Occupy Gezi: History, Politics, Practice

110. Resistanbul

Taksim Barracks (as stadium) c1930s

For over a week now, Istanbul and increasingly city centers in many parts of Turkey have witnessed the rise of an unprecedented protest movement variously referred to as Occupy Gezi or Resistanbul. Western media has been quick to herald another Arab Spring-type revolutionary event in the Muslim world while the Turkish government and media have largely downplayed the significant of these events. In this podcast, we will try to take a closer look at the nature of these protests, which began as an occupation of a park slated for destruction and are now something much more, considering the historical and political contexts as well as providing a first-hand description of what protests both in and outside of Istanbul look like.

Part One: Urban Transformation and Politics: the historical context and development of Occupy Gezi

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In part one of this podcast, we discuss the history of the Taksim area and Gezi Parkı in particular, focusing on the role of this space and its transformation in Turkish politics from the late Ottoman period onward. We then examine the wider political context of resistance to current government policies and the growth of the latest protest movement in Turkey.

Part Two: Occupying Space: political discontent in the twenty first century

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In part two of this podcast, we examine the anatomy of the Occupy Gezi movement and some aspects of its spread into different parts of Turkey and discuss possible implications of these protests within the wider context of Turkish politics as well as seemingly similar "leaderless revolutions" that coalesce around social media activity and the occupation of public space around the world.

Nilay Özlü is a PhD student at Boğaziçi University researching the urban transformation of Istanbul (see academia.edu)
Stefan Martens is a contributor at Hurriyet Daily News
Nir Shafir is a PhD candidate at UCLA studying Ottoman intellectual history (see academia.edu)
Elçin Arabacı is a PhD candidate at Georgetown Unversity focusing on the transformation of civil society in the late Ottoman period (see academia.edu)
Emrah Safa Gürkan is an Assistant Professor at 29 Mayıs University whose research focuses on the early modern Mediterranean (academia.edu)
Chris Gratien is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Georgetown University (see academia.edu)

USEFUL LINKS

Ötekilerin Postası

Occupy Gezi

Gezi Radyo
YouTube

Bülent Journal

History of Taksim

Emily Neumeier, "Taksim Through Time," Stambouline (May 30, 2013)
Nick Danforth, "Pervititich Maps," Afternoon Map (March 7, 2013)

Media coverage

Elif Batuman, "Occupy Gezi," The New Yorker (June 1, 2013)

Cihan Tuğal, "Occupy Gezi: The Limits of Turkey’s Neoliberal Success," Jadaliyya (June 4, 2013)
Kerem Öktem, "Contours of a New Republic and Signals from the Past: How to Understand Taksim Square," Jadaliyya (June 7, 2013)

Elif Shafak, "The view from Taksim," Guardian (June 3, 2013)

Soner Cagaptay, The Middle Class Strikes Back," New York Times (June 5, 2013)

"The new young Turks," The Economist (June 8, 2013)

Paul Mason, "Will gas canisters or yoga prevail in Turkish spring?" BBC (June 8, 2013)

AP, "A snapshot of protesters who have gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square," Washington Post (June 8, 2013)
"Six Turkish policemen commit suicide during Gezi protests, union head says," Hurriyet Daily News (June 9, 2013)
Hüseyin İstemil, Survey Regarding Gezi Park Protests, Taraf (June 6, 2013)
Timur Hammond and Elizabeth Angell, "Is Everywhere Taksim?" Jadaliyya (June 9, 2013)

IMAGES

Postcard Displaying Taksim Barracks (Topçu Kışlası) c1911

Pevitich Insurance Map Depiction of Gezi Parkı (c1945)

Sign Reads "Park Not Barracks" (May 29, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Protest Organization, Gezi Parkı (May 29, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

United Metalwork Syndicate (May 30, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Protest signs: sign on the left reads "Recep, give me a kiss" (May 30, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Lemons for fighting effects of tear gas used to spell out T.C. (Türk Cumhuriyeti - Turkish Republic)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Police Use Gas at Protest in Gezi Parkı (May 31, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Taksim Square (June 3, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Demonstrations in Gümüşsuyu, Istanbul (June 3, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Ataturk statue in Taksim Square (June 5, 2013)
Photograph by Chris Gratien

Protesters build barricade in Antakya (Hatay), Turkey (June 1, 2013)
Photograph by Chris Gratien

Demonstration in Uğur Mumcu Square in Antakya (June 1, 2013)
Photograph by Chris Gratien

