[ICTs-and-Society] UPDATE: What’s going on In Turkey?

[Christian Fuchs]

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The whole world should know the truth.
Thanks
Irfan

UPDATE: What’s going on In Turkey?
Irfan Erdogan

Followings include facts, results of my participative observation in 
Ankara and Istanbul (Taksim/Gezi) between June 5 and June 17 and views 
of many people that I talked with:
But first I would like to write the fact about the forceful evacuation 
of the Gezi park:

It was Saturday. Probably more than a million people, including 
tourists, visited the Gezi park on Saturday. Taksim and Gezi Park was 
full of people. They were continuously moving (some were coming others 
were leaving). I went back to Ankara and brought my wife, my teenage kid 
and nephew to the Gezi Park so that they witness the history in making 
in the Gezi park and see that what they hear about Gezi Park are bunch 
of lies produced by those who cannot change the facts/realities but can 
create false images about realities in the minds of especially their 
followers by forging and disseminating lies. In the park, they walked 
and heard the announcement that there would be evening and night 
activities such as theatre show, poem reading, dancing, music etc. There 
was a festival mood in the park. We left the Gezi park and walked down 
the Istiklal/Independence Street in Taksim just like masses of people 
do. Later, we decided to return the park. We approached the park’s large 
entrance about 50 meters. The park and surroundings were packed with 
people. We did not hear any announcement by police. But later I learned 
that police asked people to leave the park and Taksim. It seems that 
people did not listen to police, because nobody expected that police 
would attack hundreds of thousands people with gas and pressured water. 
Suddenly, police started using pressured water that has an unknown 
chemical in it. People started running. In a few minutes, Gezi Park was 
covered with tick gas clouds. They used something other than gas and 
water: I heard noises of bombs (extremely loud noise) and saw fires 
where the bombs fall inside the Gezi Park. Police shot gas bombs to 
people all around the park and on the streets of Taksim. I, my wife and 
my two teenagers found ourselves in between people and police, and two 
gas bombs were thrown to my teenagers. Luckily, two youngsters rushed 
and took the bombs and threw them back to police. Eyes burning and lungs 
full of gas, everybody was gasping for air and some were screaming for 
help. At one moment, I thought I was going to die. I did not have my gas 
mask and protective helmet, because I did not expect police would attack 
during the day. I lost my wife and kids in the crowd. I, like many other 
people, rushed into a hotel at a side street. I was choking and my 
throat and inside were burning. I, with other people, stayed about half 
an hour there, because street were full of gas and some police (not all 
of them) were threatening us with their batons (There were people who 
have their house right next door or around the corner, people who were 
on their way to their home who support the demonstrations: People were 
extremely angry). I had to go back to the Gezi park to see what is going 
on and to get my car because I had parked my car right in front of it 
(about 75 meters from the Divan hotel where wounded people were 
treated). Police moved down the street away from the Gezi Park and I 
left the hotel and ran toward the park. The park was in complete 
darkness and completely empty. I saw fires at the street. My car was 
there, only one car, surprisingly untouched. There were many police on 
the street and in front of the Divan Hotel and a lot of demonstrators 
along the street. Police were throwing gas on them. I took my car and 
drove about 800 meters down the street where there was no police action. 
I followed a small crowd back to where the action is. We saw gas smoke 
in front of the Divan Hotel. (Later I learned that police threw gas bomb 
inside the hotel. The Prime Minister was very angry at people and hotels 
that opened their doors to people/demonstrators. He and other government 
officials said that these hotels will be punished. He was furious and he 
said that he knows who sent food to Gezi Park and let the doctors treat 
the wounded in their premises. He threatened them by saying that what 
they did will not remain unpunished). Police also threw gas toward the 
street that I was at and chased the people. I run back too and took my 
car and moved further away. I lost my direction because I do not know 
Istanbul. I saw people looking for their kids, friends and relatives. 
(Today,Monday, I learned that there are over 450 missing persons. We 
also do not know what police did the demonstrators that they arrested). 
I was lucky because my wife and kids have mobile phones. 
Demonstrators/people were defending themselves in various streets 
(especially Istiklal (independence) street. I spent almost an hour to 
find my wife and kids. We left with car. We saw a lot of people walking 
along one of the main highway. We went to a relative’s house and we saw 
that the mayor of Istanbul called gendarme (a special section of the 
army, like National Guard) for help to stop the people walking on the 
highway.
On Monday, the assistant of prime minister declared that they will use 
the army if needed.
On Sunday, all the roads going to Taksim were closed down and 
transportations were suspended. However, we saw people demonstrating 
around the Taksim and later other places in Istanbul.
Right after the evacuation of Gezi Park, Mteh ayor of Istanbul (who 
behaved two-faced: as one person complained, he fooled people by kind 
and considerate words like a satan before the attack and ordered the 
police attack and lied afterwards) said in the news that police made 
announcements about 40 minutes and asked people to leave the park. This 
part of the speech was right. But the following explanations of the 
mayor were sheer fabrication: He said that they evacuated the park after 
people left the park and there were only 29 wounded. On the contrary, 
the inside of the park and Taksim were full of masses of people when 
police started the attack. He said nothing about the attack of police at 
the masses of people all around the park, especially at the Istiklal 
Street. He did say nothing about gassing the people on the streets, 
because, we know that he and prime minister consider everybody who goes 
to Gezi Park as enemy.
The prime minister, police and his followers claim that the 
demonstrators are a marginal group. First of all, demonstrators are not 
a marginal group because millions of people are demonstrating all over 
Turkey. The prime minister, police and followers claim that the marginal 
groups have no right to exist and demonstrate; demonstrators can be 
gassed, attacked, arrested and beaten up. Participative democracy means 
inclusive understanding, not exclusion of those who are not the 
followers of the governing party.
     The European Union Speaker said that Erdogan performed good deeds 
for democracy such as measures he took and arrests he made in the army. 
The EU speaker is completely wrong: The Europeans cannot comprehend how 
the contemporary reactionary forces work: they ride the democracy train 
with using democratic rhetoric while cunningly implementing their 
policies of anti-democratic change. (1) The ruling party in Turkey has 
to take revenge from the Turkish army because The army had the policy to 
expel reactionary elements from the army,(2) has to transform Turkish 
army into the army of the reactionary party dictatorship. The west, 
especially the U.S. administrations still keep on creating monster 
rulers in Africa, Latin America, Asia and all over the world. Some of 
these monsters such as Saddam and Noirega later bite the hands that feed 
them, and the west engages in policies to get rid of them.

There is another side of the situation: European rulers who invaded 
Turkey after the First World War, but lost at the end, have found the 
chance of revenge from Atatürk via the Erdogan government, just like the 
reactionary forces of Ottoman Empire found a chance of revenge via the 
same government. Pursuing the aim of historical revenge, Europeans close 
their eyes to the fact that the main goal of Atatürk was to establish an 
independent state of western type. They are, just like the reactionary 
forces in Turkey, after taking a revenge.

1.	Now there is no Gezi Park movement in Gezi park, but people are 
demonstrating against the government all over Turkey: Everywhere in 
Turkey is Gezi Park. People say the issue is not saving a park from 
plunder and misuse by powers who abuse religion and religious beliefs to 
rule and destroy democracy in Turkey using the name of democracy, 
freedom etc. The issue is the struggle against the political party that 
is making the Turkish state “a state of a reactionary party supported by 
the some Western interests”. They say the issue is to fight the empire 
of lies and oppression. They say the party dictatorship of Erdogan is 
aimed at eliminating democratic historical and cultural foundations of 
Turkish republic. His followers see themselves as “soldiers of the 
Ottoman Empire,” not soldiers of democracy, freedom and human rights.
2.	The demonstrations in Turkey did not end after the forceful 
evacuation of Gezi Park. It is easy to guess that there will be many 
“Gezi Parks” in Istanbul and other cities.
3.	People in many cities in Turkey are still demonstrating. Police are 
attacking people all around and many places day and night in Istanbul.
4.	We do not know how many people are injured since the forceful 
evacuation of the GEZİ Park. But we can expect more death and injuries 
since the demonstrations continue all over Turkey. However, we have some 
statistics before the evacuation. The following statistics excluding the 
number of deaths show only the number of people who asked for medical 
treatment. A lot of people do not ask medical help either because of the 
fear that they will be included in the list of government (blacklisting 
for immediate and later punishment) or because they think they do not 
need medical help (Numbers of these people -- e.g., I still have nausea 
from the gas -- are probably hundreds of thousands. I also saw young 
demonstrators with dislocated shoulders and wounds all over their 
bodies: they do not seek medical help because they do not want to leave 
the struggle even for medical treatment).
5.	Doctors, medical students and medical workers who helped the wounded 
in the park and in Divan Hotel were arrested by police. The governing 
forces consider and declare anyone who treats the wounded as enemy to be 
punished.
6.	Lawyers who support the demonstrators were arrested.
7.	Today (Monday), the labor unions performed one day work stoppage all 
over the country.
8.	According to Statistics of the Chamber of Turkish Doctors, Until June 
14 (before the evacuation), there were 11823 wounded and 5 deaths, and 
according to the records of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation, 2636 
people arrested. 48 of them were arrested because of their twitter 
messages. These numbers are increasing since the evacuation. The 
government speakers declare that they will find and prosecute those who 
used the internet for the purpose of demonstration.
9.	Now there are a teenager and a university student in extremely 
critical condition in hospital.
10.	There is visual record of the police officer who shot in close 
range, with a 9 mm handgun, at one of the protesters who died later. 
There are many visuals about how police brutally beat people, however, 
there is no action taken by the justice department.
11.	People think that the prime minister divides the people as “US” and 
enemy “THEM”. Speakers in pro-governmental media use lies, curses and 
threats; they promote hatred, enmity and hostility towards people who 
are not with them. Strong and feverish hate speeches fill the air day 
and night.
12.	While pro-government media incite hate and hostility, few media that 
provide news about the demonstrations are fined by the RTUK (RTUK is a 
