Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that he considers Mohammed Morsi, who
was ousted by the military in early July, to be the president of Egypt.
“Currently, my president in
Egypt is Morsi because he was elected by the people. Therefore, if we
don't consider the situation like this, we would disregard the people of
Egypt. Disregarding the will of the Egyptian people means disregarding
yourself because in Turkey we respect the will of the people. We would
respect the coup regime if they had won at the ballot box,” said Erdoğan
at a fast-breaking dinner.
Stating that it is not the duty of the army to govern the country,
Erdoğan underlined that the sole role of an army is to protect a
country's borders.
“Why is there a ballot box? From the results of the box, a government
would emerge through the will of the people and that government would
govern the country. That government may be successful or not. If the
government stops being successful, then the ballot box will come to the
fore. When it comes to the fore, then you can say that the government
has failed,” said Erdoğan.
...
Referring to the Gezi demonstrations, which
began at the end of May in protest of government plans for the
redevelopment of Gezi Park in İstanbul's Taksim Square and turned to
nation-wide anti-government protests, Erdoğan maintained that there the
incidents in Egypt and Turkey were not dissimilar.
“The origin of the incidents in both countries is the same. I will
declare what that origin is when the time comes. It is saved in our
memory cards,” said Erdoğan.
Given that he already blamed Israel for the Gezi park demonstrations, it's pretty obvious, whom he means....
From Istanbul, Haaretz's Barak Ravid writes that the Taksim Square protests have put reconciliation between Israel and Turkey into a deep freeze.
One of the surprising things in Gezi Park, whose planned demolition
and replacement with a shopping mall triggered the uprising, is its
size. What seems like Istanbul’s Central Park in news reports looks more
like the 7.4-acre Meir Park on Tel Aviv's King George Street. Maybe
that's the best evidence that the protest in Turkey isn't about the
uprooting of a few trees, it's against Erdogan and everything he stands
for.
The
protests in Turkey have undeniable implications for Israel, affecting
the reconciliation efforts first of all. Officials at Israel's Foreign
Ministry, the only agency keeping tabs on what's happening in Turkey,
say that in the current political atmosphere the chances for
reconciliation are nil. In his shaky position, Erdogan will find it very
hard to compromise on the compensation to the families of the people
killed in the Gaza flotilla back in 2010. He also won't be able to pass
the bill canceling the measures launched against Israeli troops and
officers.
Netanyahu,
who apologized after a three-year crisis in relations with Turkey and
under heavy American pressure, is very frustrated over the stalemate in
the reconciliation talks. While Netanyahu doesn't regret apologizing to
Turkey, he still feels he was tricked. If there's anything he hates,
it's looking like a sucker. Netanyahu didn't get what he expected in
exchange — the return of the ambassadors and the normalization of ties.
He doesn't plan to make any gestures to Erdogan soon.
...
Netanyahu’s
frustration is understandable, but a look at the reconciliation efforts
should leave him content. Netanyahu has won the battle with Erdogan.
There is wall-to-wall agreement among Israel’s allies in the West that
as far as a rapprochement with Israel is concerned, it's up to Erdogan.
The international criticism of Erdogan’s foot-dragging on the issue
joins the mountains of criticism against him over his suppression of the
protests and the anti-Semitic statements by senior people in his
government.
The
protest in Turkey also took Erdogan’s visit to Gaza off the agenda.
Despite recent reports, it's hard to see how Erdogan can make time for a
tour of the Gaza Strip. Even if he was mulling that, the revolution in
Egypt has buried the subject. The only way for Erdogan to enter Gaza is
through Israel. For that to happen, he has to make progress on the
reconciliation.
A few thousand people converged on the square, with the aim of entering
Gezi Park, whose redevelopment plans sparked anger and morphed into nationwide anti-government protests
in June. Organizers had planned to serve notice to authorities of a
court decision that has annulled redevelopment plans for Taksim and
break through police cordons.
The park has been sealed off since
June 15, when police routed environmentalists who occupied it amid
around three weeks of widespread demonstrations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
government. His opponents say he has become increasingly authoritarian
since coming to power a decade ago - charges the government rejects.
