Biriz Berksoy - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Biriz Berksoy

Praksis, 2023

“Acil durum hazırlığı” mantığı, “facia”ya yol açma potansiyeli olduğu düşünülen doğal, teknolojik... more “Acil durum hazırlığı” mantığı, “facia”ya yol açma potansiyeli olduğu düşünülen doğal, teknolojik ve insan kaynaklı olayların ortaya çıkardığı ve “acil durum” olarak kategorize edilen süreçlere süratli ve etkin bir şekilde müdahale edilmesinin, son kertede toplumsal düzenin devamı adına elzem olduğu, bunun için önceden aralıksız hazırlık yapılmasının ve kurumlar arası koordinasyon mekanizmalarının oluşturulmasının şart olduğu anlayışı üzerine temellenen bir güvenlik mantığıdır. Bu makalenin amacı söz konusu güvenlik mantığının hem Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Birleşik Krallık ve Kanada gibi ileri kapitalist ülkelerde 2000’lerin sonuna doğru günlük hayatta ağırlık kazanmasının hem de Türkiye’de Gezi Direnişi (2013) ile 6-8 Ekim Olayları’nın (2014) hemen akabinde benimsenmesinin ve “güvenlik tertibatı”nda, “Güvenlik ve Acil Durumlar Koordinasyon Merkezleri”nin (GAMER) kurulmasını da içeren yasal/yapısal değişikliklerin gerçekleştirilmesinin ardındaki sosyo-politik nedenleri ele almaktır. Makalede öne sürülen argümana göre, bahsi geçen ileri kapitalist ülkelerde savaş erki ile polis erkini birlikte cisimleştirmeye yönelik bir “dahili pasifikasyon” projesi olarak da uygulamaya konan söz konusu mantığın günlük hayatta ağırlık kazanması ve Türkiye’de de benimsenmesi, 2008 küresel finans krizi sonrasında iktisadi/siyasi krizler hız kazanırken, sermaye birikim rejimi “militarize birikim” olarak yeniden kurgulanırken, toplumsal gösteriler/hareketlenmeler artarken faşistleşme temayüllerinin açığa çıkması ve bu temayüllerin etkisi altında yeni bir devlet formunun ortaya çıkışıyla ilişkilidir. Siyasi iktidarın yürütmenin üst mevkilerinde yoğunlaştığı, egemenlik tarzı bir iktidar modelinin ölüm-siyaseti (necropolitics) ile birleşerek küresel çapta hâkim hale geldiği ve “acil durum” mefhumunun kullanışlı bir iktidar teknolojisine dönüştüğü bir süreçte ortaya çıkan bu yeni devlet formu, makalede, “acil durum devleti” olarak adlandırılmaktadır. 11 Eylül sonrası süreçte, her bir bireyin veya “çatışmacı siyaset”in “varoluşsal tehdit” oluşturabileceği varsayımının güvenlik politikalarını şekillendirdiği bir dönemde ortaya çıkan bu yeni devlet formu, “varoluşsal tehdit” olarak etiketlenen siyasi sorunlara ve toplumsal hareketlenmelere karşı her seferinde “olağanüstü hâl” ilan etmeden, ancak “olağanüstü hâl” sürecinin temelinde yer alan “savaş erki”ni günlük hayatta dolayımsız ve olağan biçimde kristalize etmeye yönelik militarist/muharip bir yönetim rasyonalitesi çerçevesinde şekillenmiştir.

