‘DEMOCRATIC’ TURKEY KILLS, REPRESSES OWN CITIZENS
– JUNE 5, 2013
By Appo Jabarian
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine
Mr. Erdogan’s Turkey was seen as “a runaway success by many in Europe
and the Middle East; now it is looking tarnished, with deeper problems
than its allies – and enemies – realized,” reported BBC’s Middle East
Editor Jeremy Bowen.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was “deeply
concerned about the numbers of people injured,” urging all sides
to “avoid any provocations or violence. … We are concerned by
the reports of excessive use of force by police. … We obviously
hope that there will be a full investigation of those incidents and
full restraint from the police force with respect to those kinds of
incidents,” Kerry told reporters.
Amnesty International issued several statements calling for Turkish
authorities to end abusive use of force by police against protesters.
Amnesty said: “The number of activists injured across Turkey as a
result of police abuse will continue to escalate unless the authorities
bring police tactics in line with basic human rights standards. … The
authorities have not confirmed the number of people injured, which
is believed to be in the thousands, some of whom remain in hospital
in critical state.”
John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Program Director at
Amnesty International, noted that “Three days after the start of
an unprecedented wave of police repression against protesters, the
Turkish authorities have shown little remorse and no indication of
a change in police tactics.”
Outspoken American linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky
condemned the brutal police crackdown on protesters denouncing the
demolition of Taksim Gezi Park, saying it recalled “the most shameful
moments of Turkish history.”
Activists worldwide staged rallies in solidarity with Turkish
protesters. In New York, hundreds of protesters gathered in Zuccotti
Park, the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and held a
rally. They planned to march 3 miles to the Turkish consulate to show
their support for anti-government protests raging in the heart of
Istanbul. Similar demonstrations are being held throughout the world.
Demonstrators proclaimed: “Istanbul is not alone.”
While other ‘OccupyGezi’ protests have been organized in several major
US cities, including Austin, Boston and Chicago, the protests are
quickly taking on a worldwide scope. In Brussels, Turkish nationals
gathered in front of the EU Parliament to protest against police
violence in Turkey. Similar rallies showing solidarity with Turkish
protesters were held in London, Helsinki and outside the Turkish
Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus. Protesters in Egypt also planned to gather
in a few days for a Taksim solidarity protest in front of the Turkish
Embassy in Cairo.
In a strong rebuke of Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman dictatorial behavior
and hypocritical foreign policies, Syrian Information Minister Omran
al-Zohbisaid Turkey’s Prime Minister is “terrorizing” his own people,
calling on the premier to resign his post. “Erdogan is leading
his country in a terrorist way, destroying the civilization and
achievements of the Turkish people. … We wish the Turkish people
only stability and calm, and urge that Erdogan act wisely and not
treat the Turks the way he has treated the Syrians,” the Syrian
minister concluded.
While most of the world honored women on International Women’s Day,
Turkey committed violence against peaceful Turkish women and other
protesters.
Alexandra Hudson of Reuters narrated the plight of a well-dressed
woman protester: “In her red cotton summer dress, necklace and white
bag slung over her shoulder she might have been floating across the
lawn at a garden party; but before her crouches a masked policeman
firing teargas spray that sends her long hair billowing upwards.
Endlessly shared on social media and replicated as a cartoon on posters
and stickers, the image of the ‘woman in red’ has become the leitmotif
for female protesters.”
Is Turkey’s 2013 Taksim Square fast becoming China’s 1989
TiananmenSquare? Taksim has become the epicenter of nationwide protests
against what critics say is creeping authoritarianism of Mr.
Erdogan.
Apologies by Deputy Prime MinisterBulent Arinc for the violent police
response against peaceful protesters could not pacify the angry Turks.
Crowds gathered for a fifth consecutive night to continue their
persistent demands for the Erdogangovernment to step down. The
widespread protests have metamorphosed into a popular movement that
seems intent on staging the ouster of Mr. Erdoganfrom power.
On June 4, the left-wing KESK trade union confederation, representing
some 240,000 public sector workers, began a two-day strike in support
of the protests and accused the government of committing “state
terror”. “The state terror implemented against entirely peaceful
protests is continuing in a way that threatens civilians’ life
safety,” the KESK said in a statement, saying the crackdown showed the
Islamic-rooted government’s “enmity to democracy”. Another trade union
confederation, Disk, has said it will join the strike on Wednesday.
“We have had enough of the wayErdogan understands democracy and the
way he wants to dictate his rules,” said Ozgur Aksoy, a young engineer
demonstrating in Gezi Park on Monday.
Gizem Oray, 21, was among a crowd of students dodging tear gas and
water cannons fired by police in Ankara on June 3. She described how
two weeks earlier, a roommate and her boyfriend were attacked by a
group of men wearing Islamic dress for holding hands on the street.
“These guys would never have dared to do this, in the heart of the
capital, a few years ago,” she said. “This government is responsible,
there’s no other explanation.”
Several protesters complained about economic conditions. Fatma
HaticeKerkecin, an unemployed decorator, said Turks are “indebted up
to their necks” and Seda Terkoglu, a 19-year-old high-school student,
said “constant price hikes are choking us.”
