The Gezi Revolts

Abstract

Until the events of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa were described with words like stagnation, unchanging, subservience, and submission. But after 2010, it became a region that inspired protests worldwide. People began to revisit the history of Middle Eastern social movements, and it became common to assess the current protests in their historical context. The Gezi revolts, too, are a part of this history, in that sense. However, we must differentiate what happened at Gezi Park from political movements and organized social movements. Few spontaneous social upheavals can push state forces to retreat from a public square located at the heart of a country. Hundreds of thousands of people came together for change in the most central location of a country governed by a strong neoliberal government that is itself integrated into a neoliberal world. They also dared to stand up to the police. In that sense, it was an important experience for the western part of the country. Although there have been effective social movements and resistances throughout Turkish history, there are few examples of such a spontaneous social explosion.