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2022

This article explores the socio-political causes behind the proliferation of the apparatuses of d... more This article explores the socio-political causes behind the proliferation of the apparatuses of denunciation in Turkey in the 2010s, and the escalation in the number of citizens denouncing their fellow citizens. These developments have taken place within an international context marked with the initiation of similar campaigns in core capitalist countries (e.g., the United States, United Kingdom) in the post-9/11 period mobilizing citizens to watch for suspicious behaviors that potentially signify "terrorist" activities. In Turkey, the Communication Center for the Office of the President, police hotlines/websites, community policing networks, neighborhood heads, the night-guard system and legal statutes enabling denunciation are parts of these apparatuses. It is argued in the article that the mechanisms of denunciation surfaced as part of the “security states” that emerged in the late 1990s under the dominance of neoliberal governmental rationality which encompasses components creating a fertile socio-political fabric both for the materialization of fascist tendencies and a preference for denunciation as a governmental technology. Accordingly, the apparatuses of denunciation in Turkey emerged at a point where the "security state" constructed by the Justice and Development Party government in its second term (2007-2011) delivered a fascist turn within the context of the 2008 global economic crisis.

Toplum ve Bilim, 2021

Bu makalenin amacı, Türkiye'de ihbara yönelik mekanizmaların 2010’larda yaygınlaşmasının, ihbarı ... more Bu makalenin amacı, Türkiye'de ihbara yönelik mekanizmaların 2010’larda yaygınlaşmasının, ihbarı teşvik eden resmî çağrılar yapılmasının ve vatandaşların birbirlerini giderek daha fazla ihbar etmesinin arkasındaki sosyo-politik nedenleri ele almaktır. Bu gelişmeler, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, İngiltere, Kanada gibi ileri kapitalist ülkelerde, 11 Eylül sonrası dönemde, “güvenlik devletleri”nin kurgulandığı ve vatandaşları “terör” eylemine delalet eden şüpheli hareketlere dikkat kesilmeye sevk eden kampanyaların başlatıldığı bir uluslararası ortamda söz konusu olmuştur. Cumhurbaşkanlığı İletişim Merkezi'nin (önceki adıyla Başbakanlık İletişim Merkezi, 2006) kuruluşu, polis teşkilatının ihbara yönelik kullanıma soktuğu telefon hatları (ör. ALO 140 Terör İhbar Hattı, 2016) ve web sitelerine ek olarak toplum destekli polislik stratejileri çerçevesinde polislik ağlarının oluşturulması, muhtarların ihbara yönelik seferber edilmesi, bekçilik sisteminin yeniden faaliyete geçirilmesi (2016) ve ihbarlara zemin oluşturan yasal düzenlemelerin kabulü bu sürecin önemli parçalarıdır. Makalede ileri sürülen teze göre, ihbar mekanizmaları, 1990’ların sonundan itibaren belirginleşen "güvenlik devletleri"nin bir parçası olarak ortaya çıkmışlardır; zira, bu devlet formu ve söz konusu formu şekillendiren neoliberal yönetim rasyonalitesi, hem ihbarın bir yönetim teknolojisi olarak kullanımını tercih edilir kılan hem de bu olgunun görünür kıldığı ve güçlendirdiği faşistleşme temayülünü açığa çıkaran ve kristalize eden verimli bir sosyo-politik zemin yaratmıştır. Buna uygun olarak, Türkiye’de de ihbar mekanizmaları, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi hükümetlerinin ikinci döneminde (2007-2011) inşa edilen “güvenlik devleti”nin parçası olarak, 2008 küresel iktisadi krizinin şekillendirdiği bir bağlamda, faşistleşme potansiyeli kristalize olurken kurulmuştur.

Destroy, Build, Secure: Readings on Pacification, Tyler Wall, Parastou Saberi and William Jackson (eds.), 2017

