Ideological-Aesthetic Construction: The Sarayburnu Atatürk Monument

Date

2026-1-5

Author

Okumuş, Gürkan
Ediz, Özgür

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As a revolutionary ideological movement, the Turkish modernisation project is a sign of radical change, identified with contemporary, modern, civilised and independent images. The Republican government uses architecture and art to promote its ideology and mark cities with Republican iconography. In this framework, the rulers of the Republic need monuments to anchor and secure their ideological meaning and representation in space. The Revolutionary discourse uses the image of Atatürk to produce a secular and modern society. This image makes it possible for every member of society to imagine themselves as part of the Turkish nation and to identify with the symbol. Monumental spaces are places where memory is fixed, where time stands still and where immortality, which prevents the act of forgetting, is embodied. The imperial capital Istanbul, surrounded by representations of the Ottoman Empire and Islam, has a leading role in the competition for loyalty to the regime. Sarayburnu, the socio-cultural and political centre of the Ottoman Empire, is the first link in the chain of meaning of the revolutionary and symbolic monumental movement marked by republican iconography. The Sarayburnu Atatürk Monument is the first symbol that the republican regime placed at the heart of the Ottoman capital. This symbolic monument organises secular public space and shapes the city’s monumental and spatial practices, which were incorporated into national urban planning after the 1930s. This study addresses a gap in the literature by examining the Sarayburnu Atatürk Monument, which is approaching one hundred years since its construction, within a spatial and ideological context. The article aims to fill this gap in the literature. In this study, the Sarayburnu Atatürk Monument is analyzed with a focus on spatial-ideological and iconographic interpretation. The theoretical background of the study discusses the relationship between secular ideological discourse and public space-Atatürk monuments. The study argues that the Sarayburnu Atatürk Monument played a pioneering role in the articulation of Istanbul into the national imaginary. The monument is valuable as the first urban intervention of the regime in Istanbul and has a powerful story to tell about the nation-state building process.

Subject Keywords

Istanbul, Atatürk Monuments, Sarayburnu, collective memory, ideological discourse, İstanbul, Atatürk Anıtları, Sarayburnu, kolektif bellek, ideolojik söylem

URI

https://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/uploads/docs/sayilar/sayi-43-1/metujfa2026105.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120047

Collections

Department of Architecture, Article