supporters and was strengthened in the revolutionary Turkey. Turkish Civil Architecture had been the inspiration source of this new movement. National Architecture Seminar started in 1935 was an important source of this movement. “Especially the construction of the reliefs of many houses, gathering of necessary information constituted a certain background…In a sense there was a search for establishing a tie with the people” (Sözen; 1984: 245). In 1948 the Turkish Construction Congress gathered. The issues of architecture and city planning were evaluated in each detail. The act against the foreign architects, brought participation in the competitions continuously, and an architectural organization was needed in those years. Parallel to architecture, the works were concentrated in the field of city planning, the plans of improvement increased. It has given way to the increase in the knowledge on Turkish house and city (Sözen; 1984: 245-247). In the form of the usage of cut stone, in the proportion among the architectural elements, in the details of window, in the eaves, it is seen that formalism reigns. Fastidiousness was dominant in the solution of the details. In an essay in 1947, Abidin Mortaş notices the difficulties in the realization of a nationalist project.

It is meaningless to want the birth of a new and national architecture in our country. The development of this field is not possible only by the artistic activities of the Turkish architect. Until the periods become clear, the art cannot obtain stability. The owners of the buildings will become in the position that they give prestige to the architect; the will to have maximum income will distribute the portions of the art and trade, a regional construction industry will be established; intelligent and tasteful construction workers will be trained; a general good intention will accept the necessity and right of the Turkish architect and after all these Turkish architect will be able to create the new national architecture (cited by Sözen; 84: 245) Basically, the new architectural style tries to find an answer to the demands of an ideology that aims at transforming the current relations of intimacy. Its borrowing

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manners from the past in order to be National, is not adequate to hide that the relation with the tradition is very artificial. Architecture is a social phenomenon before it’s being an intellectual project and it must find its return in the practices of daily life. Social functionality determines architectural form and it limits its transforming into a mere intellectual game. Architecture is to be a spatial and constructional indicator of a stand in the world, an attitude, an approach, a worldview that is revealed both in social relations and in the relations with nature. With the words of Rennan, “the art of architecture is the strong sign of a nation’s seriousness, the power of its thought, its loyalty to reality. The art of architecture is a mirror of thought, and is a system of thought” (cited by Meltem, 1973: 54). When the Ottoman world and its ideological conception started to become weakened, the field of architecture was dissolved at first. Architecture presents significant clues in determining the moment when the traditional Ottoman world went in crisis, when the bell rings for the fall of its traditional outlook. In a world that looses its stability, unless instability is transformed into stability, it is not possible to see that architecture gains stability. In a time of amazing whirlpool of technological transformations, the expectation for stability is replaced by increasing dispersions. The process of modernization whose impulsive power is science and technology included squeezing the time and increasing the speed of modernization resulting in instability rather than stability of the societies gave way to the disappearance of the conditions of ethic, aesthetic and literary canons. As a consequence, the emptiness of canon is filled by individual attitudes and temporary fashions. Therefore, the attempt to develop National Architecture from the Second Constitutional Monarchy to the Republic, as stated by Söylemezoğlu (1973: 29), could not go beyond “personal experiments”. There was not born an architecture “having strong grounds” and that can be considered as “National and Turk”. It remained only as “a product of dream” (Meltem, 1973: 55). One of the significant indicators of the adventure of the architecture in Turkey is the quality of the architectural projects that are considered by important architects. The general concern of the Turkish architect is toward the huge state buildings. Civil architecture has not been seen as an important field of architecture and left to contractors and overseers. To design and construct state buildings where visual and

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decorative features, by virtue of their indicating the power of state and political regime, is primarily important since state buildings provides both prestige and economic return and possibilities. The ostentatious buildings of the state are relatively more permanent and more prestigious than the civil ones. Therefore, it provides a big opportunity for professional success. On the contrary, the area where civil architecture is seen is quite small and risky. In the period of the Second National Architecture, many field studies were conducted and important data were gathered about the civil architecture. However, since this data was used in the construction of the state buildings rather then in the reconstitution of the civil housing architecture, it did not go beyond being decorative. If the movements of national architecture were more seriously concerned in constituting a civil modern architecture, the appearance of the cities in Turkey would have been more different and more modern. Today, a housing standard is achieved, which is called “three plus one”, in most of the cities of Turkey. But, unfortunately, in this emergent standard, no contribution of the important Turkish architects can be seen. The interest of the Turkish architects as to the architecture of civic buildings generally had an utopist character. We can also observe that utopianism had been an important issue in the studies of the modern architects in the West in the fist part of the twenty century. In the West, the utopianism in architecture emerged as a conclusion of the interest of the architects such as Le Corpusier, Ebenezer Howard and Frank Lloyd Wright as to existing social problems in the modern city (Fishman, 1977). It was a sign of the intellectual and moral responsibility the architects felt for the society. As the utopist thinkers, the architects imagined urban utopias to solve the complex problems of the society due to economic and social inequalities. Therefore, those modern urban utopias had generally a socialist orientation and they had aimed to propose concrete solutions for the problems of the existing society. The relationship of the Turkish architects with their society had a different character from to be in the condition of the Western architects. They did generally not have an interest with the current condition of their society and its actual problems. An open example of that approach can be found in the following expression of Sedat Hakkı Eldem, the most famous figure of the Turkish architects of the Republican period:

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“Now, when we live in the period of the revolution, we should not forget that it is a necessity for the buildings to have a quality of training. That is, the individual who regarded as measure and forms criterion will be the ideal individual created by the revolution (cited by Yeşilkaya: 128). For them what existed in society was a historic and archaic residue of the past and it would cleansed by the revolution and not exist in the future. Therefore, instead of taking into account the existing people in society, their social relations and customs, and their life practices, they chose to regard the needs of an “imaginative” abstract individual who was just not exist but would exist in the future. It gives a futuristic character to the Turkish architects in their reflection on the nature of the civic architecture. At the same time, it deprived the Turkish architect of having a populist orientation which notices the public interest. There were a blank and silence about such social issues which were main object of socialist orientations in modern urban utopias. These socialist tendencies formed an answer corresponding to the moral responsibility of the architects for the society. But, the futuristic character of the Turkish architecture liberated it from a sense of responsibility for the society of the ordinary people. Contrary to the Western urban planners and architects, the Turkish architects did not carry a moral responsibility for the society. In spite of it, they felt a responsibility for the state and its ideological set. The main problem between the architect and the society was the lack of a communication or dialog between them. This gap between the architect and masses has possibly been influential in the emergence of the fact of gecekondu as a main solution for housing problem among ordinary people in the suburbs of the cities. The issue of gecekondu formed a limit signing the weakness and vulnerability of the modern formations of urbanization and architecture in Turkey. There is parallelism between the architectural tendency of the modern Turkish architects and the modernization project of the state. In the base of this parallelism lies the effort to link the profession of architecture to the state. In both there is the dominance of elitism and the people are left to oblivion till an uncertain future at least till the creation of a modern center. The multi-party system after 1946 did not give necessary time, for this recall, to RPP that governed the state within a single party system. When the Turkish architectural experience in the Republican period is

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assessed in terms of its general character, it could claim that as stated by Ural (1974: 28), although there were some differences in their aesthetic formations, there was no difference among three architectural movements in terms of their aims to create a modern and national architecture. The new period after the election of 1950 gives an end to the efforts to constitute an architectural style which aims to represent the national and modern identity of the nation. The brutalism emerged at the end of 1950 with the works of Le Corbusier on the one side and Peter and Allison Smithson on the other side, and it became popular after 1960. The main character of the movement can be defined as “architectural honesty”. The construction then will honestly express both its material and its function. Material will be left with its natural tissue and color, every function within the construction will be able to reflect itself freely without depending on the main geometrical cover as in Rationalism. Frequency of this attitude in architecture, especially in the traditional house architecture, has let its quick spread in Turkey. Moreover, it was more suitable to Turkey that worked with an underdeveloped construction technology than the Rationalist-Purist attitude that requires developed techniques. In the end, Brutalist constructions that mainly use naked concrete became explicit elements of Turkish cities (Sözen 1984: 276-279). After 1950 many conceptions, styles, and thoughts would coexist at the same time. This, in a sense, indicates the start of “democratization” in the context of architecture. The main feature of the trends after 1950 is seen as integration with the West. It is clear that the architecture after 1950 searched for a universal identity to itself instead of national one.

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4.3. Sculpture in Turkish Modernization

4.3.1. Ottomans’ Beginning of Awareness in Sculpture The sculpture was a foreign issue for the Ottoman traditional life and notion of art. Besides the Islamic prohibition for figuration, the Ottomans were not generally accustomed to the monuments which did not have any material function but only intellectual. Therefore, in the traditional Ottoman society, there was no counterpart for sculpture which creates an intellectual and visual affect in mind. The nearest issue to sculpture, in terms of its development in gaining monumental shapes, was fountains in the urban squares. A later significant element appeared in the urban squares with the modernization movement was the clock tower. The clock towers emerged as a symbol emphasizing the modern character of the central government in the cities and were built at the town centers (Yeşilkaya, 2002). As Poet Fani Efendi stated for the clock tower in Adana, (at this clock tower) “Seemingly the clock rings, Spiritually the government calls” (Acun, 1994: 7). Before sculpture, in the area of figuration, the first separation from old notions of art and worldview in the name of modern one was realized in painting of portrait. Mahmud II had his portraits depicted him in modern cloths compulsory to be hung in the state offices. In the Ottoman Empire, the art of sculpture in the Western sense has developed by the period of Tanzimat. It is not possible to talk about a common tradition of figured embossing or sculpture for the Ottomans (Renda, 2002: 139). However there were some old examples for figurative works. For instance, Fatih, like the European rulers of that time invited many European artists, first of all medallion masters and sculptors to his palace. Bartolomeo Bellano of Padua, the sculptor, and Gentile Bellini, the painter, came to Istanbul to make the sultan’s portraits and medallions. There can be found the medallions with portraits of some sultans after Fatih. A medallion was made by Yavuz Sultan Selim in the memory of Egypt War in 1517. There can be found other medallions which have the portrait of Kanuni in the 16th century. The grand vizier İbrahim Paşa, who joined Mohaç War (1526) with Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, ordered the European artists various works. He had brought those a

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few statues of gods and goddesses and had erected them in the Sultanahmet Square. These facts show that Ottoman sultans and the government officials have been tolerant of the art of figured sculpture and embossing (Renda, 2002: 139, Osma, 2003: 19). But it should not be disregarded that in the background of this toleration for those figurative arts, the symbolism they promise in terms of politics had important role. The period of Sultan Abdülaziz carries great importance for the art of sculpture. In Egypt, one of the important provinces of the Ottoman Empire and also one of the main rivals of the Empire in the way of modernization, the art of memorial statue was realized before Turkey. Hidiv Ismail Paşa developed a consciousness of dynasty and had the statues of his father İbrahim Paşa and his grandfather Mehmed Ali Paşa made. Both statues were designed as ‘ruler on horseback’ which had been widespread in Europe since Renaissance (Renda, 2002: 140-141). Although Sultan Abdülaziz did not have chance to place his memorial statue anywhere in the city, he ordered English sculptor Charles Fuller two statues about these years. A statue depicting Abdülaziz on horseback in Beylerbeyi and a bust of sultan were sculpted by the same artist. There have been other orders of Abdülaziz which could fit in sculpture range. There is a portrait of him made with the Cameo technique and showing him in profile. Even a plate was prepared including the bust portraits of all the Ottoman sultans from Sultan Osman to Abdülaziz engraved in ivory (Renda, 2002: 141). The usage of small statues in houses and gardens was seen in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, monuments have begun to be built in Istanbul and other cities. Those monuments were figureless. Şişli Abide-i Hürriyet Monument (1909-1911) in Istanbul in the memory of 31 March Incident and Konya Ziraat Monument are the examples of this period. Both monuments were designed by Architect Muzaffer Bey (1881-1920) (Osma, 2003: 21). Tayyare Şehitleri Monument was designed by architect Vedat Tekin (1869-1959), and built in Fatih in the memory of the people who became martyrs on the plane fallen between Istanbul-Kahire in 1914. Those monuments were built in accordance with the First National Architecture style. The only figured monument, erected in area open to ordinary