Throughout the 2000s, university campuses in Turkey have been re-configured by means of new "secu... more Throughout the 2000s, university campuses in Turkey have been re-configured by means of new "security measures" that incorporate the employment of private security guards on campuses, deployment of CCTV cameras and uniformed/undercover police officers, establishment of close cooperation mechanisms between the police organization/governors, private security guards and university administrations and the efforts to make families and fellow students part of this configuration. Throughout this process, besides the re-arrangement of campuses with what can be called surveillance-policing networks, there has been a sharp increase in the number of disciplinary investigations and cases filed against oppositional students in heavy penal courts which have been frequently activated via "anti-terrorism regulations". The aim of this paper is to examine the surveillance-policing networks that are established at university campuses in Turkey and the new technologies of power employed for the pacification of student opposition as part of the restructuring process of the state under the Justice and Development Party governments (2002- ) which have arguably taken place in accordance with a new governmental rationality. Within the paper, it is argued that throughout the 2000s while public institutions are re-organized in Turkey around a neoliberal governmental rationality and a new order of governance based on the elimination of "risks" are established under the hegemony of financial capital, a new state form which is designated as the "security state" has also emerged in a way similar to the experiences of advanced capitalist countries such as the US, Canada. Within this new state form, a newly devised security dispositif steered by a logic of "preemptive security" has acquired dominance. In the paper, the workings of these networks, which are arguably an important part of this dispositif, are examined as they operate against the students who engage in the Kurdish Liberation Movement within the spaces of higher education and have become their primary targets. It is argued that these surveillance-policing networks have been functioning to extensively monitor the campuses, inflict psychological violence for repressive and disciplinary purposes and to implement preemptive "risk" elimination techniques by means of the disciplinary investigations and the frequent activation of heavy penal courts. In the paper, this process is analyzed by relying on the semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 7 students who engage in the Kurdish Liberation Movement and have gone through several penal processes, 7 private security guards and 2 former students who had been politically active in the 1990s as well as the secondary sources.

Policing and Prisons in the Middle East: Formations of Coercion, Laleh Khalili and Jillian Schwedler (eds.), 2010

This paper aims to examine the re-structuring process of the police organization in Turkey during... more This paper aims to examine the re-structuring process of the police organization in Turkey during the neo-liberalization of the social formation in the 1980s. Police can be depicted as the visualized state power on the street having wide discretionary powers and a social role of acting upon the possibilities of actions of other people. In the post-1980 period, in which “neo-liberal punitiveness” became normalized in the everyday life of core capitalist states to regulate social insecurities and incapacitate challenges to the social order, in Turkey too, the police organization entered an expansion and militarization phase, in which the potential of violence solidified more frequently via newly established para-military units. Moreover, it also went through a process, within which it gradually internalized the all-encompassing market-rationality and started to engage in “proactive policing” for the minimization of social risks. It is argued in the paper that, in this period in Turkey, the police organization acquired an increasing significance as an important gateway of the state to construct the social body on a path-dependent neo-liberal basis and incorporated the strategies of coercion as well as regulation/control/incapacitation. It has repressed and incapacitated “internal enemies”, which expanded to include the labor, ethnic/religious sects that pose a serious challenge to the political power and the “underclass” of the big cities, whose ranks swelled because of the forced internal migration waves caused by the war waged in the Southeastern provinces against the PKK. It also embarked to construct the “citizens” as prudent, responsible subjects who manage their own risk assessments and cooperate with the police like informants. This process in the police organization of Turkey will be examined in the paper by theorizing the modern capitalist state as a social relation and by taking into account the legacy of certain forms of social relations (relations brought forth by the accumulation regime, hegemonic discursive relations, power relations between state institutions constituting the political regime and international relations resulting in policy transfers) and their alteration, which has arguably opened a “strategically selective terrain” in the state to arrange these new power strategies. Primary resources published by the police organization, in-depth interviews conducted with police officers and secondary resources on Turkey will be made use of. A comparative analysis will be adopted where necessary by taking into account the similar experiences observed especially in the USA and Britain to provide a perspective about the common grounds behind this penal phenomenon.

