Chapter 6 The Gezi Protests: The Making of the Next Left Generation in Turkey1

In: Protests and Generations: Legacies and Emergences in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean
Author:
Gökbörü Sarp Tanyildiz
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The objective of this chapter is to develop an analysis of the internal relationship between the novelty of the Gezi Protests and its agents, the new generation of Turkey, through a specific focus on the classed subject formation of the Gezi Protests situated in the particular context of domination and dispossession that took place under the akp rule. In the first section, I establish a theoretical framework that allows for a dialectical understanding of the two main conditions that underlie the Gezi Protests: (1) the protection of Gezi Park and its trees, and (2) the lack of democracy and increasingly authoritarian rule of the government in Turkey. By drawing on cultural productions about the neighbourhood of the district of Beyoglu that encompasses Taksim Square and the Gezi Protests, I show that the significance of Gezi Park as the natal space of protests can be examined through an analysis of the socio-political history and the social texture. In the second section, I examine the discussions and debates on the class composition of the Gezi Protests, and suggest a shift from subject positions to subject formation on the basis of a socialized conception of class. Finally, I investigate the subject formation of the next left generation of Turkey through an emphasis on the recognition amongst the protestors and the ethics of solidarity. In order to better explicate the process of recognition and the realization of Gezi’s ethics of solidarity, I focus on three crucial dimensions of the protests: 1) the actual experience of living together, 2) the deployment of socio-cultural performances as political strategies, 3) the Anti-Capitalist Muslim Youth’s participation in and contribution to the Gezi Protests. In lieu of a conclusion, I discuss the current relevance of the protests in Turkey, through a story that has moved me deeply.

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