2.5 million people attended Gezi protests across Turkey: Interior Ministry

2.5 million people attended Gezi protests across Turkey: Interior Ministry

    Sunday, June 23, 2013   No comments

Some 2.5 million protestors hit the streets across Turkey since the unrest began on May 31 over the attempt to demolish Istanbul's Gezi Park.

Only in two cities did people not attend protests while 79 cities witnessed big protests, the Interior Ministry’s record of protests said according to daily Milliyet’s report.

A large majority of the protests were staged in Istanbul and Ankara, according to the report, while Bayburt and Bingöl did not witness any protests.

Some 4,900 protesters were detained and 4000 people were injured including 600 riot police.

After the violent clashes slowed down, “standing man” civil disobedience protests increased in the country and everyday some 50 people stood silently in their cities’ centres.

The damage toll, on the other hand, showed that 58 public buildings and 337 private businesses were damaged while 240 police vehicles, 214 private cars, 90 municipality buses and 45 ambulances were left unusable.

Some 68 city cams, known as MOBESE, were also broken.

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Islamic voices against Erdoğan

Islamic voices against Erdoğan

    Saturday, June 22, 2013   No comments

About a week ago, another voice came from a more prominent and mainstream Islamic circle: “The Labor and Justice Platform.” At a meeting in the offices of Mazlumder, a leading Islamic Human Rights Organization, the members of the platform announced a declaration which condemned the “state arrogance” that the AKP government has shown against the protestors in Gezi Park. They argued:

“Ignoring Gezi Park protestors’ demands, and subsequently labeling them as ‘plunderers,’ reflects the arrogance of a political power that mistakes itself to be the country’s landlord. Ravaging of the environment, cars and stores were triggered by the rough treatment of the police, whenever police violence stopped, protests took a peaceful turn.”

The text went on reminding the persecution and humiliation that Turkey’s pious Muslims went through in the late 90’s, during the “post-modern coup” era, but argued that a similar process was taking place right now against the secular camp:

“We, as Muslims, have not forgotten how media abused the whole country, and sullied the innocent 15 years ago. Today, conservative and mainstream media are using the same language to terrorize a certain part of the population – what has changed then? Did we forget what police forces have done to our kids? Why should police be rightful in persecuting others who are not like us? Is justice not a divine command that has to be kept alive against every form of hatred?”

The signatories of this text include some two dozen prominent Islamic public intellectuals such as Ali Bulaç, Cihan Aktaş or Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu --- quite respected names in Islamic circles. They, probably, represent a larger segment among religious conservatives who might not be openly challenging Erdoğan but who probably find his growingly tough attitude not terribly helpful.
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Duran Adam (Standing Man), non-violent protest adapts and innovates in Turkey

Duran Adam (Standing Man), non-violent protest adapts and innovates in Turkey

    Wednesday, June 19, 2013   No comments

One man stood silently for more than six hours Monday night in Istanbul's Taksim Square, defying police who broke up anti-government protests weekend with tear gas and water cannon and drawing Hundreds of others to his act of civil protest.  Soon, hundreds of demonstrators stood still for hours in squares on main streets in several cities, mimicking a lone protester who started the trend on Istanbul’s Taksim Square and has been dubbed the “standing man.”



Hasan Kilic of the Istanbul Bar Association said as many as 68 people who have taken part in the widespread protests were in custody for alleged links to “terror” groups, while 33 people were being questioned by authorities and faced possible organized crime charges.

Erdem Gunduz, the protester who started the act, said he wanted to take a stand against police stopping demonstrations near the square, Dogan news agency reported. He stood silently, facing the Ataturk Cultural Centre which was draped in Turkish flags and a portrait of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from 6 pm (1500 GMT) Monday. By 2 am (2300 GMT), when the police moved in, about 300 people had joined him. Ten people, who refused to be moved on by police, were detained. On Monday night, police dispersed hundreds of standing protesters at Taksim Square.

More than 3,000 people have been detained since the anti-government demonstrations began, said the Human Rights Association.  Turkey’s widespread anti-government protests erupted across Turkey on May 31, when riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to remove trees and develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Istanbul’s famed Taksim Square.

