Turkey Media Roundup (July 2)

[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on Turkey and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Turkey Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to turkey@jadaliyya.com by Sunday night of every week.]

English

A Digital Collection of Gezi Park Articles A collection of articles on various Gezi Park incidents and their repercussions.

The March of Protest The Economist situates the protests in Turkey in the global and historical context of people’s movements, warning those in power everywhere to beware of the accumulated anger against their “corruption, inefficiency, and arrogance.”

In Ankara Tariq Ali shares his impressions on the growing feeling of discontent toward the AKP’s hegemony, Erdoğan’s arrogance, and the regime’s undemocratic decision-making practices, all of which sparked the Gezi park protests.

Law of the FatherÇağlar Keyder talks about the process and aftermath of the final police crackdown on the occupation of Gezi Park, and analyses Erdoğan’s “populist” and ”patriarchal” leadership style, which harkens back to the militaristic Turkish state tradition.

The Tale of a Turkish Summer: Is There a Link Between “Occupy Gezi” and the IMF? Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya focuses on the significance of Taksim Square as an urban space for public assembly, evoking the “right to the city” movement as well as the history and continued involvement of Turkey’s socialist and labor movements in this space.

Erdogan, Taksim Square and the Kurdish Peace Cengiz Çandar analyzes the strain that Erdoğan and his government’s crackdown on the Gezi protests put on Turkey’s relations with the European Union, and questions what the PM’s next steps will be regarding the ongoing “peace process” in the aftermath of this crackdown.

Turkey’s Sunni Identity Test Fehim Taştekin claims that the Syrian crisis exposed the deep-seated Sunni-Alevi tensions in Turkey and studies whether the AKP follows a pro-Sunni foreign policy in the region.

Assemblies Emerging in Turkey: A Lesson in Democracy Jerome Roos suggests that the emerging people’s assemblies in Istanbul are a form of direct democracy countering “the sham of a democracy proposed by Erdoğan’s authoritarian neoliberal state.”

Turkey’s Protests: What Really Triggered Them and Why They Will Continue Ali Kıncal thinks that the protests are the result of years of resentment accumulated by the left and the middle class, emphasizing that “the PM’s political language is perhaps the biggest cause of the protests.”

Generation Gap: Turkish Family Split Between Gezi and Old WayÖzlem Gezer shows the complexity of opposed political affiliations and competing discourses in the face of the Gezi protests within one Turkish family: "an uncle in Istanbul who loves Erdoğan, a cousin who sleeps in the protesters' camp, and parents who sit in Germany arguing over the unrest."

“Our Sisters in Headscarves” Jenna Krajeski writes about the instrumentalization of religious women by Erdoğan and by the protesters, dwelling on the politically charged symbolism of the headscarf in Turkey and interviewing women in headscarves whose intellectual sophistication exceeds the discourses that seek to instrumentalize them as symbols.

Gezi Park: Towards a New Political Consensus Alexander Christie-Miller seeks to “find out to what extent demonstrations really have breached ideological barriers,” focusing on the difficulty of crossing the pious/secular divide in Turkey and underlining the importance of the potential rise of an opposition from within Erdoğan’s own “ranks.”

Muslims and Models Faisal Devji raises the difficulties of comparing Muslim countries in the “democratic model” framework within the context of post-Cold War politics, focusing on the debate over whether to stress the AKP’s neoliberal or Islamist character as the center of analysis.

Occupy Gezi: Reclaiming the Commons and the Collapse of Erdogan’s Domestic Policies Hakan Topal writes about Occupy Gezi as a movement seeking to reclaim the commons, as “the multitudes are fed up with the erosion of their civil liberties, lack of freedom of expression, and increasing state intervention in everyday life.”

Lessons from Turkey: Dangers of Market Fetishism Nükhet A. Sandal invites Western media to exercise “introspection and self-criticism” in the face of the Gezi Park protests, arguing that English-language commentators have long depicted Turkey as “the Muslim-majority political model of choice” and celebrated the country as a “holiday destination” while all along ignoring the AKP’s decade-old “crony capitalism.”

Is Erdoğan a Dictator? Emre Uslu answers the title question negatively, instead focusing on the AKP’s antidemocratic practices since 2011, especially highlighting the government’s control over the media through his own experiences of being targeted for his criticism of the government as a journalist.

Turkey's False Nostalgia Edhem Eldem points out that authoritarianism and social engineering have a long history in Turkey’s political tradition, the remembrance of which should prevent any “harkening back” to a nostalgic past.

Turkey Is Not Another “Arab Spring” Chapter Following an overview of the AKP’s successes and failures in the last decade, Reşat Kasaba concludes that the protests are “an attempt to fill a void and restore substance to what has become a non-functioning democracy in Turkey.”

Diverse Revolt of Turkish Youth and the Production of the Political Burcu Çelik defines Gezi as “a historic protest of young people, belonging to different social classes, holding different sociocultural and political stands that have no political agenda other than the collective will to end state authoritarianism.”

From Turkey with Love Belén Fernández refutes PM Erdoğan’s famous claim that protesters only represent “marginal groups,” claiming that the protests are “quite simply, an assertion of humanity in the face of inhumanity.”

