The Gezi Park protests in Turkey: a qualitative field research.

• Author: Tastan, Coskun
• Position: COMMENTARY - Report

1. Gezi Park Events: Qualitative Field Research

   During protests and similar collective movements, the field of events is quite dynamic. Despite this complication, quantitative research was carried out by various organizations. Although their findings were varied, their research provided some insight into the ideological and political profiles of the Gezi Park protesters, as well as the dynamics of the events. The first of these surveys with an extensive sampling was carried out by KONDA Research and Consultancy. Between June 6-7, KONDA surveyed 4,411 protesters at Gezi Park. (1) Another study on the same days held by GENAR, with participation from 498 protesters in the Gezi Park and surrounding area. (2) MetroPOLL also surveyed 500 protesters within the park. (3)

   These surveys give us some quantitative information about the demographics of protesters and their political tendencies. However, this information does not provide much more than just statistical data. In order to understand the personal incentives of the protesters, qualitative research must be carried out regarding the dynamics of the protests: what brought protesters there and what did they expect from the protests? To fulfill this task, this research is based on face-to-face interviews. The research was organized by the Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research (SETA). Protesters consented to audio recordings of the interviews, which were then transcribed and analyzed.

2. Findings

   a. The Political Profile of the Activists

   i. Atypical Republican People's Party Supporters

   The most debatable subject regarding the Gezi Park protests is the political backgrounds of the protesters. This subject is rather about who the protesters are. Politicians were the first to try to define the political alignments of the protesters, based on their own bias. For instance, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the protesters as "the puppets of foreign powers who do not want Turkey to progress" ... "majority of whom come together to merely oppose AK Party government," and claimed that they were "vandals who have nothing to do with environmental concerns." Meanwhile, the Republican People's Party (CHP), called the protesters "heroes ... armed with global values" who were "demonstrating for freedom."

   It is quite natural for different actors, looking through their own lenses, to ascribe different identities to the protesters. But who are the protesters, really? Is it possible to categorize them within a particular political framework? The earliest assumption prior to the research was that protesters were often not affiliated with any political party. However, quantitative research reveals that this argument is invalid. (4) The surveys show that the majority of Gezi Park protesters identified as CHP voters. According to the survey conducted by KONDA, 41 percent of the protesters voted for CHP in the 2011 general elections. (5) This number increases to 49 percent in GENAR's survey. In addition to this, GENAR asked the protesters which party they would vote for in the next elections and 64.7 percent of the protesters said CHP. (6) At this point, it is important to address an issue: If a significant portion of the protesters votes for a political party, what drives them to street demonstrations? Quantitative research is insufficient in finding the answer to this question. It lies in the qualitative in-depth interviews held with protesters: The CHP voters among the protesters are different from typical CHP constituency. We will refer to them within this paper as "atypical CHP voters."

   The most important feature of atypical CHP voters is that they are mostly young people who are raised in a family of typical CHP voters. Even though atypical CHP voters don't trust politicians (including the CHP), they still vote for CHP when they go to the polls. There are different reasons why they vote for CHP despite their distrust. One of the reasons discovered in the research is the fact that CHP is the most influential choice against AK Party among the existing political parties. A 25-year-old female college-graduate protester who identified herself as a "humanist" said that she would futilely vote for CHP because she "cannot find any other party for whom to vote." She indicated that she did not vote in the 2011 elections because the present voting system is corrupt, and people at least have to boycott the elections for the removal of the 10 percent threshold that exists in the present electoral law. A 19-year-old protester described himself as a "moderate socialist" and "leftist" says that he would "vote for the CHP" although he does not support them, because he says "it is the only party that may challenge the AK Party." But at a certain point he adds that he does not "trust the CHP either." A 31-year-old female protester who aligns with "anti-capitalist Muslims" and "leftists" indicated that she had voted for the CHP in one election and for the Party of People's Voice (HAS) in another, but will vote for the CHP in next elections. What puts her into the category of an atypical CHP voter is that even though the CHP definitly does not meet her concerns, she will vote for it "because we lack any right-wing alternative to AK Party ... and because there is no other way to vote fort he left other than the CHP."

   ii. Antisystemic Radicals

   As the quantitative research clearly shows, atypical CHP voters comprise only about half of the protesters. A portion of the rest of the protesters (around 30 percent of the participants) consists of radical people who do not put any trust in political institutions, and therefore do not support any political party. So what keeps the youth away from party politics, and what makes the system disreputable in their eyes? A 24-year-old protester who is also a Green Peace activist and who did not want to confine herself to any ideological bracket, argued that she does not trust the election system in any way because there has always been, and will always be, ways to "trick" the system. For this reason, she has never voted and will never vote in any elections. Another protester, a 25-year-old woman, declared that she never felt part of any political opinion and has therefore never voted in any elections; she is quite determined to keep this...