A STRATEGY OF A BEAUTIFICATION, OR HOW ‘THE DECADENT ISTANBUL’ TURNED INTO THE ‘PEARL OF TURKEY’
A STRATEGY OF A BEAUTIFICATION, OR HOW ‘THE DECADENT ISTANBUL’ TURNED INTO THE ‘PEARL OF TURKEY’
Author(s): Kalina PeevaSubject(s): History, Local History / Microhistory, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), The Ottoman Empire
Published by: Институт за балканистика с Център по тракология - Българска академия на науките
Keywords: Istanbul; Modernization; Nationalism; Religious Minorities Urban Planning.
Summary/Abstract: The present study examines Istanbul’s transformation in the period between the proclamation of the Turkish republic in 1923 and the end of the Democratic Party’s rule in 1960. The reasons for the exclusion of the old imperial capital from early initiatives for constructing the modern Turkish nation-state are laid out, as well as the process of gradual integration of the Seljuk, Ottoman, and Byzantine architectural heritage into the paradigm of the ‘national’. The urban planning changes carried out under the direction of the French urbanist H. Prost are also examined, along with the radical spatial and architectural transformation undertaken during A. Menderes’ time which definitively destroyed the historical appearance of the city. The study further traces the attitude towards the minority clusters in Istanbul and imperial elites that proved to be a crucial element influencing government policy in one direction or another during the entire period of examination in line with the changes in state ideology.
Journal: Études balkaniques
- Issue Year: 2020
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 259-285
- Page Count: 27
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF