Reflections on the Legacy of 19th-century Istanbul Armenian Theater Projects in the Contexts of Ottomanism and Turkishness

Abstract

Modern European theater disseminated both revolutionary discourse and a nationalist project in the aftermath of the French Revolution to every region it entered – a situation, which led to staggering impacts in multi-national, multi-religious, and decentralized territories such as the Ottoman Empire. Local individuals who engaged in European-style theatrical productions within the Ottoman Empire were initially and primarily Armenians. As a politicized form in terms of public opinion, urbanization, westernization, and education, the Ottoman Armenian theatrical experience became a legacy that was able to serve a budding Armenian nationalism, the idea of a shared Ottomanism during a specific time, and, eventually, to bolstering Turkishness as the Empire evolved into a nation-state.