Reconquistando Constantinopla: Políticas de memória e patrimônio bizantino na Turquia de Erdogan

The reconversion of the Hagia Sophia was one of the high points of the instrumentalization of the politics of memorialization to achieve political ends in Turkey. In light of this event, this article aims to analyze the relationship between Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Neo-Ottoman populism and Byzantine heritage in the present Turkish society. The subjugation of Byzantine memory is a basic trait of Turkish right-wing populism, founded on the glorification of its imperial past and on Islamism. Combating the fictitious Byzantine enemy, in discourse, becomes associated with combating the West, externally, and the Kemalist opposition, internally. Erdogan seeks to legitimize himself through the implementation of this populist agenda.