The Ottoman Revivalist Architecture and the Turkish Identity: Architecture of the Early Republican Era (1923-1950), VIII AACCP Symposium, Istanbul 2021 (original) (raw)

2021, Cities in Evolution Diachronic Transformations of Urban and Rural Settlements, VIII AACCP Symposium

At the beginning of the 20th century, the revivalist movement seen in the architecture of the Ottoman State, mainly in the beginning of the 20th century, with today's terminology "First National Architectural Style", showed itself with using the background of neo-classical movements within the context of 16th century classical Ottoman Empire architecture or using the "magnificence, beauty and technology” of Seljuk architecture. Since the proclamation of the Republic in 1923, the various reforms introduced by the bureaucratic elite, new historical and social constructions in the nation state, aim to adapt the society to a Western lifestyle and not to adhere to the cultural elements that refer to the Ottoman State. Western reforms in fields such as education and social life did not affect architecture until the 1930s and the First National Architectural Style continued to show itself in the first 10 years of the Republic. Starting from the 1930s, the modern style, which has simpler and clearer elements, begins to find its place in the public sphere by European architects. Although this period, which we can say between 1923 and 1930, is generally seen as a "contradiction" in the history of the republic, it allows the republic to construct the "Turkish" identity inherited from the Ottoman Empire through the discourse of "Turkish architecture" together with nationalist policies. The Ottoman-Turkish identity of the revivalist style, whose effects we can see in public buildings intensely, becomes the "Turkish architecture" in the efforts of "purifying Turkish history from Ottoman history" during the republican period. Until the 1950s, various researches, periodicals and monuments are also constructed in the same way, apart from the structures built on the Turkish identity in public areas. Although the contexts mentioned are designed together with the elements that symbolize the republican regime in particular, the research also aims to discuss that they reiterate the magnificence and success of various well-known Ottoman figures in history by associating them with the “Turkish” identity. In this study, the application of this revivalist approach, which we can say that it continued from 1923 to 1950, over the "Turkish" identity and what kind of context it had in the political tendencies of the period will be discussed.