Could the Street be a Tool for Authoritarianism? AKP Government and the Street Politics

In his Sociologie Politique du Moyen-Orient (La Découverte, 2011), Hamit Bozarslan mentions how elections serve to legitimise existing political systems and as a tool for authoritarianism. After the demonstrations labelled as “Arab Spring” on one hand, and the government summoned and prompted protests following the 15 July 2016 coup “attempt” in Turkey on the other, we are urged to ask whether street politics also perform this function. Is the authoritarianism in Turkey reinforced through street politics and politics on the street? As in many other countries, street had been the place and repertoire of the left-wing politics (and the Kurdish movement) before July 15th. In other words, the protest knowledge of the left had dominated the street politics in Turkey. The main argument of this paper is that since the coup attempt the street politics is changing hands through the intervention of the government. As the street is becoming an impossibility for the leftists and Kurdish movement, it is now serving as a political arena for the AKP basis and supporters. In a country where election results and party politics is largely right-wing, the “old” frequenters of the street have been altogether excluded from the political life. Based on the data from the media and police archives and ethnographic observations at the protests, this paper aims to show the transformation of the street politics, and this way, to test the hypothesis that the street is becoming a tool for authoritarianism in Turkey.