| Abstract: |
This article discusses the recent politics of space in Turkey during the rule
of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) through
a focus on the capital city of Ankara. In order to analyze the recent politics
of space in Turkey, the article elaborates upon the recent politics of toponym
changes and the discourse over space and place in the Turkish capital.
Particular attention is paid to the spatialization of neo-Ottoman, Islamist,
and populist discourses and to the production of various representational and
counter-representational spaces. One of the key foci of the article is its
elaboration on the new Presidential Complex (Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi) as a
case that, in its representational and conceptual aspects, reflects the
spatialization of Islamist and populist discourses and symbolizes the recent
transformations of social space and the emergent sociospatial order in Turkey. |