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Gezi Park - Istanbul

Here it is in action against 2 police carriers but others replaced it:-

BLye9bXCEAEaZGz.jpg


Tomorrow the PM heads out on another tour of north Africa and the Middle East beginning with Morocco the situation is under control again reports of extreme brutality in arrests, 'revenge' is being served.

Tunceli (Dersim)'s main police station and car park has been completely surrounded so that police can't be moved elsewhere. Tens of thousands out there apparently - non-Sunni alevi heartland.

This is police in Gaziantep, a very conservative 'traditional' area, surrounding a gathering waiting to break it up (which they will do easily) once it starts moving and becomes 'an unauthorised march'.
BLyE6NVCYAEy1vo.jpg
 
Tens of people apparently blinded in Beskitas, by police rubber bullets or gas canisters

BLyTLKUCIAA3n6l.jpg


Kurdish cities in south eastern Kurdistan are basically quiet - the feeling is we will not become scapegoats for the government to end its ceasefire and resume attacks on the Kurdish population. However, many Kurds in Istanbul in places like Gazi and Umraniye are outside.

This evening and early night in Bagcilar - poor, working-class and Sunni area - has seen fights with large clubs between protestors and AKP supporters.

To conclude unless:

1. Kurdish cities also begin protests (too difficult to raise demands when the peace talks are not due until July) (only chance is to heavily raise Kurdish slogans and demands hard whilst the immediate issues are to do with gentrification and no community control in the major cities)
2. trade unions quickly start making some/any demands with action (will come from below pressure but they are locked into a system of watching atv kanal d with cheap dishes and constantly hearing these protestors are essentially the same group who supported the last military intervention in 1997 support coups against Muslim-background PMs) (trade union strength totally lost in the main media, not been any medium size press strike for over 20 years I think)
3. w/class conservative Sunni areas receive support - anti-AKP people are silenced/cowed otherwise - from others (difficult since police are attacking on all fronts)
4. prisoner population starts some kind of action to further their demands (to squeeze police resources)

PM and government can just sit it out - there are lots of riot trained police, plenty of loyalist army commandos and planty of AKP supporters.
The AKP Mayor of Ankara was boasting on twitter earlier 'if we wanted to, we could drown all you in an inch of water' - saying 'you don't and won't ever have the numbers go home before it gets ugly'
 
sihhi said:
Tens of people apparently blinded in Beskitas, by police rubber bullets or gas canisters

BLyTLKUCIAA3n6l.jpg


Kurdish cities in south eastern Kurdistan are basically quiet - the feeling is we will not become scapegoats for the government to end its ceasefire and resume attacks on the Kurdish population. However, many Kurds in Istanbul in places like Gazi and Umraniye are outside.

This evening and early night in Bagcilar - poor, working-class and Sunni area - has seen fights with large clubs between protestors and AKP supporters.
Click to expand...

does this mean it is between middle class and working class or something different, more complex?
 
treelover said:
Izmir AKP HQ on fire shades of Egypt
Click to expand...

Not really like Egypt at all -

My edit above to explain why not:-

1. Kurdish cities also begin protests (too difficult to raise demands when the peace talks are not due until July) (only chance is to heavily raise Kurdish slogans and demands hard whilst the immediate issues are to do with gentrification and no community control in the major cities)
2. trade unions quickly start making some/any demands with action (will come from below pressure but they are locked into a system of watching atv kanal d with cheap dishes and constantly hearing these protestors are essentially the same group who supported the last military intervention in 1997 support coups against Muslim-background PMs) (trade union strength totally lost in the main media, not been any medium size press strike for over 20 years I think)
3. w/class conservative Sunni areas receive support - anti-AKP people are silenced/cowed otherwise - from others (difficult since police are attacking on all fronts)
4. prisoner population starts some kind of action to further their demands (to squeeze police resources)

PM and government can just sit it out - there are lots of riot trained police, plenty of loyalist army commandos and planty of AKP supporters.
The AKP Mayor of Ankara was boasting on twitter earlier 'if we wanted to, we could drown all you in an inch of water' - saying 'you don't and won't ever have the numbers go home before it gets ugly'

The base of AKP support is far wider than Mubarak regime - the centre-left opposition and Kurdish opposition are far smaller than the Egyptian opposition and they are acting in digressing ways...
the centre-left opposition saying keep it 'civil' don't attack and burn and be like terrorist groups,
the Kurdish opposition is its own supporters saying 'it's not our struggle, if these people win, the MHP fascists will be emboldened, peace and autonomy will be in danger'

AKP is not the Mubarak family - it is thousands and thousands of Anatolian capitalists and Gulen networkers with extensive investments from Macedonia to Kyrgyzistan, extending a traditional clientelist model into the workplace and external isolated charity model for the unemployed.

