Trick or Treat? Turkey's Revolutionary Conundrum

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;" 

- William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Trick or Treat? 

Turkey's Revolutionary Conundrum

The current uprisings in Turkey have been characterized by many as being a clash between the pro-Islamic social conservative forces led by Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the secular demands of the urban Turkish population.

To characterize the current struggles in this dichotomy, however is extremely dangerous. Not only it reinforces a western orientalist perception that followers of Islam as being inherently irrational and despotic, but also simplifies the issue while failing to address the greater, complex, and more fundamental flaws with the Turkish political landscape. Although resistance against the social conservative and Islamic-inspired policies or Tayyip Erdogan have been influential in adding to the outrage of the current protesters and the general public, and which portrays the current government as an exceptionally authoritarian, limiting oneself to this rhetoric provides only an incomplete narrative. 

The current AKP government is, in fact, the latest expression of a long tradition of authoritarian and patriarchal regimes which have been at the rule of the country since the establishment of a secular Turkish republic by Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Similarly, it could be said that the protests are not new in their expression of discontent against this tradition, and the violence with which the Turkish government has attempted to quell the protests is also not a new phenomenon, but represents a familiar policy of suppression and oppression of those groups, whatever their political and religious affiliation, which threaten the authority of the state and the government. In fact the protests are not, at their core, a conflict about Islam vs. Secularism, but a categorical refusal of a patriarchal and exclusionary system of governance. The Islamization policies of Tayyip Erdogan have simply been, for many, the spark that ignited the kindle of discontent.

The Demographics of the Protests 

One of the most impressive aspects of the Taksim/Gezi protests and their nationwide expression is the wide variety of demographics and political affiliations which compose the protesting groups. Starting with environmentalists, who were the ones who initially refused to allow the trees of Gezi Park to be cut down for the gentrification process of the area, the expression of discontent with the current government has galvanized and involved socialists, communists, anarchists, LGBT, anti-capitalist muslims, kemalists and many others in a wide constellation of political interests with one common line - the erosion of power of the AKP. The motives behind this erosion however differ from group to group: while the kemalists are simply utilizing the protests to discredit and weaken their greatest political adversary for the benefit of the Republican Party (CHP), other interests are more reformists in advocating change within the current political system, and the more radical ones (comprising a large part of the protesters) instead are eager for a complete dismantlement of what they percieve as an inherently unjust and unbalanced system in favour of a more inclusive and participatory socio-political arrangement.

It must be noted that Turkey's current pseudo-"democracy" in fact is quite exclusionary. Numerous laws prevent the establishment and consolidation of interest groups and parties which do not fall within the CHP and the AKP, and which prevents minority groups and interests to have an voice in the determination of the affairs of the nation. Most notoriously, a law which prevents the consolidation of any party without a minimum of 10% prevalence within the population has come under particular scrutiny, as it effectively prevents smaller parties and minorities from entering the political arena, and for the popularization of their ideals.

Within the extremely restricted spaces offered by the current Turkish political system it is not surprising that many of the smaller and more radical groups involved in the struggles have adopted the only pragmatic (and ideological) stance that would allow for that freedom to be expressed - a complete dismantlement of the system and its reconstruction into a participatory democratic process. The point upon which many of the involved protesters, groups, and political ideologies differ however is how to achieve such a feat. 

Alternative Governance

Following ninety years of iron-fist military rule which resulted in three coups (in 1960, 1971, and 1980), and a decade of oppressive AKP rule, the urban Turkish population has realized that there is little hope for genuine democratic participation in a system that is inherently flawed and, for the first time in Turkish history, the masses are questioning how to organize themselves to provide viable and alternative way of expressing their hunger for democratic participation.

How would one envision the socio-political arrangements of post-revolutionary Turkey? The foundations of these arrangements have already been laid in the establishment of the over seventy-two popular forums which are scattered across the country and are present in almost every major urban centre in the nation. Although locally focused, these already existing participatory democratic structures could quite easily be expanded to provide a national framework of decision-making similar to that of the people's congresses which, until the disastrous NATO operation which culminated in 2011, ruled the nation of Libya, or to the neighbourhood Centres of the Revolution (Centros de la Revolucion - CDR) in Cuba. The main difference between such examples and the Turkish popular Forums, is that the latter do answer to a central governing body.

