Description

"Resistance Everywhere": The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey

 Edited by Anthony Alessandrini, Nazan Üstündağ, and Emrah Yildiz

On 20 June 2013, Jadaliyya launched the Turkey Page. “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey is the culmination of Jadaliyya’s coverage of the events of Summer 2013 in Turkey. This collection focuses on the Gezi Park protests, which erupted in late May 2013 and led to ongoing nation-wide resistance in opposition to the majority government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This volume, designed specifically for use in the classroom, features articles from Jadaliyya’s coverage of this summer’s events in Turkey, plus a selection of pieces from the previous three years that provide background and context. It provides an introduction to recent events in Turkey, which have already made history. It also works to situate these events in their global and local contexts, contributing to ongoing debates about state-citizen relations, regimes of state control, and forms of dissident and collective political action that continue to generate tectonic transformations throughout the region. Separate sections of the collection provide a background to the Gezi Protests, as well as examining the peace process initiated between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the potential end to the thirty-year war that has been waged in Turkey; focus on the nature of the forces that came together into the Gezi Resistance; analyze the sexed and gendered discourses were deployed throughout the Gezi Protests, both by those carrying out the protests and by those members of the government who worked to suppress them; think through the Gezi Protests as a form of resistance to neoliberalism; and situate the resistance in Turkey to larger global struggles around “the right to the city.” The collection also includes a list of related scholarly works, electronic resources, films, maps, and social media and other online sources related to the topic. This collection is intended to provide a background for understanding the ongoing events in Turkey, and to inspire and generate further investigation, analysis, and solidarity. “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey is also intended to carry on the spirit that has illuminated the various struggles for peace and justice, and the striving towards a new and better world, that emerged in Gezi Park, in Taksim Square, and throughout Turkey, together with all the other forms of resistance that hold the possibility of making Turkey a democratic “model” of a very different kind.

Contributors: Ziad Abu-Rish, Salih Can Aciksoz, Ufuk Adak, Anthony Alessandrini, Elizabeth Angell, Aslı Ü. Bâli, Foti Benlisoy, Jay Cassano, Ayça Çubukçu, Sarah El-Kazaz, Zeynep Gambetti, Christiane Gruber, Timur Hammond, Aslı Iğsiz, Hikmet Kocamaner, Zeynep Kurtuluş Korkman, Selin Pelek, Elif Sarı, Cihan Tuğal, Sebahat Tuncel, Nazan Üstündağ, Emrah Yildiz, Erdem Yörük

Table of Contents

Introduction By the Editors: "Resistance Everywhere": The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey, pg. 4

by Anthony Alessandrini, Nazan Ustundag, and Emrah Yildiz

Articles

Turkey's Foreing Policy Towards the Middle East: An Interview with Asli Bali, pg. 9

by Ziad Abu-Rish

AKP's Passion for Kurds: Either You Belong to Me, Or to the Courts, pg. 18

 by Selin Pelek and Foti Benlisoy 

"Operational Accidents": On the Turkish State and Kurdish Deaths, pg.20

by Ayca Cubukcu

The Process in Turkey, pg. 21

by Sebahat Tuncel

Alignments of Dissent and Politics of Naming: Assembling Resistance in Turkey, pg. 23

by Emrah Yildiz 

Praise for the "Marginal Groups," pg. 27

by Nazan Ustundag

The Visual Emergence of the Occupy Gezi Movement pg. 29

by Christiane Gruber 

Erdogan's Masculinity and the Language of the Gezi Resistance, pg. 37

 by Zeynep Kurtulus and Salih Can Aciksoz 

Delinquent Kids, Revolutionary Mothers, Uncle Governor, and Erdogan the Patriarch: The Gezi Park Protests and Politics of the Family, pg. 39

by Hikmet Kocamaner

Occupy Gezi as the Politics of the Body, pg. 45

by Zeynep Gambetti

Occupy Gezi: The Limits of Turkey's Neoliberal Success, pg. 48

by Cihan Tugal

Brand Turkey and the Gezi Protests: Authoritarianism, Law, and Neoliberalism, pg. 50

by Asli Igsiz

Brazil, Turkey: Emerging Markets, Emerging Riots, pg. 57

by Erdem Yoruk

The Right to the City Movement and the Turkish Summer, pg. 59

by Jay Cassano

"Ottomanalgia" and the Protests in Turkey, pg. 62

by Ufuk Adak 

It Is About the Park: A Struggle for Turkey's Cities, pg. 65

by Sarah El-Kazaz

Is Everywhere Taksim?: Public Space and Possible Publics, pg. 68

by Timur Hammond and Elizabeth Angell

About the Authors

About the Authors, pg. 73

Pedagogical Resources

Resources, pg. 75

Social Media, pg. 80

Introduction

On 20 June 2013, Jadaliyya launched the Turkey Page. “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey is the culmination of Jadaliyya’s coverage of this summer’s events in Turkey. This collection focuses on the Gezi Park protests, which erupted in late May 2013 and led to ongoing nation-wide resistance in opposition to the majority government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This volume, designed specifically for use in the classroom, features articles from Jadaliyya’s coverage of this summer’s events in Turkey, plus a selection of pieces from the previous three years that provide background and context. It provides an introduction to recent events in Turkey, which have already made history. It also works to situate these events in their global and local contexts, contributing to ongoing debates about state-citizen relations, regimes of state control, and forms of dissident and collective political action that continue to generate tectonic transformations throughout the region. Separate sections of the collection provide a background to the Gezi Protests, as well as examining the peace process initiated between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the potential end to the thirty-year war that has been waged in Turkey; focus on the nature of the forces that came together into the Gezi Resistance; analyze the sexed and gendered discourses were deployed throughout the Gezi Protests, both by those carrying out the protests and by those members of the government who worked to suppress them; think through the Gezi Protests as a form of resistance to neoliberalism; and situate the resistance in Turkey to larger global struggles around “the right to the city.” The collection also includes a list of related scholarly works, electronic resources, films, maps, and social media and other online sources related to the topic. This collection is intended to provide a background for understanding the ongoing events in Turkey, and to inspire and generate further investigation, analysis, and solidarity. “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey is also intended to carry on the spirit that has illuminated the various struggles for peace and justice, and the striving towards a new and better world, that emerged in Gezi Park, in Taksim Square, and throughout Turkey, together with all the other forms of resistance that hold the possibility of making Turkey a democratic “model” of a very different kind.

Contributors: Ziad Abu-Rish, Salih Can Aciksoz, Ufuk Adak, Anthony Alessandrini, Elizabeth Angell, Aslı Ü. Bâli, Foti Benlisoy, Jay Cassano, Ayça Çubukçu, Sarah El-Kazaz, Zeynep Gambetti, Christiane Gruber, Timur Hammond, Aslı Iğsiz, Hikmet Kocamaner, Zeynep Kurtuluş Korkman, Selin Pelek, Elif Sarı, Cihan Tuğal, Sebahat Tuncel, Nazan Üstündağ, Emrah Yildiz, Erdem Yörük

For more information, go to the teaching guide.