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ABSTRACT
Pro-government protests are on the rise in recent years, mostly in populist and/or authoritarian settings, including Turkey. Based on the literatures on populism and social movements, this paper looks at the first mass pro-government mobilization in Turkey, namely the Respect the National Will rallies organized in the summer of 2013. To understand how these rallies contributed to democratic backsliding in the country, the article uses critical discourse analysis. Four discursive mechanisms were identified in play in Turkey during these rallies: nomination, predication, argumentation and intensification. The article argues that the rallies were countermobilizations organized by the ruling party, and this mobilization and the discourse mechanisms used further contributed to democratic backsliding in the country by delegitimizing anti-government protests and protestors, shrinking the democratic space for opposition and opening the path for increased levels of pro-government mobilization.
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of the paper was presented in the POMEPS Virtual Research Workshop in November 2020, and the Northwestern University Keyman Program Article Workshop in April 2021. The author thanks to Prof. Lisel Hintz, Prof. Marc Lynch, Prof. Nathan Brown, Prof. Steven Brooke, Prof. Ayca Alemdaroglu for their comments on the earlier versions of the paper, Mimi Kirk for her comments and copyediting the paper, and the reviewers for their invaluable feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Norris and Inglehart, Cultural Backlash, and Pappas, Populism and Liberal Democracy.
2 Tansel, “Authoritarian Neoliberalism.”
3 Cinar, “Turkey’s ‘Western’.”
4 Akyuz and Hess, “Turkey Looks East.”
5 Esen and Gumuscu, “Building a Competitive.”
6 Zúquete, “The Missionary Politics,” 93.
7 See for example Akcay, “Authoritarian Consolidation”. See Sozen, “Studying Autocratization,” and Erensu and Alemdaroglu, “Dialectics of Reform and Repression,” for a discussion on the timing of authoritarianism in Turkey.
8 Hawkins, et al., “Global Populism Database.”
9 Aytac and Elci, “Populism in Turkey,” 106.
10 Wodak, “The Trajectory.”
11 Binark and Bayraktutan, “Discursive Strategies.”
12 See Bilgic, “Reclaiming the National Will” for a more detailed analysis of the concept of ‘national will’ as used by the center-right in Turkey even before the AKP.
