Policing, Populism, and Authoritarianism in Modern Turkey
Panel 248, 2019 Annual Meeting
On Sunday, November 17 at 8:30 am
Panel Description
The growing concern over the rise of authoritarianism in modern Turkey has reignited the never-ending debate about the resurgence of "the police state," and "police violence and repression." At a time when many aspects of right-wing politics and the reversal of democracy are coming under close scrutiny, scholars have a renewed opportunity to raise questions about security and police practices. Instead of having an essentialist account of the police as inherently oppressive, it is crucial to pay attention to social historical formation of police practices and discourses. Over the last two decades, human rights-oriented police reform has paradoxically coexisted with nationalist, conservative policing emboldened by populist politics that serves to exclude and oppress marginalized and oppositional groups.
The purpose of this panel is to analyze the concomitancy of police reform and police repression in a transitional society like Turkey, and to analyze implications of oppressive policing for minorities and oppositional groups in society. How do reform efforts coincide with mounting police brutality? What kind of police practices, subjectivities and socialities emerge or are fostered by authoritarian politics? What are the implications of these models of policing for minorities and popular opposition? How are diverse policing practices, including political policing as well as everyday workings of "low" policing, and police-citizen encounters constructed at the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, etc.? Drawing mostly on ethnographic research conducted over the last decade, the panel will shed light on the transformation of public policing as part of the governmental reform, and the subsequent wave of authoritarianism. The panel invites empirically grounded as well as theoretically driven papers that engage with the panel topics. The discussions in this panel will provide theoretical and methodological insights for the emerging field of police studies in the Middle East.
Keywords: policing; security; authoritarianism; democratization; Turkey
Despite the scholarly interest in illustrating the manipulation and weakening of democratic institutions under populist regimes, the link between populism and policing has yet to be theorized. In this paper, I discuss the implications of populist politics on police practices and discourse in Turkey. Since the nation-wide Gezi protests in 2013, and more intensely the failed coup attempt in 2016, the police force has become increasingly oppressive in Turkey. Based on extensive fieldwork in three cities across Turkey between 2013 and 2015 as well as content analysis of Homeland Security Act (Ic Guvenlik Paketi), and online media accounts released by the police officers, this paper analyzes the relationship between strongman politics and police militarization in Turkey. The goal of this paper is to illustrate how recent restructuring of law enforcement since the Gezi protests, and after the failed coup, has emboldened police militarization while overshadowing reform efforts in Turkey. I ask, how do populist politics of polarization and governing through crisis shape and influence police practices and discourses? What are some of the implications of police militarization for minorities and popular opposition? I argue that the police overhaul could best be understood as part of the larger populist project of cooptation of democratic institutions in favor of strongman politics. This research shows that the police militarization under populist governance in Turkey is formed and maintained at the intersection of religious conservatism, (ultra)nationalism, militarism, and masculinity. Additionally, as the threats of insecurity and disorder become political capital for the populist regime, the police force becomes a (dis)ordering power, serving to intensify polarization and crisis rather than provide safety and security for all.
Keywords: populism; police militarization; ultra-nationalism; conservatism; masculinity; Turkey
The Turkish National Police has invested heavily in establishing citizen- and community-oriented policing projects in the last fifteen years. Reformers believed that a strong police-public relationship would curtail authoritarian policing and police violence. Celebrated police reform themes, however, have enabled a renewed partnership between police and citizens. This has paved the way for more ‘citizen-police’ subjects in the increasingly repressive environment of the country. Based on 18 months of ethnographic research, this talk will analyze these citizen-police subjects, and the various practices of informing that are generated through community policing and the introduction of digital policing technologies. Overall, this analysis sheds light on authoritarian trends circulating around the world, including in Turkey, by examining the forms of politicization and policing emerging at the neighborhood level with the increasing complicity of citizens.
