ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the Panorama 1453 Museum in Istanbul in order to understand the politics of its representation of the past, looking closely at the displays and incorporating findings from staff interviews. This is part of neo-Ottomanism, a strategic use of the Ottoman past to propose a global and national Turkish identity in the present. The emotional prompts in the museum present a glorious story of predestined conquest that is understood by staff to be unequivocally true, notwithstanding selective emphases and absences within the display itself. Finally, the chapter looks at key themes in the display – greatness, will and winning – and contrasts them with comparable exhibitions elsewhere, such as the Waterloo Panorama which reportedly inspired Panorama 1453, alongside other examples of victorious battles as national stories.
