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I
received the following e-mail from a friend on June 11th, 2013.
...I hope
you are all fine, safe and sound!
A friend of
mine, Sandra, works as journalist for the german magazin
"Focus". She would like to talk to people, who can tell her about the
demonstations in Turkey.
My first
thought was of course you.
If you
wouldn't mind her calling you for an interview, please give me or her
your phone number.
Maybe she
could talk to both of you!
She would appreciate your phone number.
I
wrote back immediately:
...I would be glad. We are in Annecy right now. Tell her to look at my blog
below for background information- I have been compiling it
for over a
year for just such a time. In fact, please pass on the link to everybody who is
willing to know. The Western public opinion is our only chance since the
governments have supported Erdoğan all this time.
Tell your
friend to write an e-mail at this address so we can arrange a talk. Or she can
write her questions and I can answer in writing, to eliminate
misunderstandings...
I added cell phone number as well as the number of the
hotel and the room number.
My friend must have forwarded my reply directly. I
received this mail from the journalist the next day,June 12th:
…I am the
friend of …, who is working for the German online-magazine FOCUS Online.
If I
understand it right, you wrote that you have been waiting for one year to the
protests. Does it mean, that you connected with other people who are against
Erdogan in the past. And that you`ve waited for the right occasion go on the
street to protest – in this case the demonstrations against unwanted shopping
mall?
And
have you been in Istanbul the last weeks? Or in Zurich?
In
your blog you are writing about old people who demonstrate against the
Erdogan-government. So would you say that young and old is against Erdogan? And
are the older people have the same reasons to go on the street as the younger?
What
exactly is your critic?
And may I
ask, what exactly is your background? Are you working in the animated-cartoon-business…?
Thanks a
lot for your answers.
Yours, S…
The misunderstanding
was amazing. From my words, the German journalist had somehow come to the
conclusion that I was involved in a plot to start the uprising a year in
advance. A terrifying insinuation for a person who lives in a country where
hundreds are in prison and on trial for alleged plots. I wrote back
immediately:
Hello
S..., thanks for writing. I have attached my response as a Word file. Please
write back to tell me you've got it. I can write more, just ask away!
And below is the text
in the attached file (minus the preliminaries):
...Normally I and my wife are resident in Istanbul. We
are now attending the animation festival in Annecy, France. The trip was
arranged, reservations made, and tickets bought a good deal earlier. Our flight
out of Istanbul was on the 7th of June, so we were in Istanbul up to that time.
We were spending the weekend in Switzerland before moving
on to Annecy. That’s when we heard of the demonstration in Zürich, so we went
and participated- it helped ease our consciences for being away at a time like
this.
During the protests we went to Taksim only once, choosing
a more quiet evening- june 1st . In my blog there is a link to a montage of
video images I shot that day, in the article entitled “Everywhere
is Taksim”, of June 2nd, 2013. We were not brave enough to go there
when things got really hot because we have a horror of being gassed since we
experienced its effect on Republic Day, Oct. 29th 2012. They call it “tear gas”
but that’s the least of it; it chokes you, you simply can’t breathe. It is
terrible not being able to get air into your lungs. We have done our protesting
in the safer Kadıköy area, on Bağdat Caddesi.
I am no hero; I have been apolitical all my life, have
never participated in a demonstration until Erdoğan’s AKP came to power. We
have been following the events on the Ulusal
and Halk channels, the only two that
have covered the events continuously and live. Ulusal can be reached only by sattelite dish and is supported by
the public.
Now to your question about whether I connected with other
people and waited for the right moment. No, that is not what I meant. What I
meant was that I saw it coming. It is the theme of my new years’ card for 2012,
well before the Taksim park protests. By then I had lived long enough under the
AKP regime to see where things were going.
Turkey has been under the AKP regime for ten years and we
have lived with the frustration of seeing Erdoğan’s AKP being lionized by the
US and Europe as a democratic, liberal government.
