Research Information System
Social and Cultural Geography, vol.11, no.4, pp.343-357, 2010 (SSCI)
A historical and multi-cultural district called Istiklal challenges the Turkish claim as a secular, culturally Muslim, and ethnically Turkish nation. This region is at the heart of the republic: it is in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara, and within a region called Ulus, i.e. 'the Nation.' This district is threatened by a continuous process of demolition that has been taking place around this region since the 1940s, in fact, in the last thirty years, a politics of decay has complemented actual acts of demolition. The female residents of the region counteract this politics by narrating the daily problems that the residents of Istiklal encounter as a result of this politics. Their strategies of narration constitute a resistance against exclusion. By historicizing the experiences that the district has endured, they fight the temporalization of this space, and manage to transgress its isolation. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.