Kültürel diplomasi ve Türkiye'de opera
Cultural diplomacy and opera art in Turkey
Yazar: DEVRİM ÇİFTÇİ FINDIK
Danışman: PROF. DR. SONGÜL KARAHASANOĞLU
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü / Müzikoloji ve Müzik Teorisi Ana Bilim Dalı / Müzikoloji Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2021
Konu: Müzik = Music ; Sahne ve Görüntü Sanatları = Performing and Visual Arts
Dizin: Avrupa müziği = European music ; Cumhuriyet Dönemi = Republican Period ; Kültürel diplomasi = Cultural diplomacy ; Opera = Opera ; Osmanlı Dönemi = Ottoman Period

Özet:
Bu tezde Türkiye'de opera sanatının kurumsallaşma tarihini "kültürel diplomasi" kavramı çerçevesinde anlamak amaçlanmıştır. 
Türkiye'de opera sanatının nasıl geliştiğini araştırmaya başladıktan sonra bu sanatın ulusal, uluslararası politikalar ve diplomasi ile doğrudan ilişkisi olduğu farkedilmiş, araştırma belgesel çalışması Bir Tatlı Huzur: Opera ile devam ettirilmiştir. Bu belgesel ile elde edilen birikim daha da derinleştirilmiş ve akademik bir çalışmaya dönüştürülmüştür.
Tüm sanat dalları gibi müzik de ait olduğu coğrafyanın politik manevralarından etkilenerek bu hareketler doğrultusunda şekillendirilen bir sanat dalıdır. Osmanlı ve Türkiye'de opera sanatının tarihsel varoluşu ulusal ve uluslararası politik yaklaşımlar ve süreçlerden etkilenilerek inşa edilmiştir. Osmanlı'nın 'Avrupalılaşma' adımları ile kendini göstermeye başlayan opera sanatının gelişme ve yaygınlaşma süreci süregelen dönemde Cumhuriyet'in de temel etkilenme alanlarından biri olan 'Avrupalılaşma' yaklaşımı ile devam etmiş; tüm bu süreçler diplomatik yaklaşımlar ve eylemlilikler ile planlanmıştır. 
Araştırmanın teorik çerçevesi diplomasi tarihi, kamu diplomasisi ve kültürel diplomasi kavramlarının incelenmesi ile oluşturulmuştur. Opera sanatının Osmanlı Devleti ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde kültürel anlamda yer edinme sürecinde kültürel diplomasinin oldukça önemli bir rolü vardır. Kültürel diplomasi, opera solistlerinin, sanatçılarının ve öğrencilerinin temsil yapma ve eğitim gibi nedenlerle diğer ülkelere gidiş-gelişleri, diplomatik bir etkinlik için operalar bestelenmesi veya ünlü operaların sergilenmesi, konserler verilmesi ve Türkiye'nin yerel bir opera geleneği ile yerel opera eserlerinin yazılması/bestelenmesi gibi amaçlarla opera sanatının önce Osmanlı'da sonra da Cumhuriyet dönemi Türkiye'sinde varolma, gelişme, kurumsallaşma ve gelenekselleşme süreçlerinde yoğun olarak ele alınan, faydalanılan bir kurum olma özelliği göstermektedir. 
Çalışma tarihsel yönteme dayalı, boylamsal tarama araştırmasıdır. Çalışma kapsamında elde edilen tüm veriler, betimsel analiz yöntemi kullanılarak ayrıntılı olarak incelenmiştir. Yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmelerde elde edilen veriler ilgili anlatımları desteklemek amacıyla kullanılmıştır. Aynı zamanda bu çalışma, tarihsel müzikolojinin konusu olan "Osmanlı ve Türkiye'de opera sanatının gelişimi" ile  uluslararası ilişkilere ait "kültürel diplomasi" kavramının birbiriyle ilişkisinin incelenmesi sebebiyle disiplinlerarası müzikoloji çalışmasıdır. 
Çalışma kapsamındaki literatür araştırması, YÖK Ulusal Tez Arşivi'nde yayınlanan, Osmanlı'da ve Türkiye'de opera sanatı konusunda yapılan tüm tez çalışmalarını ve yine aynı konuda yazılan kitap çalışmalarını içermektedir. 
Çalışma iki ana bölümden oluşmaktadır:
"Osmanlı'da  Diplomasi ve Opera Faaliyetleri" başlıklı birinci bölümde Osmanlı'da opera sanatının kısıtlı da olsa gelişim sürecinde diplomasi ve kültürel diplomasinin etkileri tartışılmıştır.
"Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde Opera Kurumunun İnşa Süreci" başlıklı ikinci bölümde Cumhuriyet ile birlikte değişime uğrayan müzik kurumları, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde, 1934 yılında bestelenerek sergilenen ilk opera çalışması ve bir kültürel diplomasi hamlesi olan Özsoy operasının temsil süreci, Musiki Muallim Mektebi ile Ankara Konservatuvarı'nın kuruluş ve gelişim süreçlerinde kültürel diplomasinin rolü ve önemi, 1950 sonrası devletin doğrudan birer kültürel diplomasi aracı olarak birçok farklı ülke ile farklı zamanlarda imzaladığı "Kültür Anlaşmaları", 1990 sonrasında opera sanatını ilgilendiren çeşitli oluşumların düzenlediği uluslararası çaptaki etkinlikler ve kültürel diplomasi konuları ile ele alınmıştır. 
Çalışma sonucunda kültürel diplomasinin Türkiye'de opera hayatının oluşumu ve gelişiminde çok önemli bir etkisi olduğu, bu etkinin bu sanatın nasıl, ne zaman, nerede, kimlere sergileneceğini dahi belirleme gücünün olduğu; kültürel diplomasinin Türkiye'deki opera sanatının varlığının görünürlüğünü desteklediği anlaşılmıştır.

