Meanwhile, in Turkey

[J Surman]

Here's a comment to a video interview with Juan Cole of Informed Comment – I'm unable to view it but it's the comment itself I'm interested in:

Quote:

The clearing goes on this evening. The government sent provocateurs with SDP (socialist party) shields and banners out to throw Molotov cocktails. SDP immediately responded that it was not involved. Indeed, the only party protests have been the AKP-funded counter-demonstrations.

The provocateurs are clearly the cover under which Istanbul Governor Mutlu will justify targeting people rather than “banners.” (Really, anyone who has traveled through Turkey knows that no one loves banners more than the government. They’re everywhere!)

Things were worse last night at Kurtulus and Kizilay in Ankara.

The government seeks to curtail or expunge twitter. Lawyers are being arrested in Istanbul at Taksim.

RTE may have been democratically elected (if swapping coal for votes counts), but he is not captaining an authoritarian regime.

A little explanation; RTE = Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan. Swapping coal for votes is just one of many ways the votes have been bought, eg fridges, washing machines were given, small roads tarmacked, access to houses raised to lift it out of the inevitable winter water.

Re provocateurs, there is much footage of this on social media. Even on mainline media TV guys can be seen in civilian clothes with obvious police radios and guns in their hands or trousers throwing molotov cocktails and when they were supposedly targeted by the water cannons none of them were bowled over, it appears the water at that time was depressurised, unlike when used on the real targets.

Talking to some teachers today they go along with this account. Generally people are very worried about what the outcome might be. The fact that the PM has called on his supporters to rally at the weekend all over Turkey, so presumably they will be allowed to demonstrate, however anyone in opposition, even if they apply for permission to demo as anyone is supposed to do, will probably be denied it – labelling them as illegitimate before they even start.

It looks like a no-win situation for improved democracy and a tinder box for some very nasty stuff. As they say here, 'We'll see!'

[J Surman]

