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Counter-Movement, Space and Politics: How the Saturday Mothers of Turkey Make Enforced Disappearances Visible

  • Meltem Ahiska
Chapter
Part of the Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies book series (PMMS)

Abstract

’What is the contemporary?’ Reflecting on this question Agamben argues that one who is contemporary should actively perceive ‘the darkness of his time as something that concerns him, as something that never ceases to engage him [sic]’ (Agamben, 2009, p.45). The protests that started in late May 2013 in Turkey, now referred to as the Gezi Resistance produced a radical conception of contemporaneity in this respect, as opposed to the concept of contemporaneity much emphasized in the hegemonic discourses of modernization and progress. By creatively engaging with the darkness of its present the event has to a great extent destroyed the closure of history in Turkey. I contend that this has a significant impact on the way we think of politics in relation to time and space.

Keywords

State Violence Forced Migration Military Coup Imperial Formation Hegemonic Discourse 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© Meltem Ahiska 2014

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