Agop, Salomon and Despina: Content Analysis of Non-Muslim Representations in Yeşilçam Cinema

Abstract

In the years between 1956 and 1975, Turkish film production boomed. These two decades were also the very last years in which non-Muslim characters were still appearing in a wide range of productions, and so they offer an important window into the representation of non-Muslims in the Turkish cinema of this period, known as Yeşilçam. This essay explores these representations by analyzing 82 films featuring 121 Turkish Greek, Armenian and Jewish characters. The representation of these non-Muslims is considered through the characters’ importance to the plot, their names, genders, manners, ways of speaking, occupations, families, religious activities, relationships with Turkish Muslim characters, and the stereotypes associated with them. Unsurprisingly, non-Muslim characters often occupy minor, one-dimensional – and sometimes threatening – roles as these films are concerned with the stories of Turkish Muslim characters, who not only comprise the dominant group in society but also the vast majority of the audience. Analysis of the films indicates that representations of non-Muslim characters that originate in traditional Turkish art forms have undergone considerable change in films due to the influence of increasing Turkish nationalism, together with the Turkification policies of the Turkish state.