One Empire Two Palaces — Önder Küçükerman

One Empire Two Palaces was written by the author by starting from the thought that the Topkapı and Dolmabahçe Palaces which are the golden links in a 500 year chain in the creation of the Turkish design and art heritage are very unique structures that connect the creative thoughts of the Orient and the West to each other One Empire Two Palaces brings to the present day the voices of those who used the great will there of those who designed and produced treasures and of those who experienced successes and failures at the Topkapı Palace Subsequently while following the traces of the amazing revolution experienced at the Dolmabahçe Palace it is also making us hear the sounds of the Industrial Revolution On the other hand what was experienced during the period of construction of These two palaces did not only remain within the architectural spaces They are also showing us that they presented the synthesis of many different design and creativity competitions which complemented each other Thus this book is a very short story of this 500 year long course of creativity Tadımlık Foreword In 1960 during the first days when I was a student at the İstanbul State Academy of Fine Arts our teacher painter Şeref Akdik organized a tour to the Topkapı Palace During those years I still did not know that very important things were hidden behind the silence and quietness of the thick walls of the Palace However in the intervening years we started to comprehend the situation better as we became better acquainted with our teachers at the Academy and subsequently as we understood better the art and heritage they brought to us and interpreted We had teachers in three different groups The first group was gathered around a valuable heritage created during the Topkapı Palace period They were describing with sensitivity the sources processes of creativity and the works of art of this heritage and they were interpreting a major event They were the great people of the traditional Turkish art such as Emin Barın Kerim Silivrili Hüseyin Tahirzade Sacit Okyay Rıfkı Melül Meriç Rikkat Kunt and Muhsin Demironat Our second group of teachers were giving the clues of a new period of creativity which was experienced during the Dolmabahçe Palace period They were very important people such as Burhan Toprak Cemal Tollu Ahmet Kutsi Tecer Salim Rıza Kırkpınar and Behçet Ünsal Whereas our third group of teachers were great persons who symbolized the creative power of the Yıldız Palace which was constructed later and finally of modern Turkey that was kneaded with the West They were great people such as Sabri Berkel Zeki Faik İzer Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu Edip Hakkı Köseoğlu Nurullah Berk İsmail Hakkı Oygar and Hayati Görkey However I also had very special teachers who tried to teach us the relationships and integrity in the depths of this great design synthesis Very important people were among these such as Sedad Hakkı Eldem Utarit İzgi Feridun Akozan Kerim Silivrili and Rıfkı Melül Meriç The truth of the matter is that these teachers of ours who were the most important people of the period wanted to convey the profound sources of our creativity to the younger generations at a well established art institution such as the Academy of Fine Arts and I was able to understand much later that they wanted to symbolize these on the Topkapı Palace and the Dolmabahçe Palace Whereas what influenced me the most were the studies and explanations of my teacher Rıfkı Melül Meriç on the Topkapı Palace and the Ehl i Hiref It seems that he was giving us to the new generations of art an illuminated road map hidden in the 500 year depths of our creativity heritage How could we have known in the 1960s that these two palaces were the golden links of a 500 year chain in the creation of the sources of the Turkish design and art heritage of today But now I know it If you also want to know it then on a quiet day p