The
nationwide protests have largely dwindled although thousands of
demonstrators have been gathering at Taksim every Saturday for the past
three weeks - mostly demanding justice for a protester who was killed by
police - before police intervened.
This time, some protesters
argued with police over their rights to enter Gezi park before officers
in riot gear pushed protesters away from the square with pressurized
water and tear gas. They then chased protesters down two main streets
off Taksim, again firing tear gas and water cannons. Police later
barricaded an entrance to the square.
Private Dogan news agency
footage showed one man, with a bloodied face, being helped inside an
ambulance. An Associated Press journalist saw a dozen protesters being
detained.
An Istanbul court in June ruled against the
redevelopment plans that included building a replica Ottoman-era
barracks at Gezi. The court's decision, however, is not final and is
expected to be appealed at a higher administrative court.
Maybe the 'moderate Muslims' who want to live in the 21st century are finally re-emerging in Turkey.
As you might have suspected, the riots in Istanbul over the past few weeks aren't just about a park. They're about the efforts of President Obama's Best Friend Forever, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to erase secularism from Turkey's history.
The government’s plan to destroy Gezi Park, a section of Taksim Square,
and build a replica Ottoman Army barracks and mall set off weeks of
violent street protests, presenting Mr. Erdogan with the greatest
political crisis he has faced in more than a decade in power. But the
plan to build a large mosque in the square is, in the eyes of many
analysts here, the real nub of the dispute.
The building of such a mosque is a decades-old hope of Turkey’s
Islamists, and even played a role in the last military intervention in
Turkish politics in 1997, when army generals maneuvered to overthrow an
Islamist prime minister.
Now that the people — rather than the army — have risen up against the
current Islamist government’s urban development plans, analysts have
suggested that one of the consequences of the unrest is that Mr. Erdogan
will ultimately be unable to realize his vision for Taksim.
If so, it will represent the second time he has tried and failed to
build the mosque, and at serious political costs. As the mayor of
Istanbul in 1997, he saw the same dreams dashed by the military’s
intervention.
Not that he has given up. As the protests engulfed his government, Mr.
Erdogan backed off from the plans for a shopping mall in Taksim, but he
continued to promote the mosque.
“A mosque will be built in Taksim,” he said, in a recent speech. “I do
not need permission from the main opposition and a few looters. We have
been granted authority by those who voted for us at the ballot box.”
In the 1990s, under Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin
Erbakan, Mr. Erdogan oversaw a local commission in charge of the mosque
project, but the idea was anathema to Turkey’s secular elite, who could
still count on the military to safeguard the country’s secular
underpinnings.
A local news article published in January 1997 reported that secular
Turks objected to the mosque because it would “symbolize the power of
the Islamists over Taksim as well as the whole country.” Those words
could easily be spoken by today’s protesters.
Ayse Hur, a historian and columnist for the newspaper Radikal, said,
“The circles that oppose the project of a mosque at Taksim or the
barracks may be interpreting this as an attempt to rewrite the official
secular history.”
Ms. Hur added, “We know how the government adores Ottoman history and
how hostile they are toward the history of the republic.”
So, Ms. Hur and others say, it was mere happenstance that the
antigovernment protests that have shaken Turkey over the last several
weeks began with a sit-in to save Gezi Park, which was never a
particularly special place for most Istanbul residents, and was thought
to be dangerous and a nighttime hangout for drug users.
But as the government began bulldozing trees, it came to symbolize for
thousands of aggrieved citizens the hubris and rising authoritarianism
of a government now in power for more than a decade and determined to
forge ahead with the even more controversial mosque project.
A week ago, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a not-so-veiled hint that Israel was behind the riots in Istanbul's Taksim Square. Now, media outlets that support Erdogan are taking a new tact: American Joooz are behind the riots (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
As anti-government protests continue in Istanbul, Turkish media outlets have begun reporting
that the demonstrations are part of an anti-Erdogan plot organized by
members of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think
tank that is home to many former senior U.S. officials.
“Apparently, a meeting took place between some of our scholars and
outsiders, and these Jews (for many, though not all, at the alleged
meeting are Jews) and their fellow travelers planned the whole thing,”
AEI wrote on its website Wednesday in a statement lambasting the reports.
