This paper considers representations of state violence in Orhan Pamuk’s Kar (Snow)(2002). Part of a larger project focusing on representations of state violence in twentieth century Turkish and Spanish literature, this paper argues that Snow puts forth a strong critique of the Turkish nation-state, especially through its portrayal of the Turkish State as inherently and purposefully violent. I am especially interested how the novel conveys this particular criticism. I focus on the notion of reenactment as a significant representational technique in Snow, which foregrounds repetition as an important feature of state-violence. Using Sibel Irzik’s idea of self-conscious allegories, I discuss the allegorical impulse in Snow as performing and reenacting the tensions implicit in the Kemalist project of Westernization, making staged performances significant instruments in the narrative. Reenactment appears in the staged performances in the novel, especially in the staging of a mini-coup during a theater play glorifying the secular Turkish Republic as a harbinger of civilization and enlightenment. This violent performance is a moment of confusion between fiction and reality, in which the performance on stage exceeds the bounds of the theater and spills into reality, representing and at the same time perpetrating violence. In other words, it is a moment of simultaneous repetition and creation. The performance of the coup on stage is a reenactment and, to a certain extent, a repetition of the coups in Turkish history. The reactions from the audience and the habitants of the city are also repetitions of their past reactions to coups, which introduces the peculiar idea of “coup rituals” in Turkish society. As a result, the reenactment embedded in the performance highlights the repetitive aspect of state-violence. But the performance is also a production, one that engenders new moments of violence. In the process of reenacting violence, the play perpetrates that violence once again, this time in a new context, with new actors. Thus, the performance of state violence in Snow is repetition and novelty all at once. I argue that this particular type of performance marks the critical impetus in the novel, because it postulates the violence of the Turkish state as an ongoing project of violence. Finally, I suggest that this moment of simultaneous reenactment (a repetition) and perpetration (a new instance of violence) can be useful also as a means to think about the ethical implications of representing violence.