The limits of neoliberal conservatism: Taksim Square and a new deal in Turkey?

Dimitrios Gkintidis

The Seminar “The limits of neoliberal conservatism: Taksim Square and a new deal in Turkey?” was held on Monday 10 June 2013 at the ESC. The speaker was Kerem Oktem, Open Society Research Fellow at the ESC, and Associate Faculty Member at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. Whit Mason, analyst and Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies, Oxford, took part as a discussant, while the event was chaired by Dimitrios Gkintidis, Leventis Visiting Fellow at SEESOX, ESC.

Kerem Oktem’s captivating presentation was based on a detailed chronological and ethnographic account of the events and protests that followed the violent intervention of police forces against environmentalist protesters in Gezi park, Taksim square, Istanbul. What started as a localized environmental protest against the planned construction of a commercial complex on the site of the Gezi park led to massive protests, in which citizens, social movements, and political forces of various backgrounds took part. The opposition and protest politics soon spread beyond the issue of the Gezi park itself. The slogans and aims of these social protests, that engulf urban youth, artists, left-wing and anti-authoritarian groups, kemalist activists, human rights and LGBT activists, as well as minority political organizations (e.g. Kurdish organizations), raised the issue of a generalized discontent; regarding both the authoritarian shift of the state, under the leadership of the Turkish PM, as well as the introduction of conservative policies, in terms of public practices of sociability (sexuality, alcohol consumption, imposition of religious normative precepts). To a great extent, the discourses enacted within Taksim Square also raised the issue of the limits of the economic liberal project of the last years and the fragile balance between capitalist growth, social consensus, and environmental sustainability, what Kerem Oktem termed as a “neoliberal overstretch”. At the same time, the dynamics of this social mobilization also exceeded the boundaries of Istanbul, since many urban centres in Turkey (Ankara and Izmir being the most prominent ones) witnessed equally important social mobilization and political confrontation, with local variations in terms of police violence, protesters’ reactions, and competing discourses.

The discussion that followed the presentation revealed the fluidity of the current situation; hence the difficulty to position it within a rigid typology of social mobilizations in other settings, either the “Indignados/aganaktismenoi”, the “Arab uprisings”, or the “Occupy” movements. In any case, protests in Turkey seem to bear a radical potential; on the other hand, specific nationalist kemalist overtones within the protests also remind us of the need for a constant critical assessment of any given social process. Furthermore, participants in the seminar were able to debate the implications of the Taksim protests as to the overall configuration of political power in Turkey, from AKP internal politics and the supposed divergence between PM Erdogan and President Gul, to the long-term failure of CHP to consolidate itself into a coherent systemic opposition.

Another recurrent issue was the connection of the ongoing political confrontation with the political and social history of the state and social movements in Turkey. In discussing Kerem Oktem’s presentation, Whit Mason emphasized the particular commonalities that pervade Turkish politics, mostly what he pointed out as the historical lack of an embedded “liberal democracy”. Following this intervention, a short discussion took place, as to whether, given a critical and post-essentialist approach, social agency in any given setting could be solely assigned to a mechanic reproduction of supposed cultural characteristics.