Nowadays, there are
discussions in Turkish and international media about whether these peaceful and
democratic demonstrations could turn into a “Turkish Spring” similar to Arab
Spring movements. In this article, I would like to take a closer look to
“Occupy Gezi” movement and analyze the reasons that gave birth to this event.
It all started with this frame showing police brutality
towards environmentalists
When we take a closer look to events taking place in
Turkey, it is not surprising to see that the driving force behind this social
movement is the fear of secular-minded Turkish people towards the increasing
Islamist, authoritarian and one-man based political practices of the ruling JDP
(Justice and Development Party) government. Just two weeks ago, the government
by using its majority in Turkish Grand National Assembly, passed a
controversial law limiting the sale and the use of alcohol in the country. This
was followed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements
defending this law with making reference to Islamic holy book Qur’an, a clear
violation of secularism principle of the Turkish constitution. Maybe for the
first time in Turkish political history, a politician defended his political
positioning solely by religious reference, an unusual practice for secular
Turks. In addition, Erdoğan blamed founders of secular Turkish Republic Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk and İsmet İnönü as “two drunkards”, which created enormous anger
among Westernized segments of the country towards the pro-Islamic Prime
Minister. These events were perceived as government’s interference into private
sphere and direct intervention to people’s lives.
Turkish V for Vendetta
Second important reason behind massive social movement
was the excessive use of force by Turkish policemen, a historical national
habit for Turkish armed bureaucracy. Although in the early days, participation
into demonstrations were very limited and ecology-based in its essence, harsh
methods used by Turkish police towards peaceful demonstrations created anger
among Turkish people especially among Turkish youth and transformed “Occupy
Gezi” into a social revolutionary movement.
From Taksim with love
Thirdly, it is no coincidence to see that
environmentalism and ecological issues are still seen very marginal and
unimportant issues by the JDP government and generally by all Turkish political
parties and politicians. However, Westernized and better-educated segments of
the country have started to show increasing interest into environmentalist
issues in the last years. Thus, Gezi Park is perceived as a last castle in
Taksim Square and the government’s intention to destroy the park triggered
environmentalist sensitivities.
Occupy Gezi: an intellectual social movement
Fourthly, events were organized by young Turkish citizens
using social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter, a modern youth
having knowledge and conscience about Western standards of democracy and
Turkey’s lack of having it. Technological revolution of the last decade became
a convenient tool for suppressed groups to defend their views for radical
democracy, as it was seen in the case of Jasmine and Egyptian revolutions of
2011 and 2012. The use of social media turned demonstrations into a protest
youth organization reminding the 1968 generation and Woodstock festivals of the
past. However, after Prime Minister Erdoğan’s statement describing Twitter as a
“headache for countries”, yesterday Turkish police started to arrest students
who use social media to organize these events.
People from different ideologies unified against a common
threat
Fifthly, Prime Minister Erdoğan’s arrogant response to
protesters by saying “We took a decision and no matter what you do, we will
remove this park from there” as well as “These are marginalized bandit groups”
made the demonstrations even stronger. As Erdoğan spoke, the number of people
who joined the demonstrations increased. Erdoğan, starting from the early days
of his career, has always preferred a daily life language in his speeches in
order to seem like a “leader coming out of people from the streets”, but his
rude style of speech continues to irritate better educated people in the country.
This time, the hatred towards Erdoğan’s Islamic populist style seems to reach
the highest point among secular segments of the country.
Gezi movement is even stronger than soccer fanaticism
These reasons led to a popular social movement and
crowded demonstrations that gathered people from different identities
(environmentalists, anti-capitalist leftist and Islamic groups, liberals, gay
and lesbians, Kemalists, Kurds, nationalists, anarchists) together. Although
this heterogeneous group does not possess a strict common ideology, one thing
makes them unified; being against Erdoğan’s authoritarian and Islamist one-man
rule. However, Prime Minister Erdoğan, instead of decreasing the tension, chose
to insult young people and this social movement and proved once again that he
is not a man of negotiations but of dictating. The demands of the protesters
could be stated as the protection of Gezi Park, government’s respect and
guarantee for different lifestyles, stopping of police brutality and
resignation of Prime Minister Erdoğan. In fact, first three demands could be
easily realized but Erdoğan probably won’t make such a thing because of his
jihadist worldview that considers democratic negotiations and agreements as
defeats.
Revolution Party
As a close observer of Erdoğan, I can say that although
these demonstrations were promising for the future, the weakness of Turkey’s
pro-secular political parties -namely social democratic Republican People’s
Party and Turkish nationalist Nationalist Action Party- will probably make
Erdoğan even more angry and authoritarian in the following days. Erdoğan
clearly believes in Rousseau type of majoritarian democracy and he does not see
any problem about Islamic and authoritarian transformation of the country as
long as he wins in the elections. After the elimination of pro-secular Turkish
Armed Forces in the recent years, Erdoğan will continue to use his majority in
the Parliament to make the regime more Islamic and will leave little space for
pluralism. No matter how hard he tries to cover it, Erdoğan is a radical
Islamist who wants to establish an Islamic political system and he won’t stop
until he is out of the scene. Erdoğan takes his power from uneducated masses
and he is like a rock star for pious Turkish and Kurdish people. He has managed
to survive until now, although his foreign policy with the aspirations of
creating a new Ottoman Empire became troubled vis-a-vis Syrian crisis. Thus,
dethroning “Sultan Erdoğan” does not seem easy for the opposition groups at
least for the moment. In addition, Erdoğan is the mastermind of polarized
politics and until now he has won 3 general (2002, 2007, 2011) and 2 local
elections (2004, 2009), as well as 2 referendums by polarizing the society
within the lines of secularist-Islamist dichotomy. That is why, these events
may not weaken but consolidate Erdoğan’s regime.
The only barrier for Erdoğan could be the negative
economic performance of the country in the near future, which could raise
questions about the success of his regime. Establishment of a new liberal
political party that could unify all these opposing groups and new social
actors in the country could also be a chance for the deepening and more
pessimistically for the survival of Turkish democracy. Finally, in my opinion
what has been happening in Turkey is different from Arab Spring movements since
Turkey has a flawed -but still- democracy. However, at the same time I also
think that there is no mistake in calling this process as “Turkish Spring”
since this is a new sociopolitical process driven by the politicization of
Western lifestyles of modern Turkish youth with the use of new technological
tools, which could help Turkey to deepen its democracy and get rid of Islamic
authoritarianism in the future.
Dr. Ozan ÖRMECİ
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