The Turkish reports mention
several former U.S. government insiders, including Bush administration
national security adviser Elliott Abrams, former United Nations
Ambassador John Bolton, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The Turkish reports also claim that Jewish officials and so-called
“neo-cons” associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Council
(AIPAC), America’s most prominent pro-Israel lobby, are involved in the
plot, which was supposedly hatched during a secret meeting in February.
“According to this, the meeting was held at the American Enterprise
Institute (AEI), which carries out its activities with the support of
the Jewish lobby AIPAC,” stateda Tuesday report in Yeni Safak, a pro-government newspaper.
“The ‘Istanbul Uprising’ scenario was simulated on 12 February in
order ‘to bring the apolitical Turkish youth out on the streets,’” the
report says.
The reports erroneously claim that AEI’s Michael Rubin, a former
Pentagon adviser, secretly met with other Jewish government insiders to
hatch the anti-Erdogan plot.
AEI's Danielle Pletka does a great job of summarizing Turkey:
“Here is the truth: Erdoğan … has begun to transform Turkey into an
Islamist bastion,” Pletka wrote on AEI’s website. “The Turkish people
are standing up to Erdoğan because they see what has become of their
once-proud nation, and they won’t stand for it. Kudos to them.”
It will be interesting to see when - if ever - Erdogan's Best Fried Forever stands up for the Turkish people. Don't hold your breath waiting.
You were wondering what the Obama regime would have to say about the President's Best Friend Forever having his thugs attack unarmed demonstrators. Wonder no more. Here's Ambassador Ricciardione's statement on the protests:
"Of course, nobody could be happy to see those saddening
images/pictures. I am not happy either. I wish a speedy recovery to all
those injured; get well soon. But if you are asking me about U.S.
foreign policy, as you know, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly,
and the right to have peaceful protests are fundamentals of a
democracy. I am not going to say anything further.”
Why isn't he going to say anything further? Afraid of offending the Sultan?
More reports of chemical use in Turkey, Turkish doctors arrested for treating patients
Here's a disturbing account of the protests in Istanbul over the weekend. It includes another report of the the use of chemicals by the Turkish authorities against unarmed civilians, and it speaks for itself. Where are Physicians Without Borders and Physicians for Human Rights, which always rush to protest any perceived Israeli fault in Judea, Samaria or Gaza? Do they only care when it's Jews fighting with Muslims, and not when it's Muslims fighting with Muslims? How does that fit in with the Hippocratic Oath? Ooops - never mind. Muslims have a different version of the Hippocratic Oath.
This is from the first link.
Claudia Roth, co-head of the German Green
Party and a member of parliament, was among those in the park. She described the
scene to Reuters as “war-like,” adding that “we tried to escape and the police
followed us.”
During the clashes, Roth and hundreds of protesters took
refuge in the nearby five-star hotel Divan, which houses a makeshift first-aid
infirmary that was set up during the initial clashes.
After a tense
stand-off between the police and the protesters in the hotel, the riot police
sprayed tear gas through the gates in the lobby in order to force the protesters
to come out.
Several medical personnel in the infirmary were arrested
overnight for not having obtained proper licenses to treat patients, according
to the Turkish Medical Association.
It issued an “urgent call” to the
World Health Organization and World Medical Association to condemn the arrest of
“volunteer physicians.”
In its statement, TMA said that “the police
forces are using chemical gases savagely on the unprotected civil masses... Over
11,000 people declared that they have been affected by the
gas.”
Appealing to the government to stop the use of excessive force and
initiate a prompt investigation into allegations of abuse, TMA claimed that
“data shows that the gas bombs were targeting the people.
Many of them
[have] injuries of [the] head, face, eyes, thorax and abdomen which could be
fatal.”
One of many Istanbul residents affected by heavy tear gas is the
author of this report.
An Italian web site is reporting that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security forces added a chemical agent called Jenix to the water canons that they have been using against protesters in Istanbul's Taksim Square and Gerzi Park?
