POL-UA 540 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Taksim Gezi Park, Henri Prost, Ottoman Empire
23 Nov 2016
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Lecture 18 - the urban form of turkish politics. Take away: the 2013 gezi park protests and the 2016 post-coup attempt protests seem very different, but both share commitment to public sphere (especially taksim square) Urban governance in turkey under ottoman empire. Not alot until late 19th century because it wasn"t supported by the ottoman state. Ottoman state didn"t have resources to do this, they had to wait for fires to open up new urban space to change. Urban reform was a crucial component of tanzimat reforms. Case study: private taps vs. public fountains. Waqfs - supported urban development during the ottoman empire. Change to private taps disrupted the public sphere and removed symbol of power/authority of the sultan (public fountains were given by sultan, and taps rendered them obsolete) Therefore, the switch to taps created a crisis of legitimacy for the sultan. Going from free water to water one had to pay for.
