(Image from the Media.)
The "Promenade Park Resistance" is continuing; in the midst of this mess he has created, Prime Minister Erdoğan has left the country on a diplomatic visit to Tunis, Algeria and Morocco.
Prime Minister Erdoğan waving bye-bye at the airport.-Don't hurry back!
(Image from the media.)
He seemed none the wiser on his way out, when addressing the press at the airport on June 3rd, 2013. He said things like: "For those who want rights and liberty for themselves, what about my rights and liberties?" (Hey, that should have been our line, Mr. Prime Minister!) He complained about property damaged by the demonstrators. I know that the code among demonstrators is not to harm anybody or damage anything but cannot vouch for them, so the burned vehicles Mr. Erdoğan alludes to may really be the acts of uncontrolled anger. I have personally witnessed a strange incident; as a crowd of demonstrators were disembarking from a ferry, a strange, rough-looking character on the pier made a remark to a woman, which created some reaction in the crowd. Then he punched a flag vendor squarely on the face. This prompted an immediate reaction, some young men from the crowd of demonstrators started hitting him back, but were immediately restrained by others who said "leave him, this isn't our way!" They were letting off and turning away when this strange man suddenly jumped into the water! For a moment he floated motionless, we thought he would drown. People shouted at him to stay calm, two lifesavers and a life jacket were flung at him from the ferry. He swam to one of them- he could, after all, swim rather well- and then started cursing at us. "I hope you get shot!" he said, to me as well.
So what do you make of it? Was it an attept to stage a show to demonstrate how brutal we demonstrators are?
There are rumors circulating of bands smashing up things to make the demonstrators look like an unruly mob- the "marauders" (çapulcu) of the Prime Minister's own parlance! Of course, at this stage of the game, it is difficult to sift the truth from the rumor, the exaggeration, and the disinformation, so I pass it on as hearsay. However, the videoclip below, of police trying to get at hiding demostrators, suggests that the police isn't too sensitive about private property:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovLwE3Nf0Gg
Back to the Prime Minister's comments at the airport; most of what he said is too nonsensical to translate, but one phrase was chillingly ominous! He said: "Right now, there is a 50% that we are barely able to keep indoors, we are telling them to stayhich is calm and not to yield to provokation." The man is threatening to unleash his fanatical rogues, his Assassin Sect, on the rest of us. He is trying to scare the free citizens of Ataturk's Republic to submission. How else am I supposed to understand it?
So what do you make of it? Was it an attept to stage a show to demonstrate how brutal we demonstrators are?
There are rumors circulating of bands smashing up things to make the demonstrators look like an unruly mob- the "marauders" (çapulcu) of the Prime Minister's own parlance! Of course, at this stage of the game, it is difficult to sift the truth from the rumor, the exaggeration, and the disinformation, so I pass it on as hearsay. However, the videoclip below, of police trying to get at hiding demostrators, suggests that the police isn't too sensitive about private property:
Back to the Prime Minister's comments at the airport; most of what he said is too nonsensical to translate, but one phrase was chillingly ominous! He said: "Right now, there is a 50% that we are barely able to keep indoors, we are telling them to stayhich is calm and not to yield to provokation." The man is threatening to unleash his fanatical rogues, his Assassin Sect, on the rest of us. He is trying to scare the free citizens of Ataturk's Republic to submission. How else am I supposed to understand it?
One of Erdoğan's 50% who couldn't be persuaded to stay at home?
A bully brandishing a club in Izmir.
A bully brandishing a club in Izmir.
(Image from the media.)
The bought-up television stations have been sticking to their usual innocuous proramming with only two channels, Ulusal and Halk, giving continuous live coverage, and of these two, Ulusal can only be reached through sattelite dish. The protesters were quick to voice their disgust, asking people not to buy products advertised on those channels- which is just about everything- and by marching to the giant NTV (Turkish Nergis Televizyonu) and demanding the resistance be covered!
Demonstrators at TV station protesting insufficient coverage of the events. The major media organizations are run by businessmen who owe their fortunes to the government. The protesters are offering money; the words say "whatever your price is, we'll pay!"
(Image from the Media.)
The social media has not only been widely used for communication and coordination between activists, it has also become a vast repository of documentation; people record what they witness with cameras, portable computers and cell phones, and share them on the internet. It is claimed that government-endorsed hackers are deleting images from the accounts. I don't know if it's true but I have personally witnessed an image disappear before I could copy it. Social media users urge each other to download images as "evidence" for a future, impartial justice.