Abstract:
Diplomacy has always been one of the leading factors of internal and external power of states. Public diplomacy -in the modern diplomacy thought- has been an important discipline for all nation-states in the new world order. Cultural diplomacy, which is one of the application areas of public diplomacy, has many meanings such as the provision-preservation-expansion-strengthening- change- development of a society's cultural existence through diplomacy in the international arena. The aim of this thesis is to understand the history of the institutionalization of the opera within the framework of the concept "cultural diplomacy". This thesis analyses the cultural policies of Turkey related to the opera art and establishes a relationship with these two topics. One of the intersection point of these two titles is the cultural diplomacy. Therefore, since the Ottoman Empire, opera art in Turkey is analysed in the framework of the concept of cultural diplomacy. The research questions of this thesis are:
1.	 Does opera art in the Republic of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire have any effect on the process of cultural diplomacy? If so, what are these effects?
2.	How the opera art is used in the Republic of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire for the diplomatic and/ or cultural diplomatic events?
3.	What are the effects of cultural diplomacy for opera art in the Turkey?
Firstly, we tried to consider two separate disciplines (opera and musicology) together. After beginning to investigate how opera developed in Turkey, we realized that this art form had a direct relationship with national and international policies and diplomacy; research continued with the documentary work A Sweet Peace: Opera, further deepening the accumulation of information and transforming this into an academic study.
Like all branches of the arts, music is influenced by the political manoeuvres of the geography to which it belongs, and has a position shaped in accordance with these movements. The historical entity of opera in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey was constructed entirely through the influence of national and international political approaches and processes. The development and dissemination of opera began with the first steps of the Ottoman Empire's process of 'Europeanization' and continued through the Republican era, constituting one of the main fields of the approach of 'Europeanization'; all such processes were carried out and planned in accordance with the diplomatic approach.
The theoretical framework of the research is composed of an investigation of the concepts of the history of diplomacy, the public diplomacy, and the cultural diplomacy. During the period in which opera took its place in the cultural field of the Ottoman State and the Turkish Republic cultural diplomacy played a very important role. In addition to the visits of the opera scholars, opera artists and performances as well as the visits to other countries with educational purposes of the students, composing operas or exhibiting famous operas for diplomatic events, concert performances, and the writing and composing of local operatic works developed Turkey's local operatic tradition. The existence of opera, its development, institutionalization and creation of a tradition as processes show that opera as an institution was beneficial for cultural diplomacy initially in the Ottoman period and then in the Republican period. 
The study based on the historical method. Data were obtained in two ways; one of them is the execution of the semi-structured interviews with whom used to support related narratives. The second way is the literature review conducted in the form of discussion of all the thesis studies conducted in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey on the subject of opera within the Turkish Council of Higher Education archives, and the data obtained as a result of the study of the books investigating this same subject.
The study consists of two sections:
The first section, "Ottoman Diplomacy and Operatic Activities" covers the Ottoman opera, however limited, is influenced by diplomacy and cultural diplomacy still in the process of development.
The second section, "Construction of the Institution of the Opera in the Republic of Turkey", discusses musical institutions subjected to change together with the Republic, shown through such examples as Özsoy (1934), the first local opera and example of cultural diplomacy, the cultural diplomatic role and importance of the establishment and development processes of the Musiki Muallim Mektebi and the Ankara Conservatory, an investigation of the post-1950 phenomenon of the state itself engaging in direct cultural diplomacy, for example the signing of the "Cultural Agreement" by many different countries at different times, all framed by international events and cultural diplomacy organized by various organizations related to opera after 1990.
It may be understood that cultural diplomacy has had a very important influence on the formation and development of the life of opera in Turkey, to the point that this influence has the power to determine how, when, where, and to whom this art will be exhibited, that it was cultural diplomacy that supported the presence of opera in Turkey to be seen around the world, that the world bore witness to opera in Turkey.
One of the most important outcomes of this study is to reach a lot of assessment of the relation between the cultural diplomacy and opera relations in the Turkey. However, it is difficult to make a clear definition of cultural diplomacy. Therefore, many events and things in this study have been interpreted with many features in the definitions of cultural diplomacy. So, this thesis also engages with the discussions of cultural diplomacy.
There is a big relationship between opera art and diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire. In fact, almost all the examples in the art of opera in the Ottoman Empire are directly or indirectly related to diplomacy. The most important of these examples is the opera events attended by the ambassadors sent to other countries -mostly European countries- by the Ottoman Empire. The second most important example are the management processes of theatres opened in Istanbul and Izmir (like Naum Theatre, Bosco Theatre, Concordia Theatre etc.) in the 19th century. 

