Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY IN TURKEY - 6 -
PRESS RELEASE FROM Turkish Medical Association
21 June 2013
Humanity and Medicine!
We waited and expected those at the top
To be sensitive to a peaceful action taking place in Gezi Park…
To have respect to those who firmly adopted a peaceful attitude in spite of all violent acts against them…
Not to harm our citizens who rushed to streets peacefully to react to violent acts and attacks targeting even most fundamental humanistic demands…
Yes, we waited and expected
The Minister of Health to ban the use of chemical gases against our people raising their legitimate demands, against the wounded; in hospitals and other places where medical care is given, in hotels where people sought shelter, in rooms where small children were sleeping, against the sick and elderly …
We waited and expected them
To express their grief for the loss of Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, Abdullah Cömert, Mustafa Sarı and Ethem Sarısülük, To convey their wishes of recovery to 59 citizens seriously wounded, 11 others who lost their eyes and thousands of citizens injured in various ways…
We waited for them
To say it is under our guarantee to deliver medical care to all without any distinction who have suffered from violence and been exposed to gas while out on the streets just for the fact that they are human beings; without enlisting them for governmental scrutiny and without keeping their records for governmental access…
And we waited and expected them
To recall human ethics and say “health workers have their immunity even in wartime” seeing physicians and students of medicine who were running around to help citizens falling breathless by tear gas, losing an eye or having skull fractures…
But we didn’t expect the following:
Engagement in such a disproportionate violence day after day against millions of people demanding freedom, equality and respect,
Collective and violent detention of lawyers, who opposed unlawfulness in the court houses,
Accusing physicians, medical students and health workers of committing a crime for providing urgent care to wounded people, Sending official warnings to the Turkish Medical Association and Medical Chambers of İstanbul, İzmir and Ankara repremanding them for not having asked for permission from the Ministry of Health before helping urgent cases,
Asking for teh lists of the names of physicians, medical students and health workers involved in the provision medical care to wounded people and the names of the people who received such medical care,
Detention of physicians and health workers,
Prime Minister’s attempt to divide the society into two camps and using them as a threat to one another,
Targetting Turkish Medical Association and physicians as wrongdoers and insulting them,
Categorizing as crime those acts which are deemed as rights in universal law and international conventions.
But we also didn’t know that
There were too many peace-loving, witty, determined, stubborn and dignified young people ready to rise for freedom and equality as well as so many rejuvenating adults,
We didn’t know that
There were too many physicians, medical students and health workers who would so quickly rush to help our citizens who suffered from violence in return for their just and peaceful demands,
We didn’t know that
After having been subjected to so many years of unjust discourse of “physicians are just selfish, they pursue their interests only” our people would embrace us warmly saying “no interest of theirs is above the well-being of their patients, didn’t you know that?”
We didn’t know that
Physicians worldwide would so quickly take sides with us in solidarity and making the same call to the Prime Ministry as we did by reminding the ethics and values of the profession of medicine.
Now we know...
We recalled
that humanity is conscience, solidarity and fraternity after all,
that nothing can compromise the rightfulness of those rising against oppression and violence in the name of equality, freedom and human dignity,
that values of medicine derive from human values and cannot be separated from them...
After all our experience for the last 20-25 days, Prime Minister’s statements targeting the Turkish Medical Association among others annoy us no more. We also regard as normal those unscientific statements by the Prime Minister concerning abortion and caesarian section that also target physicians. We understand his furiousness and perplexity. Our only concern is possible delay in reaching the bright, peaceful, free and equal future that awaits us.
Here we declare once more: As the Turkish Medical Association we shall always be among, backing, leading and siding with both physicians and all who are involved in this process.
And we add: The Prime Minister should excuse us; physicians in Turkey will never accept to be “Prime Minister’s physicians” as he is fond of speaking possessively for the police forces as “my police”. As physicians in Turkey we shall be ready to help all who need us (including the Prime Minister himself).
If those resorting to tear gas, pressurized water and violence have their Prime Minister, the TTB has humanity to be in solidarity with.
Turkish Medical Association
Executive Council
Monday, June 24, 2013
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY IN TURKEY - 5 - FOR THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME TO READ LONG ARTICLES...
ZOOMING IN ON UPRISE FOR DEMOCRACY IN TURKEY
Recep Tayyip Erdogan (RTE), the Prime Minister (PM) of the decade-old Turco-Islamist government of Turkey is not taking an inch back from his position regarding the protesters in Turkey. The PM labels the protesters "chapulcu", looters, in other words. when they are peaceful students, professors, artists, lawyers, journalists, doctors, nurses, mothers, fathers, veterans, Kurdish intellectuals, workers, celebrities, parliamentarians, everything but no looters.
RTE and his party AKP has been sacrificing everything Turkey stood for; its sovereignty, its culture, its history, and its nature to profit and commercialization of the country. The last such attempt in Turkey was to replace Gezi Park with a mall, located in the heart of Istanbul that has been an oasis for Istanbulites among the concrete blocks of Taksim, for many decades. This infuriated environmentalists, whose benevolent civil disobedience was met with brutal police violence, which then brought out hundreds of thousands of Turkish people onto the streets all over the country. RTE is unable to see that what has been turning the country upside down for over a month is more than a few hundred trees now, a sociological phenomenon that needs to be understood and addressed with an open mind not an iron fist. The crowds on the streets are asking of him today. "Hear us and respect us!" Instead all they get is pepper gas, chemical-loaded water jets and being shot at by gas capsules, which killed 5, injured more than 10,000, hundreds in the intensive care units so far.
Proposed as the emblem for potential Olympics to be held in Turkey
RTE and AKP’s goal in all this is to spread terror, ban citizens' rights to free speech, to association and assembly, and annihilate all forms of resistance to the society's Islamization and the country's commercialization. Turkey is uprising today against AKP’s calculated agenda that will eventually transform the society to one that lives by the rules of Kuran, no less, like Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Libya.
The third military coup in Turkey of 1980 eliminated the democratic provisions of 1960 to such an extent that subtle steps taken in 1980s brought AKP to power and changed the composition of the society drastically. First, the election system was modified so that political parties winning less than 10% (a threshold varying between 2-5% in democratic countries) of the votes nationally, would not be represented in the parliament even if they are the majority party in certain provinces.
