Claimed by All, Defined by None: Cultural Transfer, Transimperial Legacy and Competing Narratives of Galatasaray from Empire to Republic

Spanning the 19th century to the present, this book explores how educational transfer debates shaped the reception and representation of Galatasaray High School’s heritage from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Türkiye. It shows how Galatasaray became a transimperial space, marked by competition, cooperation, and connectivity among multiple imperial powers. Applying the cultural transfer paradigm, the study traces how Galatasaray’s history was negotiated and locally reinterpreted. A systematic review of French, British, and US newspapers from the 1830s to the 2000s identifies positive, negative, and neutral representations, which serve as entry points for deeper discourse analysis. Findings highlight that Galatasaray’s roots lie not only in Franco-Ottoman cooperation but also in Ottoman-Austrian interactions, with narratives framing it alternately as a multicultural hub or as a tool of French influence. The book argues that Galatasaray’s history cannot be reduced to imitation but reflects Ottoman agency and local adaptation within transimperial networks.

Gökay Kanmazalp has completed his PhD at the Graduate School Global and Area Studies of Leipzig University in 2025. He holds an MA in Atlantic Studies in History, Culture and Society from Leibniz University Hannover (2021) and a BA in Translation & Interpreting (English-German-Turkish) from Dokuz Eylül University (2019). His research interests include transimperial history, cultural transfer, and cultural heritage.