The Long Summer of Turkey: The Gezi Uprising and Its Historical Roots

TL;DR: In this article, a small protest to prevent the demolition of a city park in central Istanbul was subjected to excessive police violence, and within days, the tiny protest bad become a countrywide civil revolt.

Abstract: In June 2013 a small protest to prevent tbe demolishing of a city park in central Istanbul was subjected to excessive police violence. Within days, tbe tiny protest bad become a countrywide civil revolt. Tbe Gezi uprising, named after tbe park, bas radically cbanged tbe dynamics of botb elite and grassroots politics in Turkey, creating an enduring spirit of resistance among the millions wbo had never been involved in street activism before, and undermining tbe belief tbat radical popular cballenges to tbe state emanate today primarily from the Kurdish, not tbe Turkisb, population. Millions took to the streets to cballenge tbe authoritarianism of Turkey's leader. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was widely regarded, at least by tbe international community, as a democratic figure, responsible for creating a \"Turkisb model\" that could potentially act as a beacon for tbe Arab world in tbe transition to democracy. Tbe Gezi uprising deconstructed tbis image outside Turkey wbile creating a deep political crisis witbin tbe power bloc inside Turkey. Tbis crisis, combined witb tbe newly vibrant wave of grassroots politics, is likely to alter irreversibly the trajectory of botb parliamentary and street politics in Turkey. In this article, I describe tbe bistory of tbe political and social conditions that structured tbe sudden and puzzling explosion of tbe nationwide Gezi revolt out of a small protest for an urban park in Istanbul. I first depict tbe macro-level political struggles tbat shaped tbe last decade and then portray tbe trajectory of grassroots political activism during the year preceding tbe Gezi uprising. Tbe bistorical analysis is combined witb my insigbts as a