In the wake of the brutal evacuation of Gezi Park
on PM Erdoğan’s orders, members of GIT working group continue to direct the
spotlight on AKP government’s violent reaction to expressions of dissent.
Jeffrey Gibbs debunks facile reports of Gezi
Resistance and gives an account of the brutal police attack on June 15 in the
Boston Review. Aslı Iğsız traces the
connections between the repression of Gezi and Erdoğan government’s
long-standing policies curtailing the freedoms of students, faculty and academic institutions in
her overview in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Below GIT North America also presents the English
translation of the statement “Erdoğan’s Autocratic Vertigo” our colleagues in
GIT France published in Libération.
Erdoğan’s Autocratic
Vertigo
The night of June 15, 2013, when the police showed a raging violence
against the many peaceful demonstrators in Istanbul,
will go down in Turkey’s
history as a tragic tipping point. The repeated scenes of tear gas clouds, thousands
injured and numerous arrests, have now been added to recent law violations that
would not be tolerated in a state of war: the bombardment of gas in enclosed
spaces, such as private apartments and tourist hotels; hospitals and mobile
medical centers attacked, in addition to injured and arrested doctors;
journalists harassed; and many reported cases of skin burns following the use
of chemical agents in water cannons.
Along with this massive and systematic state violence, peaceful
demonstrations were threatened by armed supporters of the AKP party who engaged
in street-fighting, thereby establishing an atmosphere of civil war in the most
central districts of Istanbul.
And yet, for 19 days, Gezi Park showed a remarkable experience of democracy
where civil society was present in all its variety: organizations of architects
and planners who were early opposers of the devastating urban politics of Prime
Minister Erdoğan and the mayor of Istanbul rubbed shoulders with student
associations, feminists, as well as working class people in the neighborhoods
threatened with destruction. It is false to claim, as some press correspondents
have done, that this large, unprecedented response by such a multitude of
people is only a revolt of Kemalist and extreme nationalist groups, despite the
fact that numerous opposition groups joined the cause.
Rather than hearing the citizens’ protest – a plea to participate in
decisions regarding their space and way of life and a rejection of the
government’s increasingly authoritarian way of ruling – Erdogan chose to
disregard them and to force their hand. Since its last term, the AKP has continued
to attack the scope of individual and social freedoms, and the Prime Minister has
preferred to engage in provocation by calling the protesters thugs, drunks and
terrorists. However, the civil society has established for weeks its
indignation at the recurring violations of its rights: Gezi
Park was the breaking point after a
long period during which the citizens of Turkey have felt ignored, scorned and
attacked by the current government with its Prime Minister at the head. Political
demonstrations, especially the celebration of May 1st, were prohibited in
Taksim Square under the pretext of renovation work, mass arrests have been
carried out in order to criminalize any kind of opposition, the Uludere and
Reyhanlı massacres have not been elucidated, major civil rights have been
questioned (including the right to abortion), multiple damage to the
environment, culture and diversity of lifestyle choices have created an
atmosphere of legitimate indignation.
In a rejection of this climate of repression, the citizens of Turkey,
unarmed, came out massively in the streets and confronted armored police. In
response to the government’s reaction to this event, we ask: How does one
legitimize a government who has launched in a period of two weeks more than 150,000
gas grenades on its own people, injuring more than 5,000 of them and killing at
least three, and who is now stating that any demonstrator found in the Taksim
Square will be held as a terrorist - as announced by Mr Egemen Bağış, Minister
for European Affairs? How is a government legitimate with a new bill proposing
to extend the scope of the secret services who are already authorized to make
arrests without court approval, while the same government boasted about having
removed the army’s security privileges? How does one continue to accept as a
legitimate partner a government that openly declares that it no longer
recognizes the decisions of the European Parliament and no longer complies with
the international treaties it has signed? What kind of democracy exists in a
country where the media are forced into silence – where journalists are fired or
driven to self-censorship for fear of losing their jobs, and the Turkish people
are forced to watch international news channels to monitor events taking place
in their own country? In what lawful country do the police arrest lawyers protesting
peacefully inside the courthouse and take into custody doctors treating men and
women injured in clashes with the police? What legitimacy can this government still
have when on Sunday, June 16, it prevents by extreme force the gathering of
protesters in Taksim, while the mayor of Istanbul
massively mobilizes free transport to get AKP supporters to the meeting of their
leader?
Because of Erdoğan’s paranoia, where he sees foreign spies and
international conspiracies wherever his people peacefully defend their rights (for
example: the claim that beer vendors, Erasmus students, “International Finance”,
the “Jewish lobby” and the Western media disseminating information on police
violence, are all responsible for organizing the protests of hundreds of
thousands of people) – the international community must act now. The government
of Prime Minister Erdoğan loses legitimacy in every manifestation of police
violence and in every violation of international conventions or treaties. All
friends of a free and democratic Turkey
must work alongside this country’s civil society so that Erdoğan’s vertiginous
autocracy does not create another dictatorship in the Middle
East.
Deniz Akagul, maître de
conférences à l’Université de Lille ; Salih
Akın, maître de conférences à l’Université de Rouen ; Samim Akgönül, maître de conférences à
l’Université de Strasbourg ; Marc
Aymes, chargé de cherchées au CNRS ; Faruk Bilici, professeur à l’INALCO ; Isabelle Backouche, maître de conférences à l’EHESS ; Hamit Bozarslan, directeur d’études à
l’EHESS ; Etienne Copeaux,
historien de Turquie ; Dominique
Colas, professeur à l’IEP de Paris ; Pierre Dardot, philosophe ; Yves Déloye, professeur à l’Université Paris 1 ; Vincent Duclert, chercheur à l’EHESS
(CESPRA) ; François Georgeon,
directeur de recherches au CNRS ; Béatrice
Giblin, professeure à l’Université Paris 8 ; Diana Gonzalez, enseignante au Science-Po Paris ; Ragip Ege, professeur à l’Université de
Strasbourg ; Jean-Louis Fabiani,
directeur d’études à l’EHESS ; Dalita
Hacyan, maître de conférences à l’Université de Paris 1 ; Yasemin Inceoğlu, professeure à l’Université
de Galatasaray; Christian Laval, professeur
à l’Université Paris Ouest Nanterre ;
Monique de Saint-Martin,
directrice d’études à l’EHESS ; Emine
Sarikartal, éditrice ; Nora
Seni, professeur à l’Université Paris 8 ; Hélène Piralian, psychanalyste ; Alican Tayla, chercheur à l’IRIS ; Ferhat Taylan, directeur de programme au CIPH ; Sezin Topçu, chargée de recherche au
CNRS ; Murat Yıldızoğlu,
professeur à l’Université de Bordeaux.
