ABSTRACT
Focusing on the case of the Occupy Gezi Park movement, this chapter explores the reclaiming of public space by an "unsilenced city" and the politics generated by social and spatial occupation practices. It analyzes the political and spatial dialectics of the Gezi protests and occupation at the global, national, and local scales. The chapter further examines the political, social, and spatial crisis that occurred before, during, and after the urban resistance movement. It traces the influences of the movement on the political, social, and spatial practices and suggests that the Occupy Gezi Park movement continues to evolve in different ways. With its social, architectural, aesthetic, and urban characteristics, and also the apparent level of its design quality, the project became the focus of criticism from local inhabitants, professionals, intelligentsia, and artists. Gezi Park became a truly public space and for two weeks enabled people to express their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and dreams about the politics and just city-making.
