La Cappadoce chrétienne ottomane : un patrimoine (volontairement) oublié ?

Abstract

The emergence of the notion of cultural heritage is recent in Turkey and still delicate, linked to a particular understanding of the past and of “national history”. From the creation of the Republic of Turkey onwards, the Byzantine past of Anatolia territory has been hidden under the elation of modernist traditions and under a national turco-islamic heritage. However, in Cappadocia, it is precisely this Byzantine period which has been honored while Ottoman past passes unnoticed. In this article we will study the paradox of heritagization of Christian cultural heritage in Cappadocia: Byzantine heritage is at the heart of attentions while that of the Ottoman period is abandoned. Through examples, we will see that last decades show a new evolution through the development of faith and memorial tourism linked to the rehabilitation of the recent history and more especially of the 1923 population exchange during which the remaining Christians of Cappadocia have been expelled. This event, remained taboo until recently, is certainly at the origin of this difficulty of accepting Ottoman Christian monuments as an integral part of the Cultural Heritage in Turkey. However, the economic potential of these new forms of tourism incites the development of different strategies of touristification and heritagization.