Secondly, the number of parochial middle/high schools increased from 500 to close to 5000 in a stretch of five years, a deliberate strategic effort to transform Turkey into an Islamist society in the 2000s. Thus, AKP came into power in 2002, winning 34% of the votes (363 representatives in a 550 seat-parliament). Once in power, corruption and opportunistic support from near-sighted non-fundamentalists allowed them to win 47% of votes (341 representatives) in 2007 and 51% (326 representatives) in 2011. Keep in mind, though, 51% of votes does not equate 51% of the population (with 66% voting rate) since majority if not all of non-voters were liberals. Thus, AKP has the support of only 35% of the adult population in Turkey enjoying disproportionately high representation in the parliament because of an antidemocratic election system.
RTE and AKP have never been for democracy. Had they, they would have responded to Istanbulites' request on Gezi Park and would have started a regional participatory discussion. Had they, once the regional court ruled, the actions regarding Gezi Park should await the resolution of the tensions, they would have obeyed the ruling. Had they, they would have supported multiculturalism, passed laws to end discrimination against Kurdish minority, and democratized the election system. Had they, they would not have rounded up scores of lawyers, physicians, and nurses with brutal police force, who solely dared doing what they were trained to do; defend in court the demonstrators arrested unjustly by police forces and "treat all individuals regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or political affiliation in both times of war and peace.” as Geneva Convention on medical neutrality empowered them to do, thus RTE and AKP committed an international crime by banning medical personnel in Turkey, in Istanbul, and in Taksim from doing what they had to do.
RTE coined democracy as a train: “… we will take it until we get to where we want to be. Once we are there, we will get off.” The international community has every reason to believe that AKP is doing just that: exploiting democracy as a vehicle to get to his hidden agenda. RTE and AKP are not non-violent mild Islamists. Islam and any other organized religion, in the hearts and minds of individuals certainly serve the good of the society. But, once Islam is pulled into political discourse it is inevitable that sharia will follow sooner or later, in societies like Turkey definitely with violence.
Before it is too late, American and European governments must send decidedly strong diplomatic messages to the Turkish government withdrawing their economic and political support. International community dedicated to true democracy owes this to the benevolent, pacifist, non-violent democrats of Turkey trying to defend and expand democracy before Turkey becomes another, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, or Syria. Two thirds of the people of Turkey do not want to live in an open-air prison, I trust everybody would respect that demand.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
WHY CAN'T YOU LOOK AT MY CARNATION
WHY CAN'T YOU LOOK AT MY CARNATION
Streets and squares full of people
Skyline full of hands reaching up
Heads together shoulder to shoulder
Sky full of carnations
pink and red
Tunes of peace and love in the air
Youth has risen up
for a change for a
future full of peace
respect
love
tolerance
Carnations write the poem
of their journey
With helmets and
face shields
you shield yourself from me
My friend, you are the one
with pepper gas capsules
you pull the trigger of
water cannons
We are the ones with no gear
beaten to death day after day
What is it you're hiding from
behind your shield
Look at me in the eye
See the peace in my eyes
See the invitation to freedom
to true brotherhood
in that carnation I extend to you
That, you can not bring
yourself to look at.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151672273456683&set=a.10151650742991683.1073741826.569751682&type=1&theater
Friday, June 21, 2013
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY IN TURKEY - 3
Stanley WeissFounding Chairman, Business Executives for National SecurityGET UPDATES FROM STANLEY WEISS
The Megalomania of Erdoğan the MagnificentPosted: 06/13/2013 4:15 pm
It was the first time young Turks would march on the streets of Istanbul, when it was still known as Const...antinople. On a hot spring night 105 years ago, a movement of student activists, nationalists and secularists rose up against the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II, who was the 99th caliph (or, religious leader) of Islam and 34th sultan of the 600 year-old Ottoman Empire. Their demand was simple: restore the short-lived constitution that the sultan had suspended in 1878, which granted greater freedom to Turkish citizens. Cowed, Abdulhamid quickly capitulated, reconvening Parliament and initiating what came to be known as the Second Constitutional Era in Turkey.It was too much for the Islamic traditionalists in the Turkish military, who overtook their officers in March of 1909 and marched through the streets demanding restoration of Islamic sharia law. As the Young Turks fled, one writer feared that "Turkey seemed poised to go down an Islamist path." But it was not to be. Within ten days, democratic reformists had recaptured Constantinople. The Islamic rebels made their last stand at Taksim military barracks on the city's European side before surrendering to reform-minded troops, including a young officer named Mustafa Kemal. For Kemal--later known as Atatürk, founder of modern, secular, democratic Turkey--the Taksim barracks would serve as a reminder of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism.It is no accident that the protests that began in Istanbul before spreading to 78 Turkish cities the past two weeks were sparked by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's plans to build an exact replica of the Taksim barracks (torn down in 1940) on the same spot where it once stood, razing a popular park in the process. While two very different Turkeys encircle the Istanbul stand-offs of 1909 and 2013, the issue at the heart of both is the same: should Turkey--which is 99 percent Muslim--be ruled by the laws of God or the laws of men? This is not a question that can be resolved by tear gas or water cannon, no matter how much misery Erdoğan's riot police reign down on protesters. This is a battle for the very soul of modern Turkey itself, one that will ultimately determine whether the long-time NATO member and U.S. ally will stay on Atatürk's secular path or become a Turkish version of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.Throughout his career in Turkish politics, the megalomaniacal and deeply Islamic Erdoğan--who has called himself both "the imam of Istanbul" and "a servant of Shari'a"--has never really hidden where he stands. As he once said during his decade-long tenure as Istanbul's mayor, "our only goal is an Islamic state." He believes, as he thundered in a mid-1990s speech posted on YouTube, "one cannot be a Muslim and secular. For them to exist together is not a possibility."The real surprise is how willfully blind Western governments have been to Erdoğan's true intentions, reflected in an absurd editorial that recently ran in a leading American newspaper that observed "for the past few years, there has been a general optimism about Turkish democracy in Western capitals." For the 48% of Turkey that did not support Erdoğan's re-election to a third term in 2011--as well