Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Cengiz Kırlı
12 theses · Boğaziçi University
Hijyenin politikası: Geç Osmanlı İstanbulu'nda halk sağlığı ve kentsel dönüşüm
Bu tez, geç dönem Osmanlı İstanbulu'nda hijyen, kentsel dönüşüm ve yönetişim arasındaki etkileşimi inceleyerek sağlık, çevre ve altyapının kesişimine ışık tutmayı amaçlar. Kir, hastalık ve temizlik kavramlarının İstanbul'un değişen kentsel dokusu, altyapısı ve kent reformlarını nasıl şekillendirdiğini ve bunlar tarafından nasıl şekillendirildiğini araştırır. Gıda, su, kanalizasyon ve defin uygulamaları olmak üzere dört temel unsura odaklanan araştırma, Osmanlı Devleti'nin deneyimlediği halk sağlığı krizlerinin kentsel mekânları hijyenik bir mercekle yeniden kurgulamada nasıl araçsallaştırıldığını ve bu sürecin toplumsal ilişkilere nasıl eklemlendiğni sorgular. Osmanlı arşiv belgelerine, tıbbi risalelere, ölüm ve sağlık istatistiklerine dayanan çalışma, İstanbul'un kendine özgü coğrafyası ve sosyo-politik dinamikleriyle yerelleştirilen küresel hijyen söylemleri ile gündelik gerçeklikler arasındaki etkileşimi araştırır. Kentsel çevre tarihi ve hastalıkların sosyal tarihi yaklaşımlarını bütünleştiren tez, konvansiyonel devlet merkezli yaklaşımların ötesine geçerek, çeşitli aktörlerin halk sağlığı politikalarını müzakere etmedeki failliğini vurgular. Araştırma, İstanbul'u "hijyenik bir kente" dönüştürme çabasının ne doğrusal ne de tekdüze olduğunu; direniş, adaptasyon ve çekişmelerle şekillenen bir süreç olduğunu öne sürer. Çalışma, çevre ve kent incelemeleri arasında köprü kurarak Osmanlı tarih yazımına katkıda bulunmayı ve halk sağlığı politikalarının İmparatorluğun son yüzyılında kentsel yaşam, yönetişim ve yapılı çevre arasındaki ilişkiye nasıl aracılık ettiğine dair yeni içgörüler sunar.
Kenti doyurmak: Geç Osmanlı'dan Erken Cumhuriyet'e İstanbul'da tarım ve kentsel değişim
This study examines Istanbul's urban agricultural system, which has been almost completely erased from the city's life and memory, and its transformation from a social, economic, and environmental perspec-tives. As a first step, the study focuses on market gardens and exam-ines the role of these agricultural units in supplying the city and their place in the urban metabolism at a time when transportation facilities were limited. After presenting a multidimensional picture of the city's ongoing agricultural system, the dissertation focuses on two periods that were crucial to its transformation: the late Ottoman and early Re-publican periods. The two main themes that link these periods are dis-cussed throughout the dissertation and are expressed through the concepts of the "urban–rural relationship" and the "urban boundary". The study focuses on the spatial impact of population growth and ur-ban expansion in the late Ottoman period and analyses the active and passive roles played by market gardens, vineyards and orchards in land development. The problems caused by the physical expansion of the city during this period also led to efforts to draw a boundary around the city within the framework of modern administrative think-ing. Throughout the study, the issue of urban boundaries is examined in relation to various factors such as food and housing prices, taxes, and a range of actors including the municipality, gardeners, and other food producers. With the early Republican period, the focus of re-search shifts to the new methods, opportunities and policies that be-gan to be adopted in the production, distribution and consumption of fresh food. Although the question of defining the city's boundaries, a problem inherited from the late Ottoman period, persisted during these years, the era was defined by official and public debates over whether Istanbul could be considered an agricultural city. In the early 1930s, the city had the potential to develop both industrially and agri-culturally. However, developments after 1935 paved the way for the elimination of agriculture from urban space and daily life in Istanbul. The study examines the impact on this transformation of factors such as the introduction of modern management projects imposing hygiene and aesthetic standards, increased transport capacity and the expan-sion of scale of vegetable production and supply as a result of policy implementation, and the inability of growers to compete in these in-creasingly difficult conditions. This dissertation draws on three evolv-ing and interrelated literatures: critical urban theory, urban ecology and urban environmental history. It aims to contribute to the above–mentioned areas of research by examining the intertwined dynamics of urban transformation and urban–rural relations from the perspec-tive of Istanbul's history.
