MAYDAY TODAY- BUGÜN BİR MAYIS

TÜRKÇE (For English text, please scroll down.)

Bugün 1 Mayıs 2013, saat 10:30. Günlerdir 1 Mayıs’a katılama çağırısı var- iki cepheden. Bir tarafta hükümete ve siyasetine karşı emekçilerle birleşen miliilyetçi ve Atatürkçü kesim, bir tarafta da hükümetin arakasında durduğu PKK’yı ve “açılım sürecini” destekleyen globalist, BOP’çu, “liberal”, artık ne isim verirseniz, o kesim. İzmir’de ilk grup Bornova’da, ikincisi Gündoğdu’da, Ankara’da ilk grup Tandoğan’da ikincisi Sıhhiye’de toplanıyor. İstanbul çok daha karmaşık- zaten şehrimizin çok sert ve zaman zaman kanlı 1 Mayıs geçmişi var! Bir çok yerde toplanma, Taksim konusunda hükümetle günlerdir süren karşılıklı çekişme! Gün inanılmaz tedbirlerle başlamış, Anadolu yakasından geçen vapur seferleri ve hatta motorlar durdurulmuş, Haliç köprüsü “açılmış” (yani geçişe yer vermeyecek şekilde ayrılmış),

otobüs ve metro seferleri iptal edilmiş! 

Haliç'te köprü, 1 Mayıs 2013.

(Görüntü medyadan.) 

Saat 9:00’dan itibaren gaz ve su haberleri gelmeye başladı, hatta helikopterlerden bile gaz atılmaya başlanmış- bu bir ilk! Yaralılar, ambulanslar! Şu anda içeride Ulusal kanal açık ve naklen yayından bağrışmalar, siren sesleri ve polis telsizlerinin "buliluliup" sesleri geliyor. (Diğer kanalların çoğu mutat niteliksiz yayınlarına devam ediyor, ama "sosyal medya" sıcak noktalardan anında gelen haber ve görüntülerle fokurdamakta!) İki CHP milletvekili gazın tesiriyle hastaneye kaldırılmış. DİSK sendika binasının içine ve Şişli Etval (Etoile) hastanesinin bahçesinde toplanan göstericilere de gaz sıkıldığı söyleniyor.

Biraz da konu değiştirelim: bu günkü Sabah gazetesinin ön sayfasından haber:

“YALE- HARVARD ERDOĞAN YARIŞI

“ABD’nin en iyi iki üniversitesi, Erdoğan’ı ağırlayıp fahri doktora vermek için çekişiyor.”

Affferin onlara!

Ben ise hâla “23 Nisan” yazımın video montajını yapmaya çalışıyorum. Olaylara yetişmek zor!

Gösterici gaz tenekesini geri fırlatırken- bugün!

(Görüntü Medyadan.)

A demonstrator flinging back a gas cannister- today!

(Image from the media.)

ENGLISH
The footnote links do not work; you will have to scroll down to to the footnotes for expanded information. There are only two footnotes in this article, so it shouldn't be much trouble.

Today is May 1st, 2013, “Mayday”, traditional day of the Working Man. 

“Mayday” has always been messy, that’s the way it has been around the world, and Mayday rallys in Turkey, particularly Istanbul, has on occasion been up there with the best in terms of violence and even bloodshed. 

This year was “special”; one of the long standing participants of the Turkish Mayday demonstrations have been activists taking up the Kurdish independence cause, now enjoying the favour of the AKP government and well on the way towards claiming the seperate Kurdish state they have so long desired. The other main participant has been, quite naturally, the Labor Party, as it very well should be. If you have been browsing through this blog at all, you will have noticed that the Labor Party has not only made common cause with the Nationalist Kemalist patriots, but has grown to become the leader uniting the movement, effacing political differences.[1] This has split the demonstrating crowds in two. It has been announced over the past week that government-backed crowd supporting negotiations with the PKK, and by implication the US-globalist project for a re-arranged middle east, were to assemble in the Gündoğdu district, “where the National Anthem was not to be sung”, and the “patriotic” one with flags and anthems at Bornova, In Ankara the split was to be: Sıhhiye for the first group, Tandoğan square for the second. 

In Istanbul the situation was much more complicated, with several venues declared, switched around,  
and Taksim square, traditional assembly point, was banned by the AKP administrators and contested by the organizers. 

The day started with extraordinary precautions, the city ferry lines and even the privately operated motor ferries to and from the Asian side were discontiniued, the drawbridge over the Golden Horn lifted, the buslines and subways to the

areas at a standstill. 

Bridge over the Golden Horn,

İstanbul, May 1st 2013.

 (Image from the media.)

We started receiving news of gas and pressurized water from 9:00 o’clock onwards. There is even news of gas discharged from helicopters- if true, this is a first! People wounded, ambulances going to and fro! The Ulusal channel [2] is on right now in the next room, transmitting live, with sounds of shouts, sirens, and tweeting police walkie-talkies. (Most channels are going on with their regular asinine programming, but the "social media" on the net are bubbling with the latest news from the hot spots!) Two Members of Parliament of the opposition CHP have been hospitalized for gas inhalation. The offices of a trade union (DİSK) were gassed, as were the demontrators gathered on the grounds of a hospital (Etoile, in Şişli).

Now for a change of topic; this morning's Sabah had this bit of great news on the front page:

"HARVARD AND YALE RACE FOR ERDOĞAN

"The two best universities of the US in competition to host Erdoğan and give him an honoraray  doctorate."

Gooood for them!

And here I am still trying to edit my footage of April 23rd! In Turkey, it’s hard to catch up with the whirlwind pace of events!

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[1] Even though the head of the party, Mr. Doğu Perinçek, is in prison, as is his son Mehmet Perinçek.

[2] Sattelite only opposition television channel, connected to the Labor Party (İP, İşçi Partisi).