The Gezi Park protests as a social movement in Turkey: from emergence to coalescence without bureaucratization

What began as a protest against the destruction of Istanbul's Gezi Park for a shopping mall and reconstruction of an Ottoman-era military barracks IN May 2013 in a short time turned into country-wide anti-government protests, particularly as a result of excessive use of teargas and water cannon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai. Studia Europaea 2014-03, Vol.59 (1), p.295-319
Main Author: Aknur, Muge
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Bureaucracy
Citizens
Demonstrations & protests
Elites
Government
Political protest
Social activism
Social movements
Turkey
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Summary:What began as a protest against the destruction of Istanbul's Gezi Park for a shopping mall and reconstruction of an Ottoman-era military barracks IN May 2013 in a short time turned into country-wide anti-government protests, particularly as a result of excessive use of teargas and water cannons by the police, coupled with the aggressive and offensive rhetoric of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan towards the protestors. The article first analyzes Gezi protests as a social movement by focusing on its characteristics, particularly the confrontation of ordinary citizens with elites through the contentious means, the political opportunities and constraints that shaped the movement, and factors stimulating and supporting it, including dense social networks and vibrant, action-oriented symbols. It then attempts to answer the question of why the Gezi Park movement was unable, despite accomplishing the first two stages of social movement development, namely 'emergence' and 'coalescence', to complete the third stage of 'bureaucratization' by concentrating on the heterogeneous structure of the protestors and their ideological differences.
ISSN:1224-8746
2065-9563