'Standing man' inspires Turkish protesters amid raids

'Standing man' inspires Turkish protesters amid raids

    Tuesday, June 18, 2013   No comments

A Turkish man has staged an eight-hour silent vigil on Istanbul's Taksim Square, as police raided homes and arrested dozens in a clampdown on three weeks of violent anti-government unrest.

Erdem Gunduz said he wanted to take a stand against police stopping demonstrations near the square, Dogan news agency reported.
He stood silently, facing the Ataturk Cultural Centre which was draped in Turkish flags and a portrait of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from 6 pm (1500 GMT) yesterday. By 2 am (2300 GMT), when the police moved in, about 300 people had joined him. Ten people, who refused to be moved on by police, were detained.
Mr Gunduz, swiftly dubbed "standing man" on social media in Turkey, inspired hundreds of others to conduct similar protests elsewhere in Istanbul as well as in the capital Ankara and the city of Izmir on the Aegean coast.

The silent protests were in stark contrast to demonstrations at the weekend, which saw some of the fiercest clashes so far when police fired teargas and water cannon to clear thousands from Taksim Square.
What began in May as a protest by environmentalists upset over plans to build on a park adjoining Taksim has grown into a movement against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, presenting the greatest public challenge to his 10-year leadership.

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Hundreds of lawyers protest in support Gezi Park protests in Istanbul

Hundreds of lawyers protest in support Gezi Park protests in Istanbul

    Wednesday, June 12, 2013   No comments

Lawyers detained for joining Gezi Park protests released

Dozens of lawyers were detained for several hours by police at Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse today for joining the Taksim Gezi protests, which have been raging across the country for 15 days now.

A Special Forces Unit intervened in a protest being held inside the Çağlayan Courthouse, leading to a number of lawyers falling to the ground. This was the third such protest held by the lawyers to support the Gezi protesters in Taksim.

All 49 lawyers were subsequently released, Doğan news agency reported. Around 100 lawyers went to the police station to demand the release of their colleagues.

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Well done kids, well done

Well done kids, well done

    Monday, June 10, 2013   No comments

They are just about to say, “Secularist minds are on the stage again,” but then, they take a look and see: Those kids who have taken to the streets have no idea about the outdated and stale tension that is named the “secularist/Islamist contradiction.”

They are just about to say, “They are printing invitations for the military.” But they look around and see: Those kids who have taken to the streets are so colorful, so cheerful, so jovial, so fancy free… They have come to notice that let alone the color khaki, the possibility of these kids to wish to wrap themselves up in any one color is zero.

They are about to say “They cannot stomach persons who have strong religious beliefs.” They take a look and see that the kids who have taken to the streets issue communiqués to “Respect the Night of the Ascent;” some among them come out and declare, “I am religious and I am here.”

They are just about to say, “Their roots are outside the country…” They take a look and see that these kids who have taken to the streets are super non-aligned, super inexperienced, super flighty and super naïve… Let alone them having foreign roots, they do not have any roots…

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Massive rally illuminates Taksim as protests continue in Turkey

Massive rally illuminates Taksim as protests continue in Turkey

    Sunday, June 09, 2013   No comments

The Gezi Park protests entered another day as crowds gathered for a massive rally in Istanbul’s Taksim Square today, despite Ankara clashes that had occurred in the morning hours.

Cities nationwide continued to demonstrate in support of the ongoing protests, but Taksim again became the heart of the movement as thousands gathered for a rally scheduled to take place in the afternoon hours of June 9.

A stage was set up for the rally in the middle of the square, with protesters designing signs and slogans before it started. The rally, organized by the Taksim Solidarity Platform, which represents the protesters in Gezi Park, was represented by the platform as a response to the failed attempts at resolving the issue through meetings with government officials, namely Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.

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Erdoğan probably did not know thousands of people who voted for him were among those raising their voices against his government’s Taksim plan

Erdoğan probably did not know thousands of people who voted for him were among those raising their voices against his government’s Taksim plan

    Friday, June 07, 2013   No comments

I do not think Erdoğan guessed the Gezi Park protests would grow that much either. He was so confident on Wednesday that he defied the protesters and said the project will go on no matter what they do. And he chose to remain silent on the issue on Friday -- when the police crackdown turned most violent -- while speaking at an international event. I still cannot understand how the prime minister, who is known for not leaving any issue without comment, did not utter a single word on an incident that topped the agenda.

