I have to thank Türk Telekom for reminding me yesterday morning that Turks, well at least 50 % of them, are celebrating the first anniversary of the Gezi Park incident that I might have forgotten otherwise. Allah korusun! Let me tell you how I was reminded.

The twitter button on the page of an online article I was reading yesterday appeared to be inactive. I asked myself: “Are we back to the good old days of Twitter wars?”. At first I thought there was something wrong with the internet connection so I refreshed the page a few times.  My efforts were in vain, the page did not open. I failed. I then tried to enter Twitter’s own website. I failed again. I tried Facebook. Alas, I failed again.  As a faithful admirer of Samuel Beckett, I tried again and again and successfully failed again.  Finally, a funny message popped on my homescreen telling me that I had chosen the family protection web block option on my computer’s internet application settings. I simply could not access any social media platform! “Weird” I thought to myself. After all I had the same application for the past ten years. It also seemed a little bit off that I would have chosen to protect myself from “scary, scary” social media platforms which did not exist ten years ago.   I finally understood that TürkTelekom had invented default censorship.  At that very moment I remembered that it was the anniversary of the Gezi Parkı incident! I extend my gratitude to Türk Telekom for reminding me. I must also add, it is only getting better guys. I must confess I view this “you have chosen the family protection mode” scam as an improvement, from the boorish “I just do not understand Twitter-Mwitter, I will carve that out”. I must confess this new form of censorship has elegance to it. The Gezi spirit prevails and has made even censorship more graceful.

Gezi Parkı also prevails as Turks continue to turn to social media to fetch their daily news. I personally still find social media more reliable than the traditional one.  This may sound a bit oxymoronic but in Turkey this is the situation and remains  so  one year after the Gezi  incident. So if you ask me how the Gezi incident changed everyday life in Turkey? My first answer: Gezi exposed the state’s control over mainstream media, including  newspapers and television which is an important contribution in terms of transparency. Gezi was like a litmus test for all us. Since Gezi, we all know that Turkey has some modernization problems. It is good to know.

Gezi Parkı prevails. Gezi is the “Basta moment” of the Turkish creative class! In my opinion, the first  and only political moment of the 1980 junta generation. The spirit prevails. These have learned that they can have an impact on public policy decisions. And what an impact? If you have any doubts regarding the impact of Gezi,  just observe  the number of policemen on the streets this weekend. Especially around the Gezi Parkı in İstanbul. Gezi freaked out the ruling elite of Turkey a year ago and look who is still freaking out. Just count the number of policemen. If you ask me, this is all kind of positive.

So back to what I am going to do with TürkTelekom.  As of today I will cancel my internet subscription with them and look for an alternative - one which asks for my opinion before acting on my behalf. If you ask me, it’s a bit like Turkey in the 1930s: “If communism is what this country needs, then we will bring that to you, no need for you to think and do anything” the Ankara governor back then was reportedly saying. There has been no change in the autocratic mentality of our rulers for the last 90 years. Thanks to Gezi, we continue to learn and learn.

This commentary was  published in Hürriyet Daily News on 31.05.2014