51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏ

Friday, January 16, 2026

Abstract

This talk traces the history of Apokries (carnival) festivities in Istanbul in the early 20^th century until the 1940s, when they disappeared. It aims to explore questions of urban space, class, gender, and ethnic identities against the background of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish nation-building efforts. Centered in Tatavla, a small lower-class Greek-Orthodox neighborhood in Istanbul, Apokries and Clean Monday fair were moments of collective entertainment and consumption. During the Ottoman period, the festivities had a multi-ethnic, semi-underground character, which was not necessarily embraced by all, but largely tolerated. Drawing on Greek and Ottoman-Turkish sources, this talk first aims to draw the social and cultural dynamics at play in festivities and how they were viewed by the Greek-Orthodox elite, Ottoman authorities, and Muslims at the end of the Ottoman Empire. The talk then turns to Turkish newspapers of the 1920s and 19230s, which documented the Apokries’ growing scale and participation, while simultaneously attacking it as Greek, Christian and foreign. By tracing these shifting representations, the paper shows how the marginalization and eventual disappearance of Apokries formed part of a broader project of Turkish nation-building, modernity, secularism, and remaking of Istanbul’s urban public space.