Demonstration in Heykel Square in Bursa, Turkey (June 1, 2013)
Photograph by Elçin Arabacı

Demonstrations in Barış Park in Mersin, Turkey (June 3, 2013)
Photograph by Chris Gratien

Graffiti in Taksim area (June 4, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Supplies arrive in Gezi Parkı (June 4, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Needed supplies (June 4, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Food donation tent in Gezi Parkı (June 4, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Protester sitting in captured bus (June 6, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

Gezi Park Library (June 6, 2013)
Photograph by Nilay Özlü

MUSIC

Boğaziçi University Jazz Choir - Çapulcu musun Vay Vay
Kardeş Türküler - Tencere Tava Havası
Oğuzhan Uğur - Birinci Vazife
Duman - Eyvallah

Osmanlı'da Siyasal Ağlar // Güneş Işıksel

109.      Sokollu Mehmed Paşa Klanı

Her ne kadar modern tarihyazımı tarafından bir meritokrasi olarak tanımlansa da Osmanlı İmparatorluğu adam kayırmacılıktan ve akrabalık ilişkileri etrafında örgütlenen siyasi ağlardan muaf değildi. Bu podcastimizde Dr. Güneş Işıksel, genelde Osmanlı siyasi tarihyazımının ihmal ettiği kapı, hizip ve çıkar grubu gibi kavramlar etrafında 16. yüzyıl'ın ve belki de Osmanlı tarihinin en muktedir vezirlerinden birinin nasıl akrabalarını Osmanlı devletinde kritik noktalara yerleştirdiğini anlatıyor. Sokollu ve ailesinin siyasi kariyeri üzerine odaklanarak, devlet ile devleti oluşturan görevlilerin oluşturduğu hiziplerin çıkarlarının aynı olmadığının altını çizmekle kalmıyor, aynı zamanda devşirme sisteminin sanıldığı gibi ailesiyle bağlarını kaybetmiş, tamamen Sultan'a bağlı, geçmişsiz bir idareci sınıfı yaratamadığını da öne sürüyor.

In this episode, Güneş Işıksel discusses the role of households in Ottoman politics, focusing on the political and social networks surrounding Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, a devshirme recruit who rose to the ranks of Grand Vizier during the reign of Süleyman, Selim II, and Murad III (podcast is in Turkish).


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Yeniçağ Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Diplomasi Tarihi üzerine uzmanlaşan Dr. Güneş Işıksel Collège de France ve Paris-Sorbonne Üniversitesi'nde (Paris IV) doktora sonrası çalışmalarını yürütmektedir. (see academia.edu)

Yeniçağ Akdeniz ve Osmanlı İmparatorluğu üzerine uzmanlaşan Dr. Emrah Safa Gürkan İstanbul 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi'nde öğretim üyeliği yapmaktadır. (see academia.edu)

SEÇME KAYNAKÇA

Gilles Veinstein, "Sokollu" Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. IX, 735-742.

Gyula Kaldy-Nagy, "Budin Beylerbeyi Mustafa Paşa (1566-1578)," Belleten, 54/210 (1990): 649-663.

Uroš Dakić, “The Sokollu Family Clan and the Politics of Vizierial Households in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century” (Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Central European University, 2012).

Rifa’at Ali Abou-El-Haj, “The Ottoman Vezir and Paşa Households: 1683-1703: A Preliminary Report”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 94/4 (1974): 438-447.

Yasemin Metin, "Budin Paşalarının Macarca Yazışmaları Ilk Bölüm (1553-1578)" (Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Ankara Üniversitesi, 2004)

Yasemin Altaylı, « Macarca Mektuplarıyla Budin Beylerbeyi Sokollu Mustafa Paşa (1566-1587), Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi, 49/2 (2009): 157-171. 

Gustave Bayerle, Ottoman Diplomacy in Hungary: Letters from the Pashas of Buda, 1590-1593 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972).

Feridun Emecen, “Osmanlı Hanedanına Alternatif Arayışları Üzerine Bazı Örnekler ve Mülahazalar, İslam Araştırmaları Dergisi, 6 (2001): 63-76.

Metin Kunt, “Sultan, Dynasty and State in the Ottoman Empire: Political Institutions in the 16^th century,” The Medieval History journal / Special Issue on Tributary Empires, 6/2 (November 2003): 217-230.

Metin Kunt, “Ethnic-Regional (Cins) Solidarity in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Establishment”, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 5/3 (1974): 233-239.

