How were special war policies implemented in Gazi? 

 

Rozerin Gültekin 

 

ISTANBUL - When the state failed to achieve results through military pressure in the Gazi Quarter, it resorted to special war policies. The neighborhood was besieged by gangs, drugs, prostitution, illegal gambling, and sects. Women were targeted in an attempt to deepen social disintegration. 

 

Unable to achieve results with military methods against the growing resistance described in the first part, the state this time implemented special war policies in Gazi Quarter.

 

Knowing that, as seen throughout history, peoples cannot be physically eliminated, the state this time directly targeted the social fabric. Open attacks gave way to special warfare methods that were invisible but eroded every aspect of life.

 

The aim of these policies was assimilation, cultural genocide, and corruption. The definition that “social genocide is a more dangerous form of genocide than ethnic genocide” summed up the scale of the process. The goal was to create individuals who had been severed from their essence and served the interests of the system through special warfare. These policies, implemented in the Gazi, where Kurds and Alevis predominantly lived, aimed to deepen social disintegration where military pressure had failed to achieve results.

 

According to the information we gathered from the neighborhood, special warfare was carried out step by step in Gazi as follows...

 

The intensifying special war since July 15

 

Following July 15, 2016, operations targeting revolutionary structures in Gazi continued for months; many people were arrested, exiled, and the struggle was weakened. This weakening paved the way for the intensification of special war attacks. During the most critical period of this process, the Patriotic Democratic Youth Movement (YDG-H) tried to protect the neighborhood by developing self-defense. Composed of young people raised in the neighborhood, YDG-H resisted both physical attacks and special war methods. However, with the declaration of self-administration in some cities of Kurdistan, YDG-H was forced to withdraw from the neighborhood.

 

Methods used to introduce special warfare into the neighborhood

 

One of the methods used to introduce special warfare into the neighborhood was through song bars. These venues, which displayed pictures of revolutionaries and opened under the guise of being opposition establishments, multiplied rapidly. In these areas where alcohol sales intensified, young people were targeted to be detached from the revolutionary struggle through consumption. The state responded to the revolutionaries' interventions with force. Thus, the state preferred special warfare methods over physical repression.

 

The state, unable to enter its own neighborhood, turned it into a gang territory

 

Adana Quarter, located right next to the police station, became an area used for drugs. Drug trafficking continued right next to the police station since the 2000s; despite this, no serious intervention was made. There was deep anger in a poor neighborhood like Gazi, and the state directed that anger to different areas. Realizing it could not enter the neighborhood by force or through gangs, the state this time targeted young people and established its own gang structure. Young people with no ties to revolutionaries gathered around it, attracted by money and weapons. In this process, a new jargon emerged, and they defined themselves around the concept of “big brother.”

 

One aspect of this special war was television series that appeared innocent. Characters who grew up in poor neighborhoods and gained “respectability” by joining gangs were presented as role models to young people. Poor young people, aspiring to this lifestyle, were directed towards gangs both with the hope of escaping poverty and the desire to gain power.

 

The special war individualized the revolutionaries

 

The areas controlled by the revolutionaries became monopolized with the special war process. Everyone claimed their own territory and pursued individual interests. When the united structure disintegrated, the state was able to enter the neighborhood more easily. The people reacted to this disintegration because they could no longer find the revolutionary ideology they trusted. The people, who initially supported the revolutionaries, were torn away from them by special war policies. Thus, the trust in the revolutionaries was seriously undermined. 

 

The neighborhood's demographics were changed

 

The demographic structure of the neighborhood was changed, and people known for their political Islamist identity and members of religious orders were settled there. In this way, a revolutionary neighborhood was sought to be stripped of its essence. With this step, space was opened up for religious orders and similar structures by the state, and the assimilation policies that had been going on for years were deepened.

 

Sects began to organize rapidly in the neighborhood. Hediye Hanım Mosque and Merkez Mosque became the central bases of this organization. The Halfeti, Süleymancılar, and Menzil sects established themselves in Gazi. The poor people living in shantytowns, in particular, became the main target audience of these structures.

 

Class conflict paved the way for the special war

 

Illegal gambling quickly began to spread. The public backlash against drugs and prostitution shifted direction this time; however, this anger could not be organized in the same way against illegal gambling. On the contrary, the anger caused by poverty was used to portray gambling as an innocent pastime and presented solely as an easy way to make money.

 

Class conflict paved the way for private warfare because there were no longer any revolutionaries, young people could not turn to the political arena, and they were defenseless against private warfare. Money was used as the primary tool in private warfare. Armed groups and gangs proliferated with the easy money, and arms trafficking became widespread. Private war attacks were intensified through gangs. Taking advantage of poverty and anxiety about the future, gangs bound young people to their own interests by offering them status and power. This order, which appeared to be based on consent, was actually a reflection of the disregard and anger of young people.

 

Women are being driven into prostitution and suicide

 

Prostitution became one of the most important steps in the special war policies targeting women. With the introduction of drugs into the neighborhood, an organic link was established between prostitution and gangs. According to testimonies, women were addicted to drugs and driven into prostitution. Women were raped after being given drugs, the incidents were recorded, and they were threatened with the footage being shared. In this climate of violence, women were turned into tools at every stage of the special war. Videos of women who refused prostitution were sent to their families; this pressure drove many women to suicide.

 

On the other hand, similar to the policies implemented in Kurdistan, police officers establish romantic relationships with women and force them into prostitution. Those who initially play the role of the “good cop” secretly record the women's images with hidden cameras and threaten to publish them. The women are then sold to gangs for money. According to information we obtained from neighborhood residents, prostitution is most prevalent in the 50th Year Neighborhood, Gazi Dört Yol, shantytown areas, some houses in Gazi Düz, and at the Vega Shopping Mall and European Housing at the entrance to Gazi Neighborhood.

 

Who are these gangs?

 

Arap Emrah, the Nalbur gang, Baran Engin, Caner Subaşı, Çağlar Subaşı, Arap Erkan, and İlhami Genç are involved in numerous crimes, including check and promissory note fraud, debt collection, loan sharking, drug trafficking, prostitution, arms smuggling, and arms sales. The Barış Boyun gang, known as the Daltons, mostly hires children to carry out motorcycle executions and assaults in exchange for money.

 

The group led by Volkan Rençber is prominent for drug dealing, gambling, and extortion. The Bingöllüler gang consists of relatives of village guards and is alleged to act in direct cooperation with the state. The Robin Hood gang is known for money laundering, gambling, and collection activities.

 

Forgetting this memory will not be easy

 

The Kurdish freedom movement and revolutionaries continue their struggle in the neighborhood against all these special war policies. Gazi lives on in people's minds, in history, and in the spirit of the neighborhood, as much for his revolutionary struggle as for his association with gangs. Forgetting this memory will not be easy.