Talking to Besiktas' Bulldozer Joyriding Fans About Their Role in the Turkish Uprising Esra Gürmen explores the leftist and working-class roots and humorous discourse of quasi-political ultra football fan group Çarşı, whose members were an integral part of the protests and who fought the tear gas and other forms of police violence on the frontlines.

Protests in Turkey Part of Growing Cycle of Discontent Muftah editors’ substantive coverage during the early days of the protests chronicles the official discourse of the government and the voices from the ground that counter it, as well as the processes that led to the unfolding of the events.

Turkish Protests Are About Democracy, Not Religion Jay Cassano criticizes Western media for wrongly characterizing the protests as the clash of Islam and secularism, claiming that what unites the protesters is countering the government’s abuse of power.

Turkish

Gezi: Bir kamusal meydan hareketinin anatomisi Nilüfer Göle argues that the Gezi uprising has offers a respite for the public space that had been narrowing.

Gezi direnişi’nin küresel arka planı: Tükenen liberalizm Cihan Tuğal contends that in Gezi not only economic liberalism but also social liberalism has reached its limits.

Forumlar demokratik özerkliğin inşasıdır Erdem Yörük claims that forums held in several parks after the attack over the Gezi Park contribute to the establishment of democratic autonomy.

Gezi Parkı'ndaki ışığın gösterdiği Ergin Yıldızoğlu says that Prime Minister Erdoğan has come to the end of his “heavenly” days during which he was able to or seemed to govern through consent.

Bir beden siyaseti olarak Gezi Zeynep Gambetti asserts that the Gezi uprising is a bio-politics like Bloch's “anatomy of standing men.”

#Diren-ç-MEKAN; Gezi Parkı’nda kamusal mekanın maddesel gücünün yeniden canlanışı According to Murat Çetin, Gezi Park has become a real architectural and urban laboratory.

Taksim üzerinden totaliter mimarlığa bakış Ali Barış Öndül compares Erdoğan's İstanbul with Napoleon's Paris, and reminds us of Napoleon Ill's notorious minister, Baron Haussmann.

Park direnişi ve Türklük Nazan Üstündağ explains that, in the advent of the Gezi uprising, she conceives of “Turkishness” not as a name of state but as a name of nation.

Sırrı süreyya önder haklı Delil Karakoçan provides a critical outlook on the Gezi uprising in the name of the Kurdish movement and says the “Kurdish Leadership understood the Gezi uprising, but the majority of Kurds did not.”

Kürtler Gezi direnişinin neresinde? According to Ruşen Çakır, the distance between İstanbul and Diyarbakır and between Taksim Square and Newroz Square is shortening as a result of the Gezi uprising.

Gezi, Kürtlerin de parkıdırİrfan Aktan scrutinizes the political and sociological reasons behind the Kurdish youth's staying aloof from the Gezi resistance.

Akil İnsanlar Doğu Anadolu Grubu raporu A report prepared by the Southeastern Group of the Wise People Commission highlights the urgent need for further democratization in order to solve the decades-old Kurdish problem.

‘Paradigmalar’ın çöküşü Nuray Mert analyses the Gezi events on three levels—the decline of the democratization paradigm of the AKP, the “new democracy in Muslim countries” that Turkey is believed to represent, and the neoliberal democracy which is praised all over the world after the end of the Cold War.

Suç duyurum bâkidir: Ayaklar ne zaman baş oldu? Oya Baydar reminds Prime Minister Erdoğan that Kemalist elites were using the same language and accusations as him about the substratum he tries to represent.

Gezi’den geleceğe doğru Rober Koptaş labels the Gezi uprising as “an unprecedented experience,” which he still does not understand fully.

Gezi: İyiler ve kötüler Fırat Eryılmaz criticizes the political groups that took part in the Gezi uprising and calls on them to quit treating politics as mere PR.

Failiyet vakti Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun analyses the Gezi uprising, calling his fellow Muslims to follow the principles that they had abandoned in the name of “pragmatism.”

Taksim Gezi Parkı raporu Haziran 2013 While the Institute of Strategic Thinking (SDE) is of the same opinion as the government, it does not ignore some facts about the resistance.

Gezi olayları neden tutmadı The chief adviser of the Prime Minister Erdoğan, Yalçın Akdoğan, using his pen name Yasin Doğan, maintains the AKP's conspiracy theories and claims that the Gezi uprising could not achieve its ends.

Muhalefetsiz yeni Türkiye olmaz Murat Aksoy, a columnist of the pro-government newspaper, Yeni Şafak, acknowledges that the Gezi uprising cannot be merely explained by “foreign powers.”

Erdoğan iç savaş mı istiyor Taner Akcam asks whether Prime Minister Erdoğan wishes for a civil war, arguing that Turkey could be dragged into one if there is not a compromise based upon liberties and democratic participation.

Articles published on Jadaliyya

Defining the Terrain of Struggle in Taksim

New Texts Out Now: Markus Dressler, Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam

Resisting Tear Gas Together

#resistankara: Notes of a Woman Resisting

It Is About the Park: A Struggle for Turkey's Cities

"Ottomanalgia" and the Protests in Turkey

Report from Istanbul: Koray Caliskan on Democracy Now

Sultan of Sultans

The Spring of Turkey, the Fall of Erdogan

A Pro-Government Newspaper in Turkey Blasts Jadaliyya for its Role in the Protests!

Praise for the "Marginal Groups"