Things are getting very nasty here. It's very difficult to see where it will head but brutality from the police gets worse by the day it seems. Pepper spray is being used in the water cannons, the Divan Hotel and the Hilton, which have been used as medical facilities  and resting plces for protesters, have been invaded by police firing tear gas. Medical staff have been rounded up and threatened with loss of jobs, protesting laywers have been detained and threatened. The governor of istanbul has appeared on TV saying the problems are only small and painting a picture which is obvious to anyone checking out the different channels that the man is either a liar or a moronIf you haven't already seen there are details of a public meeting in London next week at the LSE with 5 or 6 Turkish academics gathering to discuss this issue – on the events section of this forum.Read this from a resident protestor:  We Need Your Solidarity With #OccupyGezi Now! by Barış YıldırımTurkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (now aka Recop Tazyik Gazdoğan, a pun on the PM's name and the Turkish words for "truncheon," "water cannon," and "teargas") issued an ultimatum at a so-called local election kickoff rally in a suburb of Ankara, which everybody knew was an attempt to counteract #OccupyGezi. Only a few hours later, Turkish police, working as the PM's official militia, launched a brutal attack on Gezi Park.  At this moment (in the earliest hours of June 16) Taksim Square and vicinity are under heavy teargas bombardment.  Police are repeatedly attacking Divan Hotel, a part of which has been used as a makeshift medical facility.  Many, including children and old people, are injured and being choked on gas.  Many also report that police are using a chemical that burns the clothes and skin of people.Some pieces of news circulating on social media and a few national media:Plainclothes policemen pretend to be injured and then arrest and beat up whoever comes to help (@TaksimGParki)."All physicians should go to Taksim!", "An hour more of this, and it will be the darkest night of Turkey's history.  Anybody who has an ambulance should send it to Taksim!" (Istanbul Medical Chamber and Turkish Medical Association).Mustafa Altıoklar, a famous movie director who is also a doctor, started a makeshift medical facility, but he is afraid to announce its address because he doesn't want police to know.  For police are brutally attacking medical facilities, too.Sabahat Akkiraz, a famous folk-jazz singer and also an MP: "Today politics is over for me.  I refuse to sit side by side with those who are oppressing their own people.  My life is not important at all!"The head of the main opposition party CHP urged police not to obey the orders that are against international law.  Many MPs are also attending sit-ins and other protests.  One of the MPs (Sezgin Tanrıkulu) has even been tear-gassed in the face while trying to act as a mediator.  But no strong action from Parliament as such.The number one TT on Twitter #1MilyonYarinTaksime (inviting 1 million people to Taksim to protest the government) was eliminated from the list and replaced by #1MilyonYarınKazlıçeşmeye (inviting 1 million people to PM Erdoğan's rally) in a matter of minutes.  It is a common belief that the ruling party, at the beginning of #OccupyGezi, contracted social media manipulators specifically to manipulate Twitter, which the PM calls "a troublemaker."Hundreds of people are injured; thousands are being forced to inhale teargas and other unknown chemicals; children, old people, patients in makeshift medical facilities — all are under attack.And yet the Governor of Istanbul calls this "a neat intervention, which doesn't even necessitate the word 'intervention.'  Only 29 are slightly injured."  However, the number of makeshift medical facilities alone probably far exceeds 29.  @ayagakalktaksim reports a woman (Elif) lost her eye during one such "intervention."  Police are using rubber bullets and aiming them directly at heads.At the very moment I'm typing these words, all of Turkey have begun to stand up even as Taksim and Gezi Park had been "cleared" of protestors.One of the biggest highways in Turkey, E-5, which unites Asia and Europe, is shut down by demonstrators walking towards the Bosphorus Bridge to join Taksim protesters.Virtually in all quarters of Istanbul thousands of people are protesting.  Especially people from the Gazi Quarter, where more than 30 people were shot to death by police in 1995, are forcing their way to Taksim.In Ankara, which has been subjected to a nightly routine of teargas torture for days, more than ten thousand people including MPs started a sit-in.  Many quarters of Ankara are protesting.The body of Ethem Sarısülük, whose autopsy indicates that he was killed by a police bullet in the head and who will be buried tomorrow, was in Batıkent (an Ankara suburb) today, accompanied by thousands of people.  Those thousands are now together walking towards the Ankara-Istanbul highway.İzmir, Adana, Mersin, Zonguldak, Bursa are just a few of the cities in revolt against the brutal assault on Gezi Park.Whenever they attacked, they were defeated.  Whenever they stooped lower, we stood up stronger and increased in number.  We can defeat this attack, too, with more solidarity from you.We need your solidarity — in all forms and all languages!Follow Barış Yıldırım on Twitter @prometeatro and @yazilama.

[J Surman]

A lesson in democracy?An interesting article I'll paste the link to below but first a couple of excerpts re the newly emerging 'assemblies' springing up quite rapidly. From what we can glean from friends, both Turks and 'foreigners', in istanbul, it really does seem to be involving people from all standpoints and different walks of life – all generally totally pissed off with the ongoing authoritarianism and especially the micro-managing from the PM.1. Something quite amazing is happening in Istanbul. In addition to the silent “standing man” actions around the country, people’s assemblies are slowly starting to emerge in different neighborhoods across the city. As in Spain, Greece and the Occupy encampments before, the protesters in Turkey are starting to counter-pose their own form of direct democracy to the sham of a democracy proposed by Erdogan’s authoritarian neoliberal state. If there was ever any doubt, this shows how deeply intertwined the global struggles truly are.2. Interestingly, the members of the popular assemblies in Turkey use the same hand-signs as the indignados, indicating that some of the methods were directly inspired by the real democracy protests in Spain. This, in turn, seems to confirm the idea we raised very early on in the Turkish uprising, and a claim that many Turkish activists have been making from the very start: namely that this movement is not just a local or national protest, but part of a global struggle against the subverted nature of representative capitalist democracy and for real democracy and total liberation.3. The direct democracy of the squares is also about saying that we cannot wait for some distant revolution to overthrow the capitalist system. We are currently facing a global humanitarian tragedy, an ecological disaster and a profound social and political crisis. We have to act now. We cannot rely on corporate elites to do this for us. We cannot trust in political representatives to take the process ahead. The only ones we can trust are ourselves. We, the people, will have to carry this revolution forward. Starting now.4, At the end of the day, the assembly is a very simple phenomenon: it is about ordinary people craving to be heard and to have a say in their lives. Assemblies are a way to allow those who have been shut up for years to finally stand up in dignity and to speak their voice — and be heard. It is about recovering our collective sense of humanity from the rapacious claws and unrepresentive institutions of the capitalist state.http://roarmag.org/2013/06/assemblies-emerging-in-turkey-a-lesson-in-democracy/