Crisis of the reformist ideal: A critique of Ottoman narratives of crisis on 1875-1876
This study aims to analyze the narratives of Mithat, Cevdet, Mahmud Nedim Pashas, and Ahmet Mithat Efendi regarding the economic, political, and international crises of the Ottoman 1875 and 1876 as founding narratives of the Hamidian Era. It suggests that in these narratives ideological bifurcations of the Tanzimat era were reconstructed to shape the following political regime, since, at the time, the current political status quo was shattered within the empire and the international arena. Based on political treatises, memoirs, and chronicles, it discusses the intertwined nature of the internal political struggles of the Empire after the death of Ali Pasha in 1871 and the rivalry between a liberal Britain and a monarchist Russia in the international arena. It shows that the political figures of the period who saw the crisis period as an opportunity for promoting their political ideals reconstructed these crises through their narratives. Thus, the main goal of this thesis is to show that the essential crisis of the period of 1875-1876 was a regime crisis that emerged from the shattering of the Tanzimat status quo within the empire parallel with the shattering of the Euro-pean balance of power.
The massacres of 1909: Violence in revolutionary context in Adana and its hinterland
This study is a reconsideration of the Massacres of 1909 in the light of the ethnoreligious relations in four urban centers (Kayseri, Maraş, Zeytun, and Antakya) from its hinterlands. Based on mainly Ottoman, British, and American Board Commission archival documents, it scrutinizes the history of these urban centers in the first year of the Young Turk period and explains the two massacres in Adana town center with the conclusions drawn from them. Demonstrating the ethnoreligious tensions, the protests against local governments, the role of religion, the agency of the commoner Muslims, and the power of Muslim notables between the Revolution and the Massacres; the study calls for a reevaluation of some predominant paradigms of causation, which are the dominance of the center over the regions, base over superstructure, and patrician over plebeian in interpreting the Young Turk regime's abstract principles, specifically on the rights of Ottoman Armenians. Also, the study investigates the relationship between the Massacres and the 31 March Incident and suggests going beyond the historiography that belittles the conception of reaction by dividing it into three stages: absorption, antirevolution, and counterrevolution. The study argues that Massacres of 1909 were reactionary movements in the stage of anti-revolution, and their potential of turning into counterrevolution was a vital factor in making the already reluctant Young Turk policymakers abandon the realization of universalist principles regarding Ottoman Armenian rights.
Tax revolts in the Late Ottoman Empire: Conflict, negotiation, pacification 1876-1908
This dissertation examines the reactions of the Ottoman society against the new taxes implemented in the beginning of the 20th century and the provincial governors during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II by focusing on the various repertoires of the society. The dissertation analyzes the centralization re- forms of the central bureaucracy from Tanzimat to 1908 and traces the reactions of the urban society as the negotiation practices with the state bureaucracy to define the limits of central power in the provinces. Further- more it analyzes how the dynamics of urban politics were shaped in the Ottoman borderlands during the late Ottoman Empire. Based on Ottoman and British sources this study demonstrates that the fiscal and political centralization of the empire was not a top-down process but a result of the bargaining process between various actors of the empire. This study illustrates this point by focusing on the resistance against the new taxes, the problems caused by social, economic and climate conditions and centralization reforms of the local bureaucracy in Kosovo, Erzurum, Bitlis provinces and the cities around them. In that sense, this study is a contribution to the Ottoman social, cultural and economic history of the Ottoman borderland.
Murder in the family: Law, order, and criminal justice in the nineteenth century Ottoman society
This study deals with the murders committed within the family in the Ottoman provinces in the second half of the nineteenth century. Based on Ottoman archive documents, it focuses on the conflicts of various family members with each other and various reckonings both within the nuclear and extended family, from a socio-legal point of view and without any regional restrictions. The study claims that the ties that held the family together were extremely sensitive and fragile and that the family had both compassion and brutality in itself, with various paradoxes. The fact that we were able to obtain detailed information about the Ottoman provincial family and the word-for-word statements of family members from their mouths was a result of the judicial reforms that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century. Since this study, which presents a multi-layered portrait of the Ottoman provincial family through the nizamiye court records, is shaped on various family anomalies, the portrait presented is far from the claim of a full-scale family portrait. This study also tries to understand and make sense of ordinary people's mentality regarding their roles in both the domestic and public spheres. The way ordinary people customize the events in their minds, and the sub-judicial solutions they develop constitute the main axis of this study. Finally, this study reveals how the two courts operate in murder cases that fall into the common domain of both sharia and nizamiye courts in the new judicial order.
A history of survival: The Turkish-Muslim minority in rural Western Thrace
This study explores the survival strategies of the Turkish Mus-lim minority rurals in Greece from the Balkan Wars (1913) until today. It scrutinizes how the minority has survived squeezed in between Greece and Turkey in the historical course of the chequered bilateral relations. Focusing on the rural community in different geographies (highland, middle-line and lowland villages) of Greek Thrace, it elucidates how the rurals devised their strategies of survival in certain histori-cal ruptures by focusing on their narrations about how they remember the past and how their past experiences influenced their survival strategies. Social hierarchies within the rural community, intercommunal relations with the local Greek Or-thodox, interactions between the minority institutions and the elite, and their historical bonds with Turkey are explored to find out their impact on the rurals' survival strategies and the social changes and continuities within the rural community.
