Turkey’s Cultural Cold War:
Turkey’s Cultural Cold War:

Turkish-American Relations and the Emergence of Anatolian Rock

Summary/Abstract: This paper mainly examines Turkey’s cultural history during the Cold War. Despite a significant number of studies regarding the political and military history of the Cold War, cultural reflections on Turkey derived from bilateral relations with the United States have usually been neglected. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to fill in some gaps in the Cold War literature. In this manner, the paper mainly aims to provide a new interpretation of the development of Anatolian Rock. The essential argument is that during the first twenty years of the Cold War period, the trend of Turkish-American relations directly affected the emergence and structure of Anatolian Rock music. In the 1950s, with closer ties to the USA, young artists were highly influenced by American music, especially Rock’N Roll. But during turbulent times of the 1960s in Turkish politics, such as the military coup and the Cyprus problem, Bayar’s idea of “a tiny America” was contested.

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