Traces of the 1960-1980 period: temporality, generation and memory

In this thesis, focusing on the collective memory of the sixties and seventies, the principle theme is how the social experience of the period is remembered and interpreted today. This period represents a distinctive moment of experience in Turkish history for being stuck between two coup d'états, marked in the middle by a military memorandum — or a soft coup —, having significant historical events, a constitution prioritizing citizens, distinctive cultural practices, social movements, and ways of thinking and acting. Accordingly, I argue that this period, which had a shared effect on individual memories, created a unique generation experience and memory. The sixties and seventies, mentioned with a special bracket in Turkish history, stand out as a period when the political determination was very intense compared to its before and after. In addition, this period, which hosts a libertarian and conflicting environment simultaneously, draws attention due to its remarkable impact on the intersection of individual and collective moments as a time marked by significant historical events. In this regard, I try to understand how the past manifests itself as memory in the present through the narratives of people who have experienced the period. Although each generation tends to see the time in which they live unique, I argue that the lives, guided by significant historical events in the sixties and seventies, settled within a sharper frame of experience.