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<article-title>Caricature as a Social Opposition Tool:  Caricatures of Gezi Park</article-title>
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<author>Tahsin Emre Firat 
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<aff>Ataturk University, Turkey</aff>



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<title>ABSTRACT</title>
<p>  Humor, which has been a means of amusement of almost all social classes since the ancient times, is also a way of self-expression, developing forms of opposition and criticism for these classes. Humor is observed to be considered a destructive power not only in oppressive societies but also in all society and regime types. On the other hand, humor is in a continuous verbal struggle and conflict with government. Not only political power, but also all power types in all aspects of life are exposed to the reversing effect of humor. Having demonstrated its impact on the Turkish political life since the beginning of 1870s, the caricature has confronted lots of censor attempts and lawsuits due to its political opponent attitude. The research question whether humor consists of a social &#8220;opposition&#8221; or &#8220;an altogether reconstruction of social relations&#8221; constructed by the government&#8217;s constituent statement is an important subject that should be paid attention to. In the scope of this study, social criticism and questioning the government shall be discussed through the caricatures concerning Gezi Park Protests. Gezi Park Protests started as a civil resistance with the aim of preventing the unauthorized construction of a shopping center on the park despite the present court decision which states that Taksim Gezi Park is allotted to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on the title deed for public service in Beyo&#287;lu district of Istanbul during the Third AKP government. Incidents taking place on the streets following the incident of construction equipment entering the park on May 27, 2013, turned out to be a country-wide social wave in a very short time. These acts also express the transformation of the objections arising against the dominant policies of the political government (abortion and alcohol prohibition, moral oppression on student houses, strict population policies, limitation of demonstration freedom, media censorship, etc.) into a stronger outcry. These and similar objections require that opponent statements arising in the context of humor-politics relations are examined through caricature examples. This study investigates anti-AKP caricatures as an opponent political stance strategy in the focus of political statement analysis, and evaluates caricatures about Gezi Park Protests published in various media organs. This study examined the assumption that the difference of the caricatures considered compared to previous equivalents with political quality consists of a civil social reflex.   
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<p><italic>Keywords:</italic> Political opposition, Humor, Caricature, Gezi occupy. </p>
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<hpdf>P4G163</hpdf>
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