Yes, Erdoğan did what opposition parties could not do for years. He created his own opposition, which consists of various circles from the society including those who once lent full support to him. And if he does not return to his pro-democracy stance, this would prepare his fall in Turkish politics. İstanbul, his place of birth in politics, can bring him his political death.

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First ‘Friday prayers’ in Istanbul's Taksim after clashes

First ‘Friday prayers’ in Istanbul's Taksim after clashes

    Friday, June 07, 2013   No comments

A group calling themselves “Anti-capitalist Muslims” performed their first prayers all together while other protesters “stood guard” against any kind of provocation in Istanbul’s occupied Taksim Square on the 11th day of unrest in the country.

On June 5, a Quran reading took place at the square on Miraç celebration day. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also performed his prayers at a mosque located in Istanbul’s Asian side, Üsküdar Hz. Ali Mosque, away from protesters in the city center while the occupied Gezi Park witnessed “leftists” protection for the ones performing prayers. Erdoğan’s return from a three-day-long North Africa trip had given rise to thoughts suggesting that Friday prayers, which have a symbolic importance for Muslims, might turn into protests on the 11th day of the protests.

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A Turkish Spring? Over 1,000 Injured as Anti-Government Protests Spread Outside of Istanbul

A Turkish Spring? Over 1,000 Injured as Anti-Government Protests Spread Outside of Istanbul

    Monday, June 03, 2013   No comments

Turkish police abusing protesters

Turkey is seeing its biggest wave of protests against the ruling government in many years. Tens of thousands of people rallied across the country Sunday for a third consecutive day of mass demonstrations. The unrest erupted last week when thousands of people converged at Istanbul’s Taksim Square, a public space reportedly set for demolition. The protests have grown to include grievances against the government on a range of issues, and protesters have managed to remain despite a heavy police crackdown, including tear gas and rubber bullets. The Turkish government says around 1,000 people have been detained at more than 200 protests nationwide. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed the uproar as the work of political opponents and "extremists," vowing to proceed with governments plans to remake Taksim Square. "I cannot tell you how empowering this is," says Turkish scholar and activist Nazan Ustundag. "This is a country known for [police] brutality and for the Turkish people’s unquestioned loyalty to the state. So it’s very exciting all these different sections of people [are] standing [up for] the last public space which wasn’t given to private interests."

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Claims of government control over Turkish media: "While the whole world was broadcasting from Taksim Square, Turkish television stations were showing cooking shows"

Claims of government control over Turkish media: "While the whole world was broadcasting from Taksim Square, Turkish television stations were showing cooking shows"

    Sunday, June 02, 2013   No comments

"Erdogan does not listen to anyone any more," said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Istanbul's Bosphorus University. "Not even to members of his own party. But after the protests this weekend, he will have to accept that he is the prime minister of a democratic country, and that he cannot rule it on his own."

The dramatic events also exposed the complicity and almost complete government control of mainstream Turkish media, which largely failed to report the protests.

"The Turkish media have embarrassed themselves," Caliskan said. "While the whole world was broadcasting from Taksim Square, Turkish television stations were showing cooking shows. It is now very clear that we do not have press freedom in Turkey."

Human rights groups have repeatedly expressed their concerns about the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey, and Erdogan routinely criticises media outlets and journalists who do not agree with his views and those of his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP).

Opposition politicians urged Erdogan to listen to people instead of trying to silence them.

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Despite Horrific Repression, the U.S. Should Stay Out of Syria

Despite Horrific Repression, the U.S. Should Stay Out of Syria

    Wednesday, May 29, 2013   No comments

Syria

By Stephen Zunes

The worsening violence and repression in Syria has left policymakers scrambling to think of ways the United States could help end the bloodshed and support those seeking to dislodge the Assad regime. The desperate desire to “do something” has led to increasing calls for the United States to provide military aid to armed insurgents or even engage in direct military intervention, especially in light of the possible use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.

The question on the mind of almost everyone who has followed the horror as it has unfolded over the past two years is, “What we can do?”

