Located locally, disseminated nationally: the Bergama movement

Abstract

How and with what consequences did the Bergama struggle evolve from a local environmental campaign against the operation of a goldmine to a broader political struggle that mobilised a set of heterogeneous social groups at the national level? The constituency of and support for the Bergama struggle increased as it provided a ‘discursive space’ for the articulation of a disparate set of particular social demands neither mediated nor fulfilled within the existing political system in Turkey. As the Bergama movement expanded through the articulation of a number of social demands for changes in the broader economic and political structures, several status quo forces became involved in the struggle against the movement and played a crucial role in the gradual demise of the movement.

Keywords:

• Bergama movement
• movement expansion
• discourse
• logic of equivalence
• empty signifier

Notes

1. Although Çoban (2004) mentions the involvement of non-local actors in the Bergama movement, he considers them not as the constituents of the movement but as external supporters and does not provide a detailed account of their mobilisation.

2. The local environmental struggles that are referred to in this study are different from ‘environmental justice struggles’ that emerge as a response to ‘environmental injustices’ that some communities experience due to bearing disproportionate environmental risks (Bullard 1996). Environmental justice struggles can easily link environmental issues to some other issues such as racism, sexism and class issues because the communities that are subjected to environmental injustice are also subjected to racial, sexual or class-based discrimination (Szazs 1994>; Bullard 1996).

3. Author's interview with the Bergama mayor, Bergama, 1 July 2004.

4. Author's interview with movement activist, a member of the ‘Environmentalist Lawyers', İzmir, 1 July 2004; Author's interview with movement activist, a local politician, Dikili, 3 July 2004.

5. Author's interview with movement activist, a member of the ‘Environmentalist Lawyers', İzmir, 1 July 2004; Author's interview with movement activist, a lawyer, İzmir, 2 July 2004.

6. Although it was stated in the existing constitution that executive authorities must comply with court orders and that authorities cannot alter or delay the execution of court orders (Özbudun, 2005), the system lacked effective control mechanisms necessary to ensure respect for this constitutional rule.

7. Author's interview with movement activist, a member of the ‘Environmentalist Lawyers’, İzmir, 1 July 2004.

8. The actors of the pro-mining bloc did not give up using this claim even after the state-owned Mining Exploration Institution announced that the gold reserves in Turkey were only about 300 tons (Radikal, 31 July 2001). Author's interview with movement activist, a local politician, Dikili, 3 July 2004.

9. Author's interview with movement activist, a local politician, Dikili, 3 July 2004.

10. Author's interview with movement activist from Bergama villages, Narlıca Village, 3 July 2004.

11. Author's interview with movement activist, a lawyer, İzmir, 2 July 2004.

12. Author's interview with movement activist, a member of ‘Chamber of Physicians’, İzmir, 1 July 2004.

13. Author's interview with movement activist from Bergama villages, Narlıca Village, 3 July 2004.