In late May 2013, what started as a peaceful civil protest in opposition to demolition of the Gezi Park, which is one of the last green spaces in Istanbul, to build a shopping centre, has evolved into a broader protest when police violently attacked the protestors. The excessive use of pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets, which caused serious injuries, encouraged more demonstrators into the Gezi Park. After the harsh crackdown by the riot police, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the police action and denounced protesters as "terrorists" and “marginal”. In a short time, a peaceful environmental protest turned into a nation-wide social movement against the Islamist-rooted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his autocratically governing style.
The Gezi Park movement became one of the most important sociopolitical issues of Turkey in recent years. According to the Amnesty International’s report (2013) almost 2.5 million people attended the protests held in 79 cities across Turkey. 5 people died in clashes with the police and more than 8,000 injured. The protests attracted both national and international attention due to an overwhelming impact.
Many scholars, especially sociologists and political scientists, have been interested in studying the protests (Bilgic and Kafkasli 2013; Nikos 2013; Ete and Tastan 2013; Gokay and Shain 2013; Gole 2013; Xypolia 2013; Tastan 2013). Soon after the demonstrations begin, scholars started to investigate this unexpected upheaval. Most of the studies focused on the profiles of the protestors and the reasons of its origin (Bilgic and Kafkasli 2013; Gole 2013; Ete and Tastan 2013). Some scholars tried to investigate the aim of the protests and what do the protests really mean ...
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Tastan, Coskun. 2013. “The Gezi Park Protests in Turkey: A Qualitative Field Research.” Insight Turkey 13(3). Retrieved November 15, 2013 (http://www.insightturkey.com/insight-turkey-volume-15-no-3/issues/350).
T24 2013. “Sendikalar Gezi Parki Direnisine Destek Icin Is Birakiyor.” T24.com.tr June 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013 (http://t24.com.tr/haber/sendikalar-gezi-parki-direnisine-destek-icin-is-birakiyor/231357)
Turgut, Pelin. 2013. “Women on the Front Lines of Turkey Protests.” World.time.com June 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013 (http://world.time.com/2013/06/08/women-on-the-front-lines-of-turkey-protests/)
Yilmaz, Ismail Guney. 2013. “Ayaklanma, Gezi ve Sinif Uzerine Bir Tartisma.” Fraksiyon.org December 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2013 http://fraksiyon.org/ayaklanma-gezi-ve-sinif-uzerine-bir-tartisma/
Civil disobedience spawns a major and widely debated issue by many who established by well-known intelligent scholars and many examples of civil disobedience become displayed. The acts of civil disobedience can be noted in major works such as Sophocles?s Antigone, King?s ?Letter from Birmingham Jail?, or even from Plato?s ?from Crito?. A specific claim exemplified throughout these works make that civil disobedience races in gaining popularity and should remain allowed, and continued to be seen as a solution to reform poorly established laws. A claim represented is, civil disobedience is right. Rhetorically, appeals such as credibility, logic and emotion can provide support for these claims.
It introduces a preface followed by an introduction and three parts and she ends it off with an epilogue. Each part of the book is filled with stories and experiences from different people on how the internet has helped with protests. It starts off with the story of her grandmother being able to win a scholarship to go study in Istanbul and her family telling her that her education was over after the fifth grade, the author shows the hardship and the difficult times the Turkish were living in back in those days. During this first part of the book (Making a Movement) she introduces and talks about publics and social movements while trying to find patterns and similarities between the Gazi movements and the Zapatista. The reader is then taken on a trip through the lack of media access back in the day to twenty first century where twitter and other media platforms is changing the protest game. This is the second part of the book (A Protester’s Tool). This part focuses more on the technology aspect. During this section she moves away from the social movement and first-hand observations to redirect on the importance between internet and society. The reader receives first-hand accounts from the author herself and people who were all involved in the protests by either physically protesting or helping out through the media. In the third part (After the Movement), Zeynep goes more in-depth on the movements of protests leaders and how they deal with political power coming down on them. The book was written in first person and the tone throughout the book is so simple that anybody reading it will have no problem understanding the main
"The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy." Civil Liberties Monitoring Project. Web. 01 Oct. 2011. .
The main body of the investigation will outline how certain people chose to spread awareness and express opposition through literature and other methods, and what political consequences they had to face. The effects of the oppression are then analyzed, specifically drawing attention to how the ways of the SAVAK triggered the Iranian revolution and the collapse of Mohammad Reza Shah. Two of the sources used in this essay, Sky of Red Poppies and Persepolis, are then evaluated in detail based on bias, context, credibility, purpose, and historical accuracy. The conclusion will summarize the causes and effects of SAVAK oppression.
