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.
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© 2014 Meltem Ahiska
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Ahiska, M. (2014). Counter-Movement, Space and Politics: How the Saturday Mothers of Turkey Make Enforced Disappearances Visible. In: Space and the Memories of Violence. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137380913_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137380913_12
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