Youth au Féminin
Gendering Activist Memory in Turkey
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20070206 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lucie Drechselová (0000-0001-5203-7364, Centre d'études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques, corresponding author), Lucie G Drechselová |
| Year | 2022 |
| Pages | 127-142 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-23 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Youth and Memory in Europe (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | De Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/9783110733501-009 |
| OpenAlex | W4293061637 |
| ISBN | 9783110733501 |
| Language | FR |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
The student leader and guerrilla fighter Deniz Gezmi, who was put to death by the Turkish state in 1972, became the symbol of Turkish youth activism of the 1960s-70s (Erbil, this volume). In a widely circulated photograph, Gezmi stands in the courtroom during the first trial of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO), the far-left armed group, which he co-founded. Gezmi has his finger pointed towards the invisible addressee while making what looks like a fervent speech. The image appeared on the cover of a 1974 book about the THKO trial, a unique collection of legal documents published by Gezmi' lawyer Halit elenk (Figure However, the photograph was cropped to exclude a woman in light-coloured dress seated to Gezmi' left. In most of the reproductions of the image, Sevim Onursal, the only female defendant in the 1. THKO trial, is either missing from the picture (as in elenk's book) or her presence is blatantly ignored, as exemplified by the description in Bedri Baykam's book (Figure Baykam notes a well-known activist to Gezmi' right, but Sevim Onursal on the left goes unmentioned. Historical and cultural attention tends to be concentrated on Gezmi and his male comrades. Such male-dominated representation is particularly pronounced when it comes to Turkish youth's involvement in political struggles. Demet Lksl (2009), Berna Pekesen (2020), and, in this very volume, Duygu Erbil have shown that in Turkey, "youth" refers principally to young men. The martyred Deniz Gezmi is central to and emblematic of these masculinist representations of political youth. In turn, it was mostly menespecially those men who wrote memoirswho created and limited the image of womanhood in Turkish activism of the 1960s and 70s
Political science · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Turkey's Politics and Society
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |