Mirroring the Authoritarian Face of the Power: the Gezi Protests and the AKP Government

Being one of the strongest and largest waves of protest in Turkey, the Gezi protests had a significant impact on the politics of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). It has been argued in some scholarly works that the Gezi protests triggered an authoritarian turn in the government. According to this view, the AKP government was a ‘success story’ particularly during its first two terms in terms of liberalization and democratization of the country, but began adopting authoritarian tendencies since its 2011 electoral victory, which culminated with its responses to the Gezi protests in 2013. This study challenges this standard narrative, which, in fact, has become dominant not only in the scholarly work but also in the national and international journalistic accounts that focus on the Turkish politics. I argue that the Gezi protests did not reveal the authoritarian turn of the AKP government, but simply rendered more visible its ever-present authoritarianism against grassroots mobilizations that pose challenges to its economic policies shaped within the neoliberal frame. Comparing the responses of the AKP government to environmental movements, which unfolded during the first two terms of the AKP in the power, with the one to the Gezi movement, the study demonstrates that the AKP government used almost the same repressive and marginalizing language and practices against all these movements. The anti-democratic stance of the AKP government became particularly evident not in its refusal to meet the demands of these movements, but its refusal to recognize the protesters the right to express their demands. By waging a symbolic struggle against all of these movements through the use of criminalizing and stigmatizing tactics, it portrayed the protesters as ‘enemies’ to the interests of the entire society. Deeming the movements illegitimate, in this way, it tried to repress the movements, to contain and discipline the protesters, and close one of the legitimate political channels for the expression of popular frustrations and demands. I argue that the most significant achievement of the Gezi protests was that it, unlike the previous environmental movements, did not only voice an opposition to the neoliberal policies and practices, but turned to a movement that directly confronted the authoritarianism of the AKP government. As its authoritarian face was exposed, the government increasingly moved away from trying to disguise it, favoring instead the mobilization of the support of its electoral base for the explicit and direct repression of any form of protest.