So it succeeds in basically
1 keeping your enemies divided and/or dependent on you
2 keeping your base angry at these enemies (they are threatening the right of their children to learn how to read the Kuran etc)
 
I've just woken up and am catching up on the current situation. This is both a scary and exciting time to be here. As a foreigner living here (and also working for the government) I'm in a different position, perhaps it's not my battle, and I don't plan on being on the front line. However, this is my home, I've seen how minorities are treated, the way the police behave and all the creeping laws taking turkey slowly towards islamification. Because of these things, I totally support the protestors and am doing what I can to show solidarity. I saw some incredible scenes yesterday. People were handing out free food and water to those in the park. People were handing out rubbish bags and making sure the park stayed clean. Someone opened a barrier at the ferry terminal and called all those waiting to enter without paying. The ferry companies worked extra hard to get people over to join in. Bus drivers were beeping their horns in support. Old ladies banged saucepans. Gay people, babies, disabled people, Kurds, communists, students, all sorts of grous were out in the square .

I don't know how this is being reported in international media, could someone give me a summary?
 
Me and my Denizli girl are flying out to Izmir in a couple of weeks - we're heading off towards the Cesme area for a holiday but if the protests are still going strong then I have no doubt we'll be out there supporting them rather than laying on the beach.
 
^^ This is a typical report in the Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/02/turkish-protesters-control-istanbul-square

If you read the comments you'll see people posting links to live coverage sites and lots of complaints that the Guardian don't have a live reporting page (something they do for Syria and other similar events).Al Jaz has fairly good coverage and CNN have live cameras (no sound) on and off.All in all it's not getting the coverage it deserves.
 
Casually Red said:
unbelievably Erdogan is leaving Turkey in the middle of this to go on a tour of North Africa .
Click to expand...

It's not unbelievable, it's basic propaganda - "look at me, I'm so unworried, I'm carrying on as normal" - sending a message to the money men, and to his political base to not worry.
 
peterkro said:
^^ This is a typical report in the Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/02/turkish-protesters-control-istanbul-square

If you read the comments you'll see people posting links to live coverage sites and lots of complaints that the Guardian don't have a live reporting page (something they do for Syria and other similar events).Al Jaz has fairly good coverage and CNN have live cameras (no sound) on and off.All in all it's not getting the coverage it deserves.
Click to expand...

It's unlikely to in the UK, too much money involved. German media seems to be doing better, but then they have a large Turkish minority to cater to who'll simply pull their info off the satellite dish if they don't get it from German broadcasters.
 
seen reports there on al jazeera that hes blaming..although not specifically naming.. syrian military intelligence for being behind the disturbances . As well as the political opposition, who dont appear able to run a bath much less plan a spontaneous uprising . Hinting too that hes personally holding back his supporters but mightnt be able to guarantee their patience .

then he got on a plane and fucked off .
 
Casually Red said:
mightnt be working by the looks of the Turkish stock market, big losses there.
Click to expand...

yep. I'll C&P this as it's on the FT site:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for calm on Monday after stocks tumbled following a weekend of violent anti-government protests that the Turkish prime minister blamed on “extremist forces”.
Mr Erdogan said intelligence services were investigating foreign links to the demonstrations. “Be calm, relax, all this will be overcome,” he told a news conference at Istanbul airport before his planned departure on an official visit to Morocco.

Turkey’s main stock market index opened 6 per cent down on Monday amid the country’s biggest demonstrations in years, as tensions grow between the Islamist-rooted government and secular middle-class Turks.
The Borsa Istanbul 100 fell to 79,047 in early trade, more than 8 per cent below the previous close before the weekend’s protests. It then recovered to trade at about 5.5 per cent down. The lira weakened about 1 per cent against major currencies and yields on government bonds rose about 20 basis points....
Click to expand...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/59d34ed8-cbab-11e2-8ff3-00144feab7de.html#slide0
 
seems to be a rift opening between Erdogan and the Turkish president . Erdogans blaming extremists, syria blah blah blah ... adopting the usual confrontational approach and refusing to admit theres actually anything wrong in Turkey that could possibly be provoking this . Hes pointing to the ballot box and insisting that gives him the right to do what he wants thanks to people ticking a box every 5 years.

Turkish president though is taking a very different approach and talking about a need for people to be listened to, hints at more participatory democracy . Could be interesting to see how..or if.. that difference develops any deeper .
 
Anonymous have hacked several government websites and brought down the website of the company Condornaoletal, who produce some of the tear gas.
 
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