Osmanlı ve Cumhuriyet Modernleşmesinde Gayrimüslim Sanatçılar

Abstract

Non-Muslim Artists in the Ottoman and Republican Modernization

The subject of this thesis focuses on the artistic, cultural and intellectual production of the Rum, Armenian and Jewish nations and the effects of the Ottoman and Republican modernization, which are defined as non-Muslims in the Ottoman Millet System as minorities in the Lausanne Peace Treaty. In order to create the backbone of the work, a panorama of artistic and cultural environment during the transition from the empire to the republic was given, and at the same time socioeconomic and sociopolitical aspects were taken into consideration. In this context, Muslim-Turks and non-Muslims, the main actors of the thesis, were given priority, as well as Levantine and foreign nationals. On the other hand, break points, such as war, migration and population exchange in the thesis have been clarified. Beginning with the Tanzimat, declared in 1839, fluctuations in the daily lives and artistic productions of Muslims and nonMuslims were interpreted along with the facts that took place up to the 1970s, especially the negative effects of the wars on the communities and their living together for centuries. In addition to these, issues such as representation and identity burgeoned with the non-Muslims’ economic and political conditions which made an impact in terms of paving the ground for the qualitative and quantitative increase in the number of Muslim artists in the developing plastic arts were examined within the context of art history. The circumstances that led to the transformation of the non-Muslim intensive art scene into a Muslim-Turkish intensive art scene were researched and depicted with a dialect of change based art history perspective. Thus, the productions of non-Muslims who were neglected in the writing of art history and limited to a few publications, were made visible and tried to be evaluated together with the motto of there are no foreigners in art in modern Turkish art history.