[alanjjohnstone]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkeys-crowds-return-armed-only-with-flowers-8669864.htmlThis story of protesters throwing flowers at police lines reminded me of that famous Banksy mural of a youth hurling a posy rather than a molotov cocktail. Also related to my other post on Brasil police. Non-violence is not passive, nor is it a way of avoiding conflict when it takes on a well-entrenched dictatorship. Those who start such a movement face  a long struggle, with setbacks and numerous casualties. After all, only one side is committed to non-violence. Nor is there any guarantee of success, even in the long run. However, the other option, as we see in Syria, entails even larger casualties and has even less prospects of success.As soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against opponents in possession of the best weapons.  The state's police and  army are better trained in using those weapons. And they  control the infrastructure that allows them to deploy them.  To fight dictators with violence is to cede to them the choice of battleground and tactics. Using violence against  experts in it is the quickest way to have a movement crushed.  That is why governments frequently infiltrate opposition groups with agents provocateurs—to sidetrack the movement into violent acts that the police and  security agencies can deal with. Non-violence is an aspect of resistance that the normal forces of co-ercion are ill-prepared for. It undermines the police morale as we see in Brasil and hopefully leads to cross-overSocialists will develop the substitutes and alternatives to militarising the class struggle and then people will have a choice of psychological weapons, social weapons, economic weapons and political weapons which can be applied and are ultimately more powerful against tyranny.  Once enough people and organizations within a society (trade unions, community groups) are engaging in civil disobedience and withholding their cooperation from a regime, the capitalists' power will gradually wither from political starvation.The success or failure of any peaceful revolt largely depends on the campaign’s ability to undermine the regimes supporters and weaken the allegiance of its civil servants, police and soldiers to the regime; to persuade those neutrals sitting on the fence to join the opposition. The worse the regime suppresses protests, the more steadfast ought the opposition  be in its commitment to non-violence.  Socialists are not pacifists on principle but purely as a practical tactic. We  witnessed how the militarisation of the Syrian protests lessened the democratic nature of the opposition  by placing the power into the hands of the armed exile groups serving the  foreign interests of who arms them, rather than expressing the will of the Syrian people. 

[J Surman]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkeys-crowds-return-armed-only-with-flowers-8669864.htmlThis story of protesters throwing flowers at police lines reminded me of that famous Banksy mural of a youth hurling a posy rather than a molotov cocktail.

Just to comment re the carnations: we have here, and have experienced on several occasions, the 'National Traffic Jandarma Day' when all traffic is stopped by the traffic jandarma and vehicle occupants are presented with a carnation, a piece of turkish delight and a refreshing few drops of lemon cologne in the hands. Even to the lengths of boarding buses and coaches to present the same to all passengers, and to be congratulated on the traffic jandarma day. It's true!What we want to see here now is policemen crossing to the other side. Who's side are the individuals on? Is this vain hope?

