Cemal Burak Tansel — The Gezi Park occupation: confronting authoritarian neoliberalism

On May 28 an impromptu occupation began in Istanbul’s central Gezi Park following the news that the metropolitan municipality had sent bulldozers to demolish the park. The park was doomed as it sits on the pathway of a new urban restructuring programme which included the transformation of the green zone into another superfluous shopping complex.

Largely ignored by the outlets of the corporate press, the news travelled quickly on social media, followed by the appearance of a number of protesters at the scene. Four days since the initial mobilisation, Gezi Park has witnessed a continuous influx of protestors who have organised sit-ins and public talks in a largely carnivalesque atmosphere. On May 30, Al Jazeera reported that ‘unconfirmed reports suggest more than 10,000 people are currently gathered in Taksim’s Gezi Park’. But the increasing number of bodies gathered at the location could not make a dent in the AKP government’s commitment to ‘urban renewal’. On the contrary, the government responded to this unexpected public resistance by repeating a time-honoured act of histrionics in Turkish politics: ignore the public, if that does not work, terrorise them....

...the meteoric rise of the occupation and the subsequent public outrage against the government signifies discontent with a broader trend that underpins the AKP’s reign since 2002: authoritarian neoliberalism. 

Open Democracy
The Gezi Park occupation: confronting authoritarian neoliberalism
Cemal Burak Tansel | PhD candidate in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham and a fellow of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ). His research focuses on the international historical sociology of state formation and capitalist development in the peripheries with particular reference to Turkey.




Pretty much the same as Zucotti, Oakland, etc.