‘We are more than Alliances between Groups’:A Social Psychological Perspective on the Gezi Park Protesters and Negotiating Levels of Identity

The Gezi Park protests brought together people from a variety of walks of life. Though nearly half of the protesters claimed they had not previously participated in any kind of social action, protests were largely started and maintained through extant activists, NGOs and political organisations. Some members of these groups had previously protested together, but many were coming together for the first time. With the poorly-chosen words of Prime Minister Erdoğan, protesters were able to find a new identity under the guise ofçapulcu, which allowed them to see themselves as part of a greater whole while still maintaining their...