We have witnessed the best of the nation accused of
terrorism and jailed, with an infiltrated police providing the “evidence” and a
puppet judiciary conducting the trials. We have witnessed fundamentalism making
inroads as a part of government policy. We witnessed the AKP government conducting
a well thought-out program of pulling the Turkish Republic apart while feeding
an Islamist neo-Ottoman dream to the masses. We could see our armed forces
being systematically disbanded even as the government was committing itself to
a US-commanded operation against Syria- a war the Turkish people did not want!
The Western press was locked on Syria, refusing to
acknowledge the evils of Erdoğan’s AKP regime, honoring the President and Prime
Minister- partners in crime- with invitations, banquets, honorary doctorates
and the like. When the AKP government started cancelling national holidays, as
a part of its Islamizatin and Ottomanization process, I and my wife started
attending rallys. Coming up to the May 19th “Youth Day” celebrations, again
cancelled by the government, I decided to start a blog. In writing it I tried
to be as accurate and reliable as I could, checking sources and giving
references. I sent links to friends all over, but very few bothered to look at
it. Even though I had a very small readersip, I decided to keep at it, for the
day when things would come to a head and all hell would inevitably break loose.
I knew that then, people around the world would suddenly be curious about what
happened. Just over a year after I started the blog the house of cards
collapsed. I did not plan it, I was
not involved in it, I don’t have
activist friends- our closes friends are disturbingly uninvolved. The
inevitable came, it was the world who refused to see it coming, that is all!
In my blog I made a point of showing the faces of the people
who have been expressing their feelings against the government- there are
photos and videos. Go through the blog pages and look at them, you will see the
opposition to the AKP bridges the gaps between generations and social standing!
Whatever their differences in political opinions, they are united in their
conviction that Ataturk’s secular Republic is something worth preserving. The
older people remember the hope and pride of the days when the republic was
young, the new generation has taken Ataturk’s prophetic “Call to the Youth” to
heart, and we are all amazed at the accuracy of his predictions. See “The
Youth”, Dec. 16th, 2012.
Erdoğan and his AKP is conducting a program of
liquidating
the secular Turkish Republic as created under the
leadership of
Kemal Atatürk in the 20’s. The program was planned and put into operation by
the United States, as a part of its Greater Middle East Project which envisages
a new role for Turkey. The secular Turkey which was a useful ally during the
Cold War era is now unwanted; the US wants a “moderate Islam” model in the
Middle East which will have influence in the Muslim world while remaining a
loyal puppet of te US. A cleric named Fethulah Gülen, elementary school
graduate lauded as an intellectual, is the spiritual leader of the operation,
and he pulls the strings from his Philadelphia ranch.
“Moderate Islam” in this context means “obedient to
US/globalist interests”, not a more relaxed approach to
religion. As the
Turkish republic is made to disappear in small steps- they have even proposed
to remove the word “Turkish” from the constitution- religion is pumped up and
forced on the population, particularly the young. The educational system is
being rearranged to that end, and neighbourhood schools are being changed to
clerical schools, forcing the neighbourhood children already studying there to
submit or find a school elsewhere.
Turkey is being set up for war against Syria, and when
that’s done, against Iran, on US behest. Syrian refugees have been circulating
armed and freely instead of keeping to their camps, much to the discomfort of
the population in the area. Two massive explosions in the Hatay region have
disrupted the peace there recently, one blamed by the government on Syria,
which has no reason to open a new front against Turkey, and the other on the
Alawite population, often targeted by the Sunni Erdoğan himself, a dangerous
provokation which the local population thankfully did ot swallow.[1] The concensus among the
local population attributes the bombings to the Syrian insurgents.
Erdoğan’s warlike talk exceeds even US expectations. He
tries to make the idea palatable to his countrymen by invoking Ottoman glory-
see “War
Drums of a Non-Militarist Government”, September 18th, 2012.
Ataturk himself eschewed expansionism.