All societies will endure times of great trouble where people suffer, and in that suffering, discontent will give birth to voices offering a solution. While some, holding the most genuine motives, will whole heartedly rise to the challenge, others will seem parallel in these actions, but will refuse to take responsibility for any attributions made to the system, doing so in a reckless prosecution towards power. Before establishing a solution, one must find a scapegoat, a targeted group of people, to condemn. This is followed by aggressive name calling, crude insulting, and attacks on the personal rights of citizens. If name calling doesn’t work, a violent revolution will materialize, in which there will be a bloody outcome with many fatalities.
Ukraine has recently shaken the world with a phenomenon called Euromaidan, a collective name for some extraordinary events that took place on the main square of its capital. A dormant post-soviet country "somewhere by Russia" suddenly made it to the major media headlines and stayed there for three months straight. And it wasn't just a pretty picture of impressive crowds or transmundane tire-fires that captured the eye of the public. This uprising, that looked at first just like any other "color revolution", quickly escalated into a strong self-organized and structured movement, becoming a higher level of protest for Ukraine in particular and Europe in general. Caused by a number of political and social tensions, this national crisis still keeps developing even after the notorious president and his government are gone, inciting both an informational and an actual war between Ukraine and Russia.
The revolts in the Middle East began in Tunisia when Muhammad Buazizi set himself on fire on December 17th, 2010 (Lesch, Haas 230). Protests in this area began to spr...
“On March 11, the Petrograd army’s troops were called out to try and stop the uprising protesters.”3 Some of the situations, soldiers started to pen fire, killing many demonstrators, but however it did not stop the strikers from leaving ...
The literature on social studies enjoys a wide range of social movement’s definitions (Christiansen 2009). This diversity of such a definition is due to the fact that theorists tend to define the term of a social movement depending on their particular theoretical formulation (Diani 1992). Therefore, this section will first consider definitions proposed by group of scholars that represent four major trends in social movements analysis. These trends are as follow, the ‘Collective Behavior Perspective’ (Turner and Killian), the ‘Resource Mobilization Theory’ (RMT) (ZaId and McCarthy); the ‘Political Process Perspective (Tilly); and the ‘New Social Movements Approach’ (NSMs) (Touraine, Melucci). Then, a definition by Della Porta and Diani is selected as this definition has been centered on the most important characteristics of the social movements and oft-cited by researchers.
The protests and dissent raged on, eventually leading to a notable amount of radical protesters (Skarda...
Ibnouf, Fatma Osman. “Women And The Arab Spring.” Women & Environments International Magazine 92/93(2013): 18-21. MasterFILE Elite.Web.31 Mar. 2014.
What is often called “the spark that started it all,” occurred on December 17, 2011 in Tunisia. A street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the corruption of the government. (Arab Spring, 2013) The 26 year old Bouazizi sold vegetables on the streets of Tunisia to make a living. His self-immolation was brought on when his cart of vegetables was confiscated by a policewoman. (Abouzeid, 2011) Bouazizi then went to the provincial headquarters to complain to officials about his situation. However, they refused to see him. Angered at the way he was being treated, Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest. (Abouzeid, 2011) He was taken to the hospital and stayed there until his death on January 4, 2011. Bouazizi’s self-immolation caused such an uproar that even Tunisia’s dictator, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, visited him in the hospital. Bouazizi’s mother, Mannoubia, said, “Mohamed did what he did for the sake of his dignity. He lives on, his name lives on. I am proud of what happened in Tunis, I am proud that he is known throughout the Arab World.” (Abouzeid, 2011) Bouazizi’s self-immolation had such a huge impact on Tunisia that Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14.
BAYKAL, Nurulhude. "MURATHAN MUNGAN'in "ZAMANIMIZIN BİR KÜLKEDİSİ"Nİ MARKSİST KURAM ÇERÇEVESİNDE OKUMAK. (Turkish)." Milli Folklor 24.96 (2012): 137-147. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Pressure groups are known to be small and extremely diverse formed on the basis of interest and activities, their functions give them a high public profile where minds are influenced and driven to make change. “A Pressure group is an organisation which seeks to influence the details of a comparatively small range of public policies and which is not a function of a recognised political party” (Baggott, 1995: p.2). An aim of pressure groups is to generate support which can influence political agendas; this can directly persuade the government to consider taking action. In this essay I will concentrate upon exploring on various issues on pressure groups, discussing the relationship between the groups, their use of the media and their status as “insiders” and “outsiders” in the political process. Pressure groups have two main types of groups the insiders and outsiders, which each promote a common cause with a different relationship with the media and political party making one as an unheard voice in the public sphere. To the public Pressure groups is another form where the public can engage in politics, participating directly in the political process. I will also intricate in this essay the growths of pressure groups due to the use of the media and their political engagement. The size of a group is a basic indicator of how much public support they get especially those that posse’s open membership, they mobilise through demonstrations, protest involving some non members through organised events. The different types of well known pressure grou...
Today’s policies are essential to the development of the people; servicing the needs and interest of the citizens. Policy change builds a greater society; these revolutions are sometimes forced by external conditions “outside events or “shocks” – such as a change of government, an economi...