The early years in Gazi Quarter: Existence 

 

Rozerin Gültekin

 

We focus on Gazi Quarter, where those forced to migrate due to poverty and military oppression settled and organized, making their mark on history. The revolutionary Gazi Quarter emerged with the presence of Kurds and Alevis forced to migrate to Istanbul as a result of village burnings, oppression, and torture.

 

In the 1990s, settlements began in the neighborhood as a result of economic concerns and forced migration. In this neighborhood, where political consciousness dominated the natural flow of life, the revolutionary movement and the Kurdish freedom movement grew day by day. Outside the city, revolutionaries and the Kurdish freedom movement gained strength in a poor and displaced community.

 

Gazi Quarter survived until the early 2000s amid police pressure and growing resistance. People were killed in police raids, but there was a community that refused to give up on their values and their way of life. Police violence and state power initially tried to suppress the community through repression and massacres; however, this did not yield the result the state had hoped for. This is the story of Gazi Quarter's existence...

 

They wove their lives with people's assemblies

 

The migration of Kurds to Gazi was more about a struggle for survival than economic concerns, because new massacres were taking place every day in Kurdistan. The rebellion caused by poverty and the migration of Kurds played a decisive role in the growth of the struggle. Gazi, one of the poorest and most isolated neighborhoods outside Istanbul, was transformed into a field of struggle by revolutionaries and the Kurdish freedom movement.

 

In Gazi Quarter, an organized community established within the boundaries of Gaziosmanpaşa, one of Istanbul's largest districts, revolutionaries built a structure where they could solve their problems by creating an example of a democratic society. Thanks to this organization, the understanding that “there are revolutionaries in this neighborhood” took root. Gazi became an area where women and children felt safe.

 

Every problem that hindered social life was solved by the revolutionaries. These revolutionaries were not outsiders, but the neighborhood's own children. Gazi Quarter created its own revolutionaries. People's councils were established; solutions to problems in every area of life were produced here, and the neighborhood was woven together, stitch by stitch.

 

The state was disturbed by the unity and carried out a massacre

 

In Gazi, where revolutionaries had resolved their problems and established their own way of life, the state was not tolerated. The state responded to this revolutionary growth with a massacre. After the people increased their organization and the unity between Alevis and Kurds disturbed the state, the historic massacre of March 12, 1995, took place in the Gazi neighborhood. However, the defeat the state expected after the massacre did not happen; on the contrary, the people's struggle grew even stronger. The mass actions that took place laid the foundations for Gazi to be recognized as a “revolutionary neighborhood.”

 

Instead of physical attacks, a special war began

 

Gazi was undergoing its own autonomous process. It continued to defend itself against all attacks by the state. For a long time, attempts were made to dominate the neighborhood, but it became clear that this could not be achieved by force, because resistance to oppression was growing day by day.

 

Executions, kidnappings, and attempts to recruit agents intensified. Despite this, the people's trust in the revolutionaries was the most important bond that ensured these attacks were in vain. To break this bond, the state implemented special warfare policies targeting young people, in addition to physical attacks.

 

The revolutionaries knew what physical attacks were and how to repel them. However, they lacked experience and knowledge about special war methods. In Kurdistan, special war policies were usually implemented alongside physical attacks, so the Kurdish freedom movement was aware of the process. However, it took time for the revolutionary movement to recognize this policy.

 

Step by step, special warfare began to take effect in Gazi Quarter; the revolutionary neighborhood began to be associated with gang formation processes.

 

Tomorrow: Special warfare policies launched against the organized neighborhood