Governmentality and Mobility Paradigms in Taksim Uprising

Introduction

In the morning of May 28, approximately 50 camper-environmentalists in the Taksim Gezi Park woke up to bulldozers and tear gas—the police had been meaning to demolish the park with the former and aimed to keep protestors out of it with the latter (ntvmsnbc). The controversy over the park, which had been pretty much a forgotten green area prior to that date for a few decades, had begun earlier in 2013 when the pedestrianization plan for the Taksim area came into being. Within this project, the park was to be destructed and an old Ottoman military barracks (Topçu Kışlası) was to be built in its place.

Topçu Kışlası had been demolished in 1940 as part of the re-planning of the urban area of Istanbul with the encouragement of the municipality and under the leadership of the French architect Henri Prost. The space re-emerged as a park in 1942 with the name Inönü Gezisi (Inonu Promenade), named after Turkey’s “National Chief” at the time. (Korucu)

The protests, which started out as a pacific environmental demonstration by a small group, turned into a massive political upheaval in the country within a matter of hours in the following three days. The main spaces they emerged in were the urban metropolitan areas of Istanbul (primarily) and Ankara, however they were soon spread to smaller towns and different regions. It is estimated that around 2.5 million people participated in the demonstrations all over the country; around 5000 were taken into custody, 4000 civilians and 600 policemen were wounded (Şardan). The protests were marked by the excessive use of force and violence, along with tear gas, by the police; and the active use of social media by the participating youth for information circulation mainly due to silence of the mainstream media about the events. The ruling party’s non-cooperative and authoritarian behavior, and Taksim Solidarity’s refusal of concessions in an environment where public solicitation is not met by the government; which further...