title: Tolerance as a European norm or an ottoman practice?
title: An analysis of Turkish public debates on the (re)opening of an Armenian church in the context of Turkey’s EU candidacy and neo-ottoman revival
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Ayata, Bilgin
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: 300 Sozialwissenschaften::320 Politikwissenschaft::320 Politikwissenschaft

description: 1\. Introduction: Research Question and the Case 1.1 The Transformative Power of Europe in Turkey 1.2 The Transformations of Turkey on its Way to Europe 1.3 Reinventing Turkish National Identity: Turkey as a ‘Tolerant Nation’? 1.3.1 From Rapture to Continuity with the Past 1.3.2 Turkey as the Heir of the Empire of Tolerance and Bridge of Civilizations 1.3.3 Quo Vadis Turkey? 2\. The Case of the Armenian Church Sourp Khatch/Akthamar 3\. Empirical Findings: Government Policies and Public Debates on the Akhtamar Church 3.1 The Government Perspective on the Sourp Khatch Church in the Turkish Media (2005-2010) 3.1.1 Suppressing Genocide Claims through Church Renovations 3.1.2 When the Past Comes Closer: The Aftermath of the Hrant Dink‘s Murder 3.1.3 Summary of Official View: Four Frames 3.2 Content Analysis of Selected Opinion Pieces 3.3 Norm Internalization or Reinterpretation of Norms? 4\. Conclusion
description: Turkey has undergone significant legal and institutional reforms regarding minority rights and cultural rights in the past decade as part of a reform process to meet political criteria for EU membership. However, it has not been studied so far if this increasing institutional compliance has also led to transformations at a normative level in the public discourse in Turkey. To explore this question, this paper presents the results of a qualitative media analysis that I conducted on the restoration and reopening of an Armenian church in 2007 – a milestone for the Republic as churches were destroyed or doomed to vanish for nearly a century since the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The restoration of the Sourp Khatch/Akhtamar Church became a showcase for Turkey’s self-promotion as a ‘tolerant nation’. However, the church was notably made accessible to the public as a museum that initially lacked the cross on its dome and was conceived to only host a religious service once a year. This opening of a church-museum is a symbolic instance in Turkey’s ongoing transformation process in which tolerance and plurality have become prominent keywords in politics and public debate. Yet, as the findings suggest, they do not so as a reflection of European norms, but rather stand for a rediscovery and reinterpretation of Turkey’s Ottoman past practices as a multi-religious empire. I show, however, that this reinterpretation occurs on the shaky grounds of a blindfolded view of the past, in particular the denial of the Armenian Genocide, and on the denial that minorities are still endangered in present day Turkey. I conclude that, without an acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey’s nostalgic embracement of the Ottoman past and representation of norms such as tolerance as the ‘true’ Turkish/Islamic norms do not stand for a norm internalization or a norm adaption process, but instead, for a disconnection between norm and practice.