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people before the Republic, was the monument which was built by Muammer Kardaş in 1915-16 in Hafik, a district of Sivas, in the memory of Osman Bey, Sivas Mayor of the time. This monument is comprised of a column with the bust of Osman Bey on it (Renda, 2002: 143). It was the first bust that took place in urban space (removed in 1936 by the kaymakam, the head official of the province). The most important event regarding the art of sculpture is the opening of Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (the School of Fine Arts) in 1883. Yervant Oksan Efendi (?1914) was brought to the head of the department of sculpture. Yervant Oksan received training in architecture, painting, and sculpture in Rome for twelve years with his own resources. Then, after staying in Paris for two years, he returned to homeland in 1890. Thus the education of sculpture in the country has begun for the first time. İhsan Özsoy (1867-1944), İsa Behzat (1875-1916), Mahir Tomruk (18851949), were Oksan Efendi’s first students (Osma, 2003: 20). The beginning of sculpture education in Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi caused the art of sculpture has a place in the society. Sculpture would no more only be the palace’s minor orders, but would begin to take part first around the academy, then in the elite circle (Renda, 2002: 143-144). But sculpture could not be a constituent element of urban scene in the Ottoman period.

4.3.2. Republican Sculpture It can be seen that the statues are the point of separation of the Republican Turkey from the traditional notion of art and urban life. The statues are the one of the most distinguishing characteristic of the new philosophy of life, modernization and urbanization in Turkey The monuments were built and opened with grand ceremonies at the same time in almost all provinces shows that the Republican ideology took statue as one of the most concrete symbols for itself as a necessity of modern urban life. The new town centers, which were the squares different from the Ottoman’s town centers which focused around commercial activities, have been for the state the signs of Turkishness, nation-state, modernity and laicism. Atatürk statues generally

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focus on the center of this new function of the city or take place in areas like parks, museums, etc. where are thought the public would gather in (Yaman, 2002: 157). An important application, which distinguishes the cities of Republican Turkey from the Ottoman cities, would be the memorial statues that decorate these public places. The first monument of the Republican period is Şehit Sancaktar Mehmetçik Monument in Dumlupınar which was made by Hikmet Koyunoğlu as a result of Atatürk’s suggestion. The monument was built in an area out of the city settlement. An arm is depicted holding a flag on a pedestal. It may be qualified as an example of transition from architectural monuments to figured monuments, memorial statues (Osma, 2003: 23). The entrance of the western arts such as painting and sculpture in Turkish society had a specific importance for the new leaders of the country. Mustafa Kemal said in a speech in Bursa in 1923:

Any nation who wants to be civilized, progressed and matured in the world will surely make sculptures and train sculptors. The ones, who claim that building historical monuments here and there is against religion, are the ones who have not examined the regulations of religion properly... Our enlightened and religious nation will improve the art of sculpture, which is one of the causes of progress, to the utmost and each corner of our country will declare to the world the memory of our ancestors and our sons in future with beautiful statues (cited by Sarıoğlu, 2001: 121). An important mission was given to the art of sculpture in injecting a modern world view into the society. Besides creating an interest and consciousness toward the national past, it would be also an instrument in transforming the traditional world view which relying on a strict interpretative form of religion into a modern one with a new open-minded interpretation of Islam more suitable to the requirements of the modern life. In reality, the sculpture, like other Western artistic forms, had an ideological value more than its aesthetic value. The nationalist emotions that gained strength during the National War of Independence were also one of the foundation stones of the Republican ideology. With the Republic, a civilized national government and culture and art were taking a

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large place in the government programs. Art was seen as one of the educational tools to be used for making the revolution widespread, getting it into the daily life of the society, and for creating the national consciousness which was a new identity for the Turkish society. It was tried to raise the cultural level of the people and make art get into the daily life of the people by the National Schools, the People’s Houses, and at the same time these programs were executed by organizing activities like exhibitions of National Painting and Sculpture, exhibitions of Revolution, Country Tours, and by buying works (Osma, 2003: 29). Atatürk Statues are applications that play a more efficient role for the art of sculpture to reach the society as a matter. Monuments were being built in the squares of the cities to make the public adopt the newly established order, to awaken the national consciousness and strengthen the unity. These applications were being made to some artists in Europe for the Turkish sculptors were not mature enough to accomplish this mission at that time. Slowly each “man-height statue” or bust had become “Atatürk” in the eyes of the people. The concept of “sculpture” was shaped in the form of “Atatürk” for the first time in their minds (Gezer, 1984: 19). According to Yaman, the spirit of revolution does not seem very content with the impressionist generation’s subject repertory of landscape, still life and nude. The first execution of the decision for sending students to Europe was a necessity of the desire to use art also in an ideological way (Yaman, 2002: 162). The first students were sent in 1924. The first student for the education of sculpture was Ratip Aşir who was sent to Paris in 1925. Ali Hadi Bara, Zühtü Müridoğlu and Nusret Suman followed him in 1927 and returned to the country after completing their education by the 1930’s. Besides Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi, another educational institution concerning sculptural works in the Republican period was the Gazi Education Institute. In the institute which was established in 1926, Painting-Work Department was established in 1932 pioneered by İsmail Hakkı Tonguç. Besides painting-work lessons, the students were taking modeling lessons as well. Rudolf Belling who was invited as administer to the department of sculpture and came to Turkey in 1936 as a result of the reform movement started in the Academy and he also gave lectures of

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modeling in Istanbul Technical University as well. Belling lived in Turkey until 1966 and then returned to Germany. The leading sculptors who have worked in Turkey are Austrian Krippel and Italian Canonica, Austrian Hanak and Thorak, and finally German Belling. After the year of 1929, Turkish sculptors would start to create works of sculpture and monument. The sculptures made by those foreigner sculptors were generally Atatürk statues. As done in many areas of the social and cultural life, Mustafa Kemal had a role to teach and educate his people at the issue of art in the way of civilization.

The people, who were not used to see statues around until the Republican era, would first meet with statues of Atatürk. It would only be possible with Mustafa Kemal’s statues; to make them get rid of their prejudice about threedimensional sculpture and build a tolerant atmosphere for this art. The Republican government would decorate the squares of big cities with statues and monuments of Atatürk in a short time to eternalize the national consciousness and the triumph of independence. This is also a small example of the endeavors of Westernization (Kozanoğlu, 1995: 30). The representation of a political leader in the urban space has been realized with Atatürk statues. The first Atatürk statue was made by Krippel and erected in Sarayburnu, which was opened on October, 3, 1926. For Mardin (1993: 371), “in a country were the inderdict against reproducing the human figure had been publicly enforced, this called for considerably courage.” The mayor of Istanbul, who made the opening ceremony of the statue, sent a telegram to Mustafa Kemal. In the telegram, “We attain the fruits of the intensive revolution created by your great might one by one. Today thousands of your enthusiasts reached the bliss of drinking to your holy symbol with tears of excitement and delight. Your statues became predestined to the children of Istanbul who are shaken with feelings of thanks and gratitude. Therefore I present you my bliss and pride” was written. In 1926 the second statue was ordered for Istanbul. The statue which would be placed in Taksim Square was made by the Italian sculptor Canonica. It was opened with a ceremony in 1928. Atatürk in civilian cloths is depicted in the front of a crowd made up of national heroes. The fact that Atatürk was represented with civilian

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cloths but not with military uniform became a subject of debate(Yeşilkaya, 2002: 149-150). The place chosen for the second Atatürk statue, Galata and Beyoğlu, are the western face of Istanbul. The first Atatürk statues in Ankara are the statue with horse in front of the Ethnography Museum in 1927 and the one in Yenişehir The mayor Asaf Bey who spoke at the opening ceremony of the statue in Ankara: “During the time of great danger the Turkish people will gather around his statues all across the country, his voice and inspiration ruling the crowds will lead the country to victory and salvation” (cited from Mete Tunçay by Sarıoğlu, 2001: 122-123). Atatürk Monument in front of Ethnography Museum is made by Italian sculptor Canonica in neoclassical style in 1927. Atatürk is on horseback in his military uniform. According to Erdoğdu, the half-deified commander, as he once said in a speech, is moving towards West to show that the national target is directed to Europe with all clarity and certainty. This was the objective that he strived to realize for all of his life. And for the Great Triumph, Turkish forces had to be reached the Mediterranean (towards West). The red marble body of the statue is decorated with two panels on the right and on the left. On the left panel, Ankara is depicted poor and in ruins, but brightening up by a new sun. On the scene on the right, overturned cannons, wrecked cars, depict the sad view of a battlefield. On the front side, on the pedestal made of white marble, are two medallions. One of them shows the captive enemy commander giving sword to Gazi the victorious. On the medallion on the left side, Commander-in-chief Mustafa Kemal is presented bouquets of victory. On the back side there are two more bronze scenes. One of them shows the ones who do not listen to Mustafa Kemal’s speech, the other shows the sultan who have escaped leaving the country. This monument is in the garden of the Ethnography Museum which was the temporary tomb of Atatürk (Erdoğdu, 1999: 284). Zafer Monument in Ulus Square was built in 1927 as a gift from Turkish nation to the heroes of the War of Independence is made by Krippel. The monument’s pedestal is made of Ankara rock. On the front side of the monument which reminds of a castle’s bastions, “the two stylized wolf heads reminds of Ergenekon. When looked at in the front, there can be seen on the right, an attacking Turkish soldier,

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calling his friends for war with his hand. Mehmetçik on the left is watching the horizon. “On the back, in the region towards the ascent, a woman carrying a bullet on her shoulder is an example of the heroism that Turkish woman had showed in the War of Independence. There is written ‘Your first target is the Mediterranean, Go – Dumlupınar, 1922’ on the pediment above with old letters. On the side which there is the figure of a woman carrying a bullet, a big fallen plane tree represents the Ottoman Empire, and a young sapling spurted out of its body represents the new Turkish Nation” (Erdoğdu, 1999: 283). On the pediment above this, Atatürk’s words are engraved: “We will choke the enemy in our sacred country at any rate and achieve independence and salvationAugust, 6, 1921” And on the pediment in front: “I will work for the heart of the nation as a fighter” (mücahit) is written. Grand ceremonies were held in front of this monument. This monument is decorated with garlands on national days (Erdoğdu, 1999: 283). In the embossing on the back of the Ulus Cumhuriyet Monument’s pedestal, the Ottoman Empire was symbolized as ‘a fallen plane tree’ and the young Turkey as ‘sapling spurted out of its root’. In reality, this relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey does not completely conform to the nation formulation of the Republican elite. “The Emniyet Monument” is built in 1935 as a reward to the police and gendarme by the Turkish nation (Erdoğdu, 1999: 285). “The Emniyet Monument” which was thought to be placed in Güven Park aimed to show in the midst of daily life, the self-sacrificing services of the Police and Gendarme, the new security forces of the Republic, and Atatürk being among the people. However the themes of Police and Gendarme would be turned into a general humanistic theme with Hanak’s insistence. He would struggle to build the monument of the Turkish people who move ahead from its past into a new future with a new spirit (Kozanoğlu, 1995: 30). In the May of 1932, it was offered to Hanak by Holzmeister to build a monument for Ankara, he would build the monument of music which he had imagined with the symbols of “The Old and the New Turkey.” It was his earlier dream to make a statue of musician. In his letter to Steiner in 1931, Hanak told that he wanted to make two statues of musicians. One of them is young, passionate and bold, the other one is old.

