[ICTs-and-Society] Report: The situation is getting worse in Turkey

[Christian Fuchs]

The situation is getting worse in Turkey
By İrfan Erdogan

Starting Saturday evening (6.22.2013), police forces attacked people on 
various sections of cities in Turkey.
We urgently ask you: Please urge political representatives that the U.S. 
government should stop supporting the Turkish government that is 
killing, maiming, beating up the people who ask for democracy, freedom 
and human and environmental rights and is instilling strong hatred 
against the protestors in pro-government people

The whole world has to know that we/you are not dealing with normal 
rulers/government and pro-government people who chant, e.g., “mujhaid 
(muslim warrior) Erdogan” and “we are the soldiers of the Ottoman 
empire” in Turkey now. They attack their enemies by chanting “Allah 
Allah.” Last night in Taksım the police was chanting “Allah Allah”,  see 
the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8IE0IUptM
Sunday morning I heard the angry reaction of the prime minister who 
incites religious fervor: he says they can have tens of thousands of 
twitters; our single ‘besmele’ (chanting “in the name of god”) is enough 
(to overcome them). He says that they will solve everything with the 
help of God. People ask: Since when does God support the oppressors? 
Instead of pursuing a practical policy to solve the problem, the prime 
minister continuously repeats the same provoking untrue statements such 
as “they/demonstrators drank alcohol in the mosque”, “a woman with 
turban (a Muslim woman) was attacked by demonstrators.”
Everybody in Turkey is extremely scared of the wrath of government, but 
brave people are demonstrating and getting physically hurt. The recent 
fear is that the government will declare Marshall Law and start 
widespread crackdown and even close down the opposing parties. The 
government is playing a “zero sum game” that is resulting in an 
increasing numbers of deaths, wounded people and misery.
Yesterday evening, tens of thousands of people, carrying carnations, 
gathered for peaceful demonstrations in Taksim Square (İstanbul). People 
gave carnations to the police, too. Later in the evening, the police 
made an unbelievable and irrational announcement: You expressed your 
wishes, now please leave, you are occupying space that belongs to the 
people, otherwise we will intervene. This is a startling announcement 
that tells people to leave a place for people. This announcement too 
clearly shows that the government does not consider people who 
demonstrate against the government as “people”.  The Police dispersed 
the people in Taksim square by this time only using pressured water 
because they know that there are cameras of foreign media. The police 
closed down the roads going to Taksım in İstanbul in order to stop more 
people coming in. The police chased the people in side streets of Taksim 
using gas bombs and pressured water. Only two Turkish television 
stations broadcast the event live. Additionally, CNN-Turkey was 
providing live broadcasts at the beginning, but stopped broadcasting 
probably because of the pressure from some powerful circles. In the 
eleven o’clock news, the television stations broadcast news on what had 
happened in a sketchy and distorted manner. Plainclothes police raided 
the room from where Halk Tv was broadcasting the events and stopped the 
transmission. The crew had to leave the room and later continue 
broadcasting on foot. The media reported that police was beating people. 
In Istanbul, despite the police violence, it was reported that people 
did not do anything to provoke further police violence.
A clip taken in Taksim: 
http://www.izliyom1.com/taksim-30-dakika-oncesi-polis-mudahalesi-22-06-2013.html