Music and the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey (2013)

Introduction: Origins of the Gezi Park Protests

When the mayor of Istanbul declared plans to destroy the historic Gezi Park in the heart of the city in order to build a shopping mall, local people began camping there to prevent heavy equipment vehicles from entering. Following a police attack on the campers, protests spread throughout Turkey, specifically in Ankara and Izmir (Aknur). Although such events have become routine in recent years, the Gezi Park protests were not the usual kind. It was the first time that a large number of people experienced police violence in a major city. And for the first time, people from various ethnic backgrounds, different religious beliefs, and different political views were united as one group in "capuling"—a reference to Prime Minister Erdoğan's belittling characterization of the protestors as "marauders," a term the protestors happily embraced, just as the anti-Clinton crowd in America embraced their characterization as "deplorables" during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.

In Turkey, the capuling crowd agreed on one thing: they had to defend their streets to protect their rights. The crowds drew significant support from across the country and the world, as musicians big and small came to support the cause, with MTV even documenting the event. This paper analyzes how music was involved and used during the Gezi Resistance. First, it summarizes the events that led to the protests. Then, it discusses how musicians like Duman, Bosphorus Jazz Choir, Beduk, and other local and international artists showed their support and responded to the government crackdown. Lastly, it discusses how local people used music in their own "cacerolazo" demonstrations—banging pots and pans in the streets to voice their support for the protest.

Social Media, Music, and the Spread of Resistance

The protests in Gezi Park had been a long time coming. For years, the people of Turkey had been subjected to the ruling party of Prime Minister Erdoğan—the Justice and Development Party, or AKP (Aknur). Erdoğan did not see the protests as an organic movement by the Turkish people in Istanbul: "The ruling elite perceived these protests as a pre-planned uprising targeting Prime Minister Erdoğan that was part of a global conspiracy to overthrow his government" (Aknur 296). The government dismissed them with belittling words, and the police were sent in to disperse the crowds using water cannons and tear gas—yet the people continued to show defiance. They were tired of the AKP and its rulers and did not want their local park turned into a shopping mall. These protestors were "all supported by dense informal networks such as neighborhood platforms, cultural centers and support groups" (Aknur 298).

Social media was used to help spread the resistance (Odag, Ulug, Solak), and all over the country "formal groups such as associations, unions, confederations and political parties also started to participate" (Aknur 298). The protestors adopted the identifying tag applied to them by Erdoğan, and "a music video titled 'Every Day I'm Capulling' was promptly created" sampling LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" (Varol 556). The music video went viral and helped draw international attention to Gezi Park. Gil Kaufman, writing for MTV News in 2015, stated: "There was a time before the Internet when governments could crack down on dissent without the rest of the world finding out. But thanks to smartphones, Twitter and the power of hip-hop it's almost impossible to secretly keep a population down behind closed doors." Indeed, local hip-hop artists, rappers, and musicians of various genres showed their support for the protestors at Gezi Park, illustrating the close ties between music, culture, the people, social media platforms, and political protest.

Turkish Musicians Respond to the Crackdown

The Turkish rock group Duman, for example, composed a song entitled "Eyvallah" in support of the Gezi Park protests and uploaded it to YouTube. This illustrated how, in the 21st century, ruling parties must contend not only with people in their own locales but also with the watching eyes of all those around the world who have access to social media platforms. The video quickly obtained over three million views, drawing a great deal of attention to the movement and inspiring other artists and musicians to get involved. The group would go on to describe in a later song the scene at Gezi as the movement spread around the country, igniting protests aimed at the AKP in multiple cities and squares throughout Turkey.

The local group Bosphorus Jazz Choir joined the protests directly, and one of its members was injured by a tear gas canister that struck him in the head. Şafak Küçüksezer of the choir had to be rushed to the hospital after the incident ("Member of the Bosphorus Jazz Choir Injured"). His injuries were just one of many suffered by protestors as police clashed with demonstrators. The Turkish electropop musician Beduk took up the cause next, composing and recording a song entitled "It's a Riot," which told the story of the protests and the Turkish people's fight for their freedom. Beduk produced a music video for the song and released it that same summer using footage recorded by people in the streets as the protests spread across the country ("Beduk ten Gezi Klibi").

The Turkish rapper Ozbi followed with his own song entitled "Asi," meaning Rebel. The Turkish rock band The Ringo Jets wrote a song they entitled "Spring of War." The band Massive Attack later performed a concert in Istanbul at which they read out the names of victims who died protesting against the AKP that year (Ulkar).

Conclusion

When Prime Minister Erdoğan made his belittling remark about the protestors in Gezi Park, he unleashed a wave of emotion among the Turkish people who objected to the use of force by police on those in Istanbul who wanted to keep their park from being destroyed for the sake of a shopping mall. The people adopted the name he gave them and used it as a badge of honor, just as the "deplorables" did in the West to stand in defiance of candidate Clinton. In Turkey, musicians, hip-hop artists, and rappers articulated their response to the AKP and their support of the protests in musical form. Even the international community lent its voice to the protests. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd performed in Istanbul that summer to show his solidarity and to commemorate the lives of those who died during the Gezi Park protests.

All in all, the protests and the musicians—and even the local people who banged on pots and pans in their own musical cries to be heard—showed that a creative spirit ran through the people of Turkey, and that music was a link shared by a diverse set of people of various backgrounds, ethnicities, affiliations, classes, creeds, and nationalities.

Works Cited

Aknur, Muge. "The Gezi Park Protests as a Social Movement in Turkey: From Emergence to Coalescence without Bureaucratization." Studia Ubb. Europaea, 59(1), 295–320.

"Assault on Gezi Park Sparks Furious Protests." SocialistWorker, 17 June 2013. https://socialistworker.org/2013/06/17/assault-on-gezi-sparks-protests

"Beduk ten Gezi Klibi." Internet Archive, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131010151934/http://video.sozcu.com.tr/2013/video/magazin/bedukten-gezi-klibi.html

Kaufman, Gil. "MTV's 'Rebel Music' Returns with Fiery 'Turkey—Flowers of Gezi Park'." MTV, 30 Apr. 2015. http://www.mtv.com/news/2146552/rebel-music-season-two-turkey-gezi/

"Member of the Bosphorus Jazz Choir Injured." Everywhere Taksim, 16 June 2013. http://everywheretaksim.net/bosphorus-jazz-choir-member-injured-from-his-head/

Odag, Ozen; Ulug, Ozden Melis; Solak, Nevin. "Everyday I'm Capulling: Identity and Collective Action through Social Network Sites in the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey." Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, vol. 28, no. 3, 2016, pp. 148–159.

"Roger Waters Shows Solidarity with Gezi Park Victims." Daily News, 5 Aug. 2013. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/roger-waters-shows-solidarity-with-gezi-park-victims-in-istanbul-concert--52030

Ulkar, Esra. "Massive Attack Soma ve Gezi'yi unutmadi." Radikal, 2014. http://www.radikal.com.tr/hayat/massive-attack-soma-ve-geziyi-unutmadi-1196119/

Varol, Ozan. "Revolutionary Humor." Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, vol. 23, 2014, pp. 555–663.