as the 50% that did, based in part on his successful stewardship of Turkey's economy--there is no such confusion over whether Erdoğan sees himself, as the Economist asked this week, as "Democrat or Sultan." In the words of journalist Ron Ben-Yishai, Erdoğan's clear goal is to bring about "a return to the Ottoman Empire's glory days."After all, does this sound like the record of a secular democrat?As has been expressed repeatedly in this space, since taking power in 2003, Erdoğan'sIslamist Justice and Development Party has imprisoned more journalists than any nation on earth. For good measure, it has also incarcerated more than 2,800 students, most for the crime of exercising free speech. Similar offenses have led to more than 20,000 complaints filed against Turkey's government in the European Court of Human Rights.Having once publicly read an Islamic poem that includes the lines, "the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers," Erdoğan has used public funds to build more than 17,000 mosques while announcing plans to create a super-mosque overlooking Istanbul. Last month, to celebrate the 560th anniversary of Istanbul's conquest by the Ottomans, Erdoğan broke ground on a third Bosphorus Bridge linking the Asian and European sides of the city, naming it after the controversial conquering Sultan Selim I--who adopted Sunni Islam as the official religion of the Ottoman Empire, and then ordered the murder of 45,000 Alevites for not being Muslim enough. Along the way, he has ordered the separation of boys and girls in primary and secondary schools; lowered the age requirement for religious schools to 11 while tripling enrollment; and ruled that tens of thousands of graduates of Islamic madrassas have the equivalent of college degrees so they can be hired for high civil service posts.What upsets secular Turks the most is what Turkish scholar Seyla Benhabib calls Erdoğan's "moral micromanagement of people's private lives." Saying he wants to create a "pious generation," Erdoğan has spoken out in favor of keeping men and women apart on beaches; supported announcements last month urging subway passengers to refrain fromkissing in public; and led the passage of surprise legislation to ban the sale of alcohol while publicly calling Atatürk a "drunkard." After famously overturning a 90-year ban on headscarves in public, Erdoğan also called on all Turkish women to have three children while restating his opposition to day-care centers, interpreted by the Economist as "women should have babies and stay home."One wonders if that bit of wisdom came up during Erdoğan's visit last month to the White House, where President Barack Obama publicly asked--again--for the prime minister's advice on raising daughters while praising him for his "courage" and "friendship." For a leader that has preferred the company of Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah the past ten years--rebuking the U.S. on Iran's nuclear program while severing Turkey's seven-decade long friendship with Israel--it's puzzling why Obama continues to refer to the Turkish prime minister as his most trusted ally.Erdoğan is precisely the kind of Islamic fundamentalist that Ataturk warned against, and the very reason he entrusted Turkey's military with the responsibility of safeguarding the nation's secular traditions. Four times in 90 years, the military led coups to do just that--most recently in 1997, when it forced Erdoğan's mentor, Nekmettin Erbakkan, to resign. At times, it has performed its job too zealously.For those who wonder why the military has been silent the past two weeks, it is a measure of the prime minister's brilliance that he found a way to use Turkey's hopeless bid to join theEuropean Union to his advantage. Acting on the EU's insistence that Turkey bring its military under greater civilian control, Erdoğan castrated military leaders, eventually throwing one in five of the nation's generals and half of its admirals in jail on specious charges, while placing Islamic loyalists in leadership positions. For good measure, in 2010, he also led the passage of new constitutional amendments to take power away from the other guardian of secular power in Turkey--the judiciary--giving his party control over judicial appointment while investing it with the power to "investigate" judges.Which is why secular Turks took to the streets two weeks ago: it's the only forum for redress they have left. If nothing comes of the protests--the prime minister insists he will now build a mosque at Taksim Square, in addition to the Ottoman barracks--at least woke the West to the reality that Turkey is a long way from the secular democracy we've known for 90 years.As Erdoğan undertakes a high-profile campaign to bring the most extensive changes to Turkey's political system since Ataturk--re-writing the Turkish Constitution to give the President more power while brilliantly working to end a 30-year war with Kurdish separatists to win the support he needs to pass it--he will be in position to run for President in 2014, just as he is term-limited out as Prime Minister. If this month's protests don't derail those efforts, there is no telling what Turkey will look like--or who it will be allied with--by the end of two likely terms of an Erdoğan presidency in 2024.But the question of whether Turkey will be ruled by the laws of God or the laws of man will be made moot--because in the mind of Erdoğan the Magnificent, who truly sees himself as the reincarnation of rulers like Suleiman who served as both political and religious leaders, they are one in the same.
The author is Founding Chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC. This is a personal comment.
The Megalomania of Erdoğan the MagnificentPosted: 06/13/2013 4:15 pm
It was the first time young Turks would march on the streets of Istanbul, when it was still known as Const...antinople. On a hot spring night 105 years ago, a movement of student activists, nationalists and secularists rose up against the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II, who was the 99th caliph (or, religious leader) of Islam and 34th sultan of the 600 year-old Ottoman Empire. Their demand was simple: restore the short-lived constitution that the sultan had suspended in 1878, which granted greater freedom to Turkish citizens. Cowed, Abdulhamid quickly capitulated, reconvening Parliament and initiating what came to be known as the Second Constitutional Era in Turkey.It was too much for the Islamic traditionalists in the Turkish military, who overtook their officers in March of 1909 and marched through the streets demanding restoration of Islamic sharia law. As the Young Turks fled, one writer feared that "Turkey seemed poised to go down an Islamist path." But it was not to be. Within ten days, democratic reformists had recaptured Constantinople. The Islamic rebels made their last stand at Taksim military barracks on the city's European side before surrendering to reform-minded troops, including a young officer named Mustafa Kemal. For Kemal--later known as Atatürk, founder of modern, secular, democratic Turkey--the Taksim barracks would serve as a reminder of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism.It is no accident that the protests that began in Istanbul before spreading to 78 Turkish cities the past two weeks were sparked by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's plans to build an exact replica of the Taksim barracks (torn down in 1940) on the same spot where it once stood, razing a popular park in the process. While two very different