The short answer, unfortunately, is not much.

This is hard for many Americans to accept. We have a cultural propensity to believe that if the United States puts in enough money, creativity, willpower, or firepower into a problem that we can make things right. However, despite the desires of both the right-wing nationalists and liberal hawks, this isn’t always the case.

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Prohibition & Humanism

Prohibition & Humanism

    Tuesday, March 05, 2013   No comments

“Pot’s Legal!” declared the Seattle Times in large print on November 7, 2012, while that same day the Denver Post ran the headline: “FIRED UP.” As two states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, an ancient debate is slowly rekindling. The term prohibition seems to be a remnant of an age long past, when mobsters wearing slick suits and fedoras sipped moonshine in speakeasies. However, as marijuana legalization enters onto the national stage, the word is quickly becoming associated with a new intoxicant. The religious and non-religious alike find themselves once again faced with a moral question that has haunted humanity since the first caveman stumbled across fermenting fruit: Should drugs be allowed?

For as long as drugs and alcohol have existed, society and religion have weighed judgment on their consumption. In ancient Egypt beer was a gift from Osiris, while in ancient Greece many praises were sung to Dionysus, god of the grape harvest and life of the party. However, many of the world’s younger religions have not been so friendly toward intoxicants. Buddhists, Muslims, and Mormons generally condemn drugs and alcohol as a form of evil, while Christians can’t seem to agree on whether intoxicants are a gift from God or a tool of Satan.

Christianity’s indecision on drug and alcohol policy is directly related to a number of contradictions in the Bible. In the beginning, it seems as if God tacitly accepts the consumption of booze. In Genesis, God’s right-hand man on earth, Noah, loves the stuff. Following the flood, he immediately plants a vineyard and lolls about naked and drunk once his wine has fermented (Genesis 9:20-25). As humanity repopulates, God’s people continue to sing praises for this apparent gift to man. The Song of Solomon contains beautiful poetry comparing the joys of love to the intoxication of wine (Song of Solomon 1:2, 7:9). Later, when the wine runs out at a wedding, God’s own son goes on a celestial booze-run, reinvigorating the party (John 2:1-11). Given that precedent, one would think that Christians would host keggers every Sunday. However, as Alcoholics Anonymous will tell you, there are many other Bible verses that simultaneously condemn the consumption of intoxicating beverages.

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Hamas in the New Middle East

Hamas in the New Middle East

    Saturday, November 24, 2012   No comments

“I salute all people of the Arab Spring, or Islamic winter, and I salute the Syrian people who seek freedom, democracy and reform.” Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya issued this declaration before a crowd at the Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo on February 24, 2012.

In 2011, Hamas withdrew its political headquarters from Syria and declined Bashar Al-Assad’s request to stage rallies in support of the Syrian regime at Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Haniya's statement simply confirmed that Hamas had officially broken ties with its longtime state sponsor in Damascus. The Arab Awakening ended the alliance that Hamas had formed with the Assad regime in the aftermath of the Palestinian group’s expulsion from Jordan in 1999.

The Syrian uprising placed Hamas in between a rock and a hard place. Even as Hamas sought to remain loyal to a regime that had provided economic aid and weapons during times of isolation, the group could not maintain an alliance with a regime that was brutally oppressing a Sunni-led opposition movement. Hamas' final calculation that severing ties with Assad would best further its long-term objectives was driven by an assessment of the Syrian crisis, particularly with respect to Palestinian refugees in Syria and Palestinian public opinion. However, the rising wave of democratic and moderate Sunni Islamism throughout the region was perhaps Hamas’ greatest incentive to break ties with Syria and pursue alliances with Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar.

Hamas is betting that new geopolitical realities in the region may offer it an opportunity to escape isolation, gain recognition as the legitimate representative of the Palestinians in Gaza, spread its ideology, and cultivate ties with neighbors. Nonetheless, by breaking ties with Assad and cultivating ties with Tehran’s strategic competitors, Hamas is jeopardizing its relations with Iran as well.