government controlled institution theoretically similar to The U.S. 
Federal Communication Commission), and the license of one tv station was 
revoked.
13.	In order to justify the oppressive measures and policies, they ask 
people questions like “Do you want the terror to be ended?” There is 
only one answer to this question: “yes”, and then they declare that 
people support them.
14.	According to people, the prime minster does not tell the truth and 
uses and repeats many fabricated lies in his speeches that include:
a.	He said 17 people died during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations 
(He justifies killing by the fabricated lie that the US Embassy 
statement was invalidated. People say that no human being tries to 
justify oppression and killings by the killings and oppressions happened 
elsewhere). This is only an example of many lies that are put into 
circulation and used by the Turkish prime minister and propagandists.
b.	He repeatedly says that Gezi Park smells like urine and demonstrators 
shit everywhere in the park. (There is one modern toilet in the park, 
continuously cleaned by the attendants and open 24 hours. There are also 
modern portable toilets. There were over 900 tents and 10000 
citizens/people staying 24 hours in the park; and they were mostly 
highly educated young people: They do not have the custom of shitting 
where they sleep).
c.	He claims that girls with turban (turban is the fashion dress of the 
industrialists who market their goods by using/abusing Muslim beliefs) 
are molested in Gezi Park. (I saw girls and ladies with Turban walking 
in Gezi Park and nobody bothered them. There is no probability of 
molestations, because people in the park are for freedom, human rights 
and democracy, not for the oppression).
d.	He claims that demonstrators engage in sexually indecent activities 
in the park. The prime minster also talked about girls sitting on the 
lap of men in the park. (He means girls are making sex with many men in 
the park. I was there and spent a few nights and did not sleep all night 
like all of them, because always there were rumors about police attacks 
at certain hours of late night: People staying in the park were there 
not for sex but for freedom, democracy and human rights. Furthermore, 
people resent such interference of government to their life and 
decisions and fabricated lies. This is one of the main reasons that 
people are in demonstrations).
e.	He, angrily as usual, repeats that demonstrators entered the mosque 
with their shoes on and drank alcohol in the mosque. (In order to 
believe in such claim a person should be really mindless or heartless, 
because people were escaping from the police, they were gassed and they 
were trying to save their life, and hodja --priest of mosque— let them 
in and Mosque became a temporary infirmary to treat these people. People 
were in pain, some were in shock and some were screaming. Reacting to 
lies, the hodja declared that nobody drank alcohol in the mosque. Hodja 
was punished for telling the truth: He is not working there anymore.
f.	He calls Ataturk and Inonu (two founding leaders of Turkey) “two 
drunkards” and accuses the people in Gezi park by saying that they use 
alcohol. People resent that the prime minister calls the founding 
leaders “two drunkards” and resent the administration’s interference 
into their life, decisions and things they do. I saw some youngsters 
drinking beer in the park; it is their choice as long as they do not 
bother other people. I also saw two or three drunk bummers --if not 
plain cloth police-- coming to the park late at night and trying to 
create disturbance.
g.	He talks about 50 percent of the population that support him. In the 
last election, 46 million of people voted and the governing party 
received 21 million votes. The population of Turkey is nearly 80 million.
h.	The prime minister calls demonstrators “looters.” There was not a 
single incidence of looting. Demonstrators were mostly highly educated 
and sensitive people with good heart and social conscious. They were 
from all walks of life including high school and university students, 
artists, professionals such as lawyers and teachers.

