A night in Istanbul: democracy is under threat

As the unrest continues in Turkey, Lisa Morrow provides an update of the situation in Istanbul.

At 8.16pm I wrote an email to an American friend who used to live in Turkey. I said, “It is Saturday night here and we (and a lot of our friends I am sure) feel really drained and odd. Although it has only been a little over two weeks since the protests began in Istanbul, it has been momentous and we can’t help feeling we are on the brink of something new – good or bad we don’t know yet. So we are tidying up loose ends and trying to get on with life as normal, only normal has changed”.

A little over an hour later the first post appears on my Facebook page saying the police have moved into Gezi Park with tear gas and water cannon. Just hours before, I read an article on the official Hurriyet Newspaper website reporting that the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has given the protestors occupying Gezi Park 24 hours to leave, otherwise, in his words, “the security forces would know what to do”.

But the 24 hours had suddenly become one, as police informed the people milling around they had one hour to vacate the square. Despite an initial paucity of information it soon becomes apparent that the force and brutality of the police attack is on a greater scale than before.

The crowds are quickly and efficiently dispersed, pushed down Istiklal Caddesi as far as the Galatasaray Lisesi, up Cumhuriyet Boulevard to the neighbourhoods of Harbiye and Osmanbey and down the hill to the main square of Cihangir. At 10.30pm there are tweets reporting the use of plastic bullets and Facebook posts from a friend who writes, “Police and water cannon in Cihangir. Trapped in bufe (takeaway kiosk).”

She had been trying to join the protestors in Taksim Square, but like many people was forced back by police. In nearby Akaretler, down the hill from Taksim and up from the prime minister’s office near Dolmabahce Palace, a crowd of pot-banging, chanting residents begins to form.

This is shown at 11.30pm on HALK TV, the only Turkish TV channel showing more than the approved footage of the clean up in Gezi Park and Taksim Square. They have been covering events from the beginning, in Istanbul, Ankara and other parts of Turkey. During the protests they are fined 146,000 Turkish Liras by the Erdoğan government for showing a preview of a new movie without blocking the cigarette being smoked in one of the scenes.

Over the course of the night, reports come in of children being hit by tear gas. After the Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu called for mothers of the protestors to come to the square and take their children home, on Thursday they responded.

However, instead of coming to claim their children they came to protect them, with many staying throughout the night. On Saturday more people came, bringing their children as well, and hundreds of women and children are now being reported among those injured. A large number of people have taken refuge in the Divan Hotel which has previously protected demonstrators. The owner Ali Koc says that any staff member who refuses entry to a protestor will be fired. This time the situation appears more dangerous, and there are desperate tweets and posts for more doctors, nurses, oxygen tubes and medical supplies.

By the end of the first hour they are also calling for lawyers, with one post alleging people are being arrested as soon as they left the hotel and another stating the police have entered the building and attacked the injured. Doctors are also said to have been arrested. This comes after it was reported the Ministry of Health directed hospital staff to record the names and identity numbers of all protestors injured in recent events as well as demanding reports of doctors not on duty so they can match them up with people giving aid in the many temporary emergency clinics being set up throughout the city.

As more footage is shown on HALK TV of people being attacked by the police and telephone reports give more details, my normally quiet street in Goztepe on the Asian side of Istanbul erupts. Everyone is blowing whistles, banging pots, clapping and chanting. It stops for a while but when the news on HALK TV shows more and more violence towards the protestors my neighbours come out on to their balconies again, calling “Her yer Taksim, her yer direniş” – Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere resist! Democracy is under threat.

Facebook and Twitter are filling with helpful information about the locations of temporary infirmaries, one in a popular night club, another one opposite the Military Museum up the road from Gezi Park in Harbiye. Some banks are also opening as temporary infirmaries and a list of chemists on official night duty are listed. By midnight requests are made for all doors to be opened to the wounded, children to be helped, and taxi drivers and owners of private vehicles to ferry the wounded to hospitals and clinics. The reports come through of other hotels and businesses opening their doors to people, the Ceylan and the Marmara hotels, Halk Döner, Hayal Kahvesi and Tektekçi.

Names of missing children and their parents’ names and phone numbers are also beginning to be posted. The numbers of lost children grows and someone posts on Facebook “I found an 8-year-old called Multu ***** and took him to the Divan Hotel. I hope his family is there. They shouldn’t worry – I gave him a gas mask.”

Meanwhile there are calls for particular blood types to treat children and others being treated in the hotel. Sadly, another tweet reports a woman miscarrying there.

More tweets at 11.00pm report gas attacks continuing outside and inside the Divan Hotel. By 11.45pm people in the basement are having trouble breathing because of the gas. At midnight someone posts a list of the identification numbers on the helmets of the police who are attacking the hotel. In Germany, TV channel ZDF shows footage of police officers trying to kick their way in.

