Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey

Transcription

1 Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey

2 Esra Özyürek Gaye Özpınar Emrah Altındiş Editors Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey Conversations on Democratic and Social Challenges 123

3 Editors Esra Özyürek European Institute London School of Economics London UK Emrah Altındiş Harvard Medical School Harvard University Harvard, MA USA Gaye Özpınar Law Office Boston, MA USA ISBN ISBN (ebook) Library of Congress Control Number: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019, corrected publication 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover photo by Fatih Pinar Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

4 For those unnamed heroes who have dedicated their lives for a just and equal world.

5 Acknowledgements This book would not have come to fruition if it were not for the Gezi Uprisings of 2013 or the ongoing resistance of the people of Turkey against a brutal state and political system. Despite the ever-increasing government authoritarianism and oppression, the democratic struggle in Turkey is very much alive. Every day thousands of people in Turkey including women, students, union workers, socialists, LBGTQ activists, Kurdish liberation movement activists, and Alevis hold meetings, organize panels and rallies, and take courageous steps as part of their democracy struggle. Therefore, it is essential to start acknowledging these people and their families who risk their lives to have a more democratic Turkey. Furthermore, we would not be compelled to start an international dialogue at times of neoliberal authoritarianism among different social movements if it were not for the millions of people fighting against different faces of oppression within spaces including the Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Tahrir Square, Syntagma Square, Indignados, the Kurdish Liberation movement, and many other unheard forms of resistance around the world. We, as editors of this book, have been living abroad for a long time, and after getting so many questions about Turkey we came to realize that there is no book in English which directly gives the perspective of the individuals who struggle for freedom and democracy in Turkey every day. We chose a nontraditional format based on interviews with these brave individuals to reach out to a wider audience, including those readers who might be outside of the usually limited academic boundaries. Emrah and Gaye originally conceptualized and started the book and Esra joined the project toward the end and help it bring to completion. Since we started the book project at the end of 2014, two contributors to this book were arrested for purely political reasons. Our friend and a prominent investigative journalist Ahmet Şık was arrested on December 29, 2016 and is still behind bars in Silivri Prison in Istanbul because of the illogical allegations and charges pressed against him. Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı, a very important human rights defender and forensic doctor, was arrested in June 2016 and spent 10 vii

6 viii Acknowledgements days in prison for supporting a freedom of expression campaign, Guest Editor-in-Chief Campaign for Özgur Gündem daily. Furthermore, Prof. Yüksel Taşkın, Prof. Ahsen Deniz Morva, Prof. Bülent Şık, and Prof. İbrahim Kaboğlu lost their academic positions as part of a bigger purge of hundreds of academics for having signed a Peace Petition asking the government to stop the violence against Kurdish citizens. Most of the academics who took part in this project are signatories of the Peace Petition and are currently being prosecuted with 7.5-year prison charges. Some of the contributors are living in self-imposed exile. We are proud of their courage and for our names to be associated with theirs. It is important to note that in times of fear, it takes courage to talk in public and before an international audience about authoritarianism and resistance. The process for this book was a collective effort from the very first day with no expectation to have any financial gains, so we cannot thank enough to the authors of the book for their contributions, patience, and strong will. We would also like to thank Zeynep Oğuz, Nesi Altaras, İstem Özen, Seda Saluk, and Ahu Sıla Bayer for translating some of the interviews originally given in Turkish. We thank Sofia Arias, Khury Petersen-Smith, Anand Vaidya, Alpana Mehta, and four anonymous readers for commenting on the manuscript and special thanks to Greg Bennetts for editing some of the text and Theresa Truax-Gischler for editing the entire manuscript. We d also like to acknowledge journalist photographer Fatih Pınar for the cover picture. The intellectuals have a strong role in both resistance to and reproduction of the power relations. In the course of Turkish history, intellectuals were specifically targeted by the government and never stopped the resistance. From Sabahattin Ali to Tahir Elçi to Hrant Dink, the history of Turkey can be written based on this resistance. We wanted to make an intellectual contribution to the democracy struggle of Turkey and the world to better understand today s Turkey. Thank you for being a part of our collective project, which we hope will continue with your feedback, thoughts, questions, and essays. Thank you for reading this work. Emrah Altındiş Gaye Özpınar Esra Özyürek

7 Contents Introduction... 1 Esra Özyürek Part I An Overview of History Kemalism and the Republican People s Party (CHP) Baskın Oran interviewed by Krabekir Akkoyulu The 1980 Coup d État Ertuğrul Mavioğlu interviewed by Eylem Delikanlı Historicizing the Gezi Protests Sungur Savran interviewed by Erol Ülker Part II Politics and Economics Turkey s Economy Since the 1980 Military Coup E. Ahmet Tonak interviewed by Ümit Akçay Branding as a Neoliberal Project Aslı Iğsız interviewed by Elif Sarı Urban Transformation in Istanbul Mücella Yapıcı interviewed by Esin İleri Part III Political Islam and the AKP The Justice and Development Party (AKP) Yüksel Taşkın interviewed by Burak Cop The Gülen Community and the AKP Ahmet Şık interviewed by Deniz Çakırer Political Islam in Turkey Hayri Kırbaşoğlu interviewed by Gülay Türkmen ix