There is a significant impact of the Europeanization for art policy since the founding of the Republic of Turkey. Therefore, the role of international relations and diplomacy for artistic approach of? the Turkey is great. The first example is completely about the diplomacy and also cultural diplomacy: Ozsoy. This opera is composed and staged to strengthen the existing diplomatic communication between Turkey and Iran and to show other international actors to their own new culture and art vision. This opera was staged June 19th, 1934 for the Iranian Shah Rıza Pehlevi's visit to Turkey and it is one of the most important example showing the relationship diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and opera art in Turkey.

The second example to reveal the interaction of Republic of Turkey's cultural diplomacy with opera art is the process of establishing music schools. This process started with the Musiki Muallim Mektebi (Music Teacher School) and continued with the Istanbul Conservatory and Ankara Conservatory. Especially since the establishment of Ankara Conservatory, which is an opera singer training institution, many European teachers have worked in this institution. At the first glance, these teachers' coming to Turkey, seems only to be associated with diplomatic process. However, considering many features of cultural diplomacy, this situation can also be associated with cultural diplomacy. For example, in conservatory, many teachers taught their own musical system and culture to students from Turkey. And these teachers learned a lot of musical system and things from Turkey and they composed some works with using these systems and some themes. Although this is a good example of cultural interaction, it can also be associated with cultural diplomacy due to the diplomatic elements inside it. 

Since the 1950s Cultural Agreements that were signed between Turkey and many countries are about cultural diplomacy literally. Thanks to these agreements, many opera singers participated in events and some educations in different countries. This agreement has led to two important aspects for Turkey: Firstly, the opera singers outgoing from Turkey to other countries have influenced in a positive way about artistic development of opera. Secondly, the presence and the quality of opera art in Turkey has become more visible in the world. 

Opera Days events organized by TURKSOY (The International Organization of Turkic Culture) after the 1990s are also important examples of cultural diplomacy and opera art relations outside the Europe. Likewise, Leyla Gencer Voice Competition and Siemens Opera Competition are important organizations for the world and these organizations' centre is Turkey. These kinds of events aim to realize intercultural dialogue with the art of opera. For this reason, these events are also important organizations related to cultural diplomacy. 

Austria Salzburg based Grandi Voci Competition is an organization that numerous opera singers and students attended from Turkey. This organization, like the Cultural Agreements, is an event for Turkey's voice announcing to the other actors, if we think this event with a frame of cultural diplomacy. Therefore, this is also associated with cultural diplomacy. 

For the opera art in the Turkey can be reached the following conclusion: Cultural diplomacy and diplomacy are router and has an impact for the opera art in the Turkey. In other words, one of the concepts for progressing of opera art in Turkey is cultural diplomacy.