Turkeys encircle the Istanbul stand-offs of 1909 and 2013, the issue at the heart of both is the same: should Turkey--which is 99 percent Muslim--be ruled by the laws of God or the laws of men? This is not a question that can be resolved by tear gas or water cannon, no matter how much misery Erdoğan's riot police reign down on protesters. This is a battle for the very soul of modern Turkey itself, one that will ultimately determine whether the long-time NATO member and U.S. ally will stay on Atatürk's secular path or become a Turkish version of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.Throughout his career in Turkish politics, the megalomaniacal and deeply Islamic Erdoğan--who has called himself both "the imam of Istanbul" and "a servant of Shari'a"--has never really hidden where he stands. As he once said during his decade-long tenure as Istanbul's mayor, "our only goal is an Islamic state." He believes, as he thundered in a mid-1990s speech posted on YouTube, "one cannot be a Muslim and secular. For them to exist together is not a possibility."The real surprise is how willfully blind Western governments have been to Erdoğan's true intentions, reflected in an absurd editorial that recently ran in a leading American newspaper that observed "for the past few years, there has been a general optimism about Turkish democracy in Western capitals." For the 48% of Turkey that did not support Erdoğan's re-election to a third term in 2011--as well as the 50% that did, based in part on his successful stewardship of Turkey's economy--there is no such confusion over whether Erdoğan sees himself, as the Economist asked this week, as "Democrat or Sultan." In the words of journalist Ron Ben-Yishai, Erdoğan's clear goal is to bring about "a return to the Ottoman Empire's glory days."After all, does this sound like the record of a secular democrat?As has been expressed repeatedly in this space, since taking power in 2003, Erdoğan'sIslamist Justice and Development Party has imprisoned more journalists than any nation on earth. For good measure, it has also incarcerated more than 2,800 students, most for the crime of exercising free speech. Similar offenses have led to more than 20,000 complaints filed against Turkey's government in the European Court of Human Rights.Having once publicly read an Islamic poem that includes the lines, "the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers," Erdoğan has used public funds to build more than 17,000 mosques while announcing plans to create a super-mosque overlooking Istanbul. Last month, to celebrate the 560th anniversary of Istanbul's conquest by the Ottomans, Erdoğan broke ground on a third Bosphorus Bridge linking the Asian and European sides of the city, naming it after the controversial conquering Sultan Selim I--who adopted Sunni Islam as the official religion of the Ottoman Empire, and then ordered the murder of 45,000 Alevites for not being Muslim enough. Along the way, he has ordered the separation of boys and girls in primary and secondary schools; lowered the age requirement for religious schools to 11 while tripling enrollment; and ruled that tens of thousands of graduates of Islamic madrassas have the equivalent of college degrees so they can be hired for high civil service posts.What upsets secular Turks the most is what Turkish scholar Seyla Benhabib calls Erdoğan's "moral micromanagement of people's private lives." Saying he wants to create a "pious generation," Erdoğan has spoken out in favor of keeping men and women apart on beaches; supported announcements last month urging subway passengers to refrain fromkissing in public; and led the passage of surprise legislation to ban the sale of alcohol while publicly calling Atatürk a "drunkard." After famously overturning a 90-year ban on headscarves in public, Erdoğan also called on all Turkish women to have three children while restating his opposition to day-care centers, interpreted by the Economist as "women should have babies and stay home."One wonders if that bit of wisdom came up during Erdoğan's visit last month to the White House, where President Barack Obama publicly asked--again--for the prime minister's advice on raising daughters while praising him for his "courage" and "friendship." For a leader that has preferred the company of Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah the past ten years--rebuking the U.S. on Iran's nuclear program while severing Turkey's seven-decade long friendship with Israel--it's puzzling why Obama continues to refer to the Turkish prime minister as his most trusted ally.Erdoğan is precisely the kind of Islamic fundamentalist that Ataturk warned against, and the very reason he entrusted Turkey's military with the responsibility of safeguarding the nation's secular traditions. Four times in 90 years, the military led coups to do just that--most recently in 1997, when it forced Erdoğan's mentor, Nekmettin Erbakkan, to resign. At times, it has performed its job too zealously.For those who wonder why the military has been silent the past two weeks, it is a measure of the prime minister's brilliance that he found a way to use Turkey's hopeless bid to join theEuropean Union to his advantage. Acting on the EU's insistence that Turkey bring its military under greater civilian control, Erdoğan castrated military leaders, eventually throwing one in five of the nation's generals and half of its admirals in jail on specious charges, while placing Islamic loyalists in leadership positions. For good measure, in 2010, he also led the passage of new constitutional amendments to take power away from the other guardian of secular power in Turkey--the judiciary--giving his party control over judicial appointment while investing it with the power to "investigate" judges.Which is why secular Turks took to the streets two weeks ago: it's the only forum for redress they have left. If nothing comes of the protests--the prime minister insists he will now build a mosque at Taksim Square, in addition to the Ottoman barracks--at least woke the West to the reality that Turkey is a long way from the secular democracy we've known for 90 years.As Erdoğan undertakes a high-profile campaign to bring the most extensive changes to Turkey's political system since Ataturk--re-writing the Turkish Constitution to give the President more power while brilliantly working to end a 30-year war with Kurdish separatists to win the support he needs to pass it--he will be in position to run for President in 2014, just as he is term-limited out as Prime Minister. If this month's protests don't derail those efforts, there is no telling what Turkey will look like--or who it will be allied with--by the end of two likely terms of an Erdoğan presidency in 2024.But the question of whether Turkey will be ruled by the laws of God or the laws of man will be made moot--because in the mind of Erdoğan the Magnificent, who truly sees himself as the reincarnation of rulers like Suleiman who served as both political and religious leaders, they are one in the same.
The author is Founding Chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC. This is a personal comment.
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY IN TURKEY - 2
Turkish Medical Association Union's stand on the use of pepper gas and other riot control chemicals:
TTB/ riot control agents
Turkish Medical Association’s Scientific Advisory Board for Riot Control Agents
June 19, 2013
Pepper gas and other chemicals used as Riot control agencies must be classified as chemical weapons! They must be banned immediately!