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But he stated that he wanted to depict the old one as strong, standing as well (Kozanoğlu, 1995: 31-32). The main body, in the form of T, is made of Ankara’s hard red rock. One of the two figures in the front impersonates an old man, and the other a young man. The flabby muscles, tired face of the old man shows that he is living his last years. The “club” which symbolizes the previous safety is about to fall from his hand. The naked young man with hard muscles symbolizes safety throughout generations with the “club” he grabbed recently (Erdoğdu, 1999: 285). In the middle of the pedestal below, Atatürk’s words are written with bronze letters: ‘Turk! Be Proud, Work, Trust’ In the group on the right of this writing, the help of the Turkish police to the people is expressed by embossings, it shows a murder scene and the Turkish policemen who take the murderer away to deliver him to justice. The ones on the right represents safety in modern times with their bare swords, and the ones on the left represents unity. On the right of the side which faces Kızılay, an inscription on iron which describe how and why it was made with its construction date. In front of the wall which rises on the pedestal of the Güvenlik Monument two giant figures representing “The Old and The New Turkey” rise which are made of bronze and about 6 meters tall. There are 2 meters tall embossings which symbolizes the help of the gendarme on the left, and the police on the right, to the public. Hanak had foreseen an embossing of a big homage group for the back of the monument. Atatürk would be depicted as greeting the people surrounding and expressing their gratitude for him by opening his arms to both sides. On the back side, on both sides of the pedestal, there are also 2 meters tall embossings depicting scenes from working life, which were designed by Hanak and made by his students. There can be found artists, scientists, technicians, craftsmen, and farmers in the embossings. Since Hanak died untimely, this embossing would not be realized. Instead of him, his student Thorak discarded his teacher’s draft completely and added five giant figures on the back of the monument. There is an Atatürk figure wrapped up in a cloak in the middle of the embossing which is bigger from the other four figures. There is the group named “Brotherhood,” “Friendship” on the right side of Atatürk which consists of two young men clasping each other’s hands, and on the left of Atatürk is

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another couple which consists of two young men holding a sword. These four ‘warriors’ immediately draws attention with their stern-threatening looks. Their hair is short. It can be seen that the sculptor tried to emphasize their Asian-Turkish characters” (Kozanoğlu, 1995: 33). However the stylized stringed instruments which these two giants hold in their hands would lead to some misunderstandings. Probably because of the association caused by the monument’s name, instruments were mistaken for clubs, -they also look like weapons- and an interesting comment was made by M.O. Bayrak as: “... there are statues of an old man who drops a club that represents safety and a strong young man who grabs a club that represents protection” (cited: by Kozanoğlu, 1995: 32). Seeing them as clubs is very common mistake among the people, even if among literate people as in the case of Altan Öymen (2004: 77): “I learned later on that, the statue depicted the passing of the clubs which were necessary for the security of the society from the old man to the young one.” It seems that there is a communication problem between the monument and the people. It is sometimes very difficult for the people to understand the language of the sculptures. The works that were done by foreign sculptors would be criticized by some Turkish artists on various aspects. It was emphasized that these works do not reflect the national character of the society; it was told that foreigners can not feel and express the excitement of the Turkish revolution. It is emphasized that for the improvement of the art of sculpture in Turkey, Turkish artists must be given the opportunity to work with extensive facilities. A parallelism seems in the domains of the architecture and sculpture when the architects and sculpturers expressed their problems in their works. Here we will talk about two criticisms regarding the Güven Momument. On the pages of the journal called Ar which was published in the May of 1937 Canonica’s Taksim, the back side of Thorak’s Güven Monument and Krippel’s Afyon Zafer Monument was criticized as such:

The histrionic behaviors which characterized German art at all times, a grandiloquence that does not go with plastic, does not match our atmosphere of sweetness and elegance mixed with energy. This theatrical work maltreats

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our eyes like a bad note in the harmonious horizons of Ankara (cited by Kozanoğlu, 1995: 134). The second criticism is from History of Civilization by Server Tanilli:

Josef Thorak and Anton Hanak were the official artists of the German Nazis. The name Josef Thorak –with the sculptor Arno Breker who is famous like him- is known as the representative of the art of the third Reich, as the great master. In the assessments concerning the art of Nazi, his statue called “Friendship” in Germany has become a symbol of the Nazi art. That weird “Güven Monument” -which he made with Hanak- in Ankara, Kızılay is an example of the Nazi art -which confused its place (cited by Kozanoğlu, 1995: 134). Another criticism is made by Kozanoğlu for the monument. The giants which Hanak created out of bronze in a style of “baroque”, and which Thorak made out of stone with a superficial-schematic “classicism”, almost crushes the viewer instead of bringing him together with the pleasure of the third dimension. “The art conception of the National Socialist ideology that had come to its proper consistency in these years, defines the expressions of these muscle-bound athletes with words like “strong, mighty,” their postures with “confident, proud,” “sure of victory” and “determined by the common will” (Kozanoğlu, 1995: 34). But those features of the monuments have found a response among some intellectuals of the period. For instance in the article, titled “Monumentalism,” by Zühtü Müridoğlu published in the journal, Ar, this situation is stated clearly: “The monument has to fill the square in which it was built, even crush it...” (Yaman, 2002: 161). For making the Güven Monument, one of the most disputatious works of art, a total of 214.576 liras of aid were provided from 62 provinces, 40.000 liras from Istanbul, 29.000 liras from Ankara and 10.000 liras from İzmir. This amount is approximately 12 percent of the 1.754.536 liras which is the total of the common and extra budget of the Ankara Municipality in 1934 (Kocabaşoğlu, 1990: 202). While monuments made by foreign artists were criticized, on the other hand it had begun to be emphasized that Turkish artists have to be active in this field. Another reaction to foreign sculptors’ applications came from the sculptor Hadi

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Bara. In 1932, the efforts to create public opinion for the idea that Turkish sculptors too have to be given the opportunity to practice in the field of memorial statue became intense. However until 1932, beginning from 1929, K. Yontunç had made five, N. Sirel had made one memorial statue. From now on, the notion “our monuments must be made by Turkish sculptors” was being expressed clearer. In 1937, the journal, Ar, brought up the subject again with the title “The Matter of Monuments”. This time the applications of Turkish sculptors and the applications of foreign sculptors were also compared visually (Osma, 2003: 28-29). It is understood that Turkish artists won the discussion which they had started with the argument that European artists can not understand the spirit of the War of Independence and the revolutions, and had the opportunity to make applications of monument. Besides foreign artists, Turkish artists (Ali Hadi Bara, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Cemal Tollu, Ratip Aşir Acudoğlu, Nejat Sirel) also attended the competition which was organized “to build a monument to represent the Turkish Independency” in the historical city where the Erzurum Congress was held, the selection committee which gathered in 1937 and consisted of Turkish and foreign people, gave the first place to Ali Hadi Bara, the second place to Zühtü Müridoğlu (Yaman, 2002: 157-158). According to Yaman (2002: 155), the ideological need for the monuments in the modernization program of the Republican regime has been influential in adapting the art of sculpture in Turkey. There is no other great Turkish man who was depicted and sculptured as much as Atatürk. He played a key role in the collapse of certain taboos by allowing his image to be widespread.Atatürk monuments are turned into a monotonous and repetitive display in terms of limiting the artist to expression with subject and figure. The main figure of Atatürk monuments is Atatürk depicted with civilian or military cloths. The subjects are visualized according to the War of Independence, revolutions and the principles signified by the six arrows of the Republican People’s Party. The public is shown as “villagers” in almost all monuments except the subjects “Atatürk and children, youth”, thus the image of the villager is carried to the city (Yaman, 2002: 161). An interesting evaluation on the endeavors to decorate Ankara’s squares with sculptures is made by Kocabaşoğlu (1990: 202) defining them as an example to

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activities for “showcase decoration” in the period. The art of sculpture in Turkey is characterized by its relationship with the state in expressing its ideological conceptions on the nature of the nation and its history. It has become an issue of ideological discussion and the ordinary people have been indifferent to these discussions as in the case of other arts which have transferred by the state from the West.

4.4. Language Reform and Its Consequences: A Short Assessment

Language is the most important carrier of the culture and even some thinkers such as von Humbolt, Herder assumed the language as the very essence of the culture. For this reason it has attracted the special consideration of the main staff of the Republic. Actually, this reflection of the elite people of the Republic is not a new thought which come to the consideration together with the Republic itself. In the Ottoman period, the literate people had a quality which gave him a chance to speak and write in three languages, Turkish, Arabic and Persian. Although this quality was an advantage for literates, it had a character which would result in some negative effects in practice. As a result of having three language in literacy, it seems that an arbitrary usage of language in literal writing depending on the taste, intention and whims of the writer. The arbitrary borrowings of words and phrases from Arabic and Persian by literary people according to their personal preferences had become one of the main obstacles in front of constituting a standardized language. As a conclusion, a significant gap between spoken and written languages had emerged as well as a standard written language could not develop. For the need that language must be purified from eloquence and have a functional usage, the reflection about language in Turkey firstly has aroused in the second half of the 19th century in the development of modernization. The main target here is combining spoken language with the written language and to equate them as possible as. The early Republic’s language politics is the same with the past; to eliminate the difference between spoken and written languages. Also the

