az writings drawings
zeynep iğmen
ma the bartlett school of architecture, architecture and historic urban environments (2024-)
ba istanbul bilgi university, arhitecture (2019-2023)
arda bozkurt
ma mimar sinan fine arts university, spatial studies
(2024-)
ba istanbul bilgi university, arhitecture (2018-2023)
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Top-Down Interventions on Collective Memory
Social
communities are structured by different ethnical groups. Despite that, if
people share the same geography and similar rituals or habits, they form a
collective value system and a certain perception method which relies on a
common background. As time passes, this shared phenomenon becomes more static
and generates collective memory. With the transformation of humankind,
communication interfaces, and globalization; societies started to fail their
folklore and references and it became inevitable for them to reinvent
themselves by a top-down or bottom-up attempt as tabula rasa. The reflection of
remembrance through sensation abandoned its natural process and became an
imposition from higher authorities.
Collective
memory is not only a knowledge chamber built within the social and political
aggregations but also a source of communal resistance through ongoing top-down
approaches. However, when pressure and
imposition are constant, society can even lose communication with their memory
and suffer from amnesia. Memories work linked with spaces along with certain objects or events which can
have special significance related to certain groups’ accumulation says
Pierre Nora and further discusses this statement in his work Le Lieux de
mémoire which translated as the Realms of Memory to English. Although this
mutual relationship of space and remembrance was organic at the time, in
today's world, memory became a consumed commodity and used as a hegemonic
medium for social control. The commodification of the urban space created
gentrification and discrimination. This process did not decompose the society
according to their socio-economic positions but differentiated people whether
they are partisans of a certain association or not. The factious social
foundation was set by the politically high-level advisors. Remarkably, this
approach might bring up the question: “By which groups of the community are
participants, who are the accepters and how this notion brings up the social
and spatial remembrance?”. If you were to inhabit under a disrespectful and an ignorant
government, you can also further state: “How much of this action is on purpose as
an appointed segregation which is to change and corrupt the social memory?”. Current
urban policies are in line with neoliberal policies which are common to observe
unless you are under the roof of a communist country or in a suburban region that
receives probably the least damage. The mentioned colonialist process has
reflections in different scales such as urban or architectural.
As
a case study: Yassıada is a flat and small island located off the Bosphorus
which has a derelict impression. The island has been used as a place of exile
since the 4th century, back in Eastern Roman Empire. By the conquest
of Istanbul by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453, the island fell into the hands of the
Ottoman Empire and since then even though it changed owners several times, basically
it was under the control of Turks. Lastly, in the mid-1950s, it became an
educational center for the Turkish Navy Commandry. On 27th May 1960,
Democrat Party -which was the government party and was led by Adnan Menderes at
the time- has been taken down by a military coup. Party members were judged in
the courts which were set in Yassıada. Adnan Menderes, Hasan Polatkan, and
Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, who were sentenced to the death penalty at the end of the
court, were executed on another island called İmralı. After the Yassıada Judgements
were over, the island was handed back over to the Turkish Navy Commandry, and
the educational function continued until 1978. Since then, the island has been
used for different functions by different organizations. However, in the late
history of the Turkish Republic, collective memory recalls the island with negative
connotations leaning on the political, military, and juristic background. In
2013, in order to erase the traces of the coup, the name of the island was
changed to Demokrasi ve Özgürlükler Adası which means the Island of Democracy
and Freedoms. By the name change, the island was also subjected to several
hotel and commercial-based constructions. These multidimensional political
reflections transformed the place into an object of consumption and commerce
supported by capitalist production. This name and functional conversion are not
yet enough effective, however, it will be on its point for those who aim, when
generations will switch. It is the potential to rewrite and redefine history by
space. Robben Island which is located on the borders of Cape Town in South
Africa was used for different functions as a prison for political criminals, a
treatment center for lepers, and a military region from the 17th century
to the end of the 20th century. In global memory, the island is perceived
as Nelson Mandela’s -a South African political leader who is known for his
struggle against racist policies- imprisonment for 27 years. Back in 1997, Robben
Island was included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO. Today, all memorial
subjects on the island are museums. Meanwhile, the precautions were taken from
the beginning to prevent the place from being destroyed by tourism as a
trade-based commodity and the very first regulation of the Environmental
Management Plan and Conservation Management Plan which is to generate a balance
between tourism and conservation. Unlike in Robben Island, in Yassıada, by the
1/5000 scale Conservation Master Development Plan made on 30th May
2013 was revised on 12th June and the areas determined as
"military forbidden zones" were changed to "tourism and cultural
facility areas". In the 1/1000 scaled Conservation Implementation
Development Plan, the "Tourism and Cultural Facility Area; a hotel,
bungalow, cafe, restaurant, heliport area, park, open-air museum, square,
library, administrative building, museum, conference hall, exhibition hall,
viewing terrace can be built” statement was added, and a construction permit
was granted.
Top-down
urban decisions are to dictate remembering and forgetting by lowering the awareness
-backbone of the bottom-up potential- of the society and to bereave the
community of the right to the city and to prevent them from using this value as
a resistance mechanism. Thus, instead of exalting the existing spatial memory,
on the contrary, attempts to destroy the memory will inevitably continue.
Reference List
Nora,
P., 2006. Hafıza Mekanları. İstanbul: Dost Kitabevi
Bezirgan
Tanış, B., 2020. Urban Renewal
Projects As Construction Sites Of Memory.
İstanbul: Mentora Yayıncılık
Bezirgan
Tanış, B., 2020. ‘Karanlık Miras’
Bağlamında Yassıada Projesi. İstanbul:
Nişantaşı Üniversitesi Sosyoloji Bölümü
Bulutoğlu, H., 2019. Yassıada, Bir Talan
“Platosu…”, İstanbul: Adalı Dergisi Sayı 168
Bayhan, B., 2013. Hafıza Mekanları,
Arkitera
Mutlu, E., Tanrıverdi Kaya, A., 2019. Kent Kimliğinin Korunması ve Kolektif Bellek Mekanlarının
Tespiti, Düzce: Düzce University
Press. Journal of Advanced Technology Sciences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSvB1Q0TNrY