Neighborhood Effect and Millet Kiraathane as a Space for Political Communication

Coffee-houses (Kahvehane) and Public Reading Houses (Kıraathane) are two public places where people enjoy their free time sipping their teas or coffees and talk about politics. In the Turkish society, since 1500s, during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, these two places have been spaces where politics is intensively discussed, decision is given for the selection of political power and where the government is criticized. In addition to being public reading house, the Kıraathane can be defined as a place where people have been enlightened from the past to the present, the political power is criticized where urban and rural life are united while drinking coffee and tea. These public reading houses are spaces open to the public in the ottoman empire during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, where the authority was thought to be weakened by means of the rumors in these places. On the other hand, the coffee-house is a place where the local people taste their coffee originally from Yemen and discuss how to overthrow the political power, discuss daily problems and make philosophical debates. During the Ottoman Empire, coffee houses were very often shut down in case riots could arise among the people by giving the excuse that coffee was not good for health and should be forbidden for religious reasons. Coffee-houses and public reading houses are places today where political communication is often established, and the neighborhood effect is most often felt. It can be described not only as tea-coffee drinking places where free time is passed, but also as places where voter behavior begins to form and democracy is created. In one study on coffee-houses, it is mentioned that in the 1960s there were not coffeehouses in the southeastern Anatolia in Turkey since the sheiks or leaders of the clans in the region did not want any opposition to their authority and rule. Based on this example, it is clear that the coffee-houses and public reading houses are spaces for political communication and democracy due to the neighborhood effect. It is also the place of the civil society where the citizens are expected to socialize. It is a place of letting the political culture live. In this respect, Kıraathane is a means of preserving the national values and local traditions. On the other hand, Kahvehane and Kıraathane, which are seen as leisure spots, are regarded as a demonstration of unemployment. Just as these spaces are a reflection of the economy, they are also projections of democracy in the public sphere. In the present work, after giving a historical background about the coffee-houses and public reading houses in Turkey, we will deal with the literature on these spaces from critical theory perspective of Jurgen Habermas. However, these public spaces are often gendered places in which men are predominant. They are places where men seek to give political decisions by talking to their friends. The neighborhood effect can therefore account for the voting behavior of women who are given less opportunity to participate in these spaces because of their gender. Thus, we will examine the public sphere, the voting behavior and the neighborhood effect by taking Kahvehane and Kıraathane as a case. We will consult the secondary sources in order to examine the case. In Turkey, the political power (ab)uses coffee-houses and public reading spaces as venues for their political campaigns. In fact, during the campaigns for the general elections on the 24th of June 2018, one of the commitments of the political power was on transforming the Kıraathane from places where only rumors are made into those where people read, learn and effect others while enjoying snacks for free. © 2019 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.