Among the “successes” of the AKP government, the US and
the Europeans count the “reigning in of the military” and
“ending the war with
the PKK”; both of which would be
counted as treason in those very countries
applauding it. The Turkish Armed Forces is a constitutional organization, as
indeed are the forces of any sovreign state. None of the three military
interventions of the history of the Republic was made in peaceful
circumstances; if the policies of the interim governments can be criticised, so
too should be the civilian governments which have led the country into the
chaos that led to the interventions. Just today, the democratic civilian AKP
government arrested some 30 protesting lawyers at Istanbul’s Palace of Justice.
Democratic and civilian indeed!
To make sure that this time the military would not execute its duty to protect and
defend the Republic while the AKP overturns everything that was created by
Ataturk and fellow reformers, the AKP has launched a smear campaign enforced
with dubious informants and planted evidence. The coming Kurdish independence
is fed to the public as an expansion,
a federated Turkish-Kurdish state that will take in northern Iraq as a new
Ottoman state. The disappointment will be great when they find it is really a
loss of territory, de-facto and unnegotiated, with populations split along two
sides of the new border.
The Turkish population rising for the park in Taksim did
not rise because it was the last straw; that had come long ago but people had
no hope. The day-long protests at the Silivri prison had no chance to grow,
isolated as they were miles out of Istanbul; the May 19th and October 29th
rallys were signals to the government- we will
celebrate the important days of our republic’s history! Mayday, violent as it
was, was over in a day. The one thing that was different about Gezi park was
that, once the police attacked, the struggles took long enough for people to
rally in support. And as the struggle stretched on and snowballed they gave the
people hope that this time, maybe, the nightmare would be over.
I have tried to answer your questions, am ready to write
more if you want; ten years involves a lot of material. But thank you for
asking! And please, let everybody
know! The Western governments are content to see Erdoğan and his AKP in power;
the Western public opinion is our only hope!...
I believe I answered
everything she asked, and the blog has enough material to set a journalist into
action.
I got this answer,
again on the same day.
…thanks a
lot for the detailed answer!
We are
considering to take it – shortened and slightly modified – as a guest article
on our news site (in German). Today, unfortunately I am concerned with other
things. But in case we would like to publish your remarks: Would it be okay for
you? And would it be okay to publish them with your complete name – perhaps a
picture?...
So- they asked for information to help them compile an article, and the next day it became a “guest article”; it was starting to look like Focus was hesitant about seeming to take a position on the issue. I wrote back immediately, same date again, June 12th 2013:
So- they asked for information to help them compile an article, and the next day it became a “guest article”; it was starting to look like Focus was hesitant about seeming to take a position on the issue. I wrote back immediately, same date again, June 12th 2013:
Hello again. You may use my name. As for a photo, I don't
think I did
anything to merit being honored with a picture;
why don't you put one of the
excellent photos that appeared in the media? I am attaching my favorite. But if
you think it is more suitable for your page layout to have a personal photo of
mine, I will find and send you one.
I am also attaching my newyear card for 2012, to show you how easy it was
to to see where the country was going even way back then. It was half a year
before I started the blog!...
The picture I attached was the very
dramatic photo I used at the opening of my article “Promenade Park Uprising, Continued”, 5 June-Haziran 2013. As for m new year’ card for 2012, prepared through
the last months of 2012, see below!
New years’ illustration for 2012; the idea makes
reference to the excellent Disney-Pixar production, Up (2009). In this case, the house (my wife’s village chalet)
floats over a scene of social chaos that was brewing even then and was bound to
explode one day.
Detail.
The reply from the
journalist from Focus came swiftly, again on the same day:
…thanks. I will send you a link in case we publish it.
Best regards, Sandra
I haven’t
received a link yet.
[1] Explosion
at the border crossing at Cilvegözü, Hatay, Feb. 11th, 2013. Explosion in
Reyhanlı, Hatay, May 11th, 2013.
Reyhanlı.
(Image from he media.)
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