Christopher S. Wilson, Beyond Antkabr: The Funerary Architecture of Atatrk, Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, 2013, 162pp, 55.

00 The dissemination of the Atatrk cult as the symbol to unify the Turkish nation was mobilized shortly after the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923. With Atatrks death, this process only escalated, turning the founders body into an immortal symbol of the nation ;1 a symbol buried in the secular new capital of the Republic, Ankara, and not Istanbul, the city associated with the Ottoman past. The present study, based on Christopher S. Wilsons dissertation from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, is about the representations of Atatrk as seen in the examples of funerary architecture that have housed his corpse since hi s death (p. 3). In other words, architectural representations are used by the author as a lieux de mmoire, to demonstrate how a highly politicized national memory for the young Republic of Turkey with regard to Atatrk, the latters role in shaping the nation, and its history was constructed.

The book narrates and demonstrates very eloquently the interesting (hi)story of the transportation and location of the remains of the founder of Turkey, starting from the Dolmabahe Palace in Istanbul to Antkabr in Ankara. The whole journey can be divided into two parts: the first one entails the two places in the Dolmabahe Palace, Istanbul, associated with his death: the bedroom where he died and the Grand Ceremonial Hall used for the public viewing of his body. The second part entails the three features of his funeral: the transfer of his body from Istanbul to Ankara, the official catafalque used for his state funeral in Ankara, and the transfer from this catafalque to a temporary tomb in The Ethnographic Museum, Ankara.

The author argues that the death of Atatrk changed the place of the Dolmabahe Palace in the collective memory of the Turkish people, that is from a former Ottoman palace to the place where Atatrk died, and therefore a place which became associated with the young Turkish Republic. The authors argument makes perfect sense if one considers the Turkish ruling cadres efforts to eternalize Atatrk through the alleged stopping of the bedside clock in the bedroom of the Dolmabahe Palace, in which Mustafa Kemal passed away as if the clock itself has given up the will to live (p. 26). The Dolmabahe Palace marks for the author

Nazl kten, lmsz Bir lm, Sonsuz Bir Yas: Trkiyede 10 Kasim, pp. 325-346, in Esra zyrek (ed.), Hatrladklaryla ve Unuttuklaryla Trkiyenin Toplumsal Hafzas, letiim Yaynlar, Istanbul, 2001

also [the] representation of the man Atatrk the individual instead of being a representation of the Turkish nation as manifested in the persona Atatrk (p. 27).

After Istanbul, the remains of Atatrk were transported to Ankara where they were placed in a catafalque commissioned from Bruno Taut, the prolific German architect who was forced out of Germany after the Nazis gained power and found shelter in Turkey. Before that however, the remains were placed in another impromptu yet dignified catafalque, in the Dolmabahes Grand Ceremonial Hall, for the people of Istanbul to pay their respects. The author offers a vivid and informative description, evident throughout the book, of the architecture of the catafalques and the items that were placed around them, which consisted of a series of funerary symbols or tropes that continued through to most of the constructions and transfer conditions that followed (p. 30). For example, the six torches behind Atatrks coffin symbolized the six principles of Kemalism; the flag-draped coffin made Atatrk a property of the nation; while the generals standing guard around the coffin made a statement about the role of the Turkish Armed Forces (p. 31, 46). However, although the Dolmabahe Palace presented the memorialization of Atatrk as an individual, Tauts catafalque presented the monumentalization of Atatrk and the Turkish nation (p. 49). In other words, it marked the founders path to sacralization.

Similar to the situation in Istanbul, the coffin was publicly displayed in Ankara for the entire day and night of 20th November. Most importantly, the author notes, referring in a way to the stages of loss and grief, that the transfer to the Ethnographic Museum was a transitional moment between the initial reaction shock when hearing about Atatrks death 11 days earlier, and a final acceptance of his death (p. 52). The Ethnographic Museum that was chosen to house Atatrks temporary tomb, has been classified as being in the First National Style, a label that has been given to those buildings that attempted to represent a concept of Turkishness and the young Republic of Turkey. What is more important though, in the memorialization of the founder of Turkey, is the removal of the items from the museum that until that time had represented the identity of the nation, and their replacement with Atatrks tomb that exemplified the memory, history and identity of the Turks by displaying the founder and creator as a central exhibit (p. 58). Wilsons narration ends with the Antkabr, literally memorial tomb, of Mustafa Kemal Atatrk. Atatrks coffin was transferred once more on a gun carriage, with all the glory and

honours one could expect. The authors narration entails also the interesting background of the architectural competition, which gives another dimension to the construction of the politicization of memory. As a matter of fact, the architectural competition, as with the talks concerning the location of the monument, was the factors that defined exactly the politicization process that would be depicted in the Antkabr monument. Although Turkish architects were initially excluded from the competition, eventually, they were allowed to participate, and a two-man Turkish team consisting of Emin Onat and Orhan Arda actually won the competition. The Turkish team of architects managed to appeal both to the competition jury, who favoured a more Westernized architecture, and to the editors of Arkitekt, a very prestigious and influential architectural journal that promoted Turkish architects, and favoured Eastern and Islamic forms. Antkabr is an architectural building classified as of the Second National Style, built on Rasattepe (Observation Hill), which, at the time of the architectural competition for Antkabr, was a central location in Ankara and could be seen from all parts of the city. It is a massive construction similar, and at times, more grandiose, than other memorial tombs. The whole construction of Antkabr was a highly politicized procedure, such that even the architects, in order to legitimize their choice of stylistic models, quote almost verbatim the history of Turkey and the Turkish people that had been proposed in the Turkish History Thesis by the Turkish Historical Society (p. 89). Indeed, any visitor to Antkabr knowing the Kemalist historical narration, will come across architectural constructions and sculptures depicting different stages of Turkish history, from the Turkish War of Independence to a soldier, a villager and a student, symbolizing defense, productivity and education (p. 90), all significant elements of Turkish history. Generally, the whole funerary process, and the architectural construction in particular, with the ultimate stage of Ataturks sacralization, Antkabr, was constructed in such a way as to promote, preserve and enshrine the Kemalist national identity, as envisioned by Atatrk himself and the ruling cadre after his death.

In conclusion, perhaps the author should provide his theoretical account in such a way as to permeate the main body of the study to a greater extent, and associate architectural with cultural and nationalism studies in a more directly linked way. Apart from that, Wilson provides a highly interesting account of the Turkish national identity process providing new insights, fresh interpretation, and new information, at least for the non-Turkish readers, through a not-so-widely studied field, that of Turkish architecture, providing in this way, a

more than welcome addition to the already published studies of scholars such as Sibel Bozdoan and Glr Necipolu.