Privatization of Security as a State-Led and Class-Driven Process: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

Private security has become a central form of everyday policing in the Southern and Northern countries alike, and has thereby redefined the modern conception of security, conventionally understood as the exclusive domain of the state. The relevant academic literature has seemed to problematize the issue either as a facet of the erosion of state monopoly of violence or as a dispersion of neoliberal governmentality. These positionsneo-Weberian and neo-Foucauldian, respectively -fail to grasp both the role of the capitalist state in the privatization of security and its class character. The Turkish case is quite telling about the constitutive role of the state in this process, which has been a class-driven project, reflecting contested class relations, from the 1960s to the 2000s.

The Transformation of Internal Security and of the State in Turkey during the AKP Rule: A Class-Based Analysis

“…), as represented by the establishment of Rapid Action Units in 1982, Special Operation Teams in 1983, the Anti-Terrorism and Operation Department in 1986, the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act in 1991, and the re-organisation of Special Operation Teams within a separate section called Special Operation Department in the Security General Directorate (GSD) in 1993 (Berksoy 2010;Balta-Paker 2010). Moreover, the private provision of security proliferated in the same period, with the establishment of legally ambiguous contracting companies (Hülagü 2011a;Dölek 2011Dölek , 2015.…”

“…For instance, Mehmet Eymur, the former head of the Special Operation Department, established one of the first private security companies in 1990. This public-private symbiosis has continued thereafter through various extra-legal practices such as ensuring privileged treatment in public procurements in the field of security, or the illegal utilisation of public services for the sake of private security interests (Dölek 2015).…”

“…This ultimately means that private security guards have been mainly recruited from the lower social strata. That is, a considerable portion of Turkey's working class has been employed in the security sector in one way or another to serve as guardians of private property against the potential threats coming from other sections of the urban poor (Dölek 2015). This is one of the trends, which has gradually restructured the security provision along class lines.…”

“…10 34 students died in Suruç on 20 July, and 105 people died through suicide attacks in Ankara before a peace rally on 10 October. For a comprehensive analysis of the formation of private security sector in the pre-AKP period, see Dölek (2015). 13 This part of the article largely benefits from the unpublished PhD thesis of Hülagü (2011b) in terms of examples and empirical findings.…”

Human Rights Discourses in the Context of the Regionalisation of Border Regimes: Comparing Mexico and Turkey

“…5188 on Private Security Services, 26.05.2004. 12 For a comprehensive analysis of the formation of private security sector in the pre-AKP period, see Dölek (2015). 13 This part of the article largely benefits from the unpublished PhD thesis of Hülagü (2011b) in terms of examples and empirical findings.…”