8 x Contents Part IV Social Movements The Gezi Revolts Y. Doğan Çetinkaya interviewed by Bilge Seçkin Çetinkaya Women s and Feminist Movements Aksu Bora interviewed by Nil Uzun The LGBTI+ Movement Evren Savcı interviewed by Şebnem Keniş and İpek Tabur The Labor Movement Aziz Çelik interviewed by Emrah Altındiş Environmentalism Bülent Şık interviewed by Cana Ulutaş Part V Minorities and Conflicts The Kurdish Movement Nazan Üstundağ interviewed by Güney Yıldız The Armenian Genocide Lerna Ekmekçioğlu interviewed by Seda Altuğ Alevi Struggles Besim Can Zırh interviewed by Murat Es Part VI Human Rights A Brief Overview of the Legal System in Turkey İbrahim Kaboğlu interviewed by Gaye Özpınar Human Rights Activism Şebnem Korur Fincancı interviewed by Aylin Tekiner Freedom of Expression and the Press in Turkey Fikret İlkiz interviewed by Defne Över State and Civilian Violence Against Dangerous Others Tanıl Bora interviewed by Deniz Yonucu Part VII Culture and Society On Intellectuals and Intellectualism Pınar Selek interviewed by Meral Akbaş Psychology and Social Identity Cem Kaptanoğlu interviewed by Bilal Ersoy

9 Contents xi Turkish Literature Jale Parla interviewed by Mehmet Fatih Uslu and Özge Ertem Turkish Cinema Ahsen Deniz Morva Kablamacı interviewed by Kıvanç Sezer Art Production in Turkey from 1980s to Today Hale Tenger interviewed by Isin Önol Erratum to: State and Civilian Violence Against Dangerous Others... E1 Tanıl Bora interviewed by Deniz Yonucu

10 About the Editors Esra Özyürek is an Associate Professor and the Chair for Contemporary Turkish studies at the European Institute, London School of Economics. She received her B.A. in sociology and political science at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before joining LSE, she taught in the anthropology department at the University of California, San Diego. As a political anthropologist, she seeks to understand how Islam, Christianity, secularism, and nationalism are dynamically positioned in relation to each other in Turkey and in Europe. She is the author of Being German, Becoming Muslim: Race, Religion and Conversion in the New Europe (Princeton University Press, 2014) and Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey (Duke University Press, 2007). She is also the editor of The Politics of Public Memory in Turkey (Syracuse University Press, 2007) and Unuttuklarɩ ve Hatɩrladɩklarɩyla Türkiye nin Toplumsal Hafɩzasɩ (İletişim Yayɩnevi, 2002). Gaye Özpınar is an immigration and human rights lawyer, born and raised in Turkey. She came to the US to study politics at Brandeis University and stayed on to continue her education in law at Suffolk University. While pursuing her studies, she was a student volunteer with the Suffolk Civil Rights Project and the Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union. Through the Political Asylum and Immigration Reform Project, she worked with many torture survivors. She is the past president and a current board member of Bostonbul, a forum of activists that organically came together in Boston in June 2013 as the Gezi protests took place in Turkey. She has given interviews with Turkish dailies such as Agos, T24, and BirGün on human rights issues. She is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Lawyers Guild. In 2015, she was selected as a Rising Star and a Top Female Attorney in Massachusetts by Super Lawyers magazine. xiii

11 xiv About the Editors Emrah Altındiş is an award-winning Medical Scientist at Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA). He received his M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey) and Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Bologna University (Bologna, Italy). He has published several scientific research articles in the fields of microbiology and diabetes. He has been also a human rights activist, and for over a decade wrote political opinion pieces to various Turkish newspapers (Radikal, BirGün, Cumhuriyet), journals (Birikim), and websites (Diken, Bianet), and has given interviews to several media outlets.

12 Abbreviations AKP CHP DİSK DP ECHR HAK-İŞ HDP ISIS KCK KESK Memur-Sen MHP NIA PKK TİP TİSK TÜRK-İŞ WEF Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) Republican People s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti) European Court of Human Rights Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) People s Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi) Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Union of Kurdistan Communities (Koma Civakên Kurdistan) Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) Confederation of Civil Servant Trade Unions (Memur Sendikaları Konfedarasyonu) Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) National Intelligence Agency (Milli Istihbarat Teskilati) Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) Workers Party of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Partisi) Confederation of Turkish Employers Unions (Türkiye İşveren Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türkiye İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) World Economic Forum xv