15.	He degrades and insults people who did not vote for him and 
demonstrates against his deeds:
a.	He degrades women by saying that “pots and pans, all usual tune” 
(Namely, he calls women’s demonstrations as “hot air”. He degrades women 
who use their pasn and pots to make noise on the street and from their 
houses’ balcony to express their opinions and support for demonstrations).
b.	He calls demonstrators and his opponents “bunch of hoodlums.” (The 
fact is that the great majority of people with high education do not 
vote for him. His supporters unfortunately are uneducated, misled and 
misinformed masses. Some of these masses get financial and food help 
from the government. A lot of poor people vote for the governing party, 
because they get periodical food assistance.

16.	He continuously threatens people by stating that they will hunt down 
those who participated in and supported the demonstrations and provided 
food and shelter to them. Examples of hunting down and punishment:
a.	Storming in their homes and arresting youngsters using twitter and 
internet.
b.	Announcing that “we know who they are (people and institutions that 
bring food to demonstrators, hotels that open their doors to people who 
escape from police gas and beatings) and they will not be remained 
unpunished.
c.	Police stormed a political party headquarter and arrested the party 
personnel.
d.	They tried to find the names of doctors and medical staff who help 
the wounded in and outside the Gezi park. I am sure they collected 
enough information about people for witch hunting later.
e.	He accuses BBC, CNN and other international media and journalists for 
their support for the demonstrations. I watched CNN last night and saw 
that the CNN news are basically pro-government (supporings the prime 
minister by saying that, e.g., he did a lot of good things for the 
country). The BBC provided balanced news.
f.	He threatens everybody in Turkey by saying that he can hardly hold 
the 50 % of people” (he means that 50 percent of Turkey are ready to 
smash the demonstrators all over Turkey). I know there will be 
increasing attacks on people demonstrating in their neighborhoods by the 
organized groups on top of the police.

Turkish policy in the Middle East was based on the non-interference 
until the current government. The world press and intellectuals know 
that the Turkish government is involved in the dangerous politics of the 
Middle East and meddling with Syrian and Iranian politics. It seems like 
Turkey will be deeply divided along the religious sectarian lines, 
secular and religious lines, Kurdish and Turkish lines; Turkey will be 
turned to be just like other Middle East country in deep civil war and 
terrorist activities. The solution is (1) that the Turkish government 
should stop meddling with Middle East Politics and stop being part of 
the bloody politics of the Western powers in the Middle East, (2) there 
should be a democratic government in Turkey. As one religious person 
told me, “we are ruled by sons of iblis/devil/satan who are disguised as 
God’s and people’s servants”.