Visual Politics of Neo-Ottomanism: A Critical Approach to the Identity Representations of Turkishness after the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Turkey’s Western-oriented foreign policy trajectory and its national identity have experienced a neo-Ottomanist shift following the Syrian refugee crisis. The political tension between the EU and Turkey regarding the management of the massive migration from Syria has become a turning point for Turkey where the Turkish identity was reframed as the “savior” of Muslims by bringing the neo-Ottomanist elements back into foreign policy discourses. However, this shift in the identity was not only limited to official foreign policy discourses but the same theme has been observed at different political sites from domestic politics to cultural production. While the representation of “Turkishness” has gained a retrospect due to the neo-Ottoman turn at the foreign policy level, the cultural production site has become a site of contestation for Turkish identity. The massive amount of Ottoman-themed TV shows and the financial and moral support of the current Turkish government for these productions have turned the cultural production site into a site of contestation for Turkish identity. By drawing on the literature on the aesthetic turn in IR and visual politics, this paper aims to explore the role of visual practices in the identity-building process in times of crisis. While exploring the suitable theoretical approaches, this paper engages with the empirical case of Turkey and presents visual illustrations and their analysis regarding the Turkish identity representations that take part in Turkish TV shows after 2011.