Istanbul’s Apokries Between Empire, Nation, and Modernity in the 20th C

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies is a part of SFU: The Canadian university that is Engaging the World

SFU Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies

Join us for our first talk of 2026 with PhD candidate, Naz Vardar, SFU!

Room 7200, WAC Bennett Library

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University is pleased to present Naz Vardar, PhD Candidate with the Department of History at SFU. Join us Friday, January 16th at 2:30pm for the first talk of the 2026 Spring semester! Taking place in person at the Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby, Room 7200, or online (<a href="https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83389264719" title="https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83389264719" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83389264719</a>), for her talk “Istanbul’s Apokries Between Empire, Nation, and Modernity in the 20th century”. Attendance is free. The event is open to the public and will be recorded. This programming is made possible thanks to the generous support of the <a href="http://www.snf.org" title="http://www.snf.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Stavros Niarchos Foundation</a> (SNF).

ABSTRACTThis talk traces the history of Apokries (carnival) festivities in Istanbul in the early 20th 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.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHYNaz Vardar is a PhD candidate in the Department of History and is affiliated with the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of the late Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey, and modern Greece, with particular attention to urban culture, gender and sexuality, and emotions. She holds a BA and an MA in History from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where she completed her MA thesis titled “Carnival Celebrations in Istanbul: The Changing Perception and Experience of Apokries and Baklahorani” in 2020.

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Istanbul’s Apokries Between Empire, Nation, and Modernity in the 20th C

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Istanbul’s Apokries Between Empire, Nation, and Modernity in the 20th C

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