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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