The Turkish novel and occupied Istanbul

This study examines the representation of the Allied occupation of Istanbul (1918–1923) in the Turkish novel and explores why, unlike comparable historical traumas such as the Balkan Wars, the occupation generated a robust and enduring literary corpus. The article argues that because the occupation unfolded simultaneously with the National Resistance, occupied Istanbul was cast as the binary antithesis of the Ankara-based resistance narrative shaped by official state ideology. While the resistance in Ankara was glorified through themes of heroism, Turkishness, purity, and anti-imperialist struggle, occupied Istanbul was depicted as a site of moral decay, treason, cosmopolitanism, hedonism, and collaboration. The paper analyzes Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s 1928 novel Sodom ve Gomore (Sodom and Gomorrah) as a quintessential example of this teleological and reductionist approach. It demonstrates how the novel employs racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia to construct Istanbul as an irredeemable moral sinkhole, directly reproducing the official historical narrative rooted in Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Nutuk. In contrast, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s Sahnenin Dışındakiler (Those Out of the Scene, 1950) offers a nuanced alternative that dismantles this rigid binary. Tanpınar highlights Istanbul’s indispensable logistical, human, and material contributions to Anatolia while portraying social classes and non-Muslim communities with psychological depth and historical balance. Ultimately, the study concludes that despite significant exceptions, the canonical Turkish occupation novel remains predominantly governed by a teleological framework designed to legitimate and sanctify the National Resistance.