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Republic’s elite has some other intentions in this subject, they have wanted to purify language as possible as in order to make it a national language and to break off it from religious and traditional meanings for secularizing both the language itself and the daily life. Another aim of the linguistic revolution is to tear off with the Ottoman culture and to make unusable communications with past and to reform the social memory anew. For Atay, who was the one of the most important figures with his contribution to the stock of words in the language revolution, to be Western is at the same time liberation from Arabization, and means Turkification. The main medium of this would be alphabet and language revolutions. By changing writing and language, Turkish mind has liberated from Arab slavery. (Atay, 1969: 439, 446, 500) The language revolution as the important part of the Republic’s cultural revolutions has lead to a process which has resulted in emergence of a worrying cultural situation. Both oral and written languages have been transformed into the object of an ideological contradiction and they have become its victims. Instead of carrying the meanings, the words have functioned as the carrier of an ideological agenda or the fixing of ideological identities. The Republic’s language revolution has divided the peoples into cultural tribes. As stated by Belge (1983: 2600), the communicative function of the language had been generally neglected by the advocates of the language reform and then language at a some extent has lost its communicative function and has become an instrument for non-communication. It is sufficient to look only at the words used by one in order to understand one’s political position. Language itself becomes a label and what it says is very ambiguous, and not important. Language becomes an expression of either a prestige or dandyism. In an intellectual area, the using pure Turkish is a performance and sign of a progressivism, but for the layman it has no meaning more than dandyism. At the beginning of the 1980’s, the military committee, which captured the power with a coup d’état, ordered to not use of those words on TRT in order to restrict the use of the pure Turkish which is identified with leftist politics. However, the result was not what has expected. In this prohibition, the role of the rightistnationalist association, Aydınlar Ocağı, was important because of whose relation with the military revolutionary committee. However, it was happened that on the

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struggle to the leftist language politic, the new generation of Islamist has not shared same sensitivity about language contrary to the old Islamist generation and nationalist-conservative people. On the decline of the rightist-conservative peoples’ front of language, Sezai Karakoç and Nuri Pakdil with their literature journals, Diriliş and Edebiyat Dergisi, and the new generation of writers who are their students have influential role. The result of the attempt of the new Islamist writers, with addition of some other rightist writers, to enter into the intellectual realm dominated by leftist writers and to have intellectual prestige is the collapse of strict opposition of the rightist thinkers to the language revolution, and thus the language itself has partly liberated from its firm ideological agenda. The pure Turkish words have given transparency to the language. Then language has become an individual phenomenon losing its communal and shared peculiarities and it seems that the intellectual language in Turkey has become a personal phenomenon for performing man’s whims and fantasies about language. Such as that the words, which are a record of store of expression, are generally inadequate for communicating between the writers and readers or insufficient to seize between them a communal meaning. Main problem of Turkish language is not to be anonymous issue. The republican language policy has become influential and successful in breaking the relationship with the Ottoman past but unsuccessful to create a standard language which binds all nation. On the contrary, language has divided into two separate linguistic camps, but more important it has become a mechanic issue, a complex Esperantic language without history, without a vocal/phonetic esthetic, without expressive nuances. It has been transformed into a game in which the meaning is risked.

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

During the Ottoman period, Istanbul had raised as a certain model for the rest of the Empire with its urban life and its cultural/aesthetic forms. It was an ideal to be followed. When becoming the capital city of Turkey, Ankara has officially taken over this role of Istanbul. It was a duty for the Republican elite to form a high-culture which would be a model for local cultures and tie them together with a new national identity. The official culture politics of the Republic have failed to settle new cultural form instead of existing traditional ones; it made contribution only to degeneration and resolution of traditional forms. The project of Republican elites to create a modern, high culture has been indeed incapable to embrace all sections of society; rather it has created deep cleavage within the society. A new point of disintegration in society, based on life styles, has taken the place of traditional one based on religious-ethnic disintegration. Today, together with the Republican elite’s western culture and life style, there are different hybrid culturalizations and life styles that are in competition with former. It is not possible to talk about a standardized high culture which becomes a model to sub-cultures and is supported by them. However, it should be accepted that it has been successful to create a Turkish identity which has been an influential referent for the individuals in defining their belongingness, although it has not a single definition and there are some protest against it by some political ethnic and Islamist movements. Today, the main problem for the definition of the Turkish identity, there is no a standardized high culture on which the Turkish identity could be defined. The organization of state and society as separated columns, determines nonmonolithic direction of the Ottoman modernization that distinguishes it from the Republican modernization. In the Ottoman period, the non-Muslim Millets of the Empire had a chance to put into practice their modernization program outside of the

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Empire program because of their autonomy in their social organization and the patronizing interventions of the European States to the decisions of the imperial bureaucracy. At the same time, in many branch, they had chance to benefit from the opportunities presented by the Empire for the modernization equally with Muslim subjects of the Empire. For example, if look at the dispersion of the students of the Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi in terms of their ethnic-religious origins, it can easily seen that the number of non-Muslims obviously more than students from the Muslim community. Those Millets, to whom state had restrict chance to intervene after the Tanzimat period, had entered into a process of nationalization which concluded in separation of some lands and population of the Empire as independent national states. The Muslim people of the Empire, if compared with the non-Muslims, have had little chance to get start a modernization movement depending on civic initiative and internal dynamics as immune to the intervention of the state elites. Muslim people had generally compelled to submit the imagination and whims of the state bureaucracy about the requirements of the modernization. Both İdris Küçükömer and Kemal Karpat accuse the state bureaucracy to have responsible for the backwardness of the country. For Küçükömer (1989: 11), the westernist secular bureaucracy had a historical mission in preventing the development of forces of production and the birth of a class movement. In parallelism with Küçükömer, Karpat emphasizes the psychological factors which affected and contributed to the emergence of this unfortunate historical mission of the bureaucracy. The main problem of the Ottoman Empire was to be object of a process of peripheralization as a result of external dynamics of change to which it did not have much contributed. Besides economic peripheralization, the Ottomans had also become subject to the process of peripheralization in intellectual and cultural area. Therefore, intellectual life in a country peripheralized intellectually could not has an original agenda; rather it was usually uncreative devotee of intellectual movements and ideologies that had been developed in the West. In their modernization activities, the modernizing elites of Turkey have evaluated the Western modernity as an ended, completed phenomenon, and it led them conceive the results of modernization as certain results and transform modernity into a formal phenomenon. As a result, we

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have directed our attentions to the changing and temporary phenomenon that will be a part of traditionalism or conventionalism in the near future. We are generally so remote from the capacity to understand the logic that lies behind the dynamism of the modernity. Instead of becoming modern by transforming the present Western modern forms and institutions into Turkish society, it would be a more adequate action to work in order to become a creative part of the process of modernity, which could be seen either as a solution to have a real agenda for your own aims or a way that will make modernization possible. On the other hand, the result would be development of formally modern institutions that are destitute of the logic of modernity. From educational institutions to economy, the situation in each area would be either a reflection of or an illusion of modernity. Turkish intellectuals have considered modernization as a designable and totally controllable phenomenon. Ideological differences do not have much effect on this perception. They perceived the capture of political center and application of a modernization project as the most important elements of modernization. Yet, both dissatisfaction and disappointment had existed among the intellectuals and political elites whenever they faced with unexpected and unwanted socio-cultural cases that they did not previously planned or predicted to happen. Without evaluating the possibility of both practicing and the adaptability of their socio-cultural projects, they only hold both the traditions and values deeply settled in society as responsible. It is not meaningful to these elites to say that social life had its own direction and rhythms, the control of which was so difficult. In the case of Ankara, we observe the collapse of this understanding of modernization. Under the demographic pressures of the crowds, the modernizing elite have lost their control on the city and result is an unplanned development of social and spatial occurrences. Republican elite’s understanding of sociality in the public sphere is devoid of any notion of tolerance towards local, ethnic, and religious differences. In terms of linguistic, ethnic and religious plurality, the traditional Ottoman cities had an explicit and spontaneous tolerance rising on the accustomed previous practices, which did not need to be openly theorized or argued about. The last period of the Ottoman modernization, that is the period of Ittihat ve Terakki (Unity and Progress) is the start

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of the period of nation-building in which the traditional tolerance started to retreat and leave its place to intolerance. The increase in the level of intolerance in this period was fed by the separatist nationalist movements in the Balkans and massacres and deportation of Balkan Muslims to Anatolia. The feeling of the imminence of Empire’s dissolution strengthened this intolerance. In facing the strong and decisive moves towards establishing national states among the constituent Millets of the Empire, the elites of the Committee of Unity and Progress found the solution in the form of following the strategy chosen by the millets. What was lost in the gun shots during the Balkan wars was not only the Empire but also the practical reality and intention of living together of people who define their identity with reference to different ethnic, religious, linguistic, and racial belongings. Despite all its shortcomings, this practice and idea of living together was one of the most important historical examples of human history. Founding elite of the Republic were contemporaries of the members of Ittihat ve Terrakki and many had also taken a role in the Ittihatian movement at least in a period of their lives. Therefore, they had similar experiences and reflexes with the Ittihatians. They just learned to have a more realistic attitude out of past experiences and it made them different from the Ittihatians. Experiences acquired during the process of the dissolution of the Empire have fed a constant suspicion of and intolerance towards the minorities. Differences were no longer regarded as “natural” but as a threat in terms of the loyalty to the state and to the nation. The reflection of this attitude in the urban space of Ankara is a distaste and intolerance of differences and the emergence of a modern uniformity in clothing and behavior (without forgetting that this was also an image struggle against the West). Since Ankara as one of the important cosmopolitan cities of Anatolia in the past lost most part of its traditional character during the Independence War, the uniformalization of life styles rather than ethnic hom*ogenization appeared as the main issue. Citizens of new Ankara contributed to the formation of the modern life on the stage of Republic’s modern urban space by sacrificing their identities: Kemalists “did not have freedom, identity, should not have” (Atasü, 2001: 89). But without such a self sacrifice it wouldn’t have been possible for them to appear on the

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urban stage at all. It is this very sacrifice which rendered the urban panorama of Ankara devoid of real people. Ankara is the utopia of the people equipped with a mission, of the people whose individuality is circ*mscribed simple by their mission. The new regime has given a special importance to theatre in order to impose its own ideological agenda and worldview to the people. Within this contour, many theatrical productions were written and played. Although the numbers of these theatrical productions were so huge, they were at the great extent not valuable products because they were simple works written to popularize the ideology or the revolutions of new regime. Although the regime has considered the theatric activities as the indispensable requirement of modern civilization and the part of regime’s culture politics, neither of these works went beyond the ideological contours of the regime. As a branch of art the theatrical productions do not have value in itself, since the place, namely Ankara, where these theatric activities showed, was not a real space, rather it was a stage of theatre. When the city itself became the real stage, theatre had been transformed into a decorative element within the urban area. It was not a place of show but just a part of the decoration belonging to the show of modernity which was exhibited in the urban stage. The real theatrical stage is Ankara and the moderns of Ankara have exhibited a performance of modernity to the audience who were indeed the rest of the Turkish society. In such a way, it possibly presents an ideal situation for Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis. All cultural/esthetic patterns which were considered important within the context of Republican modernity had been collapsed under the weight of ideological agenda which was loaded to them. Since propagandist objectives were substituted for esthetic principles, the cultural area was squeezed within the narrow patterns. When the Republic was founded, it was a necessity for the political elite to create a national identity to substitute instead of previous ethnic and religious identities and imposing it to the society. The new state was founded by means of the cooperation of two ideological views that came out in the Ottoman Empire and these two views would become two most important factors that determine the character of the Republic. The view of Turkism described the national character of new state that is its nation-state nature, whereas Westernism was to refer to the wish and will

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toward a transformation of identity into a modern-Western one in terms of both state and society. Ottomanism and Islamism trends would not find any place in the formation of new Republic and to be excluded. Cultural policies of the new state were aiming to exclude Islam out of the public sphere by its re-location within the private sphere and to eliminate cultural and institutional tradition inherited from the Ottoman Empire. New cultural and political institutions had to be in a quality of making both Turkish and Western identities noticeable. For the founders of the Republic of Turkey, westernization constituted the civilized social-cultural aspect of the military independence war fought against western invader forces. The modernization project was a project of a social liberation and from this aspect it was different from Ottoman modernization. The Ottoman modernization project was a process started to support the weakening power of the state and to sustain status quo for the advantage of Ottomans. Its aim was not to be part of the civilized world and, accordingly, behaved eclectically. Essentially, Ottoman modernization in one aspect was a reform movement involuntarily done for not to be changed but undertaken with the consequence of some necessities exposed to. Ankara is a city planned to be a settlement meeting the needs of a community consisting of the members of the high bureaucracy, who are the administrative staff of the country, and other state officials and the people to be in the service of formers. Therefore, in Ankara, the Republican modernity could rarely exceed this official community and arrive in the ordinary people. According to Frederick Frey, the main strategy of the revolutions of the new regime was to create a convenient and secure environment for the westernized intellectuals who would modernize Turkey (Sarıoğlu, 2001: 8). This bureaucracy had a leading role in transferring of the modern culture/civilization from west to Turkey. The modern culture, which has been at the great extent developed by the western bourgeoisie on the base of individualism, was exposed to a change of character when it was transferred by the state bureaucracy. The behavior of obedience which was rooted in the bureaucratic relationship of superior and subordinate was substituted for the individualism. It was most safe way in order to mobilize the people for modernization.