This story does not yet appear on the parallel English web site (which is called Ansa), but here are the key words in Italian (emphasis added by the person who sent this to me):
Un
attacco feroce, che ha fatto 800 feriti, fra cui bambini colpiti da
proiettili di gomma, decine di persone 'bruciate' dagli agenti urticanti
messi dalla polizia nell'acqua degli idranti - come denunciato dalle foto degli attivisti nelle quali si vedono chiaramente i poliziotti caricare la sostanza 'Jenix' nei blindati - o soffocate dalle nuvole di gas lacrimogeni. Mentre le forze antisommossa arrestavano i medici che avevano curato i manifestanti feriti,
And the translation:
His anti-riot police are reported to have added a chemical agent Jenix
to the water of their water cannons. "Photos taken by activists show
clearly the policemen loading the substance Jenix into the armored
cars." . . . . "Meanwhile the anti-riot forces were arresting the
physicians who were treating the wounded demonstrators."
And in case you're wondering what Jenix is, it's a kind of pepper spray.
It is no way illegal to carry and use this product for defense purposes.
It is included in class of non-lethal chemical weapons. Its use is legally
accepted in relation with Regulation No. 5188
for implementation of Private Security Services. In Article 24 of Part 4 titled
Authorization of Keeping and Bearing Arm of concerning regulation, following
statement is included: "Physical measures and security devices are of high
priority for ensuring protection and security. The Commission may permit use of
chemicals without permanent effect animates in accordance with principle of
proportionality."
Definitions and images pertaining to the product you purchased are one-to-one
representation. We would like to inform you that all our products have passed
operation tests. You will be accurately first to open original package of the
product.
And yes, that link is to a Turkish statute.
But the site notes that it is dangerous if used in a closed space, and we already saw that Turkish police were firing tear gas into a hotel lobby. Were they firing pepper spray too?
It's come to this: Turkish police spray tear gas into Istanbul hotel lobby
The Erdogan regime in Turkey decided that tonight was the night to clear Istanbul's Taksim Square, including Gezi park. It was the wrong move. They've provoked a riot that saw police shooting teargas into the lobby of the Divan Hotel (which was letting people use its facilities) and is likely to ensure that the current round of rioting and protests continues.
Just days after protesters and the government of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan appeared to reach an agreement to halt a planned
mall-development project in Gezi Park and Taksim Square, the last
remaining green space in central Istanbul, police cleared the park by
force Thursday evening. The move — the latest reversal in approach by an
administration that’s seemed unable to hold a course of action in
response to the now 17-day-old protests — came after Erdogan, addressing
a crowd of about 10,000 supporters at a rally in Ankara, announced:
"This state is not your plaything.
It is not. I am sorry." He aimed his message at his opponents in
Istanbul, the nation’s largest city: "If it is not emptied, from now on,
this country's security forces will know how to empty that place."
Just
moments later, at about 8 p.m. local time, police loudspeakers in
Taksim Square began issuing warnings for protesters to leave Gezi:
“Please vacate the park, or increasing force will be used." The park and
square in one of the more affluent sections of the booming city had
appeared to return to a more normal state in recent days after the
government agreed to hold off on its development plans until a court
ruling on them, and to allow for a city-wide referendum if the plan was
found legal before proceeding. So the Park and Square were filled not
only with protesters, but tourists and families milling about, shopping,
eating at pricy restaurants and taking in the scene, unsure what to
make of the warnings. Earlier in the day, city workers had been painting
over the remaining graffiti left by the protesters. Even after the
loudspeakers’ warnings, a mood of waiting prevailed for about 30 more
minutes. Erdogan has issued such ultimatums in the past, only to change
course.
But, the crowd-control vehicles started revving up and the police began preparing to move forward.
Protesters
massed at the entrance of the park and chanted: "Everyone is Taksim.
Everyone is resistance." At the front entrance of the park, protesters
formed a human chain as a man with a gas mask atop his head walked up
and down their line, warning them to do nothing to provoke the
heavily-geared police, who minutes later began moving steadily forward.
