International diffusion of opinions and practices: Occupations of universities in Turkey between 1968 to 1970.

1968 movement is one of the movements that is often discussed in the literature of social movements. The fact that the movement mobilized each sector of the societies all over the world is the most important reason. This movement points out a symbolic period from black civil rights struggle of U.S. in 1965 to 1970s. The movement which rose immediately in Europe diffused to different regions of the world especially with the Vietnam War.In Turkey, the movement began particularly with the opposition of the student movement against to applications of the Democratic Party in 1960s. After the military coup of 27 May, Left movement and organizations played a leading role in the movement with the diffusion socialist ideology. In this process, international elements are seen in terms of ideas and practices in the student movements. The most important ones are the student movements in Europe and anti-emperialist movements in Third World countries. The most important reasons of this interaction are the rise of anti-American character of the movement in Turkey and initiator status of the movements of Europe.With the intellectual diffusion, international elements were also found in the protest tactics and forms, used in the movement. In this respect, untested and new protest tactics were also used in 1960s in Turkey. The most important ones are occupation, boycott and strike. Particularly occupations of universitythat started at the Faculty of Language, History and Geography in Ankara on June 10, 1968 increased the dynamism of the movement.There are two important channels that provide international diffusion of the ideas and practices to Turkey. These are newspapers and translated books or articles. Especially newspapers played an important role to spread of the protests of occupation. Besides after the first university occupation, that protest spread to other universities of the country and to a wider community. Federation of Opinion Clubs which had an important location in the student movement had a privotal role. Apart from this, forums from which the mass and democratic discussions were conducted and universities which had greater autonomies and resources faciliated the separation of the occupations.Indeed, particularly the action of occupation in 1969 wasn?t only a form of protests that students used but also it started to spread to the actions of workers and peasants. Dev-Genç?s participation and support in these occupations explains the separation among sectors. As a result, occupations in Turkey not only were an instrumental means, but also they helped getting the identity of the movement.Key Words: diffusion, repertoire of action, cycle of protest.