Dragomans and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe / Emrah Safa Gürkan

108.     Traduttore, Traditore!

The Persian Envoy Mirza Mohammed Reza Qazvini at
Finkenstein Castle (Francois Mulard, 1807)

In Ottoman Istanbul, diplomatic and commercial relations were often mediated through a group of interpreters known as dragomans whose role frequently extended well beyond their linguistic function. In this podcast, Emrah Safa Gürkan discusses the emergence of dragomans within the Ottoman context, their role in the Ottoman capital, and the influence of the use of interpreters more broadly among European states.

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Emrah Safa Gürkan is an Assistant Professor at İstanbul 29 Mayıs University. His work focuses on early modern Mediterranean and Ottoman History. (see academia.edu)

Chris Gratien is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Georgetown University. (see academia.edu)

Citation: "Empire in Translation: Dragomans and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Mediterranean," Emrah Safa Gürkan and Chris Gratien, Ottoman History Podcast, No. 108 (May 24, 2013) http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2013/05/dragomans.html

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY


E. Natalie Rothman, Brokering Empire: Trans-Imperial Subjects between Venice and Istanbul (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012).

E. Natalie Rothman, “Visualizing a Space of Encounter: Intimacy, Alterity and Trans-Imperial Perspective in an Ottoman-Venetian Miniature Album,” The Journal of Ottoman Studies, XL (2012): 39-80.

E. Natalie Rothman, “Interpreting Dragomans: Boundaries and Crossings in the Early Modern Mediterranean”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 51, 4 (October 2009): 771-800.

Christian Luca, “Il bailaggio veneto di Costantinopoli nel Cinque-Seicento: i dragomanni provenienti dalle famiglie Bruti, Borissi, Grillo,” in Dacoromano-Italica: Studie e ricerche sui rapporti italo-romeni nei secoli XVI-XVIII (Cluj-Napolca:Accademia Romena, Centro di Studi Transilvani, 2008), 105-128.

Alexander H. Groot, “Dragomans’ Careers: The Change of Status in Some Families Connected with the British and Dutch Embassies at Istanbul, 1785-1829,” in Friends and Rivals in the East: Studies in Anglo-Dutch Relations in the Levant from the Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth Century, eds. Alastair Hamilton, Alexander H. de Groot, Maurits van den Boogert (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 223-246.

Alexander H. Groot, “The Dragomans in the Embassies at Istanbul, 1785-1834,” in Eastward Bound: Dutch Ventures and Adventures in the Middle East, eds. Geert van Gelder and Ed de Moor (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994), 130-158.

Francesca Lucchetta, “La scuola dei “giovani di lingua” veneti nei secoli XVI e XVII”, Quaderni di studi arabici, 7 (1989): 19-40.

G. Paladino, “Due dragomanni veneti a Costantinopoli,” Nuovo Archivio Veneto 33 (1917): 183-200.
Marie de Testa and Antoine Gautier, “Les drogmans au service de la France au Levant,” Revue d’histoire diplomatique 105 (1991): 7-101.

G. R. Berridge, “Notes on the Origins of the Diplomatic Corps: Constantinople in the 1620s”, Discussion Papers in Diplomacy, 92 (May 2004): 1-20.

Türkiye'de Tarih Öğretimi / Emrah Yıldız

107.   Nasıl Öğretiliyor ve Ne Eksik?

Her ne kadar akademik tarihyazımında azımsanamayacak bir çeşitlilik göze çarpsa da, Türkiye'de tarih öğretimi milli ideolojinin çerçevesinin dışına çıkmayı başaramamıştır. Bu bölümümüzde Emrah Yıldız, 50 üniversitenin ders programını incelediği çalışmasının sonuçları doğrultusunda Türkiye'de tarih öğretimi konusunda yapılan hatalardan bahsedip çesitli savlar öne sürmektedir. 

Despite diverse historiographical developments that have changed the way historians understand history, in the realm of education, history is still largely discussed within a nationalist framework. In this episode, Emrah Yıldız critiques this nationalist approach to history and explores the results of a study that examined the topics and content of course offerings at 50 Turkish universities (podcast is in Turkish).