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Istanbul which is an ideal model of the Ottoman city is anonymous in the city level, and non-anonymous and divided into communities in the quarter level. The demographic structure in the city level is heterogeneous and dense as not to allow it to belong to any community or ideology. Its definition as an Islamic city doesn’t go further than being a description of covering identity for city. Just in 1940’s, a Sufi leader Abdülhakim Arvasi said that anyone who looking for can find both infidelity and faith in Istanbul. In the Ottoman period this description had a valid meaning for the other religions of the Empire. The city was also a center for the religion of other Millets of the Empire, although their existence did not much contributed the silhouette of the city. The urban reforms of Tanzimat started a process to eliminate the quarters along with the quarter communities and the non-anonymous character of the quarters. In Ankara which was designed by the Republic as a model for the reorganization of the other cities, it is observed that the communities of the quarters have disappeared (although in practice they are not totally disappeared, they don’t exist in the urban planning), while the quarter thus became anonymous, the nonanonymity arose on the city level that depended on a communality where everyone almost knew each other. Ankara seems anonymous in terms of the formation and organization of the quarter and non-anonymous in terms of its urban character. The modern Ankara was established by an ideology and a community out of believers of this ideology. Ankara, on the contrary to Istanbul, is a city of “faith”. In fact, the thing that the urban reforms represent from Tanzimat to the Republic, can be seen as a transition from a non-visual city conception (this is a result of the organic structure caused by the lack of plan and geometry in the Ottoman city and at the same time the city shows a characteristic of limiting the possessions of the government on it) to a visual one (acquired a planned and monumental character submitting to a geometrical rationality, in a sense presenting itself as a work of art). The government confiscated the city by means of planning and degraded the share of the civic initiative in the shaping of the city. The institution of foundation in the Ottoman Empire was the main instrument of providing urban organization and municipal services. The institution of foundation was a phenomenon that was created by an individual charity enterprise and initiative. It encompassed all aspects of urban life,

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social-daily life including such activities as from building mosques to financing education, from feeding the dogs in the streets to bringing water from far outside the city. With the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II, the government turned the foundations, which it couldn’t interfere in anyway until then, into a part of the bureaucratic organization and promised that it would provide the services they had provided. It is seen here a tendency towards bureaucratization of the urban services outside of the control of the people. As for the Republic period, “free citizen” who expected everything from the government lacking an initiative replaced “subject” who had the initiative of supplying the urban needs by means of foundations in the past. The fact that is expressed by the notion of urban toleration is the existence of a pluralistic social organization (or disorganization) in the urban public space, or the chance of ethnical, religious, linguistic differences and with them different ethicalmoral codes, customs to exist and appear. It is the existence of the possibility of being protected from the severe restrictions of the dominance of a monistic ideology in the urban practices of the city. On the contrary to Istanbul of the past, in the single-party period, Ankara came out as a city of a monistic order lacking toleration for differences. New urban area of the Republican Ankara was the area of the intimacy of modernity. In a sense, it had a character to be filled with the intimacy of the traditional quarters. The more of the Republican public areas shared the same intimacy. They were not open spaces where the citizens had chance to enter and all identities existing in the society had opportunity to be represented freely. Those spaces were disinfected from a certain forms of traditionalism. In order to enter into those areas, an ontological and epistemological renovation was necessary. However, in spite of modernizing elite’s certain desire to establish a pure modern urban space in which some folkloric elements take place as transformed in modern forms such a way that they give a national character to the modern, the modern social space of new Ankara had not been able to keep itself away from the effects of the traditional urbanism. The modernity was perceived as a visual fact and presented in the scene of the city as visual fact. As the stage of pure modernity, the city transformed into a city in

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bell jar (fanus) immune to the each kind of external interference, it was tried to be frozen. The death of Ankara, by it is own hand, as a result of some internal and external forces, gives a chance to it for emancipation from itself. It is the crucial success of Ankara which gives way to creation of a real city formation, by destroying its utopist conception. However, what died was not really a living city. Only with this dramatic death, Ankara has become a living city. Its heart has begun to beat. When we look at the near history of Ankara, at least three kinds of Ankara can be conceivable. The first was the historic, traditional, pre-Republican Ankara, the center of the Turkish National Struggle. The second was the Republican Ankara where the spatial embodiment of Republican ideals occurred. The third one is Ankara after the 1950’s, which has absorbed the first and second ones and has given an end to all ideological imaginations and investments on the city. Ankara was established after a long historical period which testified the endeavors for the modernization of the state and society and then the catastrophic collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The conditions in which the Republic was declared were quite backward because the country had lost its material reserves and also, more important, a significant amount of its population in World-War I. At the same time, it was an intellectual ruin because the country had lost its qualified people in the war. In such conditions, the main target for the Republican elite was the rapid development of country and therefore, some basic rights and some aspects of modernity could be postponed for a period. Ankara had established on those material and intellectual deficiencies and had reflected the contradictions and tensions which were the product of the long-termed modernization process from the Tanzimat period to the Republic.

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APPENDIX A

TURKISH SUMMARY

Tezde Cumhuriyet döneminin medenilik, sosyallik ve kültür anlayışının mekânsal bir cisimleşmesi olarak Ankara’nın yeni bir başkent olarak inşası irdelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Cumhuriyetin modernlik tasavvuruyla geleneksellik arasındaki ilişkinin mahiyeti modernleşme sürecinin karakterini belirleyen önemli etkenlerden biri olarak ele alınmıştır. Cumhuriyet Modernleşmesi uzun sürmüş Osmanlı Modernleşmesinin muhtemel sonuçlarından biri olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Dolayısıyla, Cumhuriyet Modernleşmesinin arka planını oluşturan bir süreç olarak, konunun layıkıyla anlaşılması açısından irdelenmesi elzem görülmüştür. Bu bağlam içerisinde, sosyal ve kültürel dönüşümün dikkate alınması Ankara’nın sosyal ve kültürel ve bunlara bağlı olarak mekânsal formasyonlarının incelenmesinde bize tarihsel bir perspektif kazandıracaktır. Halil İnalcık, bugün Türkiye’de her zamankinden daha ağır bir kimlik ve kültür krizinin yaşandığını söylemektedir (İnalcık, 2005: 387, 389). Bu değerlendirme, Tanzimat’tan bu güne yaşananların en açık ve kısa ifadesidir. Aslında kimlik krizi, yaşanmakta olan daha genel bir krizin görünümlerinden biridir yalnızca. Türkiye’de çözüme kavuşturulamamış bir medeniyet krizinin uzun bir zamandan beri yaşanmakta olduğunu ve bir anlamda da bu krizin bu süre içinde artık açıkça hissedilemeyecek derecede olağanlaştığını söylemek abartılı bir ifade olmayacaktır. Tanzimat öncesinden bu güne, Osmanlı siyasal elitlerinin ve entelektüellerinin dile getirdikleri çözüm önerileri, bir kalkınma programı olmanın ötesinde, gelişmekte olan bu krizi aşmaya yönelik toplumsal programlar olarak da okunabilir. Aslında bu programların

uygulamaya

geçtikleri

ölçüde,

krizi

aşmaktan

ziyade

krizi

derinleştirdiklerini de söyleyebiliriz. Bu kriz kültürel alanı boydan boya kuşatmıştır. Krizin birdenbire ortaya çıkmayıp farklı alanlarda farklı zaman dilimlerinde ortaya

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çıktığını, değişen dönemlere göre farklı özellikler sahip olduğunu ve bir türlü çözüme kavuşamayıp genel bir nitelik kazandığını söyleyebiliriz. İmparatorluğun son döneminde artık her alanı kuşatan umumi bir görünüm arz eden krizin, imparatorluğun çeşitli veçhelerini kuşatan, nitelikleri farklı bir dizi krizin bir araya gelip beslediği bir medeniyet krizi olduğunu söylemek mümkün görünmektedir. Lale devrinden Cumhuriyete ülkenin yeniden yapılanması için oluşturulan modernleşme programları arasındaki farklılıkların krizin dönemlere göre değişen mahiyeti ile ilgili olduğunu söyleyebiliriz. Cumhuriyetin modernleşme programının radikalleşmesi ve bir tür medeniyet değiştirme projesine dönüşmesi, krizin en üst seviyede algılanmasının bir sonucu olması muhtemeldir. Krizin ilk olarak kendini sınırlı bir şekilde de olsa göstermeye başladığı alan mimarlıktır. Mimarlık içinde krizin, Osmanlı mimarlığının yaratıcılık açısından Mimar Sinan’la zirveye ulaştığı döneminin hemen ardından ortaya çıktığı söylenebilir. Bu Osmanlı mimarisi içinde artık pek fazla yeni bir şey söyleme imkânının kalmamasının ortaya çıkarttığı bir yaratıcılık krizidir. Yinede uzun bir müddet için mimari kanonu, en mütekâmil şekline kavuşturulan İmparatorluk mimarlığı açısından, ortaya konan modeller üzerinden dönemin zevkini tatmin edecek ve sosyal örgütlenmenin mekânsal ihtiyaçlarını başarı ile karşılayacak eserlerin üretimi devam edecektir. Bu dönem boyunca görünürde bir kriz hissedilmeyecektir. Ama zamanın değişen koşulları altında on sekizinci yüzyılın sonlarına doğru klasik mimarlık kanonunun ve pratiğinin, uzun zamandır batılı mimarlık tarzlarıyla etkileşim içinde bulunmasına ve başarılı sentez örnekleri oluşturmasına rağmen,

modernleşme

programlarının

gerektirdiği yeni inşa

faaliyetleri için yetersiz olduğu ortaya çıkacaktı. Aynı zamanda yönetici sınıf içinde ortaya çıkan zevk kaymasının bir sonucu olan yenilik arzusu, mimari alanda klasik kanon dışında yeni biçimlerin aranmasına sebebiyet vermiştir. Bu anlamda başka birçok alanda olduğu gibi mimaride de Osmanlılar için yeni ve kendinden farklı olanı içinde barındıran coğrafya Avrupa’dır. Bir anlamda bunun böyle olmasının önemli bir nedeni Osmanlı üst kültürünün yenilik açısından kendini besleyen alt kültürlerin sunduğu imkânların sonuna gelmiş olduğudur denebilir.