[alanjjohnstone]

In a recent blog on Socialist Courier  "The Paris Commune of 1871 where French workers actually created organisations of mass control which challenged the old system for a brief space of time. The Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, when workers and peasants developed similar structures of direct workers' control such as the workers councils and factory committees (the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 eventually destroyed this, and ushered in a system of state capitalism). Similarly, in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the workers set up workers' councils when they took on their so-called "communist" oppressors. During the May of 1968 in France, workplaces and universities were taken over and in many cases run in a way that is of immense inspiration to socialists. What happened on these occasions? Certainly they were not socialist revolutions, as some claim. But they were significant in the history of the struggles of our class. They are significant because the sort of people who dismiss the possibility of revolutionary upheavals were dismissing it shortly before these events blew up in their faces. ""http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-year-of-revolution.html By coincidence, there is an article in AlJazeera also making this point. "…when political reality explodes in unexpected ways, pundits come along suggesting comparisons, offering hastily constructed explanations, and cite influences and antecedents. Surprise is suppressed by most ‘experts’ who do all that they can to hide these awkward exposures of how little they knew about the explosive forces in society, which erupted without any advance notice. After the explosion these wannabe gurus step forth with undiminished confidence to tell us with learned demeanour why and how it happened, why it was almost inevitable to turn out as it did, and the most arrogant and often most influential even dare tell us what to expect next, and why it is good or bad…"http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/06/201362884215605712.html   Socialist Courier wrote "…What these examples show is that real change can be brought about by workers. Socialism is not a utopian dream. It is an ever-present undercurrent in working class practice and at times they erupt without warning, sparked off by something as mundane as protecting some trees or protesting a bus fare rise…." AlJazeera writes " We are habitually trained and experienced to look at politics from above, whether our perspective is that of elites or counter-elites, but revolutionary impulses come, if and when they come, almost invariably from pressures generated from below, that is, from the ‘multitude,’ pressures that materialise by suddenly bursting forth as happenings that startle and reverberate.." One of those days the eruption will keep erupting, crossing continents and won't subside until we have the world we all want. No politician, no academic, no political party , not even a socialist one, will forecast it and in the early stages many will not even recognise it happening. For the capitalists it will be a shockwave..for ourselves a pleasant surprise, that hopefully we offer some vital input. 

[J Surman]

Below is a piece from today's Hurriyet Daily News giving information from Greenpeace International. I knew that Turkey's environmental credentials aren't good , having been involved in three local protests – one against a quarry and cement works, one against removal of a forested hill containing an ancient site for the purpose of creating a golf course in a tourism area, the other against a hydro-electric system in a vulnerable valley – but had no idea that it was recognised as 4th worst threat to the world. Also much on people's minds are the proposed 3rd Istanbul airport, slated to be the biggest in the world, with the most traffic – twice the capacity of the current Ataturk airport and the 3rd Bosphorous bridge, recently begun. Erdogan wants it to be named after the slayer of 40,000 Alawites, Sultan Selim 1st (known as The Grim), which has gone down well with Alawites! There seems to be no end to his enormous foot in mouth proclamations.from here: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/greenpeace-hits-out-at-foreign-plot-conspiracies.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49686&NewsCatID=340Demands for democratization have for the first time overlapped with demands for environmentally sensitive policies, during the mass demonstrations that have shaken the country in the course of the last two weeks, according to the head of Greenpeace. Kumi Naidoo also hit out at the government's portrayal of the protests as part of an "international conspiracy."What started as the protest of a small group over the demolition of Gezi Park near Istanbul’s Taksim Square turned into mass demonstrations and as such the activism of civil society in Turkey has attracted the attention of the whole world, said Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International Executive Director, on June 27.Mass demonstrations that have taken place in Brazil lately are partly inspired by what happened in Turkey, added Naidoo, who will participate in a rally that will be held Saturday in Istanbul to raise awareness about global warming.‘Disturbing’ stats He said Turkey’s environmental statistics were very disturbing. With more than 80 projects planned for fossil fuels energy, Turkey ranks number four in terms of posing a threat to the world, coming after China, India and Russia, according to Greenpeace.“We know that many local communities have stood up largely on their own to protest an irrigation project or the construction of a coal power plant,” Naidoo said.He also criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s stance of seeing a foreign plot behind protests and accusing foreign groups of provoking people in Turkey.“Most environmental struggles are led by locals, not Greenpeace. We follow them and we support them,” said Naido adding, “If Mr. Erdoğan believes that people in Turkey are told what to do by foreigners, then he really does not understand what’s going on. It seems I have more faith in Turkish people’s conscience than Mr. Erdoğan.”Naido said he had praised the solidarity shown by Erdoğan to the Palestinians, as well as his initial stance on Syria. He said he appreciated Erdoğan’s call on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to listen to his people’s demands, adding, “I thought it was a positive voice at a time then no other leader was saying anything.”“But there is a big irony because Bashar al-Assad had said exactly the same thing that Erdoğan is now saying; that basically everything is instigated by foreigners,” said Naido, adding, “All the credibility Erdoğan has built as a regional peace builder has been wiped out.”