At this moment, the Forums are only dealing with issues related to the current struggles and protests, but have the ability to be much more. It should be taken for granted that the more established political interests will not allow such a governance system to cement itself in the mainstream institutional political arena, and it is unrealistic to expect those same interests to magically and spontaneously adopt such a system themselves. What is prossible is that, should their existence and support endure, these forums could establish an alternative and parallel system of governance that could, in time, erode the legitimacy of the centralized institutionalized government and the parties affiliated with it. That is to say that little by little, step by step, and with the strong support of the population these forums could expand their decision-making authority to a wider variety of issues, and eventually set up their own "governmental" apparatus. The more such legitimized and popular authority grows, the more that of the established institutions is eroded. Entire areas of the large urban centres could be effectively become self-managing communes under the control of the protesters where decisions about their affairs are decided in the forums.

In order for such a grand democratic project to be successful however, the Forums must seek to expand their influence and support not only amongst those already convinced of their utility, but to those who may even currently be contrary to it, and other marginalized and dispossessed segments of society. The leftist revolutionary movements have the possibility to benefit from the outrage of those who don't necessarily agree with their ideological line to advance their struggles and attempt to coax those opposing voices into their own ideological sphere through this democratic process. At the same time, such groups have to be careful not to compromise upon their demands and ideology for the sake or garnering support from those who still adhere to an institutionalized conception of governance. 

Although seemingly far fetched, the protests have already had similar effects. Through a common line of discontent, groups and individuals who never stood in solidarity with each other, and thus were mutually antagonistic,  had the chance to interact for the first time. This interaction between marginalized as well as more mainstream groups has profoundly affected the perceptions of those involved in the struggles, as they learnt to view those groups as other humans with something in common, rather than "others". This has been largely the case for the Kurdish minorities, as well as the LGBT population whose acceptance amongst the protesters (despite initial hesitations) is now almost unconditional.

The Role of Unions

Despite the relatively weak positioning of worker's unions in the Turkish political landscape, their participation in the nationwide protests has been instrumental. In Taksim, union workers were the first to "teach" the younger and less experienced protesters how to build effective barricades against the police's armoured vehicles. As a protester whom I met mentioned

"First when there were only environmentalists it was ok, but you know, we were just sitting around and passively resisting arrests, and it wasn't working. When the workers and the football team supporters started to come down, they knew what they were doing! Hahaha. You see those fences [pointing]? They could dismantle them in just a minute, and bring them over and create barricades against the police. And that's when we really started putting up a resistance..."

Despite this initial sign of support, unfortunately, there has been little subsequent and explicit interaction between the bulk of the protesters and the worker's unions. In order to put real pressure on the government, however, this relationship must be revitalized and capitalized upon.

What it Means to be LGBTI in Istanbul - Experiences at Kadiköy Forum

The uprisings in Turkey have had many repercussions, but one of the most impressive and potentially long lasting effects it may achieve is the creation of a feeling of solidarity among the marginalized social and political groups. Through a common line of discontent, groups and individuals who never stood in solidarity with each other, and thus were mutually antagonistic, had the chance to interact for the first time. This interaction between marginalized as well as more mainstream groups has profoundly affected the perceptions of those involved in the struggles, as they learnt to view those groups as other humans with something in common, rather than “others”. This has been largely the case for the Kurdish minorities, as well as the LGBTI population whose acceptance amongst the protesters (despite initial hesitations) is now almost unconditional.

Despite this, the LGBTI movement in Turkey is far from being accepted in the mainstream social and political discourse and LGBTI persons still face enormous prejudice in society at large. In effect, by European standards, the movement is still in it infancy, having only officially begun in 1993 with the establishment of Lambda Istanbul, the first LGBTI organization in Turkey, and having only made baby steps until the past couple of years. Since then, there have been numerous small but fast-growing Pride parades – starting with a mere 30 people in the first parade in 2003, and eventually growing to 5,000 participants in 2010, tripling to 15,000 in both 2011 and 2012 supported by the BDP (Kurdish) and CHP (Kemalist republican) parties, and culminating with an estimated 100,000 attendees in 2013 as the pride parades were joined by the Gezi Park protesters.

Istanbul Pride 2013.
Photo Credit: Everen Kalinbacak 

The Forums that have been establisher across the country, however, are making enormous effort to educate the Turkish public at large about the struggle of LGBTI persons. I recently attended an expression of such effort in the public forum of Kadiköy in the form of a public forum and workshop. People of all ages and social and political denominations attended the event in Yogurtçu Park, attracting the attention of many heterosexual families and citizens nearby, who eagerly stopped to listen. I witnessed people with bags full of groceries stop and listen on they way back from their shopping, and ambulant vendor disinterestedly leave their stalls to pay attention to the workshop.

A passing-by shopper stops to take listen
to the public speakers of the workshop.

