Politics of decay and spatial resistance

Abstract

A historical and multi-cultural district called İstiklal challenges the Turkish claim as a secular, culturally Muslim, and ethnically Turkish nation. This region is at the heart of the republic: it is in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara, and within a region called Ulus, i.e. ‘the Nation.’ This district is threatened by a continuous process of demolition that has been taking place around this region since the 1940s, in fact, in the last thirty years, a politics of decay has complemented actual acts of demolition. The female residents of the region counteract this politics by narrating the daily problems that the residents of İstiklal encounter as a result of this politics. Their strategies of narration constitute a resistance against exclusion. By historicizing the experiences that the district has endured, they fight the temporalization of this space, and manage to transgress its isolation.

Un quartier historique et multiculturel nommé İstiklal débat de l'affirmation turque comme une nation laïque, culturellement musulmane et ethniquement turque. Ce quartier est au cœur de la république: il est situé dans la capitale de la Turquie, Ankara, et à l'intérieur d'une région nommé Ulus, c'est-à-dire ‘la nation’. Ce district est menacé par un processus continu de démolition qui s'effectue autour de cette région depuis les années quarante, en fait, dans les trente dernières années, une politique de la dégradation a complété des actes véritables de la démolition. Les résidents féminins du quartier contrecarrent ces politiques en racontant les problèmes quotidiens que les résidents d'İstiklal rencontrent à la suite de ces politiques. Leurs stratégies de narration constituent une résistance contre l'exclusion. En historisant des expériences que le quartier a enduré, elles combattent la temporalisation de cette espace, et réussissent à franchir son isolation.

İstiklal, un distrito histórico y multicultural, se desafía la alegación turca que Turquía es una nación secular, culturalmente islámico, y étnicamente Turco. Ésta región es en el corazón de la república: en el capital de Turquía, Ankara, entre un región llamado Ulus, ‘la nación.’ Este distrito está amenazado por un proceso continuo de demolición que empezó en los 1940 y, de hecho, en los últimos treinta años, una política de descomposición ha reforzado los actos de demolición. Las vecinas del región se contrarresta la política por narrar los problemas cotidianos que los residentes de İstiklal se encuentran como resulta de ésta política. Sus estrategias de narración se constituyen una resistencia contra la exclusión. Por contextualizar las experiencias que el distrito ha soportado, se luchan contra la temporalización del espacio, y logran exceder su aislamiento.

Keywords:

• Turkey
• historical space
• gender
• ethnicity
• nation-building

Keywords:

• Turquie
• espace historique
• genre
• ethnicité
• édification d'une nation

Keywords:

• Turquía
• espacio histórico
• género
• etnicidad
• construcción de la nación

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Hasan Saim Vural, Ayten Alkan, Alev Özkazanç, Pınar Tankut, Dina Shehayeb and the anonymous reviewers for their encouragement and comments on different versions of this paper. The support and company of Dina Shehayeb and Sevin Osmay, and of course the whole Hammam group, were also invaluable during a considerable part of the course of this study. Some of this research was conducted for: ‘HAMMAM—Hammam, Aspects and Multidisciplinary Methods of Analysis for the Mediterranean Region’, EU FP6-2003-INCO-MPC-2, Contract No. 517704.

Notes

 1 Interviews: Ali Attar, 20 June 2006, Altındağ Municipality, Ankara. Cemile Hanım, 6 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Elif Hanım, 7 July and 14 August 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Hayriye Hanım, 11 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Hidayet Bey, 7 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Nazmiye Hanım, 6 July 2006. Nemika Fincancıoğlu in Ersan Ocak, Berrin Talay, Funda Şenol Cantek, Elif Ekin Akşit, Thomas Balkenhol, Cumhuriyetin Kadınları (filmed interviews of the Girls of the Republic), ODTÜ Gisam Archives, 1998–2002. Ömer Delibaş, 7 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Özen Hanım, 11 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Residents of House No. 5 at the Seffarine Square, 9 November 2006. Sengül Hanım, 6 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara. Yunus Keleş, 6 June 2006, Altındağ Belediyesi, Ankara. Zöhre Nine, 11 July 2006, İstiklal, Ankara.

 2 This area is not a present or possible site for gentrification, thus I will leave the discussions regarding gentrification in the third world outside the focus of this essay (Jones and Varley 1999; Lim 2000). However, the similarities with Latin America should be noted (Benton 1986).

 3 This issue of New Perspectives on Turkey focuses on memory.

 4 It is written upon a page in the school entrance that the largest school in İstiklal was built upon the destruction of the remains of a church.

 5 Yet a critical reading of Neyzi's (2002) study on Sabbateanism reveals that multicultural identities were also problematic in Ottoman history. (Sabbateanism is an undercover Jewish identity in the Muslim atmosphere of Ottoman society. Both Muslims and Jews reject this group.)

 6 The exclusion of the Jewish population started in the mid-1930s.

 7 For historical and geographical differentiation of meaning, see Peake (1997: 335).

 8 For more detail, see Zürcher (1993). Mills (2006) quotes Akçam (2004: 116) in her conclusion to restate that a second nation-building process is taking place in Turkey.

 9 How historical spaces are gendered this way is a peculiar extension to the discussions of taken-for-grantedness of gender categories (Bondi and Davidson 2005: 26; Jacobs and Nash 2003: 268). The situation in İstiklal is an interesting turn to the dynamics of ‘governing by culture’ (Jacobs and Nash 2003: 269). See Çelik (1994: 86, 87, 93) for how the historic houses and public spaces were originally grouped in Turkey in the first wave of preservation after the legislation of 1973.

10 Commercialization of history claiming to realize the obligation that the past, the present, and the future overlap with one another is normally conducted in a more straight manner, where historical districts are turned into tourist attractions (Mills 2005). Yet İstiklal, with the politics of decay, projects a more hardcore transformation.

11 For the urge to leave see Peake (1997: 356).

12 It would be interesting to seek how spatially bounded women from different ethnicities are in this neighborhood (Gilbert 1998, 1999: 104–105). Bedriye, with her friend, is in fact one of the few women in the neighborhood who initiated her own business.

13 This way, they also contribute to feminist political geography to strip it from its white, middle-class, northern identity (Brown and Staeheli 2003: 253; Peake 1997: 336; Tyler 2008: 3).