riots in real life
probably you`ve heard some news on what`s going on in Turkey. A kurdish mayor was arrested because he spoke kurdish language in the public and regretet the death of about a dozen pkk fighters, caused by an military attak.
on sundday i heard the sound of slogans like “apocular geliyor” - those following “apo” öcalan are coming or something like that. so İ had my first coffee on my balcony, watching what`s going on. just a few moments later cs bombs exploded and stones where thrown. about 70 polıcemen, armed with sticks, teargas and some mp`s, the face mostly covered with gas masks, came up the street, beating some youngsters and spraying quite a lot teargas at them. they arrested nobody.
İ went to my bakkal to get breakfast and cigarettes. İ asked him whats going on. totally calm he explained the situation. there was a gathering in taksim because of the things going on diğarbakı. police attaked and so the protesters fleed to tarlabaşı. he began to wash the cs from his vegetables a little bit sooner, which he should do several times this day.
things where going on quite normal, all shops stayed open, people where coming from or going to the sunday`s market, drugs where sold and baught, just slightly even more conversation than normal. some one hour later about 50 apocular gathered and try to go up to taksim, armed with stones. nobody was caring, noone applauding, it seemed just to be a normal thing. maybe people who experienced long periods of civil war need more to get excited. some too young kids where sent back. this time: cs bombs and about 100 police coming down the street. the press embedded with them, also wearing gas masks.
nothing special happened. life was going on. we went to the market. it was slightly less crowded than normal and a helicopter was over the quartier. people were doing business as usual, even putting the washing on the line, not fearing, that the smell of teargas could stay. some were preparing some molotow coktails. others playig football like evry day. less people were washing their carpets on the street, like usual on sundays.
after some hours the ptotesters gathered again this time armed with molotow coktails. they run up to the bulvarand this time police seemed to run away. the traffic didn`t stop while the mollis were thrown on and over the street. about 10 min nothing happened.
this time over 100 police entered the quartier, cs bombs and now 5 were arrested, also beaten. life went on like usual.
so far the story. İ still don`t know, what İ should think about. on one side it`s just a conflict between two nationalist parties. on the other hand i feel empathic with the protest. and all in all i saw quite reasonable use of violance, calm and as far as i can estimate responsible. İ don`t think this is comparable with intifada like some newspaper write about the protests in the east, which might be different. And if somebody is arrested because of speaking a language it is a reason for protest anyway.
İ know, normally nobody is commenting in a blog, but if somebody has something to estimate these protests, i would appriciate to read.
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it’s so easy to speculate on these events! yet no conspiracy theory admits us to see what lies beneath. the problem is not the mayor’s speaking kurdish, it is what he said. 10 year old children throwing stones and molotov cocktails alongside with ( and provocated by) professional militants is a shame and if the kurds are in need of a scapegoat for the death of these children during the events, they should just look at the mayors and pkk. as a citizen once beaten up terribly by the police during a peaceful demonstration, i was amazed to see the moderate and responsible intervention of the police against the militants. after years of meditation on the kurdish problem at last i concluded that what they want is no autonomy, no confederation, no civil rights. these are just steps for their dream of independent kurdistan. they worsen the situation for those who wish to live together and just ignite the anger of crude and intolerant turkish nationalism. this is the way to disater.
Comment by hami — Mon Apr 10 06 @ 9:34 pm
İ think it`s too easy like this. you say, the problem is pkk, the supporters just used by professional militants. They are responsible for the violence, the injured and deaths and for the turkish nationalism.
İ wouldn`t support pkk. it`s a natıonalist organization and İ really dislike the celebration of öcalan. but İ can state that kurdish people are suffering from turkish nationalism, the evrydays racism as İ can observe evry day and the one by political oppression, so far İ can estimate, not really sure, what sources to trust.
So, you are talking about ten year old children throwing molotov cocktails - that`s not what İ`ve seen. İ saw the children sent away before using molotov cocktails.
You say, the police acted moderate. As far as İ know say ended a manifestation in taksim for political reasons. then they acted quite defensive in tarlabashı, as they had to do, because protesters didn`t accept teh control of the police. - it`s just easier for police to beat up peacefull protesters.
İ think it`s necersarry to critisize the protests and the kurdish organizations by their ideological background, their nationalsm, their ant-semitism, as İ observed by pkk-connected groups, their militarizm also, but not to support the turkish-nationalist police and armee in their oppression.
so far my 2 pence
Comment by vera — Tue Apr 11 06 @ 5:15 pm
i am not defending the police. i just said that the use of force was moderate. you can probably estimate what could have been if these events had occurred 10 years ago. in fact there is no need for estimation. the security forces used to suppress uprisings terribly when compared to their attitude recently. they just beat up peaceful protester which i know well, but they are inclined to shoot combatant ones. in turkey police not shooting people throwing molotov cocktails needs to be called moderate action. to say so is not defending the police. please, it is just naming it in “turkish” standarts. read the comment carefully since i also object to nationalism. turkish people like me suffer from turkish nationalism as well for various reasons. i won’t discuss the roots of turkish nationalism here. but when the kurds react in a nationalist manner the common folk amongst turkish people react in the same way. this is a fact, not my “racist” comment. by the way, i am sorry since i took the midgets throwing the coctails at the uprisings in diyarbakır and other southeastern cities for children:)( if you can read turkish yildirim türker wrote an excellent article about these children on monday’s “radikal” newspaper).
the thing you called as supporting army and police force is my hope. i believe if the authorities managed to restrict the police’s use of power ( remember the photos of the police officer using a slingshot instead of his gun against the protesters) and if the police acts quite different from what we expected then ten years later they may act like real professionals (yet at the end tey are plicemen and violence is intrinsic to their title as it is to any state). but before that both fascists and kurdish nationalists should understand that violence solves nothing; it just brings the violence of the state. i am frankly sorry to be taken as less responsible than guys sending children away before using molotov cocktails (who killed 3 innocent women in esenler with that gasoline bombs). thats all i want to say. since i don’t want to use your page as a forum this is my last comment. but your point of view is interesting. if you want to share your opinions with me on anything related to these problems ( anti-semitic discourse in turkey, the rising neo-fascism, violence, opression of the state etc.) you can e-mail me. it’s easy. just click on my name, open my blog page and you can find my address there
Comment by hami — Tue Apr 11 06 @ 11:49 pm
thanks to your answer - i will send you an e-mail for further contact as İ think further diskussion can be intersting. and sorry, if İ implied points of your view, you didn`t say.
Comment by vera — Wed Apr 12 06 @ 7:23 am
MAHSUM_MEMATİ
Comment by BİLAL_MAHSUM — Sat May 06 06 @ 6:13 pm