Devlet stratejilerinin bir tezahürü olarak polis alt-kültürü: 1960 sonrası Türkiye'de polis teşkilatında hakim olan söylemlere dair bir değerlendirme

Abstract

This paper aims to scrutinize the sub-culture of the police organization in post-1960 Turkey. It is an accepted fact that the police officers experience a socialization phase after they join the police cadres and consequently internalize the dominant norms, values and social codes which constitute the sub-culture of the organization. These norms and codes crystallize in the everyday practices of these officers. Examination of the journals published by the police organization in Turkey as well as the interviews conducted by the author in 2005 reveal that the subculture of the police is marked by nationalist-conservatism which incorporates mainly the fervent endorsement of Turkish identity and the Sunni sect of Islam, a recurring emphasis placed on the "perpetuity of the state" as well as the "homogeneity of the social body", a self-representation as an altruistic "public order army" and an increasing division between "citizens" and those called "terrorists/criminals". This orientation is combined with the "enemization" of certain groups. In the 1960-80 period while the groups labeled as "anarchists/communists" were subjected to this "enemization" process, in the post-1980 period it was expanded to include ethnic/religious groups which pose a challenge to the political power in addition to the leftist groups and certain trade unions as well as the poverty ridden neighborhoods of the big cities which are criminalized because of the relative increases in the crime rates. These neighborhoods are mostly constituted by Gypsies and Kurds the latter of whose ranks were swelled because of the forced internal migration waves caused by the war waged, from 1984 onwards, in the Southeastern provinces against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). In the 1990s, certain discursive elements based on human rights and public relations were added to this legacy. This sub-culture of the police in Turkey is examined in the paper by theorizing the police as the visualized state power on the street having wide discretionary powers and a social role of "conducting the conduct" of individuals in accordance with the "subject positions" endorsed by the state. It is argued in the paper that the police sub-culture-rather than being formed solely by the inner dynamics of police practices or flawed policies- takes shape under the impact of deliberately devised power strategies of the state. Therefore, the sub-culture of the police in Turkey is constituted under the impact of the hegemonic discursive formations in the country fashioned by the state which has built a hegemonic authoritarian, militarist, nationalist-conservative rationality until the 1980s supplemented by an "exclusionist" neo-liberal one in the post-1980 period. This argument is supported by underlining the similarities between the recurring discursive practices of the police officers and the elements of this hegemonic rationality in the country shaped by the state and based on an extensive examination of the primary resources published by the police organization, in-depth interviews conducted with police officers and secondary resources on Turkey.