By Sefa Yürükel
The preparations for the NATO Summit in Ankara are not only a political coup that has suspended the constitutional order, but also a ruthless economic war waged against the city’s labourers, shopkeepers, and low income citizens. The process that the government calls “high level security” has reduced the turnover of small businesses to zero, paralysed daily life, and completely overturned the already fragile subsistence balance of the urban poor. In a city where press statements are banned, public transport is halted, and main arteries are blocked with concrete barriers, the government is imposing a virtual siege regime on its own citizens.
The headline “Ankara shopkeepers complain about NATO measures” is merely a summary of the catastrophe unfolding. The shopkeepers’ complaint is not an expression of grievance; it is the documentation of a systematic plunder. The government has loaded the burden and cost of an international summit onto the shoulders of its own citizens, to whom it grants no say whatsoever.
The New Victim of Securitisation: The Urban Poor and Shopkeepers
The Copenhagen School’s concept of “securitisation” has turned into a weapon in Ankara that targets not only political rights but also economic existence. By presenting “NATO Summit security” as an existential threat, the government has arrogated to itself the authority to completely halt normal democratic and economic functioning. This is not a security policy; it is an overt class attack.
The fact that shopkeepers are forced to close their workplaces, the severance of supply chains, the disappearance of customer traffic, and the evaporation of daily turnover are the direct and deliberate consequences of these policies. By severing the city’s economic arteries, the government is delivering the final blow to the low income segments already crushed under inflation and the cost of living. Here, security is the pretext for usurping the bread of thousands of labourers in order to ensure the comfort of a handful of international bureaucrats.
The Economy of Martial Law: Turnover Ceased, Debts Accumulated
The extraordinary security measures announced in Ankara, which will last for days, have created a “martial law economy.” The closure of main streets to traffic, the disruption of public transport, and even the decommissioning of some metro stations have paralysed not only transportation but all commercial life. While employees cannot reach their workplaces, shopkeepers have not only shuttered their businesses but have also been condemned to see their perishable goods go to waste and to be crushed under fixed expenses such as rent and bills.
Against this economic devastation, the government has offered shopkeepers no compensation mechanism and has taken not a single step to reimburse their losses. On the contrary, businesses that did not close their shutters during the summit were threatened with punitive sanctions. This is a direct seizure of the citizen’s right to property and freedom to work. The provision enshrined in Article 48 of the Constitution that “everyone has the freedom to work and conclude contracts in the field of their choice” has been nullified by a governor’s decree. By rendering its own citizens unable to do business or earn money in their own country, the government has deprived them of the right to support their families.
The Invoice of the “More NATOist than NATO” Mentality: A Summit Paid for by the Citizen
The government’s race to be “more NATOist than NATO” has once again handed the heaviest bill to the citizen. No NATO protocol dictates that the commercial life of a capital be brought to a standstill, that shopkeepers be condemned to hunger, or that the freedom of movement of the people be restricted to this extent. This is entirely the government’s own choice, its own show of force, and part of its own project of authoritarianisation.
The excessive sensitivity the government displays in ensuring the security of foreign diplomats has not been shown for a single moment for its own citizens’ right not to starve, to work, and to live humanely. The entire cost of the summit has come directly out of the pockets of the people in the form of cancelled jobs, unpayable rents, spoiled goods, and lost daily earnings. This is not a public service; it is the state economically punishing its own citizens. To appear amenable to international alliances, the government has coded its own people’s struggle for livelihood and their objections as a “security vulnerability” and suppressed them.
Conclusion: A Summit Against the People, A Coup Against Democracy
The NATO Summit to be held in Ankara in the coming days has become the most striking proof of how a state has alienated itself from its own citizens and how it now views them as a security threat. The silent scream of the shopkeeper, the closed shutters, the deserted streets, and a people imprisoned in fear behind security barriers: this is the concrete result of the government’s mindset.
This summit is not a matter of pride or prestige for the people of Ankara; it is a nightmare, a plunder, and a certificate of surrender. By disregarding the constitution, the laws, and fundamental rights and freedoms, the government has sacrificed its own people to the shadow of an international organisation. The shopkeepers’ loss is a debt inscribed in the ledger of this lawlessness. This debt, with interest, will be collected on the first day that democratic politics and popular sovereignty are restored. This grave economic massacre and these rights usurpations are the final gasps of a government that has long since lost its legitimacy, and they are unacceptable.
Bibliography
Agamben, Giorgio. (2005). State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Buzan, Barry, Wæver, Ole & de Wilde, Jaap. (1998). Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Rawls, John. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Constitution of the Republic of Turkey (1982). Articles 13, 26, 28, 34 and 48.
Veryansın TV. (2024). “Ankara Esnafı NATO Önlemlerinden Şikayetçi”. Available at: https://www.veryansintv.com/ankara-esnafi-nato-onlemlerinden-sikayetci
Sefa Yürükel
Danish ethnographer and social anthropologist (MA)
Aarhus University, 1997
Independent Researcher
Fields of Research: International Politics, Public International Law, Geopolitics, Sociology, Psychology, Cultural Studies, Systems and Structures.
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