One of the most striking aspects of the workshop was how eager and open the attendees were to share their views, and yes, their fears and preconceptions, in public for them to be confronted and deconstructed. Even the event moderator was moved by the eagerness of all present to share their opinions and experiences, and at how open the meeting was. “This could not have happened a few months ago” she mentioned, alluding to the act of re-taking the public spaces by the public to engage in serious and seriously needed social and political commentary. “This should have happened ten years ago”, mentioned one of the older ambulant sellers in the park, who had abandoned his bread nearby to take part in the workshop.

Another striking aspect was however, from a European perspective, was how basic (however, incredibly honest) the conversations were. The workshop began with the moderator asking the attendees whether they believed that homosexuality was an illness or a psychological dysfunction, and addressing the responses. She made mention that the American Psychiatric Organization had declared homosexuality not to be a psychological dysfunction in the 70s, and the World Health Organization had followed suit in the 80s declaring that it was not an illness. The workshop proceeded with both heterosexuals and LGBTIs sharing their thoughts and experiences.

“I have no problems with homosexuals, but when I see a transgendered person, I am bothered and annoyed” one of the attendees honestly admitted, eager to be educated on the source of his prejudice and how to overcome it. Many people, in fact, stated that they had overcome their preconceptions thanks in large part to friends who had come out as homosexuals, but that when friends came out as transgendered, they didn’t know how to relate to them in their “new” gender. “The different attitudes towards the different genders, the dualistic gender perception and roles, as well as gender relations is indeed part of the problem”, was stated by one of the attendees. Furthermore, it was pointed out that transgendered suffer from disproportionate discrimination, even by homosexuals themselves, who see their sexual disposition as natural, but consider transgenderism as a non-natural perversion.

Finally, many of the homosexual people present spoke out about their decision to come out and the repercussions that they experienced. “I came out six months ago;” says a young woman, “and since then my father has been writing suicide letters”. Others also capitalized on both the negative and positive aspects of “coming out” publicly. Often, they insisted, it results in ostracism both by the community at large as well as the LGBT community which hasn't “come out” yet, due to fear of being associated with that person. On the other hand, the act of coming out, especially to one’s parent and friends, proved to be an asset when being the victims of hate crimes. One attendee in particular capitalized on this: “I was once attacked by a man on a motorbike for being gay. When I went to the police station to report the crime, I realized that because I hadn't come out I had nobody to help me and support me. I ended up not reporting the crime out of fear that, alone, doing so would have made the situation worse, and I could have suffered abuse by the police itself”.

The attendees were so eager to share their experiences, that the workshop went on much longer than expected, and prevented the timely screening of the film “My Child” by Turkish director Can Candan and intended to document the reactions and attitudes of parents of LGBTI persons in Turkey. Indeed this was prevalent topic also in the discussion – many of such parents, members of an organization for parents of LGBTIs in Istanbul, attended the workshop and spoke out. Many stated that they “came out” as parents of LGBTIs with their children, to support them in their choice, while others admitted that their process of acceptance had been much more tortuous. All of them however expressed the same sentiment: “You shouldn’t treat your child as a son, or as a daughter, but simply as your child, period. Don’t try to change your children, but accept them and support them for who they are.”

Feminist Protests in Istanbul

On the night of September 24th, a group of very brave (and very loud) Turkish women of all ages and political denominations took the street to condemn the patriarchal government of Tayyip Erdogan.

They took the streets to protest the social-conservative policies of the AKP government which is eroding their human and women's rights, including access to abortion.

They took the streets to protest the illegal and intimidatory practice by the police to strip-search naked the women who are detained for taking part in the demonstrations.

They took the streets to refuse the traditional gender roles that would see them staying home, cooking, and having three babies (Erdogan has suggested that couples should have at least three babies).

They took the streets to protest the rape and sexual abuse suffered by women and carried out by the Police (a 16 year old girl was raped by six policemen in a police van after being arrested a week prior - not the sole incident). 

I don't often cite Amnesty International as I believe them to have a political agenda very tightly linked to that of imperialist nations. However, in a recent report they have released on the Gezi Park and related protests, substantial evidence was disclosed about the verbal and physical sexual harassment against women by law enforcement officers and the testimonies of (not the only) two victims. 

Being the ONLY man actually in the protest (except for the the mostly-male press that was filming and photographing and two guys following the protest from the sidewalk) felt strange, but very natural. It was also a very refreshing sight to see the residents of Kadiköy applaud the efforts of these women, and spontaneously joining the protest which grew from about 120 to 200 people as we marched through the Moda district.

They stopped traffic on the busiest road of Kadiköy and towards the end, the situation got very tense when the women confronted the police face to face screaming "Katil Polis!" (Police, assassins!). The Press placed itself between the police and the protesters as a buffer to protect the women from eventual attack by the "law enforcement" officers, which luckily never came.

Erdogan has seriously chosen the wrong generation and the wrong women to fuck with.