Ahead of the advancing police, a spray of tear-gas laced water fired
from high-pressure hoses helped to thin the ranks of the protesters, and
the front line of police, using their shields as wedges, broke the line
of those who remained, which offered no violent resistance, as trailing
police took down tents the protesters had pitched. This reporter saw
one woman dragged from her tent, screaming, by riot police.
Another
middle-aged man, a teacher, sat amid the just-wrecked canvas and poles
strewn about, sobbing in anger and screaming at the swarming riot
police: "Why?!"
One
22-year-old university student, who was afraid to give his name, said
he and his friends had been in their tents when the raid commenced. "We
opened the tents and we saw the cops immediately," he said. "The prime
minister said we had 24 hours to evacuate the park, but an hour later he
did it. There were little kids and old people there."
Smaller
groups of protesters continued trying to form non-violent masses to
slow the police, but the officers continued to spray those groups with
tear-gas, and to use their shields to break them up.
...
As this report was filed, both
police and protesters had massed in a standoff at the hotel’s entrance. A
mother — it was unclear if she was a protester or a tourist — holding a
toddler with a surgical mask burst through the crowd outside the hotel
and into a taxi.
In his speech in Ankara, Erdogan said the demonstrators would not negotiate in good faith, according to CNN.
"We have reached out with our hands," he said. "However, some people
returned their fists in response. Can you shake hands with those who
reach out with a fist?"
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is railing. His government has 'run out of patience.'
In a speech at a meeting of his Justice and Development (AK)
Party, Erdogan struck back at criticism from the European Parliament over the
ferocity of a police crackdown and accused some international media of
exaggerated reporting.
"Our patience is at an end. I am making my warning
for the last time. I say to the mothers and fathers please take your children in
hand and bring them out ... Gezi Park does not belong to occupying forces but to
the people," he said.
A heavy-handed police crackdown on Gezi Park nearly
two weeks ago triggered an unprecedented wave of protest against Erdogan and his
AK Party - an association of centrists and conservative religious elements -
drawing in secularists, nationalists, professionals, unionists and
students.
Erdogan, who has accused foreign forces, international media
and market speculators of stoking the unrest and trying to undermine the Turkish
economy, said he would "share with the nation" at another AKP meeting on Friday
details of what he termed a "game being played with Turkey".
"It is as if
the whole of Turkey is on fire, as if the whole of Turkey is collapsing," he
said of some media coverage, describing it as "deceptive and
unethical".
Is Erdogan starting to crack?
Erdogan
met a group of academics, artists and students who support the Gezi Park
protests on Wednesday and AK Party deputy chairman Huseyin Celik said they had
discussed the possibility of a referendum on the plans to build on the
park.
The offer is one of the only concessions the authorities have
publicly floated after days of firm rhetoric from Erdogan refusing to back down.
Celik gave few details of how a referendum would be carried out, saying it could
either be held across Istanbul, or just in the district near Taksim.
The
protesters in Gezi Park, camped out in a ramshackle settlement of tents, were
sceptical.
"The people the prime minister spoke to he chose. He said they
will be the ones representing us. But they don't represent us. They have nothing
to do with what we think," said Aylin Kaplan, 24, a student who has been in the
park from the start.
"From the beginning we have said we have specific
requests, we have been clear and open. We do not need a referendum," she said,
repeating the main demand that the government abandon plans to build a replica
Ottoman-era barracks on the park.
But even the US and the EU - neither of which will do anything anyway - are expressing concern over what's going on in Istanbul. Erdogan needs to end this in a hurry. He needs to visit Gaza.
It starts: Erdogan hints Israel behind Istanbul protests
Multiple sources are reporting that Mossad director Tamir Pardo was in Turkey on Monday and met with Hakan Fidan, Turkey's Intelligence undersecretary. But there are differing reports as to the meeting's subject. This is from the first link.
Pardo met with Hakan Fidan, Turkey's Intelligence undersecretary, in Ankara Monday, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Wednesday.
Sources told the newspaper the Israeli intelligence chief and Fidan
shared information on the situation in Syria and Iran's influence in the
country. They also discussed intelligence-sharing in the future, the
sources said.
Suspicions that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Syrian
intelligence unit al-Mukhaberat are working against Turkey were also
part of the discussion, the Turkish newspaper said.