Almanak Türkiye 2006-2008 Güvenlik Sektörü ve Demokratik Gözetim, 2009

Toplum ve Bilim, 2009

This paper aims to scrutinize the sub-culture of the police organization in post-1960 Turkey. It ... more This paper aims to scrutinize the sub-culture of the police organization in post-1960 Turkey. It is an accepted fact that the police officers experience a socialization phase after they join the police cadres and consequently internalize the dominant norms, values and social codes which constitute the sub-culture of the organization. These norms and codes crystallize in the everyday practices of these officers. Examination of the journals published by the police organization in Turkey as well as the interviews conducted by the author in 2005 reveal that the sub-culture of the police is marked by nationalist-conservatism which incorporates mainly the fervent endorsement of Turkish identity and the Sunni sect of Islam, a recurring emphasis placed on the “perpetuity of the state” as well as the “homogeneity of the social body”, a self-representation as an altruistic “public order army” and an increasing division between “citizens” and those called “terrorists/criminals”. This orientation is combined with the “enemization” of certain groups. In the 1960-80 period while the groups labeled as “anarchists/communists” were subjected to this “enemization” process, in the post-1980 period it was expanded to include ethnic/religious groups which pose a challenge to the political power in addition to the leftist groups and certain trade unions as well as the poverty ridden neighborhoods of the big cities which are criminalized because of the relative increases in the crime rates. These neighborhoods are mostly constituted by Gypsies and Kurds the latter of whose ranks were swelled because of the forced internal migration waves caused by the war waged, from 1984 onwards, in the Southeastern provinces against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). In the 1990s, certain discursive elements based on human rights and public relations were added to this legacy.
This sub-culture of the police in Turkey is examined in the paper by theorizing the police as the visualized state power on the street having wide discretionary powers and a social role of “conducting the conduct” of individuals in accordance with the “subject positions” endorsed by the state. It is argued in the paper that the police sub-culture -rather than being formed solely by the inner dynamics of police practices or flawed policies- takes shape under the impact of deliberately devised power strategies of the state. Therefore, the sub-culture of the police in Turkey is constituted under the impact of the hegemonic discursive formations in the country fashioned by the state which has built a hegemonic authoritarian, militarist, nationalist-conservative rationality until the 1980s supplemented by an “exclusionist” neo-liberal one in the post-1980 period. This argument is supported by underlining the similarities between the recurring discursive practices of the police officers and the elements of this hegemonic rationality in the country shaped by the state and based on an extensive examination of the primary resources published by the police organization, in-depth interviews conducted with police officers and secondary resources on Turkey.

Toplum ve Bilim, 2007

This paper aims to examine the re-structuring processes of the police organizations in the cradle... more This paper aims to examine the re-structuring processes of the police organizations in the cradles of neo-liberalism (the United States and Britain) and Turkey during the neo-liberalization of the social formations in the 1980s and the common dynamics behind them. Police can be depicted as the visualized state power on the street having wide discretionary powers and a social role of acting upon the possibilities of actions of other people. In the post-1980 period, in which “neo-liberal punitiveness” became normalized in the everyday life of the United States and Britain partially by the militarizing police organizations to regulate social insecurities and incapacitate challenges to the social order, in Turkey too, the police organization entered an expansion and militarization phase, within which the potential of violence solidified more frequently via the newly established para-military units. Moreover, these organizations also went through a process, in which they gradually internalized the all-encompassing market-rationality and started to engage in “proactive policing” for the minimization of social risks. It is argued in the paper that, in this period, neo-liberal political projects, which are composed on similar axes and rendered hegemonic in these Western countries and Turkey, have contributed to the increased significance of the police organizations as important gateways of the state to re-construct the social body. The police incorporated the strategies of coercion as well as regulation/control/incapacitation. They have repressed and incapacitated “internal enemies”, which expanded to include the labor, ethnic/religious sects that pose a serious challenge to the political power and the “underclass” of the big cities. They also embarked to construct the citizens as prudent, responsible subjects who manage their own risk assessments and cooperate with the police like informants. By displaying these common dynamics surrounding these penal phenomena, it is demonstrated that the Western countries such as United States and Britain are far from being the reference points of “democracy”, that this period have been marked by the normalization of the violence-ridden “exceptional practices” of the mentioned states especially through their police and most importantly these techniques of power are partially the consequences of particular political projects which are rendered hegemonic at a certain period of history.