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OWS and the Downfall of the Smartest Guys in the Room

OWS and the Downfall of the Smartest Guys in the Room

    Sunday, December 04, 2011   No comments

by Sarah Leonard

The problem with Occupy Wall Street, an investment banker wrote to me, is that financial mechanisms are very complicated, and the protesters don't understand them. On the day that the New York occupation of Zuccotti Park spread to Washington Square, another visitor from finance looked out over the milling malcontents: "Things definitely went wrong, but you have to understand how the system works. Looking at these signs doesn't give me a lot of confidence."

And it was certainly true that, by themselves, the signs bobbing through the crowd urged a panoply of measures: Abolish the Fed! Tax the rich! Bail out the people! Lloyd Blankfein's head on a pike! Now! All this hectic sloganeering lent a sort of poignant sweetness to a placard that pointed out, reasonably enough, that "the economy could be more fair." But the mood got more rancorous the closer one got to the center of the action at Zuccotti Park, with anarchists, union folks, frustrated reformers, and hard-line anti-capitalists making up the bulk of the crowd. This was a far cry from a sensible policy luncheon at the liberal Center for American Progress.

And for some liberal critics of the Occupy movement, that's precisely the problem. The New Republic's first article on the movement by Mark Schmitt cautioned glumly, "Our Tea Party has come. And so all the good work and focused protests are tossed aside as liberals gravitate to the thing that looks and feels most like the early days of the Tea Party." The essay might have been called "Remember the Think Tanks!"

In a similar vein, consider the testimony of Peter Orszag, Obama's former budget director, darling of both the Democratic establishment and a media consensus uncritically accepting of his youthful good looks as telltale evidence of a fresh and creative interior. Rather than scolding the unruly masses at Zuccotti Park, Orszag hailed the virtues of the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street as generative of those experts who would provide the real solutions to economic crisis. After Orszag had left the OMB for the far grander emoluments on offer at Citibank he announced a paradigm shift in the making. "I am getting exposed to lots of different issues and problems, and that will then better inform my thinking and public writing," he informed New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman. "Direct experience need not undermine one's intellectual integrity; sometimes it can even bolster it."

...read Article.

Photo Credit: (RC) Reasoned Comments

OWS and the Downfall of the Smartest Guys in the Room

OWS and the Downfall of the Smartest Guys in the Room

    Sunday, December 04, 2011   No comments

by Sarah Leonard

The problem with Occupy Wall Street, an investment banker wrote to me, is that financial mechanisms are very complicated, and the protesters don't understand them. On the day that the New York occupation of Zuccotti Park spread to Washington Square, another visitor from finance looked out over the milling malcontents: "Things definitely went wrong, but you have to understand how the system works. Looking at these signs doesn't give me a lot of confidence."

And it was certainly true that, by themselves, the signs bobbing through the crowd urged a panoply of measures: Abolish the Fed! Tax the rich! Bail out the people! Lloyd Blankfein's head on a pike! Now! All this hectic sloganeering lent a sort of poignant sweetness to a placard that pointed out, reasonably enough, that "the economy could be more fair." But the mood got more rancorous the closer one got to the center of the action at Zuccotti Park, with anarchists, union folks, frustrated reformers, and hard-line anti-capitalists making up the bulk of the crowd. This was a far cry from a sensible policy luncheon at the liberal Center for American Progress.

And for some liberal critics of the Occupy movement, that's precisely the problem. The New Republic's first article on the movement by Mark Schmitt cautioned glumly, "Our Tea Party has come. And so all the good work and focused protests are tossed aside as liberals gravitate to the thing that looks and feels most like the early days of the Tea Party." The essay might have been called "Remember the Think Tanks!"

In a similar vein, consider the testimony of Peter Orszag, Obama's former budget director, darling of both the Democratic establishment and a media consensus uncritically accepting of his youthful good looks as telltale evidence of a fresh and creative interior. Rather than scolding the unruly masses at Zuccotti Park, Orszag hailed the virtues of the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street as generative of those experts who would provide the real solutions to economic crisis. After Orszag had left the OMB for the far grander emoluments on offer at Citibank he announced a paradigm shift in the making. "I am getting exposed to lots of different issues and problems, and that will then better inform my thinking and public writing," he informed New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman. "Direct experience need not undermine one's intellectual integrity; sometimes it can even bolster it."

...read Article.

Photo Credit: (RC) Reasoned Comments