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Osmanlı “üst kültürü” veya “medeniyeti” farklı bölgesel unsurların bir araya gelmesiyle oluşturulmuş, şahsına münhasır bir kimliğin ifadesi olan ve başarılı kabul edebileceğimiz bir sentezdir. Osmanlı “medeniyeti” üstünde kurulduğu bölgesel unsurlar veya kendisini besleyen kaynaklar açısından, farklı kültürel, sosyal ve estetik formasyonlar dikkate alındığında bir hom*ojenlik arz etmekten oldukça uzak görünür. Mimari açıdan kendisinden önce Anadolu’da var olan ve bütün İran bölgesini de kapsayan Selçuklu mimarisinden bir kopuşu, içinde bulunduğu coğrafyaya ait ve kendisini besleyen unsurlardan farklılaşmış bir terkibe sahip bir sentezi ifade eder. Bu, Selçuklu mimari geleneğinden olduğu kadar, kendisini beslemiş olan Bizans mimari geleneğinden de bir kopuş olarak da değerlendirilebilir. Birçok edebiyat uzmanı tarafından tartışmalı bir şekilde “Divan Edebiyatı” diye adlandırılan Osmanlı Şiiri söz konusu olduğunda kendisini besleyen ana kaynağın Selçuklular döneminde gelişip olgunlaşan edebi gelenek olduğu görülür. Osmanlı şiirinin, Osmanlı coğrafyası içindeki hem Anadolu’ya hem de Balkanlara ait bölgesel unsurlardan ne ölçüde etkilendiği tam olarak açıklığa kavuşturulmuş ve henüz edebiyat araştırmacıları tarafından hak ettiği ölçüde ciddiyetle araştırılmış bir konu da değildir. Müzik söz konusu olduğunda, ortaya çıkan sentezin bir Ortadoğu, İran, Balkan ve hatta Orta Asya müzik unsurlarının bir terkibi olduğu söylenebilir. Sahip olduğu geniş temsil yeteneği ile müzik, Osmanlı coğrafyası içinde gerçek anlamda birleştirici ideolojik bir işlev üstlenmiş gibidir. Bütün bu farklı alanlardaki sentezler farklı zamanlara aittirler. Osmanlı yaratıcı yetenek ve enerjisini farklı dönemlerde farklı alanlara tahsis etmiş gibi görünmektedir. Osmanlı Mimarisi kendi özel sentezinin zirvesini geride bıraktığı ve Avrupa’dan gelen değişik estetik akımlar karşısında tamda bir savrulmayı ve çözülmeyi yaşadığı dönemde, müzikte yeni bir yaratıcı atılım, yeni bir ruh yakalamış ve zirveye ulaşmıştır. Mimaride ve şiirde kaybetmiş olduğu sesi müzikte bulmuştur. Şeyh Galib’in şahsında son büyük atılımını yapan ve gerisinde derin bir suskunluğa bürünen klasik Osmanlı şiiri artık müzik içinde güftelere kaynaklık ederek yaşamaya devam edecektir. Osmanlı müziğinin toplum içindeki var oluş serüveni mimarlıktan apayrı bir seyir izleyecektir. Diğer yandan, klasik dönem kurumları ve felsefesi açısından devlete

237

bakıldığında, önceki İslami pratiklerin, Orta Asya adetlerinin, değişik yerel adetlerin ve Bizans etkisinin sonucunda ortaya çıkmış bir sentez (Karpat, 2002: 152) görünümü arz eder. Modernlik Osmanlılar için bir yenilik vaadi taşıdığı kadar büyük toprak kayıplarının yaşandığı imparatorlukta eski ihtişamlı döneme dönmek açısından güçlülük vaadi de taşır. Askeri alanda yeni ordunun ve bu ordunun ihtiyaç duyduğu eğitim kurumlarının oluşturulmasıyla girilen modernleşme süreci giderek devletin kontrolü dışında toplumun değişik kesimlerine sirayet etmeye başlayacaktır. Bunun görünümlerinden en önemlisi belki de giderek artan entelektüel bir meşruiyet krizi olacaktır. Artık, dine dayanan geleneksel dünya görüşünün, on dokuzuncu yüzyılın ortalarından sonra özellikle batılı kültürel formlar ve hayat tarzıyla ilişkiye geçme şansı yüksek olan toplumun bazı katmanları içinde ikna ediciliğini giderek kaybetmeye başladığı görülmektedir. Özellikle Kırım Harbinin yaşandığı ortamda Osmanlının Rusya’ya karşı batılı müttefiklerinin İstanbul’da bulunmalarının sağladığı hava içinde, batılı değerler ve yaşama pratikleri toplum içinde meşruiyet kazanacakları bir zemin elde etmişlerdir. Geleneksel dünya görüşü ile birlikte geleneksel kurumlar da, batılı bir eğitim almış ve batının maddi başarıları karşısında hayranlığa kapılmış bir kitle karşısında, bir sorgulama ve meşruiyet krizi içindedirler artık. Cumhuriyete giden süreçte, halkın büyük bir çoğunluğu hala geleneksel dünya görüşü içerisinde geleneksel bir hayatı devam ettirirken, batı ile artan etkileşimin ve modernleşme sürecinin ortaya çıkarmış olduğu batılı eğitim almış aydın tabaka arasında gelenekselliğin yaşaması için artık hiçbir gerekçesi kalmamıştı. Osmanlı modernleşmesi başlangıcından İmparatorluğun ölümüne kadar olan süreç içinde değerlendirildiği takdirde, İmparatorluğun bir “kan zehirlenmesi” sonucu öldüğü iddia edilebilir. Kurtuluş için sunulan reçete İmparatorluğun ömrünün uzamasına katkıda bulunmuş olsa bile 20. yüzyılda varlığını devam ettirmesi için yeterli olmamıştır. İmparatorluğun sosyal-etnik yapılanmasıyla model alınan batı modernliğinin sosyal örgütlenme formları arasında telif edilemez uçurumlar vardı. Bundan dolayı İmparatorluk hiçbir zaman tam anlamıyla bir batılılaşma projesini gündemine alma şansına sahip değildi. Yine de, Avrupa güçlerine karşı bir Kurtuluş Mücadelesini gerçekleştirebilecek yetenekte milliyetçi bir sivil ve askeri eliti

238

yetiştirebilmiş olması, yeni bir devletin kurulabilmesi açısından önemli bir katkı olmuştur. Cumhuriyet dönemine gelindiğinde, İmparatorluktan ayrılarak kurulan ulusal devletler, tehcirler ve mübadele yoluyla ulaşılan ve öncesine göre daha hom*ojen bir görünüm arz eden etnik-sosyal yapının ortaya çıktığı görülmektedir. Böyle bir ortam içinde Cumhuriyetin kurucu eliti bir ulus devlet oluşturmak ve daha radikal bir batılılaşma programını hayata geçirmek için bir fırsatın yakalanmış olduğunu düşündüler. Bu bağlam içinde Ankara’nın yeni devletin başkenti olarak, uzun sürmüş medeniyet krizini tam anlamıyla geride bırakmak amacıyla, ülkenin geri kalanı için bir model olacak şekilde imar ve inşa edilmesi gündeme gelmişti. Osmanlı modernleşme hareketinin İmparatorluğun yıkılmasıyla sonuçlanan başarısızlığı nedeniyle, yeni devletin modernleşme çabalarının farklı bir nitelik arz etmesi kaçınılmazdı. Cumhuriyet seçkinleri açısından yeni bir ulus devletle birlikte modern ulusal bir kimliği oluşturmak öncelikli bir olguydu. Bu amaçla geçmişe ait değerlerin, geleneksel kültürün ve sosyal ilişki biçimlerinin modern olanlarla birlikte hala canlılığını muhafaza ettiği İstanbul’un yerine yeni bir başkent olarak Milli Mücadele’nin merkezi olmak gibi bir fonksiyonu üstlenmiş ve bunu başarı ile yerine getirmiş olan Ankara seçilecektir. Ankara’nın kısa zamanda modern bir kent olarak inşa edilmesi yeni rejimin başarısının bir göstergesi olacağı kadar Cumhuriyetin ülkenin geri kalanı için sunmuş olduğu modernleşme projesinin bir kentsel mekân içinde görünür bir temsili de olacaktı. Tezde bir modernleşme ideolojisi olarak Kemalizm’in, ülkeye model teşkil edecek olan ve kültürel, sosyal ve mekânsal tasavvurlarının cisimleşmesini temsil edecek olan Ankara’nın inşa sürecinin ardındaki etkenler ve düşünce yapısı anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Ankara’nın inşa sürecinin anlaşılması açısından önemli olarak görülen bir tarihsel perspektif, bir tarihsel derinlik geliştirilebilmesi için çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın, Ankara hakkında daha önce yapılmış olan çalışmalara katkısı bu yönde ilk girişimlerden birini teşkil ediyor olmasıdır. Bu amaçla İstanbul, Osmanlı döneminin mekânsal, kültürel ve sosyal yatırımlarının bir anlamda zirvesini teşkil eden ve ülkenin geri kalanı içinde bir model işlevi gören bir kentsel sahne olarak incelenmiştir. Osmanlı döneminde, İstanbul geleneksel kentsel hayatın ideal

239

bir modeli olduğu kadar modernleşmenin ilk tezahürlerinin ortaya çıkmış olduğu bir mekân olarak ta önemlidir. İstanbul’un bir model olarak incelenmesi, Cumhuriyet dönemi modernleşme çabalarının arka planın ve Osmanlı modernleşmesiyle olan benzerliklerini ve farklılıklarını kent düzleminde anlamamıza katkıda bulunacaktır. Osmanlı dönemi şehir örgütlenmesi, vakıf sistemi üzerinde temellenmiştir. Batıda belediye örgütlerinin ifa etmiş oldukları hizmetler, Osmanlı kentlerinde bireysel teşebbüsün bir sonucu olan vakıflar aracılığı ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Vakıf müessesesi bireysel bir hayır girişiminin ve inisiyatifin ortaya çıkarttığı bir olgudur. Osmanlı Şehirlerindeki mahalle mekteplerinin yapım ve bakımı, eğitimin finansmanından kentsel mekândaki camii ve külliye gibi büyük inşaat faaliyetlerine, kente su getirilmesine kadar birçok kentsel hizmet vakıflar aracılığı ile karşılanmaktaydı ve vakıf sistemi sosyal-gündelik hayatın bütün boyutlarını kuşatmaktadır. II. Mahmud’un reformlarıyla birlikte devlet, o zamana kadar hiçbir şekilde dokunamadığı vakıfları bürokratik organizasyonun bir parçası haline dönüştürmüş ve bunların sağladığı hizmetleri devletin sağlayacağını vaat etmiştir. Vakıflar kurulan Evkâf Nezaretine bağlanarak idari özerkliklerini kaybetmişlerdir. Bu merkezileşme sonucunda Osmanlı kentleri doğrudan devlet müdahalesinin ve planlamasının nesneleri haine dönüşeceklerdir. Geleneksel Osmanlı kentlerini biçimlendiren sivil inisiyatifin giderek modernleşme boyunca kaybolduğunu ve devletin kentlere el koyma sürecinin ortaya çıktığını ifade etmek mümkündür. Osmanlı sosyal yapısı çok etnili, çok dinli, çok dilli bir sosyal örgütlenme biçimine dayanmaktadır. Millet sistemi olarak ifade edilen sosyal örgütlenme temelde dini cemaatlerin farklılıklarının korunması üzerine inşa edilmişti. Bunun kentsel sahnedeki görünümü çok kültürlü bir kozmopolit yapılanma olmuştur. Bu kozmopolitlik, kentsel mekâna, farklılığa karşı bir kurumlaşmış bir toleransı mümkün kılan bir anonimlik kazandırmıştır. Osmanlı kentinin ideali olan İstanbul şehir düzleminde heterojen bir sosyal görünüm, şehrin alt birimlerini teşkil eden mahalleler düzleminde ise, bazı karma mahallelerin varlığına rağmen, hom*ojen bir cemaat görünümü arz etmektedir. Mahalleler mahallenin dini görevlisinin önderliği altında örgütlenmiş içe dönük sosyal birimlerdir. Dini lider devlet karşısında mahallenin sorumlu temsilcisi, mahalle cemaatine karşı ise devletin bir sözcüsü