But the second link gives priority to a different subject.
Fidan and Pardo discussed the ongoing protests in Turkey, which started two weeks ago to oppose a development project in Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park and spread to the other parts of the country.
The two intelligence officials discussed the possible influence of the intelligence organizations of regional countries on the Gezi Park protests in Turkey. Pardo requested an appointment to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan, however, has not yet responded to this request.
Actually, Erdogan has responded, but not in the way we would have hoped (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
has reiterated his belief that the Gezi Park protests have external
connections, adding that the interest lobby and foreign news outlets
were also involved. “Those against whom we said ‘one minute’ are now
delighted,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying during a meeting with the
chairman of the Confederation of Turkish Craftsmen and Tradesmen (TESK)
Bendevi Palandöken on June 12.
Erdoğan notoriously reacted by uttering “one minute” to Israeli President Shimon Peres during the 2009 Davos Economic Forum.
“Even
if not in such a manner, we had foreseen these events as a series of
conspiracies three months ago. We had received some intelligence
reports,” Erdoğan also said.
You didn't think he'd blame Syria or Iran, did you?
Video: Turkish police target man in wheelchair with water canon
Such nice people these Muslims.... Here's video of the Turkish police targeting a man in a wheelchair with a water canon in Taksim Park in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Let's go to the videotape.
Such humane people in the Erdogan regime. Maybe he's been taking sensitivity training from his best friend forever, Barack Hussein Obama.
"The police intervened to dismantle barricades," Mr. Mutlu said.
"Some individuals have clashed with the police…. We are trying to
normalize the scene in Taksim. We are not going to intervene in Gezi
Park."
The governor said authorities "will not allow a siege" around the
statue in the square of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of Turkey's
republic, and a nearby cultural center, vowing not to allow protest
material back around the statue.
"The Ataturk statue and cultural center have become like an
advertisement board," he said. "It's very bad for the image of Turkey
and Istanbul." The governor said authorities are committed "to be very
careful and sensitive in handling the situation."
Forgive me for saying this Governor, but seeing riot police beat people and spray them with water canons and tear gas on my computer screen is much worse for the image of Istanbul and Turkey than a bunch of posters covering a statue. But then, what do I know? I've never been out of the airport in Istanbul anyway.
"We have been waiting for this to happen," said protester Ugur Hacan,
a 24-year-old artistic director for TV series and movies, who was
sleeping at the park with friends when police entered the square.
"As long as the police don't interfere with Gezi Park, the protests
will continue. I believe more people might come after this action," Mr.
Hacan said. He and three other friends at the park said police didn't
confront the protesters directly.
Taksim Square subway was still functioning on Tuesday, and some
commuters emerging from the metro were caught in the melee. "We need to
talk rather than fight each other. I hope this can be resolved quickly,"
said Can Ozdemir, a hotel waiter, as his eyes streamed from the tear
gas.
Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting in Ankara Monday, Deputy
Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Mr. Erdogan would meet some
demonstration representatives Wednesday and others at another time,
without providing additional details.
Remember what the Iranian election looked like in 2009? That's what the next Turkish election will look like...
Here's a live feed from Istanbul's Taksim park, where police are currently operating to remove protesters. I cannot embed the broadcast, but you can watch it by clicking here. It looks awful....
... wait until you see what happens in Turkey later today.
Turkish authorities said that they would make no effort to clear Taksim park, the focus of the protests in Istanbul, before Monday. In the meantime, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took on a menacing tone toward the protesters.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned protesters who have taken to the
streets across Turkey demanding his resignation that his patience has
its limits and compared the unrest with an army attempt six years ago to
curb his power.
Riot police used teargas and water cannon to
disperse anti-government protesters from a square in the capital,
Ankara, just a few kilometers from where Erdogan spoke.
He held six rallies on Sunday, a measure of tensions after a week of the
biggest demonstrations and worst rioting of his decade in power.
Thousands waved red Turkish flags and shouted Allahu Akbar (God Is
Greatest) as he accused protesters of attacking women wearing
headscarves and desecrating mosques by taking beer bottles into them.
...
