The Politics of Nationalism in Recently Built Turkish Museums: the Case of the Kabatepe Simulation Centre and Museum

With the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Muslim nationalism, a new national ideology promoted by the AKP, laid the foundations for a new Turkey and new Turks. Yeni Turkiye Yolunda (Towards a new Turkey) is the slogan used by the Erdogan's party to support a more nationalist Turkey intertwined with its Ottoman and Islamic heritage. In this paper, I put forward the claim that a number of State-sponsored institutions, including new national museums, play a relevant role in shaping this new Turkey. The aim is to investigate how museums operate as instruments of national identity building by exhibiting a fictitious national past. The case study of the Kabatepe Simulation Centre and Museum will serve this purpose. By interviewing politicians, bureaucrats, and historians, I have researched the links between a ruling class that supports Turkish Muslim nationalism, and new public museums, which exhibits it.