An Interview with Dr. Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir
On September 25, 2019, Dr. Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir spoke at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on the topic of “Restoring Armenian Heritage in Turkey: Displaced Stakeholders of Sacred Heritage Sites.” Afterward, Siobhan Heekin-Canedy of The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs conducted an interview with her.
FF: Can you tell us a bit about your research interests and how you discovered them?
TTE: Trained as an archaeologist, I have a special interest in historic buildings. I find religious monumental architecture particularly fascinating, and I was interested in investigating patterns of continuities and breaks in how such monuments serve different functions through time, and how they become part of strategies of dominance and control.
In 2010, I was invited to take part in a comparative, interdisciplinary research project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation titled “Antagonistic Tolerance Competitive Sharing of Sacred Sites.” I had the privilege of working with amazing scholars. We comparatively investigated competition over control of religious edifices as part of domination strategies, through selected sites in India, Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, Portugal, Mexico, and Peru. In many ways, that project has been critical in shaping how I study sacred sites. Recognizing and acknowledging the fact that major religious sites can be, and in many cases, have been, markers of dominance of one religious group over another, and at times loci of violence, is inherent to my thinking.
FF: You’ve obviously done a lot of work involving religious and cultural heritage. What are the major issues affecting religious and cultural heritage in the world today, and why do they matter?
TTE: Heritage is our story in this world, it is our past and our future. Religious heritage, in particular, is deeply connected to communal identities. As such, any action on religious heritage has an effect on faith communities themselves. The materiality and monumentality of religious heritage are also important. A temple, church, mosque, or a synagogue has a presence in space. They are foci of communal rituals, memories, and a reminder of the existence of a faith community in that geography. Radical groups like ISIS target religious heritage sites with this particular mentality: attacking and destroying sacred sites of a faith community is an effective way of eradicating the presence of these people. There is an urgent need to recognize the importance of religious heritage for our collective future.
Developing sustainable and inclusive heritage management strategies for religious heritage is crucial and challenging. This is as important as stopping ongoing attacks on heritage, and perhaps much harder, as it requires patience, planning, and negotiations. A successful heritage management plan for religious sites needs to involve multiple stakeholders and requires building trust and constructive dialogue between heritage specialists, legal experts, and faith communities.
FF: Is there anything that you think people in the field of international affairs should know about this issue, but perhaps don’t?
TTE: Transnationality of heritage is often overlooked, and I think it is of crucial importance for the field of international affairs, as it is for heritage specialists. In an increasingly mobile, interconnected, and transforming world, heritage is more important than ever. Religious heritage is inherently international because many faith communities are transnational. This provides both opportunities and challenges for us.
When thinking of transnationality of heritage, there are important questions to consider. What do we do when religious sites of a faith community are located in a nation state where that community is a small minority or no longer present? Are there laws, regulations, or threats that prevent them from being part of decision-making mechanisms for heritage management of their sacred sites? How do we incorporate faith leaders in the process? What if we are dealing with a site, such as the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, that has gone through multiple conversions, and is considered sacred for multiple religions? What is the role of the international community in negotiating issues related to heritage? What are best practices in involving globally dispersed stakeholders in heritage management plans? How do we define the role of international organizations in these processes?
Concurrently, restoring heritage through inclusive, interdisciplinary, international and multi-faith projects offers a unique opportunity for cooperation, which can lead to peace-building and amends-making, especially for communities that have been traumatically separated from their religious heritage. As such, there are vast opportunities for cooperation for experts of international affairs and heritage specialists, and such collaborations have a great potential to produce effective and sustainable strategies for religious heritage.
FF: What does your work as coordinator of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Task Force on Middle Eastern Minorities entail? How does your background in archaeology and religious and cultural heritage inform your approach?
TTE: ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities is established in order to elevate issues related to the plight of religious, ethnic, sexual and gender minorities in the Middle East, especially in the countries where they face governmental and societal repression and discrimination. As the coordinator, I work with a distinguished group of experts and advocates who guide us in developing swift and effective responses to elevate issues related to minorities in the Middle East.
As an academic, I have been part of international research projects on minority rights and equal citizenship, with a focus on religious heritage. In particular my research on Armenian, Jewish, and Greek-Orthodox heritage in Turkey, offered me an important perspective on religious minority communities and the challenges they face in Turkey. In many aspects, these challenges are not unique to Turkey, and are part of global issues that minorities are facing in the Middle East and elsewhere. My position as the coordinator of ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities benefits from my academic background, and I am privileged to be working with the Task Force, expanding my horizons every day.
FF: I understand you are working on a new book on the Hagia Sophia. Would you be willing to tell us a little bit about the project?
TTE: I am currently writing a book titled “Hagia Sophia: Sacred Museum, Contested Heritage.” This book is a product of over a decade of research which was partially funded by a Young Scientists Award from the Turkish Academy of Sciences. In addition to archival research on multiple transformations of the Hagia Sophia, I interviewed various different stakeholders, traced the debates and discussions on re-converting it into a mosque, and conducted participant observation at rallies and protests demanding its conversion.
In the book, I present Hagia Sophia not only as a sacred site of deep emotional and divine value, but also as a monument of power and domination, looking at how successive regimes converted it to illustrate their dominance on others, and how this process is ongoing through the current demands to re-convert it into a functioning mosque.
Dr. Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir is the coordinator of Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities and a research associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Anthropology.
She received her PhD in archaeology from Boston University in 2005. Until 2017 she served as deputy director of the Center for Science and Society and lecturer in the graduate programs in Architectural History, Middle East Studies, and Eurasian Studies at Middle East Technical University in Ankara.
Her research interests include religious minority heritage, conflict over sacred sites, and the museumification of religious heritage.
Dr. Tanyeri-Erdemir is the co-author of Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Sacred Sites and Spaces (Routledge, 2016) and is currently writing her book Hagia Sophia: Sacred Museum, Contested Heritage.
“In and around the Church of St Saviour in Chora” is liscensed by CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Courtesy of Charles Roffey / Flickr