Turkish Medical Associations Union (TMAU) ...and Specialists Associations Coordination Committee members worked in collaboration and prepared a scientific report on the risks of pepper gas and similar chemicals on the health of those exposed to them, which have been used intensively in Turkey during the last month because of the recent democratic uprising. “The Scientific Advisory Board for Riot Control Agents” held its first meeting on June 17, 2013 at TMAU headquarters with scientists representing their relevant professional organization for their specialty. The Board has set goals for the short middle, and long term in addition to conducting a scientific study to investigate the impact of such extensive use of these chemical on human subjects on both the users' and exposed individuals' health as well as environmental effects of such chemicals among other research questions. However, in light of the convincing data already at hand and known through public resources and medical teams that served teh medical needs of the wounded during the recent police attacks, in addition to evidence base on the topic through scientific literature, the Board has agreed upon the below statement to be shared with the national and international public:
Pepper gas and other chemicals used as Riot control agencies must be classified as chemical weapons
Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) known as pepper gas is a chemical compound like all medicines and poisons despite its organic origin. Pepper gas is a chemical substance belonging to Capsaicin group’s ““C-trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-
The police brutality staged in Turkey, recently, is causing serious polarization and anger in the society, which certainly is not an element of a stable, thriving society, all created with the encouragment and support of the government. Most chemical matter, including medicines is herbal in essence. All chemicals may be toxic and poisonous if they are not dosed and administered according to certain rules. Thus the chemical substances, however innocent they may be on their user's manual, become a poisonous weapon if the instructions for safe use at the recommended dosage are not followed and on the contrary they are purposefully used in ways other than they were manufactured for, which Turkish police have done generously during the last month. Massive usage of these chemicals on the society for day on end makes them a weapon of mass destruction: TMAU has established the fact that the number of the injured from the use of this new gas-weapon since May 31th 2013 is over ten thousand as of June 17th, 2013. The number individuals, who lost their eye globes and/or had serious organ injuries due to being hit directly by the shells of the tear gas (police targeted faces deliberately) and other chemical compound capsules has reached hundreds, and a dozen people are still in Intensive care units. Death toll of directly affected is 4 as of June 19th, 2013. However the number of morbidity and mortality (health comromise and deaths) due to indirect exposure has not been established, yet. The usage of tear gas and similar chemicals has lost its internationally established dissuasive quality and has become a weapon in the hands of Trkish police, which proved to bear serious health risks to the people in Turkey, setting an example for other antidemocratic regimes.
ATTENTION!
Pepper gas ( Tear gas ) and other chemical, Riot control agents must be acknowledged as chemical weapons!
They must be banned immediately as they now become a serious occupational hazard for those who use it too.
The universal definition of occupational diseases is the health problems caused by repetitive exposure to triggers, conditions or substances in line of work that are detrimental to health.
Law enforcement agents who have to continuously use these tear gas and other chemical substances, the press-media workers who has to follow the events, the medical personnel who are called to these incidents, people who work around the area where Riots take place, street cleaners, area shop owners and etc are now under serious occupational health threat. Little is known on long term chronic effects of these chemicals on human health but experiments on animals which has shown serious genetic changes and cancerous effects can help give us an idea about the dangers. Pepper gas and alike causes various diseases of the eyes, pulmonary system, cardiovascular system, liver and reproductive organs on both the user and the exposed in the short and the long term.
Thus above mentioned professions are now under more risk of cancer, otherwise inexplicable diseases and birth defects due to the effects of those chemicals on genetics. Use of gas masks by the law enforcement agents, journalists and cameramen and others do not present 100% protection to these people from the chronic effects. No matter how high quality the masks are, there still may be leaks caused by poor fitting. Besides even the best masks in the market can only hold 99% of the particles bigger than 0.3 micron. In a heavily affected area these people are under great risk because of that 1% we cannot underestimate and from the particles that are smaller than 0.3 micron. Government frequently announces that the pepper gas has been manufactured with the latest technologies. The current latest technology is nanotechnology if the pepper gas is produced by that technology then there is a big chance that the gas people were exposed has all particles under 0.3 micron (UFP-nanoparticles). If that is the case, inexplicable heart attacks, strokes and cancers would be inevitable for those who were over exposed. Pepper gas should be acknowledged as a chemical weapon since it has qualities that are detrimental to health of those who are exposed including the users, it should be banned immediately.
Finally, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ( CPT) has declared on their Netherlands report in 2007 that the tear gas is a potentially dangerous substance when used in confined spaces, that should it be used in open areas under certain circumstances, the availability of immediate health control and necessary treatments must be ensured also. Contrary to these, in our country pepper gas has been thrown on those who are not part of the protests in any way, pregnant ladies, children, elderly in their homes, hotels, shopping malls and even underground subway stations on purpose and thus our people have been experiencing unprecedented violence for days. We are urgently inviting United Nations, World Health Organization, World Medical Association and European Parliament leaders and workers to help put a stop to this inhuman crime by enforcing the warnings they have made via letters and media. Hereby we respectfully would like to share with our country and the people of the World that we are urgently calling the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Medical Association and all other related institutions to start working towards an immediate global ban on use of pepper gas and other chemical riot control agents and that they should be categorized as chemical weapons.See More
TTB/ riot control agents
Turkish Medical Association’s Scientific Advisory Board for Riot Control Agents
June 19, 2013
Pepper gas and other chemicals used as Riot control agencies must be classified as chemical weapons! They must be banned immediately!
Turkish Medical Associations Union (TMAU) ...and Specialists Associations Coordination Committee members worked in collaboration and prepared a scientific report on the risks of pepper gas and similar chemicals on the health of those exposed to them, which have been used intensively in Turkey during the last month because of the recent democratic uprising. “The Scientific Advisory Board for Riot Control Agents” held its first meeting on June 17, 2013 at TMAU headquarters with scientists representing their relevant professional organization for their specialty. The Board has set goals for the short middle, and long term in addition to conducting a scientific study to investigate the impact of such extensive use of these chemical on human subjects on both the users' and exposed individuals' health as well as environmental effects of such chemicals among other research questions. However, in light of the convincing data already at hand and known through public resources and medical teams that served teh medical needs of the wounded during the recent police attacks, in addition to evidence base on the topic through scientific literature, the Board has agreed upon the below statement to be shared with the national and international public:
Pepper gas and other chemicals used as Riot control agencies must be classified as chemical weapons
Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) known as pepper gas is a chemical compound like all medicines and poisons despite its organic origin. Pepper gas is a chemical substance belonging to Capsaicin group’s ““C-trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-
The police brutality staged in Turkey, recently, is causing serious polarization and anger in the society, which certainly is not an element of a stable, thriving society, all created with the encouragment and support of the government. Most chemical matter, including medicines is herbal in essence. All chemicals may be toxic and poisonous if they are not dosed and administered according to certain rules. Thus the chemical substances, however innocent they may be on their user's manual, become a poisonous weapon if the instructions for safe use at the recommended dosage are not followed and on the contrary they are purposefully used in ways other than they were manufactured for, which Turkish police have done generously during the last month. Massive usage of these chemicals on the society for day on end makes them a weapon of mass destruction: TMAU has established the fact that the number of the injured from the use of this new gas-weapon since May 31th 2013 is over ten thousand as of June 17th, 2013. The number individuals, who lost their eye globes and/or had serious organ injuries due to being hit directly by the shells of the tear gas (police targeted faces deliberately) and other chemical compound capsules has reached hundreds, and a dozen people are still in Intensive care units. Death toll of directly affected is 4 as of June 19th, 2013. However the number of morbidity and mortality (health comromise and deaths) due to indirect exposure has not been established, yet. The usage of tear gas and similar chemicals has lost its internationally established dissuasive quality and has become a weapon in the hands of Trkish police, which proved to bear serious health risks to the people in Turkey, setting an example for other antidemocratic regimes.
