Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Folklor/Edebiyat, cilt.31, sa.123, ss.693-716, 2025 (ESCI, Scopus, TRDizin)
In the modern era, coats of arms serve as political and institutional projections of a nation’s historical and cultural memory. The symbols used in coats of arms are carefully chosen to narrate the biographical stories of a nation’s origin myths, perceptions of the universe, world, nature, and geography, as well as sacred beliefs and values, and major political events such as wars, revolutions, and uprisings. In this context, coats of arms function as memory bridges between the past and the future, facilitating the transmission of historical memory to future generations. In this study, I examine the attempts to create a state coat of arms in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Türkiye within the framework of memory, identity, and culture. Also, I explore how a synthesis was formed between Western/modern institutionalization and cultural memory through coats of arms. The study first examines the historical and cultural origins of the coat of arms as a figure of remembrance. Subsequently, I analyze the purposes, missions, and functions of coats of arms in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Türkiye, considering the political climate of each period. Since state coats of arms in the modern era are integral to nation-(state) building, those designed during the Ottoman and Republican periods are based on a common foundation as reflections of modern state ideology. However, the cultural memory symbols used in the design of coats of arms varied according to different political and ideological motivations in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Türkiye. The Ottoman state coat of arms bore traces of Turkish folk culture, Islam, dynastic symbols, and modernization processes. In contrast, although efforts were made to create a state coat of arms in the Republican period, there was a deliberate decision to exclude the symbols in the Ottoman coat of arms. Despite a competition to select the state coat of arms, the winning design by Namık İsmail Bey, which sought to establish a connection between Turkish mythology and the modern era, was ultimately not adopted.