Sacred Space and Anglo-Turkish Relations: The Politics of British Churches, Cemeteries and War Graves in Turkey, 1825 to 1976

This work investigates how various sacred spaces in Ottoman and Republican Turkey interfaced with British foreign policy.It considers how these spaces impacted upon British prestige in the context of its dealings with Turkey chiefly, as well as other Great Powers.The period covered is from the demise of the Levant Company in 1825, to the deconsecration of the Crimean Memorial Church in Istanbul, in 1976.Other sacred spaces discussed include the British Embassy Chapel, the Crimean War cemeteries, various British churches and cemeteries in Izmir, the Gallipoli cemeteries, connected with the campaign of 1915, and the Phanar, the Ecumenical Patriarch’s home in Istanbul. The book considers how, and to what extent, the Foreign Office in London, and its staff in Turkey, intervened to secure those spaces, and why the politics of the Patriarchate intruded into the Foreign Office’s geo-strategic considerations.It considers the limits of that support, and how dealings over sacred space intermeshe