Legitimizing the Blue Homeland: Historical myth, symbolic statecraft, and the reconstruction of Turkish maritime identity

Abstract

Why do states revive historical figures in foreign policy? This study investigates the instrumentalization of memory in Turkish foreign policy by reviving Ottoman admiral Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa. It argues that his myth is retrofitted onto the ‘Blue Homeland’ maritime doctrine. Using a framework (Realist, Securitization, Critical Security Studies) and qualitative analysis of institutional and public discourses, the study shows how naval professionalization and emulation facilitate this reinvention. This projects realist power, securitizes maritime space as existential, and cultivates neo-Ottoman identity for domestic legitimation. Status-seeking powers leverage such narratives as symbolic statecraft to navigate international hierarchies and engineer domestic consensus.