Claudia Roth, a German Green Party politician is also affected by tear gas and takes refuge in the Divan hotel. Photos appear showing people with burned skin (legs and back) and tweets come in alleging the same. Sometime later doctors confirm the water being sprayed by the police TOMA vehicles is mixed with chemicals. A Facebook post states that the liquid being fired from the police vehicles is a mixture of carbonated water and bepanthene.

As midnight passes there is no lessening of the police attacks or of people’s outrage at what is happening. People are not being permitted to leave the Divan Hotel and all the doors are shut. The Jandarma, whose role is to maintain public order in areas that fall outside the jurisdiction of police forces (generally in rural areas), as well as assuring internal security, are called in. The human chain around the hotel is breached and they throw more tear gas grenades into the hotel.

A video filmed there at 3.00am and posted on Facebook shows people panicking and trying to get to other floors via the lifts. When they get out onto a higher floor there are people lying on the floor coughing and moaning in pain. At 1.15am morning videos are posted showing police firing water into the entryway of the German hospital in Taksim. People are calling out “Bu hastane!”, “This is a hospital!”, but the police don’t stop.

When the attack started, the metro service, which brings people to Gezi Park and Taksim Square, had already been shut down. By 11.00pm there are unsubstantiated reports on Facebook that the ferry services and the first bridge spanning the Bosphorous have been closed. At 1.15am a HALK TV news flash announces that the Greater Istanbul Council has stopped all shared minibus services (dolmuş), buses and ferries from taking people to Taksim. They also show thousands of people walking across the bridge from the Asian side of Istanbul towards Taksim. Other footage shows people gathering in Harbiye trying to get back into Taksim while thousands more are walking in from Şişli. At 2.00am a picture is posted on Facebook showing the access road leading to the bridge at Altunizade closed by a cordon of police. At 4.00am it is reported that people walking along the TEM road, also on the Asian side have been stopped by police at Uzunçayır. People report seeing real handguns in the back pockets of the police. Others report that the Jandarma are getting close to the bridge. Other reports stated that despite the clashes people were still heading towards Taksim.

In the midst of the chaos other posts go out, asking people to retain proof of the police brutality. Lawyers fighting to support the protestors are asking for written testimonies, videos, clothing items affected by water cannon liquid, photos of injuries and of police violence. They include a number to call, an email address to write to and website to contact. The Hurriyet website printed that “police has (sic) taken into custody and interrogated more than 450 protesters during the demonstrations which have continued for over two weeks”. However, only four have officially been arrested as of yesterday. All four are purported to be members of the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) and were accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and fireworks at the police. Facebook posts that were made at the time of this event suggested these provocateurs were actually plainclothes members of the police.

It has been nearly three weeks since this began in the early hours of Friday May 31 and despite the severity of last night’s attacks on protestors there is no sign of it ending. Yesterday the Turkish minster for the European Union, Egemen Bağış, said that anyone entering the square will be treated as a terrorist. Today, Şişli-Mecidiyeköy, Osmanbey and Taksım metro stations, all on the European side, are closed, as is the Kabataş-Taksim funicular. These are the major forms of public transport servicing Taksim Square and Istiklal Caddesi. There are no reports on the status of metrobuses, city buses or ferry services yet. HALK TV announces people are to meet at 4.00pm today at designated points throughout the city to walk to Taksim Square. Hundreds of thousands are expected to turn up if they can get past the police barricades. The pro-AKP rally set to take place today in Kazlıçeşme, Istanbul, is going ahead. I feel very apprehensive because it’s possible there will be deadly clashes involving Turkish people from all walks of life. I have no idea what sort of Turkey I will wake up to tomorrow.

Erdogan Calls Protests a Conspiracy, Vows to Strengthen Police

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the main opposition party of inciting weeks of protests and vowed to strengthen police in “every way” to fight a “conspiracy” by traitors and foreign agitators.

Earlier today, Turkish police raided homes in Istanbul and Ankara, rounding up 85 people suspected of violence against police. Overnight, they fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in Ankara. The European Union, which has denounced the use of force by police since the unrest began May 31, canceled a planned visit.

In a speech to parliament, Erdogan alleged, without saying where he got the figure, that 76 percent of the protesters who occupied Istanbul’s Gezi Park had voted for the secularRepublican People’s Party. He accused its leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, of acting like a “militant of a terrorist organization” and said other opposition lawmakers disseminated “lies on Twitter” to incite masses.

“From now on, police will not turn a blind eye to any illegal activity,” said Erdogan, who has promised to probe the use of excessive force by police against protesters. “We will further strengthen our police in every way, so it can intervene in these kind of incidents more forcefully.” He did not elaborate.