[J Surman]

While I'm at it, for those interested in how economics is playing its part here, this article explains how Istanbul in particular is seen as a wonderful opportunity for capital accumulation – and how much of the population is against mega-projects, underway or proposed.http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/urban-population-objects-to-sale-of-istanbul-by-rent-seeker-actors.aspx?pageID=238&nID=49676&NewsCatID=344And here's a link to Burak Bekdil who is very outspoken against the PM, this one pointing out numerous examples of lies and provocations:http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/see-how-they-forge-the-lie-against-allah.aspx?pageID=449&nID=49610&NewsCatID=398There's another rally planned for today in Taksim.

[J Surman]

And now, after 6 months of relative 'quiet'?No doubt news of the huge breaking political/corruption scandal in Turkey has reached readers of this forum. However, before that story broke, a protest had been orgainised for yesterday, Sunday, in Kadikoy, the Asian side of the Bosphorous – meant to be along the lines of reinvigorating the Gezi protests of the summer.Here's a link to an article describing what happened at the protest. (I fogot to look at the evening news! If I come across anything relevant I'll add it later)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/roarmag/~3/eppqgfL4DDQ/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=emailI think at the minute all eyes here are on what's going to happen between Erdogan and the AK party, between Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen, and between Erdogan and the police dept. It's like a satirical ongoing TV drama and no one knows who the victor will be. (Don't expect it to be the people though.)Local elections in the spring. Presidential elections later in the year. General elections 2015.

[ALB]

I don't know whether this, from today's Financial Times, should be in the joke section instead:

Quote:

Suleyman Aslan, Halkbank chief executive, has said cash at his home — police reportedly found $4.5m in shoeboxes — was for charitable purposes.

Or maybe it's just an application of the saying "charity begins at home".

[alien1]

. . it's alright for you smart-ar$£s living over there in the security box called the UK – here in Turkey we all (meaning everyone) have to live under the global threats against our emergence as the greatest regional power since the days of Suleyman the Magnificent! You have no idea about the sheer malevolence of the forces ranged against us – here's just one example:Quote from the Padishah's newest advisor, a former nationalist (read fascist) and editor-in-chief of TV channel Kanal 24, Yiğit Bulut, who has accused unnamed centers abroad of trying to murder Erdogan via "telekinesis." See what we are up against? Drones are nothing compared to the threats to our glorious leader, the Padishah RTE (not to be confused with the Irish version of the BBC)http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/can-erdogan-s-enemies-kill-him-with-their-minds-.html

[J Surman]

The election for parliamentary candidates is in June so i thought I'd update with some appropriate news from this part of the world."One of the major characteristics of Turkish politics is the official policy of distributing social assistance instead of investing strategically to reduce unemployment. Poor segments of society have become dependent upon cash and other assistance, and recipients of it inevitably vote for the ruling party. For the poor citizens, casting a vote once every four years in return for handouts is a good deal. Fear that the assistance will be terminated should another party come to power is a powerful inducement to vote for the Justice and Development Party (AKP)."The increasing sums involved throughout the AKP's tenure makes interesting reading further into the article:Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-elections-harvesting-votes.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=5ca55ff670-February_25_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-5ca55ff670-102332701#ixzz3SsLA8yuf

[alanjjohnstone]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/02/jailed-pkk-leader-calls-followers-disarm-150228141745343.htmlPKK leader Ocalan calls for Kurds to disarm and end armed struggle in Turkey

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