Rethinking the multiple dynamics of the Gezi Park protests

Abstract

This thesis explores the spatialities, multiplicities and temporalities of protest events, using the 2013 Gezi Park resistance as a case study. The protest started by rescuing a few trees from being cut down. It turned into a national uprising. The thesis sets out to understand the protests, through careful examination of the key protagonists, including the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Gezi activists, as well as the economic, cultural, sociological, and political changes that have shaped the modern secular Turkish state. Given that protests create their own spatialities, multiplicities and temporalities, Gezi protests have made contesting identities visible over the space.
Interviews, participant observation and content analysis of media are used to argue that existing explanations of the Gezi protest are inadequate, because they are either mono-causal or too presentist. In this sense, as distinctive contribution to the literature, this thesis provides a holistic approach to the Gezi protests by examining the event from its own spatialities, multiplicities and temporalities. It concludes that there was not one overarching cause, but rather multiple processes including neoliberalism, secularism, postsecularism and democracy, with different histories and geographies, must be taken into account if we are to understand the Gezi resistance. Ultimately, this thesis argues that more nuanced accounts of protest politics are needed.