In the commercial center Istanbul, tens of thousands flooded the
central Taksim Square, where protests began nine days ago when police
used teargas and water cannon against a peaceful demonstration over
plans to build on a park there. Many see Turkey's secular order
threatened by Erdogan.
Protesters, many camped out in tents, now
control a large area around the square, with approach roads barricaded
by masonry, paving stones and steel rods. Police have withdrawn
completely from the area, water cannon kept hundreds of meters away by
the side of the Bosphorus waterway.
Western countries have held up
Erdogan's Turkey as an example of an Islamic democracy that could be
emulated elsewhere in the Middle East. Violent police action, however,
has drawn criticism from the West and Erdogan has increasingly accused
foreign forces of trying to aggravate the troubles.
He also
rounded on speculators, foreign and domestic, in the country's capital
markets, vowing to "choke" those who he said were growing rich off "the
sweat of the people", and urging Turks to put their money in state not
private banks.
"Those who attempt to sink the bourse, you will
collapse ... If we catch your speculation, we will choke you. No matter
who you are, we will choke you," he said.
Turkey's financial markets were turbulent last week and investors are preparing for more volatility this week.
Early
on Friday, the lira hit its weakest point against its euro/dollar
basket since October 2011, while Istanbul's main share index lost around
15 percent over the week. The yield of Turkey's two-year benchmark
sovereign bond hit a six-month high on Thursday.
If you use social media - particularly Twitter - from Turkey, you'd better be really careful about what you post. 25 people in Turkey have been arrested for spreading 'untrue information' on Twitter, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Best Friend Forever of Barack Hussein Obama) has called social media 'the worst menace to society' and claimed that the 'best lies' can be found on Twitter.
This is from the first link.
No one seems to have any idea exactly which tweets in question landed
the offending users in jail—something that only highlights the fact that
Turkey's main media outlets have been noticeably slow to give the
protests the coverage they deserve (which, in turn, has left many Turks
relying on the social media site for their updates). Regardless, the
arrest of a couple dozen Twitter users is unlikely to deter the
thousands of others using the social media site to voice their
displeausre with Erdoğan any more than the several thousands of arrests on the streets is going to deter the mass demonstrations that are now occuring across Turkey.
And from the second link:
Social media has been an essential tool for Turkish protesters to
skirt the tight-lipped government-run media. “The Turkish media should
be ashamed. For the past 48 hours, the people have been waging a
struggle and you have not reported anything about it. Shame on you,” said Fatih Akin, a prominent Turkish film director.
Indeed, over the weekend, government-run newspaper, Sabah, splashed
the front page with a story of the Prime Minister receiving an award for
combating smoking and made no mention of the country-wide protests that
have been front-page headlines around the world.
...
Research
by NYU Politics Ph.D. candidates Pablo Barberá and Megan Metzger have
found that, unlike past protests such as Egypt, nearly all of the
geo-located tweets are coming from within Turkey (90 percent). In other
words, social media is a tool for the protestors themselves, not just a
medium to show solidarity from citizens abroad.
An updated statement the US State
Department released on Wednesday alerts US citizens traveling to or
residing in Turkey to the continuing public demonstrations taking place
throughout the country. It said there have been numerous reports of
violence, injuries, and at least two confirmed deaths related to clashes
between protestors and police.
“US citizens are urged to remain alert to local security developments
and to be vigilant regarding their personal security,” the latest
statement said, adding that the travel alert expires on July 5.
The statement noted that violent altercations have occurred in areas
of Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, Mersin and elsewhere and that police
and protestors continue to clash in some locations.
It added that individuals caught in the vicinity of violence have
been injured and detained, including US citizens. “US citizens traveling
to or residing in Turkey should be alert to the potential for violence.
We strongly urge US citizens to avoid demonstrations and large
gatherings. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn
confrontational and escalate into violence. There have been no direct
attacks on US citizens,” the statement said.
The alert urged Americans to review their personal security plans,
remain aware of their surroundings, including local events and monitor
local news media for updates. It asked US citizens to maintain a high
level of vigilance, take appropriate steps to enhance their personal
security and follow the instructions of local authorities.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
