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The “glitch” of Rabia monuments: a semiotic analysis of July 15 monuments in Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2023

Erdem Üngür Open the ORCID record for Erdem Üngür [Opens in a new window]
Erdem Üngür*
Affiliation:
Department of Architecture, Gebze Technical University, Gebze, Turkey
*
Email: eungur@gtu.edu.tr
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Abstract

After the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the Turkish state started to produce a new official history of the event as a narrative of popular resistance against a military coup for the sake of democracy. This narrative with a religious aura was supported by “democracy watch” meetings and new commemoration days, museums, and monuments across Turkey. It was based on four concepts, symbolized by the Rabia sign: one nation, one homeland, one flag, and one state. However, the use of the Rabia sign has fallen from grace recently, creating a critical gap or “glitch” in the mnemonic infrastructure. This paper offers a visual categorization of July 15 monuments across Turkey and positions them in the historiography of Turkish national monuments. Finally, Rabia monuments are analyzed as a case study to show part of the complex (trans)national narratives of the “New Turkey.”

Keywords

failed coup of July 152016commemorationpublic monumentsmnemonic infrastructureTurkey
Type
Article
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 69 , November 2023 , pp. 52 - 73
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of New Perspectives on Turkey

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