240

olarak ikili bir vazifeyi ifa etmektedirler. Mahalle birimlerinin içe dönüklüğü ve buna uygun mekânsal örgütlenmesi mahallelere dayanışmacı bir yerel cemaat kimliği kazandırmıştır. Osmanlı mahalleleri bir ibadethane çevresinde oluşmuş yerleşim birimleridirler. Mahalleyi oluşturan mekânsal unsurlar, konutların yanı sıra, ibadethane (Müslümanlar için camii, Hıristiyanlar için kilise ve Museviler için havra), mahalle hamamı, mahalle kahvesi ve çıkmaz sokaktan müteşekkildir. Çıkmaz sokaklar mahalle cemaatlerinin ve mahalle kimliklerinin oluşmasında önemli bir faktör olmuşlardır. Mahalleyi herkesin rahatlıkla kullanabileceği anonim yerler olmaktan çıkartarak, mahallenin mahremiyetinin oluşmasına hayati derecede bir katkıda bulunmuşlardır. Osmanlı modernleşmesinin başladığı dönemde kentsel formasyonun yapısı bu şekilde özetlenebilir. İstanbul modelinde görülen kentsel formasyonun bir benzerini başka birçok Osmanlı şehrinde olduğu gibi geleneksel Ankara’da da görmek mümkündü. Kentsel mekânın ve bu mekânda görülen kültürel-sosyal olguların yanı sıra modernleşme sürecinde ortaya çıkan kentsel planlama anlayışı ile birlikte geleneksel mekân ve sosyallikleri dönüştürmeye yönelik modernleşmeci bir irade Cumhuriyet dönemine miras olarak kalmıştır. Cumhuriyetin modern kent tasavvuru bu mirasın yetersizlikleri üzerinde temellenmiştir. Modern Ankara bir anlamda ülkenin diğer şehirlerine modernleşmenin ne yönde olması gerektiğine dair model teşkil etmesi amacıyla inşa edilmiştir. Geleneksel Ankara’yı yeniden imar etmek yerine hemen yanı başında yeni bir şehir inşa etmenin mantığı modern hayatın gerekliliklerine cevap veremeyecek duruma gelmiş olan geleneksel hayat ve ona ait sosyal ve kültürel formasyonların etkisine karşı olabildiğince korunaklı bir mekân inşa etmektir. Bundan dolayı modern Ankara’nın, modernleşmeyi istenmeyen yönlere saptırabilecek bireysel veya kolektif inisiyatiflere karşı korunaklı ve kontrol edilebilir bir nitelikte bir şehir olarak kurulması arzulanmaktadır. Ankara’nın planlanması için yapılan yarışmanın katılımcılarına elli yıl sonrası için belirtilen nüfusun 300 bin kişi olarak tespit edilmiş olması dikkat çekicidir. Bu rakam geleceğe yönelik bir nüfus tahmininden ziyade olması istenen durumu göstermektedir. Ankara’nın kurulması kararını alanlar baş edilemez sorunlarla dolu olan modern bir metropol yerine daha kolay denetlenebilir orta büyüklükte ve sınırları az çok belirlenmiş modernliğin

241

sahnesi olacak bir şehir kurmayı tercih etmişlerdir. Bu günden baktığımızda Ankara için temel problemin Ankara’nın kentsel cazibesini azaltacak önlemlerin yeterince alınamamış olması sebebiyle tam da arzu edilmeyen sonucun ortaya çıkmış olmasıdır. Ankara içinde barındırdığı değişik sosyal ve üretimsel etkinliklerle ülkenin geri kalanı için bir model olarak inşa edilmiştir. Ankara sınırlı olarak kalmış olsa da sanayileşmesi ile de ülkenin ekonomik kalkınması için izlenmesi gereken yolun bir modelini sunma çabasındadır. Özellikle Atatürk Orman Çiftliği çorak bir arazide doğaya karşı kazanılmış bir zafer olarak tarımda sanayileşmenin bir modeli olarak ortaya çıkar. Bu sert doğa koşullarına karşı bilim ve teknolojiye dayanan modern tavrın başarısının bir simgesi olur. Ankara’nın bir model olarak ortaya çıkması herkese açık bir şehir olarak tasavvur edildiği anlamına gelmez. Ankara ülke yönetiminin belkemiğini oluşturacak üst bürokrasi ve daha alt düzey devlet memurlarının oluşturduğu bir komünite ile bu komünitenin ihtiyaçlarını karşılayacak üretim birimlerini ve hizmet sektörünü kapsayacak şekilde tasarlanmış bir şehirdir. Cumhuriyet modernleşmesi bu bürokratik cemaati aşarak geniş halk kitlelerine ulaşma fırsatını nadiren bulabilmiştir. Osmanlı döneminde İstanbul imparatorluğun geri kalan kısmı için geliştirdiği kültürel, estetik formlar ve şehir hayatı açısından tartışmasız bir model olarak ortaya çıkmıştı ve toplumun geri kalanı için erişilmesi gereken bir ideali teşkil ediyordu. Ankara başkentleşme sürecinde, ülkenin geri kalanı için bu model olma görevini de resmi olarak devralmıştı. İstanbul’un heterojen sosyal yapısına karşılık, Ankara modern ulusun inşasının mekânsal merkezi olarak hom*ojenleşme eğilimlerinin de merkezini teşkil etmiştir. Temel problem Cumhuriyet seçkinlerinin modernleşme programının sosyal ve kültürel hedeflerini gerçekleştirecek yeni bir insan tipinin yetiştirilmesidir. Bundan dolayı Cumhuriyet modernleşmesinin eğitimsel-kültürel, medenileştirici yönü ekonomik yönünden daha görünür bir nitelik kazanmıştır. Bir zihniyet dönüşümü amaçlanmaktadır ve modernleşme programının başarıya ulaşmasının güvencesi olarak bu elzem görülmektedir. Kültürel alanda müzikten, heykele, mimariye, alfabeden dile kadar yapılan devrimler bu dönüşümün

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tezahürleridirler ve temel sorun hem ulusal olmak hem de evrensel batı medeniyetinin bir parçası olmaktır. Cumhuriyetin resmi kültür politikaları, var olan geleneksel formların çözülmesine de katkıda bulunmuşsa da onların yerine tam anlamıyla yenilerini ikame etmeyi başaramamıştır. Cumhuriyetin iktidar seçkinlerinin yeni asri bir üst kültür yaratma projesi, toplumun bütününü kucaklamakta yetersiz kalmıştır. Toplum içinde çatlakların oluşmasına neden olmuştur. Geleneksel dini-etnik ayrışmanın yerini hayat tarzlarına bağlı bir ayrışma almıştır. Bugün cumhuriyet elitinin batılı kültür ve yaşam tarzının hemen yanında onunla rekabet içinde bulunan farklı melez kültürleşmeler ve hayat tarzları ortaya çıkmıştır. Türkiye’de alt kültürleri besleyen, onlara model teşkil eden ve de gerektiğinde onlardan beslenen bir standart üst kültürden bahsetmek mümkün görünmüyor. Cumhuriyetin modernlik bağlamı içerisinde önem atfettiği bütün kültürel/estetik kalıplar, üzerlerine yüklenen ideolojik ajandanın ağırlığı altında çökmüşlerdir. Propagandist amaç estetik ilkenin yerine ikame edildiği için kültürel alan dar kalıplar içerisinde sıkışmıştır. Bu durum, yapılan bütün yatırım ve atılımlara rağmen, Cumhuriyet’in kültürel alandaki başarısını etkilemiş ve toplumla olan ilişkisinin yüzeysel ve sınırlı kalmasına neden olmuştur. Cumhuriyet elitinin kamusal alana ait sosyallik anlayışı, etnik-dini farklılıklara karşı müsamaha gösterecek bir tolerans nosyonundan yoksundur. Geleneksel Osmanlı şehirleri, sosyal dokuları içinde barındırdıkları etnik, dini ve linguistik çeşitlilik açısından teorik düzlemde tartışılmaya hiçbir zaman ihtiyaç duyulmamış, geçmişin pratikleri üzerinde yükselen kendiliğinden bir toleransa sahiptirler. Osmanlı modernleşmesinin son periyodunu oluşturan İttihat ve Terakki dönemi, giderek artan milliyetçi hassasiyet nedeniyle geleneksel toleransın giderek yerini toleranssızlığa terk ettiği bir ulusallaşma döneminin başlangıcıdır. Balkanlar da ortaya çıkan ayrılıkçı hareketlerin ve Müslüman katliam ve sürgünlerinin beslediği hissiyat içerisinde büyüyen ve İmparatorluğun yıkılma ihtimalinin güçlendirdiği bir tolerans eksilmesi söz konusudur. İmparatorluğu oluşturan anasırın ayrı ulusal devletler halinde örgütlenme yönünde gösterdikleri irade karşısında İttihatçı elitler çözümü aynı yönde görürler. Balkan Savaşlarının ve Birinci Dünya Savaşının top gürültüleri arasında İmparatorluğun yanı sıra yok olup giden şey, bütün eksikliklerine rağmen

