Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Fragments of Repression and Resistance, Kumru Toktamis,Isabel David, Editör, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York, ss.45-73, 2025
On a sunny afternoon at the end of October 2021, following a dry summer
that deeply affected the grape production in the Alaşehir region—already
affected by dozens of geothermal centrals dispersed in this region—, we
met for an interview with a middle-aged peasant-farmer who owns a family
farm of grape production. To the initial question, “What meanings does the
word peasant have for you?,” with which we started all our interviews with
peasant farmers linked to Çiftçi-Sen, this peasant-farmer answered with a
quote: Atatürk’ün sözlerinden gidersek [köylü] milletin efendisidir.1
The Turkish word “efendi” can be literally translated as “master,” mean-
ing that the peasant is the backbone of the nation or the social group the
nation mostly relies upon. The word is also employed figuratively with the
meaning “respectful” or “the one that complies with.” Regardless of the lit-
eral or the figurative meaning, the importance of this quote is the role given
by the state to the peasantry,2 which for the ones acquainted with the rhetoric
of the newly founded Republic, comes attached with a strong paternalistic
analogy. It is not by chance that “Devlet baba” (“father state”)3 is still a commonly
used expression.
It is not intended here to overvalue the symbolical features of a single
quote in a single interview, but only to illustrate the main argument of this
chapter: the striking characteristic feature of the Turkish peasantry is its lack
of continuous and structured organization and political mobilization. This
is linked to the historical paternalistic appropriation of the peasantry by the
Turkish Republic,4 a trend that has been reinforced by the authoritarian populism of the ruling party in last two decades, the Justice and Development
Party (A.K.P.).