Ozkan Korkmaz, a 19-year-old high-school student, in an interview
inTaksim, showing the scar on his back where he was hit by a gas
canister fired by police, lamented: “They’re imposing non-scientific
education on us. … They’re limiting our freedoms, opening lawsuits
against satirical magazines and cartoonists.”
“We have had enough of the wayErdogan understands democracy and the
way he wants to dictate his rules,” said Ozgur Aksoy, a young engineer
demonstrating in Gezi Park on Monday.
While the government underreportedthe number of casualties, Turkish
human rights groups and doctors said at least two people died and
thousands more were injured in clashes in Istanbul and 700 in Ankara
with thousands more in 65 other cities.
The demonstrations–by a broad cross-section of people, are dominated
by the young and educated.
As protesters chanted, the police fired volleys of tear gas to beat
them back. Some protesters threw rocks or pieces of paving stones,
before retreating. Others offered each other a milky anti-acid solution
to ease the gas’s burn. Volunteer medics wearing white coats and
workmen’s hat marked with red crosses helped protesters. Some vomited
on side streets, others needed emergency attention. “I volunteered to
help here because I believe in the cause. The government has to go,”
said a man wearing a stethoscope and surgical gloves. “I’ll spend as
time in the Square in the day and come here at night. I’ll be here
as long as it takes.”
Ironically Taksim Square is named after Arabic word “Taksim”
which means “Division.” Deep internal divisions in Turkey are
nothing new to neo-Ottoman Turkey. Turkey’s internal divisions are
not just betweenKemalists and Islamists. It’s also between Turkish
populace and the Turkish Deep State (“Derin Millet”) of which current
Erdoganadministration is a part of. It is also between denialists
of the Armenian Genocide and righteous Turks who acknowledge it. And
it’s between moderate Muslim Turks and extremists.
Despite being ‘democratically elected,’ Erdogan has been ruling as
aneo-Ottoman sultan. “Under a decade of AKP rule, Turkey has become
the world’s top jailer of journalists. Its interventionist policy in
Syria is causing alarm. The systematic and disproportionate use of
force against the slightest display of dissent obscures that the AKP
was democratically elected and remains the most popular government in
modern Turkish history. Yet, egged on by the slavishly self-censoring
Turkish media, Erdogan seems increasingly out of touch,” wroteAmberin
Zaman for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse.
Given the litany of grievances and the confrontational nature of
Turkish politics, the raging protests come as no surprise. They
coincide with a rapidly slowing economy that is likely to witness
moderate growth rates at best for the foreseeable future without
increased structural reforms. Unfortunately, the Turkish government
is not expected to undertake major reform initiatives anytime soon,
especially since the campaigning for the local and presidential
elections in 2014 and the parliamentary elections in 2015 are already
underway, reported CNN’sFadi Hakura.
Mr. Erdogan’s brand of Islam has even antagonized his own supporters
who are devout and moderate Muslims. His stronghold is no more
Turkish Holy Islam. The current Turkish government has adopted an
ill-guided policy of exporting international terrorism to Syria via
Islamic terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Jabhat Al-Nusra (Front) and
other Muslim extremist groups to destroy Syria’s state infrastructures
that as a secular country continues to serve as an oasis of amicable
coexistence between moderate Sunnis, Alawites, Christians, Armenians,
Syriacs, Assyrians, Kurds and other minorities. Followers of Turkish
Holy Islam strongly disapprove those terrorist groups’ despicable
crimes against humanity in Syria. Just recently, these extremist
criminal elements massacred the entire population of a Christian
village in Syria. Mr.Erdogan’s reputation both at home and in the
international arena is directly impacted by such crimes.
Another problematic Erdogan-sponsored building project that recently
added to public frustrations was the construction of a third bridge
over the Bosporus in Istanbul. Initially the prospective bridge was
given the name of Sultan Selim the Grim, the cruelest adversary
ofAlevis and Shiites in Ottoman history. Conqueror of Egypt, the
powerful sultan is known for the massacres of tens of thousands of
Anatolian Alevis prior to and after his war against Iran. Due to
widespread Alevi condemnations, Istanbul municipality backtracked
and decided to simply name it “The Third Bridge.”
It is expected that Kurds, disillusioned with yet another unpromising
‘peace process,’ could have a decisive impact on the country’s macro
politics. They have vowed never to allow to be called ‘Mountain Turks’
again by officialdom Turkey, and to ultimately secure Kurdish autonomy.
On the external front Ankara is highly preoccupied by its losing
propaganda war against Armenia and Diaspora Armenians. Unlucky for
Turkey, Armenians are well-armed with the almighty truth about the
Turkish Genocide of Armenians (1915-1923) and the greatdispossessions
in terms of massive losses in Turkish-confiscated personal and real
properties as well as loss of ancestral homelands in Turkish-occupied
Western Armenia and Cilicia.
After his landslide re-election in 2007, Mr. Erdogan pledged to govern
on behalf of all Turks, not just those who voted for him. Apparently
Mr.Erdogan hasn’t even represented those who voted for him. There is
a growing consensus that had new elections been held today, his 2007
landslide re-election victory could be followed by a landslide defeat.