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insanlık tarihinin yaşadığı en önemli tecrübelerden birisi olan insanların kendilerini tanımlayan etnik, dini, lisani ve ırksal farklılıklarına rağmen birlikte yaşama irade ve olgusudur. Modernleşmenin siyasal örgütlenme prensibi olan ulus-devletin kalbinde taşıdığı derin anlam tam da budur: etnik olarak arınmış kabileler üzerinde yükselen devletler ve bunlara boyun eğen devletleşememiş ikincil konumda ve asimile edilmesi gereken kabileler. Cumhuriyetin kurucu eliti İttihatçıların çağdaşıdırlar ve birçoğu geçmişinin bir döneminde İttihatçılık içinde yer almış kişilerdir. İttihatçılarla aynı tecrübelere ve benzer reflekslere sahiptirler. Yinede, yaşananlar sonucuna olaylara daha realist olarak bakmayı öğrenmişlerdir. İmparatorluğun dağılma sürecinde edinilen tecrübeler azınlıklara karşı devamlı bir şüpheyi ve toleranssızlığı beslemiştir. Farklılıklar artık doğal olmaktan ziyade devlete ve ulussa sadakat açısından bir tehdit olarak algılanmaktadır. Bunun Ankara kent mekânındaki yansıması farklılıklara karşı bir müsamahasızlık ve kılık kıyafette, batıya benzer bir tarzda, modern bir tek tipliliğin ortaya çıkmasıdır (bunun aynı zamanda batıya karşı bir imaj sorunu olduğunu unutmadan). Geçmişte Anadolu’nun önemli kozmopolit şehirlerinden biri olan Ankara, Savaş süreci içinde bu özelliğinin büyük bir kısmını yitirmiş olduğundan etnik farklılıklardan ziyade yaşam biçimlerinin tek tipleştirilmesi temel problem olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Yeni Ankara’nın sakinleri kendi benliklerinden fedakârlıkta bulunarak Cumhuriyetin modern kentsel sahnesinde modern hayatın oluşumuna katkıda bulundular. Ama zaten böyle bir benlik fedakârlığı olmaksızın kent sahnesinde görünmelerinin imkânı yoktu. Tam da bu fedakârlık Ankara’nın kent panoramasını gerçek insanlardan yoksun bırakmıştır. Her biri bir misyonla donanmış, o misyonun gerektirdiklerini yapmakla kendini sınırlandırmış insanların ütopyasıdır Ankara. Osmanlı şehrinin ideal modeli olan İstanbul şehir düzleminde anonimdir mahalle düzeyinde ise cemaatlere bölünmüş ve gayri-anonimdir. Kent düzeyinde demografik yapı şehrin herhangi bir cemaate veya ideolojiye ait olmasına izin vermeyecek derecede heterojen ve yoğun bir niteliğe sahiptir. İslami şehir nitelemesi birçok durumda bir şemsiye kimlik ifadesinden öteye geçmez. Geleneksel İslam anlayışının sunduğu değerlerle uyuşmayan birçok olgu farklı biçimlerde kentsel kamusallığın farklı mekânlarında rahatlıkla görülebilir. Tanzimat’ın kentsel

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reformları mahallelerle birlikte mahalle cemaatlerini ve bu mahallelere ait kimliği de yok etmeye yönelik bir süreci başlatır. Cumhuriyetin diğer kentlerin örgütlenmesi açısından

bir

model

olarak

tasarladığı

Ankara’da

mahalle

cemaatlerinin

kaybolduğunu (pratikte tam anlamıyla kaybolmamışsa da, kent tasavvurunda yeri yoktur) mahallenin böylece anonim bir niteliğe bürünürken kent düzleminde hemen herkesin birbirini tanıdığı bir komünalliğe bağlı gayri-anonimliğin ortaya çıktığı gözlenir. Tek Parti dönemi boyunca, Ankara mahalle düzleminde anonim kent düzeyinde ise gayri-anonimdir. Cumhuriyet mahalleyi yok ederken yerel cemaati de yok etmiştir. Bireyi yerel cemaatin geleneksel otokontrol mekanizmalarının sınırlandırıcılığından özgürleştirmiştir. Geleneksel değerlerin dışında ve batılı değerlere atıfta bulunan bir sosyallik, mahremiyet ve kültür programını yürürlüğe sokmanın başka bir yolu da yoktu. Yerel cemaatlerin çözülmesi bireyin ve gündelik hayatın sekülerleşmesinin önemli bir adımıdır. Aynı zamanda tek tip bir kültüre dayanan ulusun inşa edilmesinin de. Bu yine de her anlamda cemaat nosyonunun kentsel alandan yok olduğu anlamına gelmez. Yeni Ankara şehri bir ideoloji ve bu ideolojiye inanmış bir müminler cemaati tarafından kurulmuştur. Bu yönüyle, İstanbul’un aksine Ankara bir “iman” şehridir. Osmanlı şehri görsel olmayan bir şehir anlayışından doğar. Bu, Osmanlı şehrinin plan ve geometriden yoksunluğunun getirdiği organik yapısının bir sonucudur ve aynı zamanda şehir, iktidarın kendisi üzerindeki tasarruflarını sınırlandırıcı bir nitelik gösterir. Bu yönüyle, Tanzimat’tan Cumhuriyet’e kent reformlarının ifade ettiği şey, görsel olmayan kent tasavvurundan görsel (geometrik bir rasyonaliteye boyun eğmiş planlı ve anıtsal bir nitelik kazanmış, bir anlamda kendini bir sanat eseri olarak sunan) kent tasavvuruna geçiş olarak görülebilir. İktidar kente planlama aracılığı ile el koyar ve kentin oluşumunda ki sivil inisiyatifin payını azaltır. Osmanlı imparatorluğunda kentsel örgütlenmenin ve belediye hizmetlerinin sağlanmasının temel aracı olan vakıf müessesesi bireysel bir hayır girişiminin ve inisiyatifin ortaya çıkarttığı bir olgudur. Vakıf kurumlarının statüsünü değiştiren II. Mahmud’un reformlarıyla birlikte geleneksel kentin biçimlenmesinin önemli bir bileşeni olan sivil inisiyatifin kentin biçimlenmesine olan katkısı giderek azalmıştır. Kentsel hizmetlerin bürokratikleştirilmesi yönünde bir eğilim görülmektedir.

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Cumhuriyet dönemine gelindiğinde, bu sürenin tabii bir neticesi olarak, geçmişteki kentsel ihtiyaçları vakıflar aracığıyla giderme yönünde bireysel inisiyatife sahip “teba”nın yerini görünürde her şeyi devletten bekleyen –gerçekte ise bir çok bireysel konuda devletin getirdiği kuralları izlemekten ziyade kendi kişisel menfaatlerini ön planda tutan- inisiyatifi oldukça sınırlı “özgür vatandaş” almıştır. Kentsel tolerans kavramının ifade ettiği olgu kentsel kamusal alanda çoğulcu (pluralistik) bir sosyal örgütlenmenin (veya örgütsüzlüğün) var olması ve ya etnik, dini, lisanî farklılıklar ve bunlara bağlı olarak farklı etik-moral kodların, adetlerin var olma ve görünürlük kazanabilme şansıdır. Şehrin kentsel pratikleri içerisinde tekil bir ideolojinin hâkimiyetinin katı sınırlandırmalarından korunabilme ihtimalinin varlığıdır. İstanbul’un aksine, tek parti döneminde Ankara monistik bir düzene sahip olarak toleranstan yoksun bir şehir olarak ortaya çıkar. Bu aynı zamanda, Türkiye’nin etnik, dilsel ve kültürel hom*ojenleşmesi yönünden de sosyal ilişkilerde ahlaki bir daralmayı da gündeme getirir. Tam da standart bir üst kültür oluşturmadaki yetersizlik Ankara’nın bir model olarak kurulma amacını gerçekleştirmekteki başarının niteliğini dikkate almaya bizi götürür. İlber Ortaylı (1992: 84) Ankara’nın tipik bir Balkan başkenti olduğunu ifade eder. Gönül Tankut Ankara’nın inşası sırasında kurucu iradenin tasavvur ettiği Ankara için model olarak görülen şehrin İstanbul’dan ziyade modern planlama esaslarına göre inşa edilmiş olan Selanik kentinin olduğunu söyler. 1920’li yıllarda Ankara için örnek alınan şehrin Almanya’nın Postdam şehri olduğunu dönemin yetkili yerel idarecileri tarafından belirtilir. Ankara’nın planlanma ve inşa süreci içerisinde planlamacı ve mimar olarak Alman uzmanların katkısının çok yüksek yoğunlukta olduğu açıkça görülür. Erendiz Atasü’nün (2001:100) roman kahramanlarından birine Ankara’yı “asık yüzlü ve karanlık” bir Cermen şehri olarak tasvir ettirmesinin ardında bu olgu yatar. Sonuçta Ankara’yı bir Balkan-Germen sentezinin ortaya çıkarmış olduğu bir kent olarak tanımlamak yanlış olmayabilir. Ankara’nın farklı kültürleri barındıran bir yer olmaktan ziyade bütün bu farklılıkları bir potada eriten asimile eden bir kültürel sürecin mekânı olduğu Ortaylı (1992: 84) tarafından ifade edilir. Ankara’nın bu hom*ojenleştirici özelliği Türkiye’nin geri kalanı için nasıl bir model olarak ortaya çıktığını gösterir

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niteliktedir. Ankara’nın bir model olarak Türkiye’nin geri kalanını temsil etme yeteneğinin sınırlarını belirleyen bu niteliğidir. Ankara’nın ortaya çıkardığı sosyal ve kültürel değerlerin tek tipliliği, biçimsel açıdan bir ulus inşası için gerekli olan formasyonu sağlayacak nitelikte görülmekle birlikte, Türkiye’nin geleneksel-tarihsel sosyal-kültürel formasyonu ile olan ilişkisindeki gerilim bunu engeller. Bu tek tiplilik ülkenin bütününü içerecek bir kuşatıcılığa sahip olma yeteneğinden yoksun bırakıldığı için temsil niteliği de sınırlı ve kısmi kalır. Oysa Cumhuriyet dönemi İstanbul’un sosyal-kültürel formasyonuna baktığımızda artık resmi olarak bir kentsel model olma özelliğini Ankara’ya devretmiş olmasına rağmen, ülkeyi temsil etme yeteneğinin Ankara’nın çok üstünde ve daha kuşatıcı bir nitelikte olduğu görülür. Bunu tam da eski geleneği içinde kalarak, tek tipliliği reddederek, heterojen bir formasyona sahip olarak yapar. Bu yönüyle Ankara’nın aksine İstanbul bütün bir ülkenin aynası olur. Sonuç olarak, Cumhuriyet dönemi, Osmanlıdan günümüze uzanan entelektüelkültürel kriz açısından değerlendirilecek olursa, kapsayıcı standart bir üst kültür oluşturma yönündeki çabalarının yetersiz kalışı nedeniyle bu krizi bir çözüme ulaştırmakta yetersiz kalmıştır. Cumhuriyet döneminde önce müzik alanında daha sonra ise dil alanında yapılmaya çalışılan reformlar ve hararetli tartışmalar ve bunların toplum açısından ulaşmış olduğu sonuçlar bu yetersizliğin en büyük göstergeleri olmuşlardır. Halen, bilimsel ve teknolojik verilerle uyumlu standart bir kentsel kültürün oluşturulması temel bir problem olarak varlığını sürdürmektedir.

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APPENDIX B

CURRICULUM VITAE

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Surname, Name: Tak, Ahmet Nationality: Turkish (TC) Date and Place of Birth: 2 June 1968, Trabzon Marital Status: Married e-mail: [emailprotected] EDUCATION Degree MS BS High School

Institution METU Sociology METU Sociology Gültepe Endüstri Meslek Lisesi

Year of Graduation 1998 1993 1985

WORK EXPERIENCE Year 1994-Present

Place Kırıkkale University, Department of Sociology

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Enrollment Research Assistant

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