Ankara's Memory Spaces: The Study of 80 Years of Transformative Oral History

Abstract

This study investigates the oral history and collective memory of locals in terms of the transformation of daily practices, social relations, and the space of Ankara from the late 1940s to the present. The research mainly focuses on the changes that have occurred in the main memory spaces of Ankara, and how these changes are perceived and evaluated by residents of the Çankaya district aged over 60. In this study, which aims to analyze how spaces, and therefore collective memory, have been transformed in Ankara and how this transformation is reflected in daily life, it is seen that the city planning that has attempted to use squares, parks, and architecture to reflect the Republic has actually moved away from those ideals over the years. This is especially true with the strengthening of modernization and capitalist production relations since the beginning of the serious urban and social transformation of the 1970s. The initial manifestations of this transformation were in the set up of locations. The background economic and political factors in this transformation have had major effects on the shaping of spaces, as well as on social and cultural structures, and this process of change has been reflected in daily life. The changes have been so dramatic that it can be said that Ankara's memory spaces have been completely transformed in historical process, and are now faced with extinction. The regions of Kızılay and Ulus, which we can define as being the center of the city, have gradually begun to lose their distinctive character.

Keywords

• collective memory
• transformation of space
• memory spaces
• oral history
• daily practices
• ankara
• çankaya
• ulus
• kızılay