The Gezi Park Protests and Youth in Turkey: Perception of Hürriyet Columnists

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate how the columnists of Hürriyet (Liberty), one of the most sold national dailies in Turkey, characterized the role of youth in the Gezi Park protests. The protests started on May 28, 2013 in Istanbul. The protesters initially stood up against an urban development plan that would have resulted in the park’s demolition. However, the protests, fueled by a disproportionately aggressive response by the police, soon turned into an anti-government movement all around the country with no centralized leadership. Youth served as the locomotive of the protests, using social media extensively for organizational purposes. Their main concern was to fight against intrusions on their lives. This research focuses on the first three weeks of the so-called ‘Gezi Park protests’. All the Hürriyet columnists, except four who are usually preoccupied with subjects other than politics, wrote more than 50 percent of their articles on the Gezi Park protests. However, 32 percent of these made no mention of youth in these writings, and only 12 percent mentioned youth in half or more of their writings. Quantitatively speaking, columnists did not place significant emphasis on the position of youth. The protests constitute an urban movement, started by young people, and supported by the middle class.