The biggest street demonstrations against the decade-old Erdogan government erupted in frustration over what protesters say is his increasingly authoritarian conduct and attempts to impose Islamic ways on a country once defiantly secular. At least four people have died in clashes between demonstrators and police, and thousands have been injured.

Markets Reeling

Financial markets have been reeling, with stocks and bonds extending losses today. The benchmark equity index dropped 0.6 percent at 3:40 p.m. in Istanbul, taking its decline this month to 8.7 percent. Yields on two-year lira debt rose 40 basis points to 6.64 percent.

Last weekend, police drove protesters from Gezi Park and nearby Taksim Square, the center of the unrest, arresting hundreds. A single man stood for hours in Taksim until early today, triggering a silent protests by dozens of people as word of his vigil spread on social media.

Most of the suspects detained in today’s round-up were linked to banned left-wing groups, state-run TRT television said. Targets included a newspaper and news agency linked to a Marxist group, TRT said.

Blames ‘Traitors’

Erdogan said his government foiled a conspiracy that was well planned by “traitors” backed by “circles abroad,” including international media and a group he calls the “interest rate lobby.” Ministers have said a group of international banks and individuals is stoking the unrest to keepTurkey’s interest rates high and benefit on speculative trading.

“Turkey has emerged stronger from a test of democracy,” he said, inviting supporters to rallies in central Turkey this week, following similar rallies in Istanbul and Ankara over the weekend.

Erdogan has rebuffed EU criticism of the Turkish police crackdown, saying he does not “recognize such an EU Parliament.” The friction led the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee to cancel a planned trip to Turkey.

“In the face of the declarations made by representatives of the government of Turkey, the committee has decided to postpone its visit. I regret this,” Elmar Brok, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said in a statement today.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday in Washington that the U.S. believes most Turks at the demonstrations were “peacefully protesting, expressing their rights to freedom of speech.”

She cited concerns about “reports of activity including police brutality,” and also said the U.S. is “very troubled by any pressure being placed on journalists or media organizations.”

How Democratic Is Turkey? Not as democratic as Washington thinks it is.

It seems strange that the biggest challenge to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority during more than a decade in power would begin as a small environmental rally, but as thousands of Turks pour into the streets in cities across Turkey, it is clear that something much larger than the destruction of trees in Istanbul’s Gezi Park — an underwhelming patch of green space close to Taksim Square — is driving the unrest.

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The Gezi protests, which have been marked by incredible scenes of demonstrators shouting for Erdogan and the government to resign as Turkish police respond with tear gas and truncheons, are the culmination of growing popular discontent over the recent direction of Turkish politics. The actual issue at hand is the tearing down of a park that is not more than six square blocks so that the government can replace it with a shopping mall but the whole affair represents the way in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has slowly strangled all opposition while making sure to remain within democratic lines. Turkey under the AKP has become the textbook case of a hollow democracy.

The ferocity of the protests and police response in Istanbul’s Gezi Park is no doubt a surprise to many in Washington. Turkey, that “excellent model” or “model partner,” is also, as many put it, “more democratic than it was a decade ago.” There is a certain amount of truth to these assertions, though the latter, which is repeated ad nauseum, misrepresents the complex and often contradictory political processes underway in Turkey. Under the AKP and the charismatic Erdogan, unprecedented numbers of Turks have become politically mobilized and prosperous — the Turkish economy tripled in size from 2002 to 2011, and 87 percent of Turks voted in the most recent parliamentary elections, compared with 79 percent in the 2002 election that brought the AKP to power. Yet this mobilization has not come with a concomitant ability to contest politics. In fact, the opposite is the case, paving the way for the AKP to cement its hold on power and turn Turkey into a single-party state. The irony is that the AKP was building an illiberal system just as Washington was holding up Turkey as a model for the post-uprising states of the Arab world.

Shortly after the AKP came to power in 2002, a debate got under way in the United States and Europe about whether Turkey was “leaving the West.” Much of this was the result of the polite Islamophobia prevalent in the immediate post-9/11 era. It was also not true. From the start, Turkey’s new reformist-minded Islamists did everything they could to dispel the notion that by dint of their election, Turkey was turning its back on its decade of cooperation and integration with the West. Ankara re-affirmed Turkey’s commitment to NATO and crucially undertook wide-ranging political reforms that did away with many of the authoritarian legacies of the past, such as placing the military under civilian control and reforming the judicial system.

The new political, cultural, and economic openness helped Erdogan ride a coalition of pious Muslims, Kurds, cosmopolitan elites, big business, and average Turks to re-election with 47 percent of the popular vote in the summer of 2007, the first time any party had gotten more than 45 percent of the vote since 1983. This was unprecedented in Turkish politics. Yet Erdogan was not done. In 2011, the prime minister reinforced his political mystique with 49.95 percent of the popular vote.

