The image of Izmir in post-1950's city guides

The city image is established in connection with the elements of urban space and the everyday practices that take place here. Social, economic and cultural policies oriented towards the city transform the urban scene and also shape the city image. Therefore, researching how the image of the city is established and its means makes it possible to create a different reading of the city. Within the scope of this study, the focus was on the role of city guides in the construction of urban identity and how İzmir's image was established in 65 years and how it was changed. After the introduction in the first part of the thesis, the travel and tourism history was examined. In the 19th century, traveling, which was a privilege performed only by an affluent group, has become democratized and evolved into mass tourism over time. With the internationalization of tourism, the transformational influence of the masses on the spaces has been tried to be explained within the conceptual framework of the tourist gaze. The second part of the chapter focuses on the historical change of city guides as a means of promoting tourism and its role in the construction of the city image. Following this section, the history of İzmir was explained in two parts, by accepting the 1950s as a threshold. In the first part, the change of İzmir from antiquity until the first years of the Turkish Republic was explained through maps, panoramas, photographs and postcards. In 19th century a thriving port city Izmir had a multinational urban life which was home to many cultures. After the War of Independence and the fire destroyed a large part of urban texture, the identity of the city is changed dramatically. Since the early years of the Republic there have been many projects for the development of the city as economically and socially. The city has been reshaped by a nationalist ideology and Izmir International Fair and Kültürpark has been one of the biggest representatives of this ideology. The section of the post-1950 city guides is divided into five main chapters. After the guidebooks were examined in detail, 5 main themes forming the city image of İzmir came forward: The Historic City, The City of Fairs, Prosperous City, The Resort City and The Giaour İzmir. Historic City section focuses on the represantations of Ephesus, Pergamon, Clock Tower and the panorama of the city, changes in those represantations and their effects on the city's image. In The City of Fairs section, it is explained how Izmir International Fair and Kültürpark have changed over time both spatial and in a semantic wayand their effects on urban life. Izmir International Fair, which was first organized in 1923 and moved to the Kültürpark in 1936, has become a unique place and activity that shaped İzmir‟s cultural life and has been identified with İzmir for those who live outside İzmir. With the change of the fairs exhibition concept over time and the relocation of the fair from Kültürpark to it‟s new place, the effect of the IIF on the city experience has disappeared. However, İzmir is trying to re-establish itself as a fair and congress city with events such as Mediterranean Games, Universiad, EXPO applications and cinema, culture and art festivals. Also, one of the most important buildings that constitute the urban image of İzmir has been the Büyük Efes Hotel, which is mostly triggered by the increasing demand for a big and prestigious hotel during the time of the İzmir International Fair. Prosperous City İzmir chapter traces İzmir's agricultural and commercial activities on the tourist image of the city. With its Mediterranean climate and other advantages brought by its geographical position, Izmir has also been defined as a prosperous city. İzmir, an important import and export port, which stands out especially with its grape and fig products, is marketed to tourists and potential investors through products such as cotton and tobacco. The representation of agriculture is decreasing over time and it is seen that the industry, import and export emphasis and young labor force took its place in the following years. In the promotional materials for tourists, it is seen that the local cuisine and wine took place instead of grapes and figs. The Resort City Izmir section examines the changes in the waterfront, seaside villages and the former resorts and recreational areas such as Karşıyaka, Buca and Bornova which are developed into a highly densed urban areas. At the beginning of the 1950s, with the emphasis on hot springs, with the change of holiday understanding and the spread of beach cultures, İzmir's small seaside towns also start to undergo a rapid transformation. During the Ottoman period and in the first years of the Republic, the Karşıyaka, Bornova and Buca lose their identity with a rapid urbanization. In the 1960s, the seacoast of Kordon, Karataş, Göztepe and Karsiyaka were still using for swimming. In a short time, however, the villas and the sea baths in front of them were trasformed into apartment buildings, and the sea polluted by urbanization. Beach activities in Izmir moves away from the city center and begins to settle at north and west. In the 70s it is seen that summer resorts are beginning to occupy 'small coastal towns'. It is possible to say that places such as Çeşme and Alaçatı in the 2000s are, as they are in the case of Ephesus and Pergamon, they produce their own identity and exist independently from İzmir. Although it is not possible to swim in the sea at the city center yet, the recreation area and city life around Kordon is still strengthens İzmir's identity as a resort city. Giaour İzmir section traces the formation of 'secular, comfortable, dissident' identity of the people from İzmir, redefined especially after the 2000s, through the city guides. Another prominent concept related to İzmir is 'Giaour İzmir' as a discourse accepted or rejected over the identity of İzmir. Giaour İzmir is often used as a term commonly used in discourses between AKP and CHP referring to 'western, comfortable, secular' life in İzmir. The development of the discourse can also be followed from the 1990s city guides. This rhetoric, which is thought to refer to İzmir's multinational demography in 19th century, generates new 'other' within itself and causes some problems about the place to be ignored. These five concepts, which have been examined over a period of about 65 years and examined by Izmir guides, are considered separately in the study but they exist in a situation that is actually intertwined with each other. All these concepts exist in an integrated way by referring to each other in the image of İzmir city. The city image is established in connection with the elements of urban space and the everyday practices that take place here. Social, economic and cultural policies oriented towards the city transform the urban scene and also shape the urban image. However, as it is desired to be emphasized in this study, the formation of this image takes place over time with the continuous repetition of the images produced in the discourse and its representations. In this study, it was aimed to provide a new framework for the understanding of İzmir 's urban space and urban life by conceptualizations formed in the context of the study, examining how İzmir' s image has been established and changed over a period of sixty five years by instrumentalizing city guides. Thus, with this conceptual framework, the study aims to make spatial politics constituting the image of the city visible and create a new way of understanding the city. This study can be seen as a pioneer of other researches to be prepared by discourse and content analysis of different mediums such as newspapers, magazines, films and literature.