The only thing a bigot paradigm can give to the society, which sees an individual not as an individual and not as a “valuable and dignified” entity emanating from his/her own paradigm of right which developed from a rational mind; but as a “valuable critter” resulting from motives of bigoted religious baggage hence he/she is “Sunni, religious and vengeful [2]”, are new forms of tyranny and power relations.

I lived through my childhood in a house comprised of two small rooms with an equally small living room and a garden. In that middle-sized garden there were one each of grape, olive and fig tree; while my grandmother’s house being on the other side of it. The only things I remember about that house was, which I spent 15 years of my life give or take, was that; we almost never had a single key in order to lock our front door. Even more with the start of summer, our front door which looked unto a small street, always stayed open while the only protection we had was short tulle blind that covered the entrance. Despite all this I do not have a single memory of an act of thievery…

Were we a rich family? No… Yet we weren’t distraught; still we were a humble family that hardly made the ends meet. Some were workers, some were artisans and some were farmer while some were toilers. We weren’t abashed either; I could be said that the biggest sin we had committed was to disturb with curiosity the male and female tourists whom were older than us. And the school windows we had broken during playing football.

The second thing I remember from my childhood was climbing to the trees of berry, fruit and olive. I am not exaggerating, we used to play on the tress were 15-20 meters long; tress that I would be terrified to climb in my present age. I remember the time like yesterday having childish conversation in tranquility above an olive tree in the school yard near sunset. I guess this is where the drama of the not easily satisfied and “bored” urban folk dwells: Most of the time they never live through the rehabilitation of the life in nature…

I first sprang to my mind was my childhood and the neighborhood where I spend it when I first heard about the murder in Lice, Diyarbakır. These urban folk who lived through countless catastrophes – exactly twice destroyed by the State – since the beginning of 90’s were completely rejecting, like they are rejecting a tumor, an intervention into their natural textures, living spaces and, of course, their very existences. A cancerous war apparatus, which is been erected amidst their natural living environment, has been poisoning these people and their very lives; just like an artificial texture in the neighborhoods I grew up in, in order to remind us of authority and its unnaturalness, would have bothered me and the neighborhood I grew up in. As it has been thoroughly unveiled with the Gezi Park Resistance; the Kurdish Question is a problem of cancerous excess imposed by capitalist “annuitistic” modernity upon humanity, its natural living spaces and, of course, its culture. The modernity of annuity, transferring the variety of relationships of humanity establishes with the eco-system into an economic annuity, with its civilization defined by the image of a shopping centre; murdered the 18 year old Medeni from Lice even he was running away. While the image of police station [3] within the collective consciousness of Lice is a “tyrannical apparatus” not only directly responsible for burning down their houses and neighborhoods; it is the apparatus that expanded these axioms through to the forest and green areas within the vicinity. Station as the hegemony’s “agent of force” is an apparatus of cultural eradication; for military establishments being something beyond mere “security forces”, is one of the grounds of education for the oppressive and hegemonic culture. Within this context, the military elements in the East represent the base structure of the State’s network of assimilation in an institutional level. Because one of the first things that the security forces attack in situations like village raids, road check points, kidnapping, corporal punishment, etc; is the “language, identity and the culture” of the victim. As ideological hegemony, in the meantime, has to take into consideration the consent of the general public; it cannot execute oppression and cultural eradication solely on the basis of force. It utilizes differentiated military, political and economic apparatuses; pending on the level of advancement of the region. The transmutation of station into a “fortresstation” is, at the same time, the continuation of the colonial rule and working on its new make-up.

The Cluster of Intersection of Gezi and Lice: Ecology and Natural Culture

Everywhere, hegemony does not attack with the same justification; still what is done is the same in principle: As it has been seen in Sulukule, Tarlabaşı, Dikmen [4] and finally in Gezi “insobriety, vagabondism and errantry” constitutes the primary reasoning of the attacks. The ideological background of the attack on the other hand, if we pursue a chronological order, in the final instance becomes the positioning as an “enemy” of an entire social culture indirectly referencing couple of symbolic names through words as “a law made by two drunks”. What is being offered instead of insobriety, vagabondism and errantry is a conjunction, labeled as shopping centre, of annuity culture based on “well-behavior”; of which they have been trying to cloak it with “Topçu Kışlası [5]”.