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Osmanlı tarihçiliği üzerine çalışan Emrah Yıldız Mersin Üniversitesi'nde doktorasını yapmaktadır. (bknz. academia.edu)

Harika Zöhre Mersin Üniversitesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Anabilim Dalı araştırma görevlisidir. (bknz. academia.edu)

Yakınçağ Orta Doğu Tarihi çalışan Chris Gratien Georgetown Üniversitesi'nde doktora yapmaktadır.   (bknz. academia.edu)

SEÇME KAYNAKÇA

Harika Zöhre and Emrah Yıldız
Mersin University, May 2013

Cumhuriyet Döneminde Türkiye'de Tarihçilik ve Tarih Yayıncılığı Sempozyumu, Bildiriler, (Edt. Mehmet Öz), TTK Yayınları, Ankara, 2011

İlhan Tekeli, Tarih Bilinci ve Gençlik: Karşılaştırmalı Avrupa ve Türkiye Araştırması, Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, İstanbul, 1998

Tekeli, Tarih Yazımı Üzerine Düşünmek, Dost Kitabevi, Ankara, 1998

Ahmet Özcan, Türkiye'de Popüler Tarihçilik 1908-1960, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, Ankara, 2011

Salih Özbaran, Tarih, Tarihçi ve Toplum, Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, İstanbul, 2007

Salih Özbaran, Güdümlü Tarih, Cem Yayınevi, İstanbul, 2003

Salih Özbaran, Geçmişi Güncelleştirmek: Tarihçi İmgesinden Medya Sözcülüğüne, Tarihçi Kitabevi, İstanbul, 2011

Tarih Öğretimi ve Ders Kitapları 1994 Buca Sempozyumu, Yay. Haz. Salih Özbaran, Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, İstanbul, 2011

Büşra Ersanlı, İktidar ve Tarih: Türkiye'de "Resmi Tarih" Tezinin Oluşumu (1929-1937), İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul, 2003

Oktay Özel, Dün Sancısı: Türkiye'de Geçmiş Algısı ve Akademik Tarihçilik, Kitap Yayınevi, İstanbul, 2009

Tarih ve Milliyetçilik I. Ulusal Tarih Kongresi Bildiriler, Mersin Üniversitesi, 1999

Tarih ve Toplum Dergisi, Sayı 34, 44, 46, 106, 107, 112, 108, 113, 148, 149,152, 229, İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul

Taner Timur, Osmanlı Kimliği, Hil Yayınları, İstanbul, 2010

Episode Music: Seyyan Hanım - Mazi

Sources for Early Ottoman History / Christopher Markiewicz

106.     Inşa Collections

Researchers focusing on the period of Ottoman history predating the establishment of what we know as the classical Ottoman bureaucracy and the earliest surviving court records are faced with major challenges when it comes to source material. In this episode, Christopher Markiewicz discusses one type of source that can be used to study this period: insha collections (inşa mecmuaları). While these collections of letters can be used to study diplomacy and the earliest formation of an Ottoman professional bureaucracy, Chris explains some of the ways in which these sources could potentially be used for a wide variety of historical topics related to cultural and social history of the early Ottoman Empire.

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Christopher Markiewicz is a PhD candidate at Chicago University focusing on early modern Ottoman history.
Nir Shafir is a PhD candidate at UCLA focusing on history of science and intellectual history of the Ottoman Empire. (see academia.edu)
Chris Gratien is a PhD candidate studying the history of the modern Middle East at Georgetown University. (see academia.edu)

Citation: "Letter Collections as Sources for Early Ottoman History," Christopher Markiewicz, Chris Gratien, and Nir Shafir, Ottoman History Podcast, No. 106 (May 10, 2013) http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2012/05/sources-ottoman-empire-bureaucracy.html.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Left to Right: Chris Markiewicz and Nir Shafir
Istanbul, March 2013

Feridun Beg. Mecmū‘a-yı münşe'āt es-selāṭīn. Istanbul: Daru't-tiba‘ati'l-amire, 1274/1858.

Sa‘di Çelebi. Tacizade Sa‘di Çelebi Münşeatı. Istanbul: İstanbul Matbaası, 1956.

Ubayd Allah Ahrar. The letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and his associates. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Şinasi Tekin. Kırımlu Hafız Hüsam Teressül (Hacı Selimağa, Nurbanu No:122/5). Cambridge, MA: Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 2008.

Şinasi Tekin. Menāhicüʾl-inşā; Yaḥya bin Meḥmed el-Kātibʾin 15. yyʾdan kalma en eski Osmanlıca inşâ elkitabı. Giriş, dizin, tıpkıbasım. Cambridge, MA: Orient Press, 1971.

Hasan Ali Esir. Münşeat-i Lami‘i Trabzon. Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Matbaası, 2006.


Music: Zeki Müren - Katibim