ATTENTION!
Pepper gas ( Tear gas ) and other chemical, Riot control agents must be acknowledged as chemical weapons!
They must be banned immediately as they now become a serious occupational hazard for those who use it too.
The universal definition of occupational diseases is the health problems caused by repetitive exposure to triggers, conditions or substances in line of work that are detrimental to health.
Law enforcement agents who have to continuously use these tear gas and other chemical substances, the press-media workers who has to follow the events, the medical personnel who are called to these incidents, people who work around the area where Riots take place, street cleaners, area shop owners and etc are now under serious occupational health threat. Little is known on long term chronic effects of these chemicals on human health but experiments on animals which has shown serious genetic changes and cancerous effects can help give us an idea about the dangers. Pepper gas and alike causes various diseases of the eyes, pulmonary system, cardiovascular system, liver and reproductive organs on both the user and the exposed in the short and the long term.
Thus above mentioned professions are now under more risk of cancer, otherwise inexplicable diseases and birth defects due to the effects of those chemicals on genetics. Use of gas masks by the law enforcement agents, journalists and cameramen and others do not present 100% protection to these people from the chronic effects. No matter how high quality the masks are, there still may be leaks caused by poor fitting. Besides even the best masks in the market can only hold 99% of the particles bigger than 0.3 micron. In a heavily affected area these people are under great risk because of that 1% we cannot underestimate and from the particles that are smaller than 0.3 micron. Government frequently announces that the pepper gas has been manufactured with the latest technologies. The current latest technology is nanotechnology if the pepper gas is produced by that technology then there is a big chance that the gas people were exposed has all particles under 0.3 micron (UFP-nanoparticles). If that is the case, inexplicable heart attacks, strokes and cancers would be inevitable for those who were over exposed. Pepper gas should be acknowledged as a chemical weapon since it has qualities that are detrimental to health of those who are exposed including the users, it should be banned immediately.
Finally, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ( CPT) has declared on their Netherlands report in 2007 that the tear gas is a potentially dangerous substance when used in confined spaces, that should it be used in open areas under certain circumstances, the availability of immediate health control and necessary treatments must be ensured also. Contrary to these, in our country pepper gas has been thrown on those who are not part of the protests in any way, pregnant ladies, children, elderly in their homes, hotels, shopping malls and even underground subway stations on purpose and thus our people have been experiencing unprecedented violence for days. We are urgently inviting United Nations, World Health Organization, World Medical Association and European Parliament leaders and workers to help put a stop to this inhuman crime by enforcing the warnings they have made via letters and media. Hereby we respectfully would like to share with our country and the people of the World that we are urgently calling the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Medical Association and all other related institutions to start working towards an immediate global ban on use of pepper gas and other chemical riot control agents and that they should be categorized as chemical weapons.See More
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY IN TURKEY - 1
I wasn't planning to post anything on this blog but my abroad travels. But, the developments in Turkey made me change my mind. I think, the world needs to know all about that is happenign in Turkey today. And , reaching out to whoever is viewing this blog is another opportunity to serve democracy throughout the world.
ZOOMING IN ON OCCUPY-GEZI-PARK MOVEMENT IN TURKEY
In light of the last six decades of Turkey's History
Recep Tayyip Erdogan (RTE), the Prime Minister (PM) of the decade-old Turco-Islamist government of Turkey finally accepted last week to meet with a true professional team of representatives, who are willing to mediate the discussions between the government and the protesters prevailing graciously over the last three weeks on Turkey's political discourse. The PM labels the protesters "chapulcu", looters, in other words. In a week after the protests have erupted, chapul (in verb form to refer to "to demonstrate for justice"), chapuller (who chapuls), and chapulita among others entered multiple languages on earth since the protesters are everything but looters and they carry their chapuller banner with pride: They are college students, high school students, university professors, lawyers, journalists, doctors, nurses, aunties, mothers, fathers, feminists, gays, lesbians, union labor representatives, Kurdish minority intellectuals, workers, artists, celebrities, parliamentarians; no wonder the democrats of the entire world pride over identifying with these chapullers.
The PM focused on the evacuation of Gezi Park in his discussions with the mediators. The Justice and Industrialization Party (AKP) government led by RTE for over a decade has been sacrificing everything Turkey stood for; its sovereignty, its culture, its history, and its nature to… profit and commercialization of the entire country. That is the thing to do in the new global market, nothing unique to Turkey, since all reasonable people all around the world are fighting against the insatiable hunger for more profit and wealth that globalization is injecting into the markets with unforeseen, ever escalating zeal at the expense of gradually destroying the earth. The last such attempt by the government, in Turkey was to replace Gezi Park, located in the heart of the city of Istanbul that has been an oasis for Istanbulites among the concrete blocks of Taksim, for many decades. This park is to Istanbul, what Central Park is to Manhattan, and Prospect Park to Brooklyn in New York City.