A tale of coexistence: A history of Cyprus from 1860 to 1931
This dissertation examines the inter-communal relationships between Orthodox Christian Greek Cypriots and Muslim Turkish Cypriots from 1860 to 1931. The study aims to shed light on a history of coexistence on the island of Cyprus. The main goal of this dissertation is to present an inclusive bi-communal narrative and to ask new questions about the national identity construction processes of the two communities living together. The chronological timeline of the thesis is started with the Ottoman inspection on the island in 1860 and is completed with the rebellion in 1931. The study intends to start from 1860, in other words, before the administration of the island was passed to the British, and end with the 1931 rebellion because it was necessary to take a date after 1923 in order to see the effects of the establishment of the new Turkish Republic of Turkey and its aftermath on Cyprus. Further, it examines the identity formation processes of Cypriots using "ambivalence" while con-structing a common historical narrative by examining the daily lives of Cypriots and their inter-communal relationships. Based on Ottoman and British sources, this study explores the socio-political life of Orthodox Christian Greek Cypriots and Muslim Turkish Cypriots during the late Ottoman period and under British colonial rule.
Kurtuluş Savaşı'nda Sebilürreşad, Hilafet ve İslam siyasi düşüncesi, 1918-1923
This study focuses on the role of Sebilürreşad in the War of Independ-ence, in general terms. Accordingly, this study unearths the politico-intellectual network around Sebilürreşad, and sheds light on how and through which connections they were involved in the national re-sistance movement and their cooperation with the Ankara Govern-ment. Moreover, this study concentrates on the articles and sermons, trying to understand how the politico-intellectual circle of the journal reconceptualized the caliphate in what contexts. This study argues that Sebilürreşad was an integral part of the broad coalition formed around the Grand National Assembly, and claims that the activities of the jour-nal's politico-intellectual circle in the War of Independence extended the boundaries of the "spiritual sovereignty" of the Ankara Govern-ment. In addition, this study reveals that, under the influence of the global upheaval that took place after the First World War, Sebilür-reşad's intellectuals defended the alliance with the Bolsheviks and re-conceptualized the caliphate in the context of the awakening of the East. Thus, this study both invites a more nuanced and multidimen-sional understanding of the developments after the First World War and it sheds light on the limits of the idea of caliphate-centered Pan-Islam in the War of Independence.
Demographic engineering, forced migration and resettlement policies in General Inspectorates
This thesis attempts to focus on General Inspectorates which were active institutions between 1927-1952, by looking at them in context of demographic engineering, forced migration and resettlement policies. Population policies which are inevitable requirement for the nation-building process, are tried to be understood with this institution. The effectivity of General Inspectorates in the Eastern parts of Turkey are tried to be shown, even if they create a small part of this broader project. In addition to these, this thesis highlights the importance of the General Inspectorates' intermediary role to impose the centralized power as decentralized units. This thesis which mostly bases on information from the Republican archive, attempts to examine nation-building process and demographic engineering policies by giving examples from the implementations of the General Inspectorates in the Eastern provinces.
Beyoğlu Müslüman Mezarlığı'nın dönüşümü: 19. yüzyıl kentinde sıhhileştirme, güzelleştirme ve hafızanın yeniden üretimi
This study is about the transformation of the Beyoğlu Muslim Cemetery in 19th century. It draws on first and second-hand sources to examine the dynamics of the 19th century Istanbul which reshaped the city, changed the spatialization of death and leaded the transformation of the cemetery. Moreover, the study reveals the spatialization of two influential discourses; beautification and sanitation. Based on archival material, the study describes the urban fabric, the institutional change and different responses with the help of visual data. Although the transformation of cemeteries was a common practice in 19th century urbanism, not only in Istanbul, but also in other Ottoman and European cities, the change in spatialization of death and the transformation of cemeteries are generally overlooked topics in the historiography of the city. Thus, most goal of the study is to comprehensively document the multi-layered historical data and to assert cemeteries' significant role in spatial practices.
Dispute settlement in Turkey: A case of dispute resolution process in istanbul
This thesis examines traditional and informal dispute resolution practices used by Kurds in Istanbul, who were internally displaced in the 1990s and migrated to Istanbul, for handling their daily disputes. It discusses that individuals and communities try to use the best options or easiest methods for handling their daily disputes as well as they try to use informal legal mechanisms through which they can maintain their customary law or traditional legal practices. More specifically, this thesis focuses on how displaced Kurds in Istanbul handle their disputes and how they maintain their customary law and traditional practices through using an informal dispute resolution process. When Kurds confronted with disputes, it is common to use their own traditional methods, customary ways, and informal practices, which they also carried to urban areas. This thesis demonstrates that customary and traditional legal practices used by Kurds can be implemented in a well-organized manner in urban area.