Abstract
Abstract
The Turkish state and city theatres have received much attention and faced many challenges from the 20th century onwards, especially during the AKP government, and Turkey’s cultural policy has changed a lot with this government.
In the republican period with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, theatre and cinema were supported a lot by the governments, and Atatürk supported this field of arts greatly. He respected arts and the artist and supported arts in every field.
In 2011 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared his new plans for the Turkish state and city theatres. He declared that he wanted to withdraw all the state support from the state and city theatres. A cultural war occurred immediately between the intellectuals and the conservative AKP.
Theatre plays and cinema films have been used to propagate political views. New politically oriented film directors have focused on the kurdish issue, while some theatre artists focus on the AKP government’s attack on Kemalist values. TV-series with messages for the AKP government have met censorship.
This thesis aims to show the changes of policies around theatres and cinemas after the Atatürk period and up to the AKP government, especially during the AKP government from the beginning of the 21st century.
This thesis highlights the role of theatre and cinema in Turkey and Turkish politics, by showing how political theatre and cinema have been used in politics.
In order to capture the complexities of the subject, a wide array of written sources, and oral sources such as videos and interviews I have conducted in Turkey are included in the analysis.