Publicity, memory and politics: The quincentennial foundation museum of Turkish Jews

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2018

Öğrenci: OSMAN CİHAN SERT

Danışman: ERDEN ATTİLA AYTEKİN

Özet:

This study analyzes the Quincentennial Foundation Museum of Turkish Jews, which is the first and single minority museum in the Turkish public domain. The principal aim of this analysis to shed light on the museum as an instutional indicator of the boundaries to take a place in the public sphere by the Turkish Jews and locating the museum between three main pillars of the Jewish-Holocaust memory politics'. The Quincentennial commemorations of the 1492 expulsion to the Europe and the Ottoman Empire narrated the Sepharad exile as another humanitarian tragedywithin the relation of the Holocaust memory. The Turkish State and the Quincentennial Foundation played prime roles in this memory production. To this aim, the museum is analyzed in relation of the narration of the admission of the Sepharad refugees in 1492 and legitimation of Jewish presence in the thepublic sphere. This study will seek to answer of these questions; how the Jewish presence in Turkey is reflected over the memory of realms, how this presence is legitimized and how the Turkish State recognized and supported the quincentennial commemorations despite its traditional memory politics to the minorities. At the end, it will be concluded how the museum provides advantages to both sides and some dilemmas to the Jewish community.