Panayırs, or fairs, played an important role in small-town life in early Republican Turkey, and yet these fairs have been very little studied. There have been a few studies of fairs as economic activities, and even fewer of them as folklore, but little else. The social importance of fairs, in particular, deserves much more consideration than it has received. Fairs provided a reason for people to travel from their own small villages, to see a larger town and mingle with others from the region. Fairs were also very important venues for entertainment. This paper focuses on the cultural value of those entertainments. Drawing on memoirs, newspapers, and magazines, and on the limited secondary work, I discuss what types of entertainment were provided, and what were most highly touted. I argue that these fairs were one of the important points of continuity in a rapidly changing society. Even by the 1960s and 1970s, in spite of a number of changes, the fairs still showed essential similarities to those of the late Ottoman period. I further argue that an important fact about the fairs was the gendered nature of the entertainments. Entertainments largely focused on sports, such as traditional oil wrestling and horse racing. Musical performances were also an important staple of panayırs, and generally featured scantily clad dancing girls. Prostitution likewise has been associated with fairs, and it has been a concern of governments, including local officials, to prevent or at least minimize that activity. As my primary example I use the Pehlivanköy panayırı. Pehlivanköy is a small town in Turkish Thrace whose fair was created in 1895 by order of Sultan Abdülhamid II, and still operates today. I examine its representations in memoirs and newspapers for the 1930s and 1940s. For comparisons, I include examples from around Turkey, and from the 1890s to the present. This paper contributes specifically to our understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of the panyır tradition. More generally, it adds to our understanding of broader issues of gender, class, and social and cultural change in post-Ottoman Turkey through the institution of the panyır, and hopes to encourage further scholarly study of the panyır by pointing to some of the rich possibilities it offers.

The island of Imbros/Gökçeada, historically populated by Greek Orthodox, was exempt from the forced migration imposed by the population exchange between Turkey and Greece in the first half of the 20th century. Imbrian Greeks, however, could not escape the nationalization and homogenization efforts of Turkey in the last half century. As a result, the natives of this marginal borderland between Turkey and Greece were forced to abandon their homes and migrate to Greece and elsewhere especially during the decade of 1964-74 due to certain ‘unofficial’ policies of the Turkish government, which are now called as ‘Turkification’ policies. The changes in the social fabric of everyday life were further complicated in the last two decades by the return of the Greek Imbrian diaspora to visit their homeland and to celebrate religious festivals. This paper examines these contemporary religious festivals on Imbros, which often take the form of saints’ day celebrations and are called panigyri in Greek and panayır in Turkish. I argue that panigyris, observed in the churches, chapels, and village squares scattered across the island, are one of the most important ritual acts for the mediation of belonging in Imbros. Through the panigyris Imbrian Greeks cultivate a sense of community and a sense of place, because for them the island is not an abstract or imagined homeland; but a landscape that they return to every year to re-member and to celebrate.

Until recently panayırs (fairs) provided a rare venue for trade, entertainment, and socialization in small towns and cities across Turkey. This paper examines the reflections of the panayır culture and its 20th century transformations in Turkish films. Films about the panayır from different decades display strong parallels to the changes occurring in the panayır culture during the same period. Some of the panayır films provide us with a window into the everyday lives of panayır workers; others highlight the entertainment function of the panayırs. More recent films on the panayır reflect a profound sense of nostalgia (by writers and directors) for a culture that has been in a gradual but seemingly irreversible decline. While there are few films that focus completely on panayırs (such as Hazan Mevsimi), there are a number of films that deal with the panayır to some degree (such as Ateş Parçası, Eğreti Gelin, Vizontele). Despite the opportunities it offers for a better understanding of the panayır phenomenon, so far no scholarly work has considered the panayır through films. This study seeks to fill that gap. We have identified three particularly salient themes in panayır films. Drawing on a number of films made between the 1960s and the current decade, we will focus on social life/social class, gender, and nostalgia for the disappearing panayır tradition. First, films offer important insights into the daily life at panayırs, the itinerant life style, poverty, social hierarchies among the panayır workers, and class backgrounds of panayır artists and spectators. Secondly, these films reveal panayırs as a gendered form of entertainment. The female singers and dancers appear as the primary object of desire of the all male spectators. The gendered hieararchy is also visible in the relations between female workers and the panayır managers. The films also reveal the changes over time in the public perception of female panayır artists. The third aspect concerns the decline of the panayır as an institution. In recent decades there has been a gradual decline in public interest in panayırs due to changes such as urbanization, improved communications, and the spread of alternative forms of entertainment. The more recent films bear witness to the decline of the panayır, revealing the nostalgia for the panayırs of the past and the grief for the disappearance of a tradition. In sum, this paper contributes to the knowledge about the panayır by exploring its reflections in cinema through the decades.