Nationalism Discourse in the Early Republican Turkey: İzmir National Library and National Cinema as Memory Spaces

Abstract

“…the library should not stay as it is today. There is a long distance have to be covered in order to deserve the name pointing out its gloriousness and the goals…” is written in the opening brochure of Izmir National Library. The date of the lines written in 1912 corresponds a comprehensive transformation period of Turkey when the socio-cultural and political condition of the country was re-established on the grounds of democratization and modernization. Accordingly, the multi-cultural Ottoman structure of monarchy was replaced by the construction of new Turkish identity in time. The nationalist manner in the Early Republican Period (ERP) of Turkey was realized through the establishment of state institutions, public buildings, urban squares and monumental artefacts as memory spaces where the collective memory of people converted into a new national identity spatially in the urban context.

In a parallel vein, the construction of Izmir National Library emerges as a major act in declaring and conveying ideological objectives of the ERP in the twentieth century. As the first civil library initiation, İzmir National Library was firstly established in Salepçioğlu Mansion in Beyler Street of Konak and the building was shared with the Committee of Union and Progress as the ruling party of time. A year later, the National Cinema was opened as a source of income in the courtyard of the library. After the declaration of the Republic, a new building for the National Cinema was designed in 1926 on its new site in Konak and in 1933, the contemporary building of the National Library was constructed adjacent to the National Cinema. In this way, the ideological common ground of nationalism idea continued in its new physical space in the urban context.

The co-existence of the İzmir National Library and Cinema building, stayed in use up to today with their architectural tectonics in the First National Style. They emerge as living memory spaces in the urban context by witnessing, propagating and conveying the transition from monarchy to democracy. Nationalist goals of the ERP indicate the conversion of collective memory into national identity in the early twentieth century. Accordingly in this study, it is searched for answers how the nationalist ideologies were concretized in İzmir National Library and National Cinema buildings in the urban context spatially by representing the new Turkish identity search with their monumental existence in the heart of the city until today.