Turkey, it seemed, had arrived. By 2012, Erdogan presided over the 17th-largest economy in the world, had become an influential actor in the Middle East, and the Turkish prime minister was a trusted interlocutor with none other than the president of the United States.  Yet even as the AKP was winning elections at home and plaudits from abroad, an authoritarian turn was underway. In 2007, the party seized upon a plot in which elements of Turkey’s so-called deep state — military officers, intelligence operatives, and criminal underworld — sought to overthrow the government and used it to silence its critics. Since then, Turkey has become a country where journalists are routinely jailed on questionable grounds, the machinery of the state has been used against private business concerns because their owners disagree with the government, and freedom of expression in all its forms is under pressure.

Pressure grows on Turkish PM as protests continue

Angry demonstrators clashed with police firing teargas and water cannons in a third night of protests across Turkey on Sunday. Protesters gathered at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offices in Istanbul and Ankara, calling on him to resign.

 

By News Wires (text)

 

Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government faced growing pressure on Monday after angry demonstrators clashed for a third night with police in a nationwide wave of protests.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon Sunday at protesters who marched on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s offices in Istanbul and Ankara.

“Dictator, resign!… We will resist until we win,” yelled the crowds, in the latest of a string of protests that have by some accounts left hundreds injured.

Police had withdrawn on Saturday from Istanbul’s main Taksim Square, the symbolic heart of demonstrations that started over an unpopular building project nearby and boiled over into a general protest against the government.

Crowds of whistling, flag-waving protestors continued to cover Taksim Square but the flashpoint shifted late Sunday to the area near Erdogan’s nearby Istanbul base.

AFP reporters there saw police disperse thousands of demonstrators and incidents continued into early Monday.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said earlier that more than 1,700 people had been arrested in the unrest nationwide, though most have since been released.

He said 58 civilians and 115 security officers had been injured over several days of protests, although rights groups have put the number of injured higher.

A doctors’ union in Ankara said more than 400 civilians had been injured there including some with serious head wounds.

Rights groups have denounced the violence that police meted out to demonstrators and Turkey’s Western allies have appealed for restraint.

The unrest began as a local outcry against plans to redevelop Gezi Park, a rare green spot near Taksim, but after a heavy-handed police response the protests spread to other districts — and then to dozens of cities across Turkey.

Accused by critics of pushing an increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda, Erdogan’s government is facing the biggest protests since it took power in 2002.

Erdogan on Sunday renewed his call for an end to the disturbances.

“If you love this country, if you love Istanbul, do not fall for these games,” he said in televised comments.

— Protests ‘harm Turkey’s reputation’ —

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned in a Twitter message: “The continuation of these protests… will bring no benefits but will harm the reputation of our country which is admired both in the region and the world.”

Guler estimated the cost at more than 20 million liras (eight million euros, $10 million).

The prime minister had insisted on Saturday that his government would press ahead with the park redevelopment, although he said it may not include a shopping mall, as protesters fear.

He also admitted “some mistakes” in the police response and called off the police from Taksim on Saturday.

On Sunday however, he confirmed a plan to build a mosque on Taksim Square — a sensitive issue as he faces growing accusations of trying to impose an Islamic agenda.

Amnesty International said some protesters had been left blinded by the massive quantities of tear gas and pepper spray used by police.

Human Rights Watch said the number of injured was higher than official figures suggested and that one protester had lost an eye after police shot him with a plastic bullet.

Turkey’s NATO allies Britain, France and the United States have all urged the Erdogan government to exercise restraint.

They were joined Sunday by the European Union, whose foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton released a statement condemning the “disproportionate use of force” by police and calling for dialogue.

Turkey’s southeastern neighbour Iraq on Sunday warned of the implications for the region.

“Adopting violence will cause it to spread, which will affect the situation in the region,” said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an emailed statement.

“We call for restraint and for avoiding violence.”

Erdogan’s populist government is often accused of trying to make predominantly Muslim but staunchly secular Turkey more conservative.

A controversial new law introduced by his ruling Justice and Development Party aims to restrict the sale and advertising of alcohol.

“It’s not about the Gezi Park project anymore. It has become a movement against the government which is interfering more and more in our private life,” said Hamdi, a protestor in Ankara who would not give his family name.

The government has also been criticised for its crackdown on opponents including Kurds, journalists and the military establishment.

“They call me a dictator,” Erdogan said in a speech on Sunday. “If they liken a humble servant to a dictator, then I am at a loss for words.”

His AKP party has won three successive parliamentary elections, grabbing almost 50 percent of the vote the last time around in 2011.

But one indication of the growing resistance to his agenda has come at nine o’clock for the last few evenings.

Across Ankara and Istanbul, residents open their apartment windows to rattle saucepans, blow whistles and shout anti-government slogans into the streets below.

 

Why Did a Protest To Save a Turkish Park Turn So Violent?