Remembering the Army of Robust Children in the Age of the Utopian Turn: Militarism and Turkification in Late Ottoman Youth Theatre

During the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923), General Kâzım Karabekir recruited approximately six thousand children and created a children's town that Ottoman intellectuals explicitly described as utopian. His militaristic paternal care project aimed to transform ethnically ambiguous orphans and other poor children into ideal Turkish citizens. A firm believer in the disciplinary power of theatre, Karabekir staged performances in diverse genres with his Gürbüzler Ordusu (Army of Robust Children). The group's performances challenge the tendencies in the utopian turn in theatre and performance studies, especially the association of utopian performances almost exclusively with liberatory or progressive politics.