"Don't touch my heritage!"
(Image from the media.)
Perfect slogan; the "heritage" alludes both to nature, and the Republic, two treasured values under threat due to the pro-capitalist fundamentalist neo-Ottoman policies of the AKP. Even as the defenders of the small Promenade Park at Taksim Square are being gassed and hosed down for their convictions, the AKP majority in Parliament is brazenly pushing to pass a new law potentially opening even natural park areas to construction.
Now there are talks with the President Gül and Deputy Prime Minister on one side, and spokesmen for the movement on the other. Engaging in talks immediately reduces the scope of the movement. The people rose with the hope of finally being rid of the AKP government and a reversal of all the wrongs of its ten year tenure- including but not limited to the hundreds in prison on trumped-up charges! (See, oh I don't know, there are so many; so at random, see: "Provocation: Silivri, April 8th", 13 April-Nisan 2013) If soft-spoken Gül and co. manage to diffuse the unrest, it will all get worse than before. The whole thing will probably be blamed on Ergenekon, the "terrorist organization" they invented to get every real and potential opponent out of the way by dragging them into prison and keep them under lock and key as the cases stretch out. (The first court hearing of the Ergenekon trials was on October 20th, 2008. Throughout the "Promenade Park" uprising, the Ergenekon trials at Silivri have gone on unabated. Tomorrow, June 6th, Labor Party Chief Doğu Perinçek will deliver his final defense.) With a return to normalcy, the whole cycle of planted evidence and trumped up charges will start again, prominent figures such as influential journalists and television commentators who backed the demonstrations will be targeted, lesser known names will appear in small news articles about suicides in the inner pages. In fact, I am just now hearing news about a roundup of "agitators" in Izmir from the TV inside.
Below is a small selection of images from Turkey's days of hope and glory!
Dawn march on June 1st across the Bosphorus bridge, to support the protesters at Taksim square! With the access roads, it's a very, very long way!
They had their taste of gas and water well before they got there!
They had their taste of gas and water well before they got there!
(Image from the media.)
(Image from the Media.)
The pair of photos above: Kate Cullen from Australia who took a sympathy to the cause,
defying the police and getting drenched for it, June 1st!
(Images from the media.)
(Image freom the media.)
(Image from the media.)
(Image from the media.)
(Image from the media.)
June 3rd, Ankara, Muharrem Dalsüren, municipal laborer, was hit in the eye by a gas cartridge.
(Image from the media.)
Abdullah Cömert, 22 years old, participated in demonstrations in Hatay, was killed during demonstrations on June 3rd, 2013. First reports where that he was shot with a firearm, later officials said there was no indication of a bullet wound, that he was apparently struck by a hard object. People who were on the spot insist it was gunfire. There have been several reports of deaths, this one was the first confirmed case as he was buried on the 4th. There has been one more confirmed death since, but everything is still fuzzy! There was at least one death before, on May 27th, when young Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, 20, was hit by a car when supporting demonstrationsin Ataşehir, Istanbul.
(Image from the media.)
Little old lady participating in the clanging-pots-and-pans action at the window!
(Image from the media.)
(Image from the media.)
Donations by supporters.
(Image from the media.)
(Image from the media.)
"Gone to resist, will be back!"
(Image from the media.)
Somersault with pressurized water, Taksim Square:
Pressurized water vehicle driving over demonstrator, Ankara:
Same thing from another angle:
I also found a fine montage to No Church in the Wild; the lyrics by Kanye West are hauntingly apt, considering the religious issues that are running as an undercurrent; the fundamentalist AKP government, the US "Moderate Islam" project which has little to do with moderation, and the reportedly very widespread infiltration of the police by the US-backed Gülen sect. (See: "Adultery and Espionage", 28 April-Nisan 2013, and "April 23rd and the National Center", 2 May- Mayıs 2013).
Human beings in a mob
What’s a mob to a king?
What’s a king to a god?
What’s a god to a non-believer?
Who don’t believe in anything?
We make it out alive
All right, all right
No church in the wild.
What’s a mob to a king?
What’s a king to a god?
What’s a god to a non-believer?
Who don’t believe in anything?
We make it out alive
All right, all right
No church in the wild.
"Take a sad song and make it better!"
Gas cannisters serving a more positive function.
(Image from the media.)