In Lice, on the other hand, as the, still, legitimate justifications of “terror and security” are existing; the primary target of the attack is the image of Lice which has a historical background for the sovereigns as well. It is an enigma that the source of the antipathy against the hegemony becomes materialized in Gezi Park and Lice within the image of “barracks” with its roots in militarism. Even though the unrests, began for different reasons, partner up in the image of barracks in both Western and Eastern Fronts; the true similarity is in the authoritarian positioning which has evolved from the neo-liberal regime. It is that positioning that does not constitute any parallelism with either ecology or peace paradigms of Kurdish politics. What is being done is nothing more than the “delaying and circumlocution” in order to save time for the neo-liberal transformation. As, once more, it has been witnessed in the Roboski massacre with sending the case, despite the ranting about “Law Reform

(?)” to military courts in order to suppress it ; we had been able to see that the only variable in the

East Front, from past to present, is the “murderers”. In the Ethem Sarısülük case, despite the indisputable evidence of murder, let alone the perpetrator being trialed; the victim has been declared as “terrorist”. Answer is given against the “democracy abstinent” who says there is partial progress that judicial system is changing and it is becoming more civilian by the government which welcomed the massacre carelessly: “What change? I am the status-quo and I am the State!”.

The truth is; the only thing a bigot paradigm can give to the society, which sees an individual not as an individual and not as a “valuable and dignified” entity emanating from his/her own paradigm of right which developed from a rational mind; but as a “valuable critter” resulting from motives of bigoted religious baggage hence he/she is “Sunni, religious and vengeful”, are new forms of tyranny and power relations. And what this government reckons when it comes to human beings is “religiously sectarian compatriots” little more better than Al-Qaeda fanatics; while when it comes to civilization the things could be reckoned on behalf of the government would be “fortresstations” those stuck in the middle between shopping-centers and barracks. As it is realized in the Gezi

Revolt their subconsciousness reveals itself behind the make-up which they had been compelled to do with excruciating work and consider everyone they point to as “those people!” within an indicative pronoun as an “enemy”. If they caught in the corner a little bit more, it would be seen them every categorical type of existence, of those valuable within humanity’s own conception, as “excesses” that needs to be destroyed.

This mode of existence, which is bogged down within a phase of feudality from centuries ago, in its core; is the enemy of “religions” themselves or specific religious existences that contemporary individual tries to blend together with modern principles. This same mentality that slandered people who sought refugee in a Mosque with fear and panic with lies such as “they drank alcohol in the

Mosque”; did not even “attempt slightly” to protect women and children victims of perverted acts of “sexual assault”, which taken place just a few years back, but almost engaged in making excuses for the perpetrators or fallen into an enthusiasm of lynching the victims. While one of the slogans of this mentality, which even refused abortion for conceptions after rape, was “women’s body and privacy”; it has been never been heard to utter a single word against rapes and perversions those lacerates public consciousness!

Maybe not fresh enough, but let’s conclude with a joke as follows;

In the parliament the subject came to constitution and the conversation deepened.

While talking about the uniqueness and exceptionality of the constitution; a wise man on the corner

of the room smoking his pipe intervenes:

“Yes, the words and sayings of the constitution are unique. But its codification is rather

complicated…”

One of the man asks with little astonishment and again little exasperation:

Complicated? How do you know?

Wise man answers calmly:

-From my foreordination!”

Isn’t the point we arrived is clear enough? “Fortresstation” democracy, “Fortresstation” juridical system and “Fortresstation” government.

Translation: Eyüp Eser

[1] Kalekol is a special security building which is named after “Kale” in Turkish as “Fortress”. It has been built by the security apparatuses in the East Region against PKK both on the border and inland. As the for the local people its connotations are more than a regular station its has been used by the State by various purposes. In order to find a English equivalent I have chosen “Fortresstation” as for it to resemble both Station and Fortresstation”.

[2] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in one of his speeches that; his government seeks, in its education policies, to raise a generation that would not forget its past of which the hatred against historical enemies should be thought to pupil’s in order for them not forget their vengeances disappear; so that the old hatred been justified within history would always be fresh in order to be manipulated when they are necessary.

[3] When “station” is mentioned the reader should understand it means more than a mere police station especially not something that Western culture has – more or less – as place of helpful, friendly, neighborhood police officers.

[4] As the last years Turkey has seen many gentrification projects which aimed to exclude the urban poor or the underclasses of city from the centre. As these three places mentioned are the biggest examples of these projects; gentrification usually aims against underprivileged, minorities, Romans and all the “undesirables” those dwell within the city centre or near. The annuity after the projects usually becomes embodied in residences, shopping centers for the rich.

[5] Taksim Military Barracks or Halil Pasha Artillery Barracks was located at the site of the present day Taksim Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square in Istanbul. It was built in 1806 by an Armenian architect Krikor Balian. Durin the attempted coup by the Islamist in 31st of March 1909 against the Second Constitution it suffered heavy damage but repaired afterwards. Then its internal courtyard transformed into a stadium which hosted clubs like Galatasaray. Then in 1939 it was closed and it was demolished in 1940 during the renovations in Taksim Square. It has significant “vengeful” meaning and a high political significance for Islamists in Turkey.