Hybrid spaces of cultural heritage: Churches converted to mosques (Mersin and Antalya)

Cultural heritage takes place in the social identity bond of the society in which it is produced and appears as important symbol works. These values reflect the collective experiences of societies with the traces they contain. These values, which are seen as conflict centers in some cases, create a rich cultural diversity with their differences and constitute the common heritage of all humanity. For this reason, the protection of cultural heritage with all the collective accumulation it has plays an important role in ensuring the continuity of value. Values formed at the point where different social identities cross cultures should be perceived as a hybrid component of cultural heritage and protected with their layered structure. Appropriate religious buildings, often interpreted as a center of conflict between social identities, are important values at the intersection. These buildings are actually hybrid spaces with rich heritage values that are formed as a result of crossing different cultures; It carries the cultural and identity traces of each period in which they belong to different belonging. The fact that communities with different social identities and beliefs use the same religious buildings at different times may cause the space to transform with a multicultural effect and lose its traces depending on the scope of the interventions. For this reason, one should be sensitive in determining and preserving these hybrid spaces that are the synthesis of two cultures. These spaces should be passed on to future generations as spaces of respect and compromise. In this study, appropriate religious buildings with hybrid cultural heritage value have been examined through churches that have been converted into mosques. Our country, which has different social identities and a rich cultural background, has many inherited church buildings. Within the scope of the study, examples in Mersin and Antalya, where Christian and Muslim social identities have been hosted for centuries, were selected. Considering the applied interventions, the current situation of the buildings and the rationale-scope relations of the interventions were examined and hybrid space values were discussed.