Wandering Istanbul: September 2013

Hello everybody,

Now I have been in İstanbul for a week, but really, my stay here has felt like a month. Orientation, applying for grants and internships has kept me busy. Yet, in between all that, I've found time to reconnect with old friends, many of whom are surprised that I followed up on my promise to return. The view of the Bosphorus, the peaches and tea are as good as I remembered them. Thrift Shop is blaring out from every fifth store. After a basic tour of old İstanbul - Sultanahmet - I'm taking today off to rest and read.

And eat.

Among the places I went to last week was Taksim Square, or the place many of you remember as being at the center of the protests that took place in June. He is a recap of what happened:

As early as April 22 - Earth Day - environmentalists began to protest against a decision reached by a distant municipal council (run by the AK party) to demolish the park in order to make room for a massive shopping and cultural complex. Gezi Park, being one of the few green areas remaining in the heart of İstanbul became a focal point of environmental protest. When the bulldozers came at the end of May, the protestors were there staging a sit-in, setting up camp in Gezi.

Although political opposition and environmental organizations gathered support for the protests, the people most responsible for the enormous scale of the protests were, ironically, the police who came to clear the park of protestors. Their use of tear gas and torches to clear the park was seen on social media sites throughout the Turkey - and the rest of world. By the beginning of June, a protest which started with no more than 60 people, swelled to hundreds of thousands in all of Turkey's major cities.

Through June and into July the size of the protests remained large. According to a local shop owner, it was not until Ramazan (Islamic month of fasting) and the increasing intensity of summer heat that the protests began to diminish. Yet, there are still anti-government demonstrations throughout Turkey. Although many of protests are not primarily focused on Gezi Park, the clashes between demonstrations and local police escalate much more readily than last year. The political scene in Turkey, even at its most calm, has notably intensified. The average size of protests are noticeably larger and the police are more quick to formation and violence. Even in September, every time I come to Taksim square, I quickly examine the situation from the underground metro before taking another step.

Although it is easy enough to identify the perpetrators of this summer's violence, the reason for the enormous scale of the Gezi Park protests, as well as the police and government response, is complex. Doing so requires a very long discussion on the use of violence in Turkish history and an examination of Turkey's social demography. Simply put, my view is that political repression and violence in general are much greater in Turkey than elsewhere, and a large contingent of the public increasingly identifies with victims of violence of diverse backgrounds (Kurds, journalists, secular students). Further exacerbating this is the historical repression pious Muslims (even just simply that) have faced at the hands of authoritarian, secular governments, which is likely one reason the center-right AK party overreacts to peaceful demonstrations.

Whatever the cause, the effects are palpable. Even at secluded Koç University, I can hear students plan protests in the cafeteria. Only yesterday, the manslaughter of a student by police in the distant Hatay province triggered large protests in İstanbul, causing some in my orientation group to avoid their apartments in Taksim. If the tense political climate is not somehow resolved peacefully, violence will ensue. I pray for justice and reconciliation to come soon, but I am pessimistic.

In spite of all that, I cannot emphasize enough how glad I am to be back in Turkey and look forward to understanding and speaking with the Turkish people.