Writing non-Turkish Subjectivities, Writing Contradictions: Twentieth-Century Istanbul in Istanbul Ansiklopedisi
İstanbul Ansiklopedisi is an absorbing project undertaken by the renowned historian Reşad Ekrem Koçu and published between 1944
and 1973. The encyclopaedia features a diverse range of entries
about the history of buildings, fountains, customs, and individuals who either lived in or visited the city. It provides a unique perspective on Istanbul, containing information that was difficult to
find elsewhere. The encyclopaedia has often been read and analysed
for its entries on Ottoman history. Instead, this article concerns itself
with the more recent history of this text, scrutinising the entries about twentieth-century Istanbul, entries that frequently included contradictions, especially concerning gender and sexuality. I explore the way in which Koçu referred to non-Turkish subjectivities that did not conform to the heteronormative subject formation and went beyond the regulatory state discourses of the Turkish nation-state in the twentieth century.