13 Hintz, “Adding Insult to Injury.”
14 Lowndes, “From Founding Violence,” 146.
15 Moffitt and Tormey, “Rethinking Populism.”
16 Jagers and Walgrave, “Populism as Political Communication,” 320.
17 Busby et al., “Framing and Blame Attribution,” 616.
18 Rooduijn, “The Mesmerising Message,” 726.
19 Norris and Inglehart, Cultural Backlash, 5.
20 Jagers and Walgrave, “Populism as Political Communication,” 322.
21 Lefort in Tombus, “The People and Its Embodiment,” 64.
22 Panizza, “Introduction,” 29.
23 Tombus, “The People and Its Embodiment,” 66.
24 Roberts, “Populism, Political Mobilizations,” 155.
25 Yabanci, “Populism as the Problem,” 596.
26 Aslanidis, “Populism and Social Movements,” 447.
27 Moffit, Populism.
28 Kefford et al. “Populist Attitudes,” 5.
29 Yabanci, “Fuzzy Borders,” 106.
30 Alexander, Performance and Power, 85.
31 Barr, “Populists, Outsiders.”
32 Moffit, “How to Perform Crisis,” 195.
33 Taggart, “Populism and Representative Politics,” 275.
34 Feldman and Stenner, “Perceived Threat,” 765.
35 Ketchley, “Elite-led Protest.”
36 Hellmeier and Weidmann, “Pulling the Strings?”
37 Kotwas and Kubik, “Symbolic Thickening.”
38 Ketchley, “Elite-led Protest,” 34.
39 Hellmeier and Weidmann, “Pulling the Strings?” 73.
40 Rooduijn, “The Mesmerising Message,” 726.
41 Binark and Bayraktutan, “Discursive Strategies,” 11.
42 Yabanci, “Populism as the Problem,” 594.
43 Yabanci, “Fuzzy Borders,” 106.
44 Aydin-Duzgit, “Deeuropeanisation,” 48.
45 Wodak and Meyer, The Methods.
46 Aydin-Duzgit, “Deeuropeanisation,” 48.
47 Wodak and Meyer, The Methods.
48 Wodak, “‘We have the Character,” 4.
49 Reisigl and Wodak, Discourse and Discrimination.
50 Reisigl, “Analyzing Political Rhetoric,” 99.
51 Erdoğan, “Yeni Turkiye Vizyonu.” Published in 2019, this document contains all of Erdoğan’s rally speeches in Turkey, including electoral and non-electoral rallies, from April 2011 to March 2014.
52 Bulut and Yörük, “Mediatized Populisms,” 4108.
53 Kubicek, “Majoritarian Democracy,” 123.
54 Milliyet, June 3, 2013.
55 Moffit, “How to Perform Crisis,” 204.
56 In addition, an invitation in English, read as “The Game is Over. Time to Make History”; the English translation of the slogan used for the rallies that read as “Büyük Oyunu Bozmaya. Haydi Tarih Yazmaya”, was sent by party organizations to foreign media, which paid significant attention to the Gezi Park protests, for the rallies in Ankara and Istanbul.
57 Gumrukcu, “Ideology, Discourse.”
58 Lowery et al., “Reconsidering the Counter-mobilization,” 101.
59 Moffit, “How to Perform Crisis,” 204.
60 Jagers and Walgrave, “Populism as Political Communication,” 321.
61 Ete and Tastan, “Kurgu ile,” 121.
62 Hawkins, “Is Chávez Populist?”
63 Stanley, “The Thin Ideology,” 105.
64 Norris and Inglehart, Cultural Backlash, 5.
65 Stanley, “The Thin Ideology,” 103.
66 Van Dijk, Discourse Studies.
67 Yilmaz, “The AKP.”
68 Al-Ghazzi, “We will be,” 54.
69 Yilmaz, “The AKP,” 24.
70 DeHanas and Shterin, “Religion and the Rise,” 178.
71 Stanley, “The Thin Ideology,” 105.
72 Ibid., 182.
73 Stanley, “The Thin Ideology,” 105.
74 DeHanas and Shterin, “Religion and the Rise,” 180.
75 Zúquete, “Populism and Religion,” 10.
76 Stanley, “The Thin Ideology,” 105.
77 Reisigl, “Analyzing Political Rhetoric,” 99.
78 Moffit, “How to Perform Crisis,” 204.
79 Anadolu Ajansi, “Kayseri'de ‘Milli İradeye Saygı’ mitingi,” June 21, 2013, available at https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/politika/kayseride-milli-iradeye-saygi-mitingi/237156
80 Ezan prayer was performed in Turkish for 18 years, from 1932 to 1950. There are still several debates about either returning to this practice or condemning it for not being compatible with Islamic principles and/or for estranging the people from their origins given that the Arabic alphabet was used before the establishment of the republic.
81 Yilmaz, “The AKP,” 8.
82 Erdoğan, “Yeni Turkiye Vizyonu,” 280.
83 Norris and Inglehart, Cultural Backlash, 6.
84 Hintz, “Adding Insult to Injury.”
85 Earl, “Tanks, Tear Gas and Taxes.”
86 Kotwas and Kubik, “Symbolic Thickening.”
87 Norris and Inglehart, Cultural Backlash, 6.
88 Ozbudun, “AKP at the Crossroads.”
89 Haberturk, “Ankara'da 'Milli İradeye Saygı' mitingi,” June 15, 2013, available at https://www.haberturk.com/gundem/haber/852655-ankarada-milli-iradeye-saygi-mitingi
90 Milliyet, June 3, 2013.
91 The contemporary history of Turkey is actually no stranger to these kinds of conflicts, as several attacks on Alevi communities reached the level of pogroms, as in Kahramanmaras in 1978, Corum in 1980, and Sivas in 1993. It should also be noted that the then-leader of the CHP, who is still the head of the party, is Alevi.
