GEZI LIVES!
Qantara.de, Germany
July 18 2014
In “Gezi – A Literary Anthology”, a volume of essays that was recently
published in German, 19 Turkish authors and a photographer reflect
on the motivation and dynamics of the Gezi movement. By Astrid Kaminski
On the first anniversary of the Gezi protests in Istanbul, it seemed
that the momentum had been lost. Like many other protest movements
in recent years, the “Gezi Republic” developed out of a state of
emergency. Long-term, however, no one can live simultaneously in
two mutually-exclusive worlds. The question now is how the utopia of
coexistence can be incorporated into everyday life.
“Gezi – A Literary Anthology” is a collection of essays by Turkish
authors, recently published by binooki-Verlag in Berlin. In it,
the Armenian-Turkish writer Karin KarakaÅ~_lı reflects on the
momentousness of the Gezi resistance, and describes how it is still
having an effect today. “For a while, the Gezi protests gave us a
sense of accomplishment, the condition of being the subject of an
era rather than its witness,” she writes. “We planted this inner
knowledge in our hearts, and with that we set out. The straw that
breaks the camel’s back – we always carry it within us.”
The publishing house binooki, founded three years ago by the sisters
Selma Wels and Inci Burhaniye, has already attracted a great deal of
positive interest. It focusses on translating Turkish literature for
a German readership. This is the first time its texts will appear
in German translation first. The anthology has been compiled by the
renowned translator Sabine Adatepe.
Linguistic cosmos of the protests
Multi-faceted “Gezi Republic”: The recently-published Gezi anthology
contains short stories, photos, essays, poems and illustrations that
highlight the dynamics of the Gezi protests
In “Gezi – A Literary Anthology”, the energy of the protests is
captured by 20 authors, all of whom actually took part in the
demonstrations. They range from young, hip writers to bestselling
author AyÃ…~_e Kulin and the grand dame of politically-engaged
literature, Oya Baydar.
Gezi stood not just for resistance to autocratic policies that were
becoming ever more restrictive. It was also a self-contained linguistic
cosmos, full of slogans, symbols and new metaphors that demanded to be
turned into literature. This anthology, which includes short stories,
photos, essays, poems and illustrations, has addressed itself to
the task.
Of the vocabulary used by Erdogan to denigrate the demonstrators, the
most memorable terms are “chapuller” (“marauders”), “soup-pot people”,
for the performers who loudly supported the protest with kitchen
utensils, and the dreadful neologism of a “twice-50-percent-society”,
which refers to Erdogan’s electoral success. Of course, these
phrases have long since passed out of Erdogan’s ownership and now
belong to the democracy movement, which has repeatedly broken them
up and alienated them, both ironically and poetically. For example,
when a tomcat is referred to as “Chapul” in the story by Oya Baydar,
it’s clear that this must be a Gezi tomcat – one of the unyielding,
freedom-loving heroes.
Not without my gas mask
A poem by Gökcenur C, which ends with a proposal of marriage,
is titled “Gas Mask, Diving Goggles, Talcid and Milk” – the basic
equipment needed to prepare for a tear-gas attack. For Gezi activists
looking to tie the knot, these items amount to a dowry. What you must
be aware of, though, is that there are a several different models of
gas mask. If you want to turn heads, you should seek advice from the
waiter in the story by the satirist Fırat Budacı.
Interestingly, another fact on which there is apparently general
agreement is that a common language has developed between trees and
people. In many of the contributions to this anthology, the trees –
which triggered the protests when the government planned to fell
them to make way for a shopping centre in neo-Ottoman style – begin
to speak. In the story by AyÃ…~_e Kulin, plane trees, willows and
lindens wonder what they can do to help the activists, even though
they themselves are ready to drop.
Trees as symbols of the protest: In many contributions to the
anthology, the trees – which triggered the protests when the government
planned to fell them in order to build a shopping centre on the park –
begin to speak
Like people, they sometimes even become rather gossipy. In a story by
Ahmet Umit, a homeless man complains that they are talking so much
he can no longer sleep. The shared emblematics of trees and humans
find their apogee in a cartoon by the artist Irvin Mandel, which
makes reference to the now famous “Standing Man” performance by the
dancer-choreographer Erdem Gunduz. In it, one tree says to another:
“I have a bad conscience. Because of us, six people died, eleven lost
an eye, thousands were injured, hundreds arrested, dozens beaten. But
we’re still standing.” The other tree responds: “I’m still afraid they
might fell us because of the ‘Standing Tree’ protest we’re making.”
Literary reflection and fiction
Community spirit, irony, humour and fantasy: the attributes of the
Gezi Republic also feature in the anthology. Many of the contributions
draw on real experiences, subjected to literary reflection or worked
into fictional parables and analogies.
One of the finest examples of this is the story “In the Shop
Window” by Gaye Boralıoglu, who recently wrote a Romany novel,
also published by binooki. In this story, a shop-window mannequin
represents all the people no one would have expected to step out of
their rigidly-controlled lives and take to the streets. One day,
however, the windowpane to the world shatters, and even the rigid
dummy is swept along.
Youth media culture: The Turkish author Baris Uygur takes the reader
on a vivid journey of literary discovery, revealing to us en route
the meaning of many of the slogans of the protest movement, which to
an outsider may at first seem either cryptic or banal
The anthology repeatedly gives voice to the fact that this whirlwind
of events was triggered by a number of very different political and
social motivations, which nonetheless came together. One piece that
stands out is an essayistic analysis by the young author Baris Uygur,
who to date has featured in the binooki catalogue as a crime novelist.
He focusses on the young people who played a key role in the
structuring of the protests. “Up to now, for most of us, they were
children we only saw the backs of: children who spent all their time
sitting in front of the computer,” he says. How these children applied
what they had learned from computer games and television series
to the Gezi battle, how they scrutinised the ruling party’s system
of political patronage by way of a “crash course in parliamentary
democracy” – the author only discovers this by educating himself in
the ways of youth media culture.
He provides the reader with a vivid description of his journey,
thereby making sense of many slogans that, to outsiders, have come
across to date as cryptic or simply banal. However, Uygur sums up
his essay as well as the mood of the entire volume when he says that
the most important slogan is an unwritten one: “Not a single person
scrawled ‘No Future!’ on the walls.”
Astrid Kaminski
Translated from the German by Nina Coon
From: Baghdasarian
http://en.qantara.de/content/a-literary-anthology-of-the-gezi-protests-gezi-lives