Enno Maessen - Representing Modern Istanbul: Urban History and International Institutions in Twentieth Century Beyoglu

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Representing Modern Istanbul

Representing Modern Istanbul

Urban History and International Institutions in Twentieth Century Beyolu

Enno Maessen

Contents

Map

Hans Smolenaers & Enno Maessen (2019) Map of Beyolu and relevant parcels

Figures

Enno Maessen (2018) Exterior view of the Cercle dOrient, seen from stiklal Caddesi

Enno Maessen (2018) The fences of Galatasaray High School seen from Galatasaray Square

Enno Maessen (2017) Exterior view of the former English High School for Girls, currently Beyolu Anadolu Lisesi

Table

Deutsche Oberrealschule Schulerstatistik Sammtlicher Schler in den letzten fnf Jahren

Over the years many friends and colleagues have contributed to this book. Without their support it would undoubtedly not have been realized. I thank Luiza Bialasiewicz, Guido Snel, Uur ngr and Paolo Girardelli, for their friendship, intellectual guidance and inspiration. My gratefulness also goes out to those in Istanbul whose particular support and friendship helped me through the complexities and practicalities of fieldwork, Fokke Gerritsen, Ata Gr and Nilay zl.

I have received much support from colleagues and friends at the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University and Boazii University. I especially and heartfully thank Boyd van Dijk, Dana Dolghin, Moritz Fllmer, Tim van Gerven, Milou van Hout, Josip Kei, Ayenur Korkmaz, Joep Leerssen, Hanna Muehlenhoff, Tymen Peverelli, Anna Secor and Tuna Taan-Kok for their advice and comments to earlier versions of the manuscript. I am indebted to many for their advice, support and help: Asu Aksoy, Lorans Baruh, John Dyson, Kerem Eksen, Edhem Eldem, Ahmet Ersoy, idem Kafesiolu, the late Vangelis Kechriotis, Mehmet Kentel, Beate Kretzschmann, Jean-Franois Prouse, Felix Pirson, Rosamund Wilkinson and Richard Wittmann. Many thanks also to the staff of the many research institutions and libraries in Istanbul and elsewhere, especially at the Atatrk Kitapl, Deutsches Archologisches Institut Istanbul, Institut Franais d'tudes Anatoliennes, stanbul Aratrma Enstits, Nederlands Instituut in Turkije, Orient Institut, SALT Galata and the library of the Trk Mhendis ve Mimarlar Odalar Birlii at Istanbul.

A special word of thanks to the editors at I.B. Tauris & Bloomsbury Publishing, Yasmin Garcha and Rory Gormley, for guiding me through the process of publishing and answering my many queries. I would also like to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their careful assessment of the manuscript and many useful corrections.

Finally, I thank my friends and family who helped me stay in touch with a reality beyond the book. My special thanks goes to Thijs van Blitterswijk, Bahar akrolu, Roselyn Flach, Jon Heinrichs, Rick van Hemert, Mette Maessen, Frank Smolenaers, Hans Smolenaers, Zara Weijers. Most of all, my gratitude goes to my parents, Jan and Marina Maessen-Roelofsen, who always had my back. I dedicate this book to them.

In a Extrapolating the situation of malaise of the stiklal Caddesi (stiklal Avenue) to the district of Beyolu at large, the author quotes a prominent voice from Istanbuls urban activist scene who states:

All the characteristic landmarks that made Beyoglu special disappeared one by one, said Mucella Yapici, a member of Istanbuls Chamber of Architects. [...] And the neighborhood turned into a place that entirely lost its soul. Old taverns, bookstores, theaters, and especially movie theaters, shut down.

The representation of Beyolus perpetual demise, here presented in an international news outlet, is a recurrent historical trope about the area. It lies at the core of this book, which highlights the complexity of processes of place-making in Istanbul and problematizes popular representations of processes of continuity and discontinuity in Beyolu and Istanbul between 1950 and 1990. It will analyse how different communities made their place in Beyolu, while at the same time claiming space in local, national and international processes of education, cultural diplomacy and the cultivation of culture broadly conceived.

Writing urban history on post-1940s Beyolu

The four decades following 1950 are particularly significant for Beyolu and Istanbul because they mark a period perceived as the era in which Beyolu lost its true cosmopolitan self and ceased to be the vibrant and wealthy belle-poque setting that it had allegedly been some eighty years prior. Research on this period so far is limited. The district features explicitly or implicitly in publications examining tragic events, notably the pogroms of September 1955, yet beyond a few notable exceptions the burgeoning popular and academic literature on the history of Beyolu from the 1980s onwards has zoomed in nearly exclusively on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When the post-1940s period is mentioned it is typically as an object of nostalgia. Beyond the boundaries of historiography, a wealth of research exists on the districts more recent evolution. Yet the years between 1950 and 1990 a crucial period in Beyolus transition marked by important shifts in its demography, society, cultural production, position in the citys economy and fundamental transformations in its urban landscape barely feature in the rich literature on Istanbul.

Urban historiography has shown us that Beyolu is no exception, since modern urban history has been marked by a tendency to focus on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Those studies that do focus on contemporary issues struggle to integrate their research into the broader range of topics featuring in the disciplines of social and cultural history, dealing mostly with issues of planning instead. Additionally, social and cultural historians still have difficulty in finding their way in urban contexts and, rather, focus on social movements, state formation or other topics related to social, political or intellectual trends.

Beyolu is, and has for centuries been, a very dynamic urban area, which in part is a catalyst for urban nostalgias about the area, particularly for times long passed. From that perspective I consider the comment by one of my informants, You have chosen the most uninteresting period for your research! to be illustrative. I will indicate in more detail in Chapter 1 how nostalgia for convenient cosmopolitanisms narratives of Istanbuls social history that fit the goals of various urban actors (municipalities, the private sector, NGOs and private individuals) have a tendency to colour our understanding of Beyolus recent history, during which spaces and communities were ceaselessly marked by simultaneous stagnation and change. Nostalgia in Beyolu has oppressive qualities, similarly observed in the context of Alexandria by Della Dora. With regard to Beyolu, one can therefore, for instance, consider whether opening an exhibition space or cultural institution in a historical building is inherently better for the accessibility of that space than opening a hotel, restaurant or shopping mall.

I primarily intend to critically re-assess interpretations of Beyolus and Istanbuls recent history by drawing attention to the complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship between the districts spatial and social continuities and discontinuities. It explores how five institutions and their physical locations have functioned between the 1950s and 1980s: a period commonly represented as one of change, demise and decay (see The clubs recent history shows how this was only in part caused by the shifting demographics and social functions of Beyolu, and much more by the institutions own troubled history, as well as decreasing interest in sustaining national communities. From a different perspective, the case of Cercle dOrient highlights how a building can become progressively dissociated from its namesake, an elite gentlemens club, although its longer histories (and significance) are maintained in other ways. Indeed, as its relevance to the club declined, its significance as a hub for the booming film industry only grew. An English High School for Girls, on the other hand, reveals how a flourishing institution was much less affected by relatively positive local conditions as it was by neoliberal decision-making in London.

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