Displaying and Contesting State Power

Abstract

In 2011, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the prime minister of Turkey, announced the pedestrianization of Taksim Square and the reconstruction of Ottoman-era military barracks as a shopping mall in Gezi Park, one of the last remaining green spaces in Istanbul. The arrival of bulldozers in the park that is next to Taksim Square, in May 2013, sparked the beginning of months of demonstrations in the area and, following acts of severe police brutality, in many other cities in Turkey as well. The building of the mall in Gezi Park was cancelled in 2014 but the pedestrianization of Taksim Square continued, creating one massive concrete square without an identity. The Atatürk Cultural Center, previously a focal point for the square, was demolished, and will be replaced by an opera house and a new cultural center. The long-debated mosque was in the square was inaugurated in will be completed in May 2021. This chapter presents the recent history of Gezi Park and Taksim Square as showcases of Republican ideology, the tactics employed by protestors and police, the aftermath of the protest movement and the profound spatial changes in the area. Information is drawn from secondary sources and the author’s firsthand observations of the 2013 protest and the design and use of the park and the square in 2020.