RTE is still deluded with his misconception that what has been turning the country upside down for the last three weeks is all about “a few” trees. It was, in the beginning, but now it is about how this country is ruled under the iron fist of RTE and its AKP. The head of the Democratic Labor Unions Confederation Arzu Cerkezoglu reached out to him during the meeting "Prime Minister, this is not simply about Gezi Park anymore, it was 15 days ago, but what we are observing today is a sociological phenomenon that should be understood and responded to." RTE lost his calm instantaneously as he always does whenever he is challenged, whenever he hears anything but "Yes, sir". He walked up to her face and threatened her both with his body language but more so with his words: "How dare you teach us sociology, we won these elections with our deep knowledge of sociology and social psychology". His "Yes, sir" men did their best to calm him down to no avail, and his daughter ushered him out of the room. End of conversation! This is what the PM of today's Turkey understands from hearing others' points of view. This is what he understands from democracy. There is no better evidence to the fact that RTE is the PM of those who voted for him but his ears and mind and heart are totally shut to those who did not, who also must be heard by their government in a true democracy. This is what the crowds on the streets of the entire country are asking of him today.
Since RTE and AKP refuse to hear this loud and clear call, Turkey has been shaken by a tyrannical crackdown over the last three weeks orchestrated by RTE and his team and executed by its police force, gendarmerie, paramilitary fundamentalist supporters, and provocateurs. The goal could not be clearer: To spread terror, forbid citizens' to use their rights to free speech, to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and to civil disobedience, and annihilate all forms of resistance to the society's Islamization and the country's commercialization inch by inch with methods reminiscent of Nazi regime. The political-Islamist ideology that has been staging a very smart and calculated step-by-step strategy to take Turkey back to the umma mentality of the Ottoman era over the last six decades has certainly gained momentum in the country in the last ten years, masked by the relative economic success. No more! People on the streets of Turkey are screaming out loud that Turkey will not become a Saudi Arabia, rich but imprisoned under the skies of Anatolia cloaked with sharia laws.
The government's police attacked less than 100 environmentalists and their tents, who were simply using their civil disobedience right to protect Gezi Park from being bulldozed. The police set the protesters' tents on fire at dawn of May 28th, 2013, believing as before, they could crush opposition with threats abuse of state authority, and brutal force. The people of Turkey had had enough of this for over ten years and Gezi Park incident provided the spark for the protests against the escalating violent police response. "Why such a reaction?" is a common question, by those, who still naively consider the conflict over a small park is the cause of this national scale burst of violence. The people of Turkey do not tend to be reactionary, in fact they can take a lot before they revolt.
However, the government attack on innocent people at Gezi Park has become the last of a chain of events the AKP government has been staging for a decade. To put the evolution of fundamentalist, political Islam in Turkey in the right perspective, we actually need to consider a longer history than the last decade, in particular, the consequences of the military coups of 1970 and 1980.
Once, the new Republic of Turkey emerged out of the rubbles of the Ottoman Empire and very wisely put behind the khaliphade, in order to establish a secular, modern society, multiple steps toward modernization were taken. Certainly, there were major issues regarding political pluralism, national diversity, among others, which in fact have played a role in bringing Turkey to today’s issues.
The right wing rule, "Democratic Party" that came into power in 1950s, following World War II, stole the democratic rhetoric from the west, which won them several elections back to back. However, the way they ran the country was one of despotism, and religion was reintroduced into Turkish political discourse, which went hand in hand with multiple anti-democratic impositions. Is it surprise that Evangelicals in the USA were also holding meetings with the leaders of the Republican Party in order to politicize abortion and to impose God's way of life into every household, pretty much around the same time?
Due to the anti-democratic rule of the “Democratic Party”, demonstrations were rocking the country for the first time in late 1950s. Eventually, a progressive group within the military staged the 1960 coup to block the way to an alternative, very fundamentalist military coup. This military reign amended the Turkish constitution and introduced for the first time in Turkish history, many freedoms and rights for individual citizens as well as securing pluralism in the political arena.
This democratic societal reorganization certainly allowed citizens, unions, organizations to demand what they deserved parallel to the progressive awakening all around the world in 1960s. However, corruption and lack of competent and dedicated leadership between 1960s and 1980s led the way to more unrest with subsequent military coups that shook up Turkey in 1970 and 1980. These coups mainly sought the destruction of progressive activism, by empowering right wing and fundamentalist elements in the country. All the conservative governments, including RTE’s that followed these coups took gradual, subtle but persistent steps to transform the state structure, which also included filling an ever increasing-number of critical posts with fundamentalists.
While the1970 military coup trimmed off most of the democratic provisions of the 1960 constitution, 1980 military coup significantly curtailed most basic individual rights involving freedom of speech, the right to demonstrate and organize. 2011 referendum for the constitution on the other hand, eliminated the separation between judiciary and executive, which became a major step toward blocking the way for oppressed non-Islamists to seek justice.
1980 amendments to the constitution introduced two other major changes that would favor the conservative and fundamentalist parties: First, the election system was modified to one that would eliminate smaller political parties off the political arena including the Kurdish nationalist party. In Turkey, to this day, a party that does not win more than 10% of the total votes cannot be represented in the parliament even if it has won 90% of the votes in certain regions/provinces. This system certainly serves the best interest of the runner up party, which has allowed AKP to disproportionately increase its power in every election through the last three elections back to back.
Second, 1980s saw a geometric increase in the number of parochial middle/high schools, from 500 to close to 5000. The Turkish people before 1970s were not orthodox followers of The Quran that differentiated Turkey from the other middle-eastern countries, in some of which sharia is the law of the land and the core of the culture. The fact that the majority of Turks were "cultural muslims," if you will, was not due to state oppression but by choice, as a result of more than half a century of enlightenment. Whoever wanted to practice their religion in their hearts and homes and mosques, churches, and synagogues were able to do so just as my parents and brothers did and still do. What did not exit prior to 1970s in Turkey was the politicization of Islam, and I must confess, it has been pretty successful since. The interventions of the last three decades, thus created the phenomenon of AKP in Turkey.
AKP came into power after several incompetent, corrupt coalitions failed to meet the demands of a dynamic society trying to find room for itself in the new world conjuncture. In 2002, AKP won 34% of the votes during the national elections that brought it to power for the first time, which won RTE 363 seats of a 550 seat-parliament (66%). Once in power, sales of all state enterprises to foreign and domestic investors, as part of joining the globalization movement brought a huge influx of cash into the state treasury. The new capital went to fundamentalist entrepreneurs at very low interest rates as loans, which gradually created not only a fundamentalist capitalist class but also strengthened AKP’s financial base for the subsequent elections. Low SES families were bribed with a variety of provisions during the months leading to elections in exchange for votes.
