Chapulling

Chapulling ( tr, Çapuling, ) is a neologism originating in the Gezi Park protests, coined from Prime Minister Erdoğan's use of the term (roughly translated to "marauders")Luke Harding, ''The Guardian'', 10 June 2013
Turkish protesters embrace Erdoğan insult and start 'capuling' craze
/ref> to describe the protesters. ''Çapulcu'' was rapidly reappropriated by the protesters, both in its original form and as the anglicized ''chapuller'' and additionally verbified ''chapulling'', given the meaning of "fighting for your rights". AFP, ''The Express Tribune'', 8 June 2013
'Chapulling': Turkish protesters spread the edgy word
/ref> ''Chapulling'' has been used in Turkish both in its anglicized form and in the hybrid word form ''çapuling''.

The word quickly caught on, adopted by the demonstrators and online activists, and became a viral video. Many took the concept further by integrating the unique nature of the demonstrations and defined it as "to act towards taking the democracy of a nation to the next step by reminding governments of their reason for existence in a peaceful and humorous manner." Variations of ''chapulling'' were also coined for other languages.

Background

The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during a speech on 2 June 2013, referring to the protesters:

Pronounced "cha-pul-ju" in Turkish, the traditional meaning of ''çapulcu'' has been rendered in English in a variety of ways, including "marauders", "bums", "looters", "vandals", and "riffraff".

Reappropriation

The protesters quickly decided to reappropriate the term, and began to describe themselves as ''çapulcu''. Within days, the usually negative term was being used as a positive term of self-identification. International supporters of the Gezi Park events posted social media photos of themselves holding messages of "I'm a chapuller as well" in their own languages. The movement was supported by the linguist and political critic Noam Chomsky, who defined himself as a ''chapuller'', recording the message that "everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance".Huffington Post, 6 June 2013
Turkey Protests Snapshots: Yoga, Trash Crews And Barricades
/ref> Cem Boyner, Chairman of Boyner Holding, also supported the movement by holding a banner saying "I'm neither rightist nor leftist, I am a chapuller." The word became widely used on social networking sites, with Facebook users update their statuses to say that they were "capulling", and T-shirts and banners were produced with chapulling slogans, and a Ustream-based live stream from Gezi Park was launched under the name Çapul TV.

It was reported that the Turkish Language Association (the language regulator for the Turkish language) had changed the description of "çapulcu" in their online dictionary to mean "rebel" instead of its traditional meaning, "looter", in response to the events, but the Association said this was not the case. One online Turkish-English dictionary, Zargan, adopted the new word ''chapulling'' in what Agence France Presse described as "a gesture of solidarity with the demonstrators". It was also added to the Tureng dictionary and Urban Dictionary.

By 8 June the Turkish Patent Institute had received 16 applications for ''çapulcu''-related trademarks, covering items such as toilet paper, drinks, and a newspaper.

Following the protests in Turkey the Istanbul-based platform InEnArt presents Urban Voices which opens a critical view on cultural practices and phenomena that expresses the ethos, aspirations, and dreams of a specific population during a well-defined era and that triggered dramatic cultural changes. One section of Urban Voices focusses on the protest culture in Turkey as described with the neologism Çapuling. It describes and reflects the visual culture, humor and irony of the peaceful protesters (the Çapulcu) as it developed in many forms in Turkey during 2013.

For the exhibition Made in Turkiye presented by NoLaB in 2017 at Hasköy Spinning Factory, the participating artists continue to show a reflection on traditional Turkish culture by recreating old handcraft in an innovative, ironical and artistic way.

References

External links

* ekşi sözlükbr>"Chapulling"

* Instela
"Chapulling"

* seslisözlük
"Chapulling"

* Tureng Dictionary
"Chapulling"
* Language Log
"Çapuling"
Mark Liberman, 16 June 2013, 8:59 am. Accessed 16 June 2013.

{{Gezi Park protests

Turkish-language culture
2010s neologisms
2013 in Turkey
Political neologisms
Gezi Park protests