‘We are not Arabs and Taksim is ours’: YouTubed political agency, place-making and social exclusion of Syrians

Conceptualising place-making as a dialectic process that contributes to both empowerment and repression, this article examines a mediated and spatial form of ‘refugee voice’ and the reactionary responses to the presence of refugees through a widespread video from Turkey. By using video as a place-making tool, the paper investigates the political agency and reception of Syrians in Turkey through a recently controversial YouTubed event that showcases Syrians’ celebration of the New Year’s Eve in Taksim Square. This mundane event has received wide-ranging reactions on physical spaces as well as online geographies. To understand the online place-making practices of Syrians and reactionary Turkish ‘hosts’ and study the visual politics of the text and context of the video, the paper combines multimodal discourse analysis of the video and content and sentiment analyses of its YouTube comments. The paper contributes a digital perspective to both claiming rights to the cities and enclave societies in the so-called post-refugee crisis period, whilst throwing light on a new regime of nationalism in Turkey and on a global scale.