As the economy boomed, it seduced the non-fundamentalist entrepreneurs of the country to tap into the sweet government loans, and to join the ranks of AKP voters. AKP did increase its share of votes with each subsequent election: 47% in 2007 and 51% in 2012. However, it should also be kept in mind, that at least in 2012, only 66% of eligible voters had gone to the booths. Here is a very important calculation we should be aware of before concluding that the majority in Turkey favors AKP. While AKP utilized every private and state opportunity to maximize votes cast in its favor, the opponents were so frustrated with the lack of an alternative trustworthy leadership, most of them simply didn't vote. Thus, it is close to very accurate to claim that most of the non-voters in the last election did not support AKP, or put another way, no more than 35% of the adult population in Turkey actually supported AKP. However, as a result of a highly antidemocratic election system AKP has been enjoying close to 3/4 of the seats in the Turkish parliament, undoubtedly a source of the arrogance we have been observing in RTE's attitude.
Police and gendarmerie were easy targets to conquer, which AKP has been filling with fundamentalists during the last 10 years. Hence, the police brutality all over the country against peaceful protesters we have been witnessing for the last three weeks. Ergenekon; the imaginary conspiracy plot against the government, artificially created by the government, targeted all opposition including the military, the universities, the secular private sector, artists, and journalists, sending scores of high-profile national figures to jail. Overwhelming majority of the journalists that have been imprisoned in the context of Ergenekon plot, consisted of those writing on the artificially created nature of Ergenekon itself, who were then labeled as terrorists by the government, an all-embracing umbrella label, which provides the easiest path to put somebody in jail in Turkey. Turkey now ranks first in the world regarding the number of jailed journalists, a fact that ought to trouble the western pundits and policy analysts who have been marketing RTE as Turkey's true chance at democracy. RTE is the one who publicly declared "Democracy is a train you take to get to where you want to go. Once, you are there, you get off." This, from a man whom the Western governments, including the American, have been supporting for the last decade or more because of an unfortunate near-sighted foreign policy.
RTE and what he stands for with his party have never been for democracy. Had they, they would have sought to involve the Istanbul public in deciding the future of Gezi Park in the first place. Had they, they would have obeyed the court’s ruling to stop the demolition of the Park, and allowed due process to present a legal resolution to the current tension. Had they, RTE would have sincerely listened to the counsel of the Gezi Park delegates who met with him instead of chastising them. Had they, they would not have blocked off personal identifiers from the helmets of police officers to prevent the identification of misconduct. Along this line, the police office, who killed Ethem Sarisuluk during the peaceful protests, who is known to public is protected by the government and has not been arrested. Had they, they would not have violated Geneva Convention on medical neutrality and rounded up physicians and nurses, whose only crime was to "treat all individuals regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or political affiliation in both times of war and peace" just as Geneva Convention puts it. RTE and his team committed a crime by banning medical personnel in Turkey, in Istanbul, and in Taksim from doing what they were trained to do for the wounded and sick. In addition to legal investigations on medical personnel, the Ministry of Health also launched an investigation on these medical personnel, whose job security is certainly under attack. This is what RTE and AKP understand from democracy.
RTE and what he stands for with his party have never been for democracy. They have only stood for power, economic and political. As they did reach the former and observed that it brought them the latter in heretofore unseen levels, they sought to obtain unlimited economic power by exploiting the riches of the country. For the very same reason, they will never consider democratizing the election system, which effectively denies true parliamentary representation to the many voices in the country.
RTE and what he stands for with his party have never been for democracy. Had they, they would have supported multiculturalism, and embraced Kurdish minority with all its needs and rights. They would not have danced two steps forward and one step back--or at times worse, one step forward and two steps back. With such legislative power in the parliament, they would have passed all the laws needed to end discrimination against Kurdish minority and close the gap between the resources of the east and those of the west.
RTE, unfortunately did not turn out to be as smart and sneaky as I thought he would have been. I expected him to ride the train a bit longer until he had full control of the military, eradicated any potential for resistance from any section of the armed forces before he got off the democracy train to crack down on 2/3 of the people in the country, which he has always had a difficult time ruling. He and his team made the mistake of dividing the country into two sharply labeled camps a bit too prematurely: on one hand, the believers, faithful servants of God and the fatherland, and on the other hand, the "infidels,” who are dangerous "godless" enemies of Islam, that is, the protesters that have occupied the streets and neighborhoods of the entire country during the last three weeks.
http://occupiedtaksim.blogspot.com/2013/06/music-by-fazil-say-with-striking.html#links
http://occupiedtaksim.blogspot.com/2013/06/music-by-fazil-say-with-striking.html#links
We, as the international community, have now every reason to believe that AKP is simply exploiting democracy as a vehicle to get to its own calculated goals. More than seventy lawyers, many of them in gowns, have been rounded up by the police inside Caglayan Hall of of Justice, in Istanbul. According to what is being told, they dared defend in court the demonstrators arrested in the few days prior. Scores of physicians, who established volunteer clinics at Divan Hotel and around Taksim to provide urgent care to wounded protesters have also been rounded up whose only crime was to stick to their Hippocratic oath and keep their patients from harm and injustice.
I invite the international community to recognize that RTE and AKP are not some non-violent, mild-mannered Islamists.. Islam, when experienced as an individual choice in the hearts and minds of individuals certainly serve the good of the society. But, just like any other religion, once Islam is made an instrument for political power and legitimization and politicians shape due process in light of religion, then we have every reason to be alarmed. I call all of us to understand that supporting RTE and AKP is a very dangerous stance for both Turkey's future and that of the Middle East.
Before it is too late, American and European governments must send unequivocally strong diplomatic messages to the Turkish government by suspending their political and economical support to stop the violence they are imposing on the peoples of Turkey. International community dedicated to true democracy owes this to the benevolent, pacifist, non-violent democratic citizens from all walks of life in Turkey who are trying to defend and expand democracy before it is too late, before Turkey becomes another, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, or Syria. Two thirds of people in Turkey do not want to live in an open-air prison, I trust everybody would respect that demand.
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/post/53070039005/protesters-arrested-today-in-istanbul-are-lined-up
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/post/53070039005/protesters-arrested-today-in-istanbul-are-lined-up
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