92 Erdoğan, “Yeni Turkiye Vizyonu,” 308.
93 Anadolu Ajansi, “Onlar milyonlarca tweet atsınlar bizim tek bir besmelemiz yeter,” June 22, 2013, available at https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/politika/onlar-milyonlarca-tweet-atsinlar-bizim-tek-bir-besmelemiz-yeter/236952
94 See notes 79 and 93.
95 Yabanci and Taleski, “Co-opting Religion,” 11.
96 “Başbakan Erdoğan Erzurum'da konuştu,” Sabah, June 23, 2013.
97 “Taksim'de palalı saldırganlar,” Al-Jazeera Turk, July 8, 2013.
98 Moffit, “How to Perform Crisis,” 205.
99 Milliyet, June 3, 2013.
100 Brubaker, “Why Populism?”
101 See, for example, Yabanci and Taleski, “Co-opting Religion”; Bulut and Yörük, “Mediatized Populisms”; Aytac and Elci, “Populism in Turkey”; and Balkilic and Teke Lloyd, “Does Islamic Inclusion.”
102 Ercetin, “Discursive Construction,” 225.
103 This refers to the designated squares in the cities that are allocated for rallies, meetings, and demonstrations by the law on meetings and demonstrations.
104 See note 79.
105 Hintz, “Adding Insult to Injury,” 60.
106 Ibid.
107 Alexander, Performance and Power, 85.
108 Kucuk and Turkmen, “Muzakeresiz Kamusallik,” 184 and Uysal, “Islam ve sokakta politika.”
109 Gumrukcu, “Reconstructing a Cycle of Protest.”
110 On February 28, 1997, the National Security Council warned the then incumbent coalition government of Islamist Welfare Party and center-right True Path Party by issuing a list of measures designed to protect the secular system against increasing Islamist reactionism, a process referred as a postmodern coup.
111 Uysal, “Islam ve sokakta politika.”
112 See Hellmeier and Weidmann, “Pulling the Strings?” for a detailed analysis of countermobilizations in authoritarian regimes.
113 Arslanalp and Erkmen, “Mobile Emergency.”
114 A month-long event where people gathered in the evenings at the main squares of the cities, to “watch” against another possible threat upon call from authorities to “not leave the streets”.
115 The top-down manner mentioned here refers to the organization of collective action, in this case the rallies, and not necessarily the nature of the relationship between the party and the masses or the organization of the party in the local levels. To have a better understanding of these mechanisms, see, for example, Dogan, Mahalledeki AKP; Gurakar and Bircan, “Redistributive Politics”; and Sayari, “Interdisciplinary Approaches.”
116 Gursoy, “Moving Beyond,” 171.
117 Ibid.
118 Yabanci, “Populism as the Problem.”
119 Tilly, Contention and Democracy, 125.
120 Yabanci, “Populism as the Problem,” 592.
121 Ketchley, “Elite-led Protest,” 36.
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Selin Bengi Gümrükçü
Selin Bengi Gümrükçü is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for European Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. She received her PhD degree from University of Zurich in 2014 with a dissertation entitled ‘Reconstructing a Cycle of Protest: Protest and Politics in Turkey, 1971–1985″. She worked as a research assistant at the Department of International Relations and the European Union (later the Department of Political Science and International Relations) at the Izmir University of Economics (2007–2014) and as a lecturer (2014–2015) and Assistant Professor (2015–2016) at Izmir University. She has held visiting positions at Bielefeld University’s Graduate School of History and Sociology, Sciences Po Paris, the University of Paris, and the European University Institute. She studies various aspects of social movements, political parties, the far right, violence, and Europeanization and Euroscepticism, mainly focusing on the case of Turkey. Her publications have appeared in international journals, such as Terrorism and Political Violence, Turkish Studies, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and in edited volumes. She is currently working on her first book, to be published with Routledge: Protest and Politics in Turkey in the 1970s: The Making of a Protest Wave.