Constructing an "Elephant Cage" in Anatolia: The U.S. Airbase in Karamürsel and its impact on social life (1950s-1970s)

In the bipolar world order that emerged after the Second World War, the United States, as the leading power of the Western bloc, established a wide network of military bases across various regions of the world to counter the Soviet Union. Beyond their military functions, these bases also served as instruments through which the U.S. projected its economic and cultural hegemony. This study examines the transformations experienced by Karamürsel, a small Anatolian town hosting an American military base during the Cold War, focusing on the new social and economic order shaped by the U.S. military presence. Drawing on local and national newspapers, school yearbooks, memoirs, and oral testimonies, the thesis demonstrates that the base, established in 1957, had a tangible economic impact by providing significant employment opportunities for the local population and facilitating the spread of American goods into Turkish markets. The American personnel and their families stationed at the base also played a key role in disseminating the American way of life in the region. However, this mission of transmitting American cultural and social norms to host communities during the Cold War did not proceed unchallenged. The newly emerging social and economic order in Karamürsel occasionally gave rise to tensions and conflicts, especially in the field of labor, that proved difficult to contain.