Freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be, or what we learned from Gezi Park

Abstract

This discussion seeks to draw out some of the lessons that were learned as a consequence of involvement in the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in the summer of 2013. A key concern is with the relationship between the power politics of the state, on the one hand, and the emancipatory aspirations of the activists involved in the struggle to save Gezi Park from the bulldozers of real-estate capital and from the political ambitions of the ruling party in government. What is emphasised is the growing force of authoritarianism in the contemporary Turkish context. Whilst the protests were eventually defeated by the state’s repressive apparatuses, we can say that there were important lessons about the ideal nature of democratic politics that were learned by the protesting opposition. A central focus of the discussion is on what can be learned through the trajectory of an event. The article contrasts the principles underpinning the nation-state mentality with those that may be produced in the urban space and context.

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