Celebration of National Days in Ankara: Performative Forms of Publicity during the Early Republican Period

Abstract

This article examines public performances of official national day celebrations in Ankara during the early period of the Republic. As studying only one actor within a single conceptual framework of national day celebrations would be insufficient to depict the complex nature of social practices, this study argues that national day celebrations inherently incorporate simultaneously and reciprocally performed layers within the public sphere. This study considers the celebration spaces, which are the physical theater of events, as being a part of a network of material and spiritual tools that are utilized to improve the celebration performance and increase the enjoyment of the audience, while also considering the socio-spatial codes that control the masses and the celebration of mise-en-scene. This article uses three intertwined themes: the mobilization of the masses; the promotion of technological development and technical exhibition; and the circulation of the founding images and narratives, to introduce and discuss public performance in Ankara. The study concludes by suggesting that the interaction of these themes with each other explains the consent culture, nation-building strategies, and performative forms of publicity, that occurred during national day performances of the early period of the Republic of Turkey.

Keywords

• early republican period
• national days
• public space
• places of celebration
• ankara