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 Topic: What's actually happening in Istanbul?

 (Read 29934 times)
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  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #90 - March 28, 2014, 11:47 PM

    Nice. Thank you.

    Don't let Hitler have the street.
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #91 - March 29, 2014, 09:52 AM

    Quote
    UPDATE: *TURKEY'S DAVUTOGLU SAYS LEAK IS 'DECLARATION OF WAR': TURKIYE


    `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
     `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'
     `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
     `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #92 - March 29, 2014, 09:58 AM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c-1GooSDwJ8

    Among the most damning sections:


    Ahmet Davutolu: “Prime Minister said that in current conjuncture, this attack (on Suleiman Shah Tomb) must be seen as an opportunity for us.”

     

    Hakan Fidan: “I’ll send 4 men from Syria, if that’s what it takes. I’ll make up a cause of war by ordering a missile attack on Turkey; we can also prepare an attack on Suleiman Shah Tomb if necessary.”

     

    Feridun Sinirliolu: “Our national security has become a common, cheap domestic policy outfit.”

     

    Ya?ar Güler: “It’s a direct cause of war. I mean, what’re going to do is a direct cause of war.”

     

    ...

     

    Feridun Sinirolu: There are some serious shifts in global and regional geopolitics. It now can spread to other places. You said it yourself today, and others agreed… We’re headed to a different game now. We should be able to see those. That ISIL and all that jazz, all those organizations are extremely open to manipulation. Having a region made up of organizations of similar nature will constitute a vital security risk for us. And when we first went into Northern Iraq, there was always the risk of PKK blowing up the place. If we thoroughly consider the risks and substantiate… As the general just said…

     

    Yaar Güler: Sir, when you were inside a moment ago, we were discussing just that. Openly. I mean, armed forces are a “tool” necessary for you in every turn.

     

    Ahmet Davutolu: Of course. I always tell the Prime Minister, in your absence, the same thing in academic jargon, you can’t stay in those lands without hard power. Without hard power, there can be no soft power.


    Full Translation:

    ELECTION DRIVEN WAR PLANS – I
     PART 1
     Ahmet Davutoğlu:
    “Prime Minister said that in current conjuncture, this attack (on Suleiman Shah Tomb) must be seen as an opportunity for us.”
    Hakan Fidan:
    “I’ll send 4 men from Syria, if that’s what it takes. I’ll make up a cause of war by ordering a missile attack on Turkey; we can also prepare an attack on Suleiman Shah Tomb if necessary.”
    Feridun Sinirlioğlu:
    “Our national security has become a common, cheap domestic policy outfit.”
    Yaşar Güler:
    “It’s a direct cause of war. I mean, what’re going to do is a direct cause of war.”
    --------
    FIRST SCREEN:
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: I couldn’t entirely understand the other thing; what exactly does our foreign ministry supposed to do? No, I’m not talking about the thing. There are other things we’re supposed to do. If we decide on this, we are to notify the United Nations, the Istanbul Consulate of the Syrian regime, right?
     Feridun Sinirlioğlu: But if we decide on an operation in there, it should create a shocking effect. I mean, if we are going to do so. I don’t know what we’re going to do, but regardless of what we decide, I don’t think it’d be appropriate to notify anyone beforehand.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: OK, but we’re gonna have to prepare somehow. To avoid any shorts on regarding international law. I just realized when I was talking to the president (Abdullah Gül), if the Turkish tanks go in there, it means we’re in there in any case, right?
     Yaşar Güler: It means we’re in, yes.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: Yeah, but there’s a difference between going in with aircraft and going in with tanks…
    SECOND SCREEN:
     Yaşar Güler: Maybe we can tell the Syrian consulate general that, ISIL is currently working alongside the regime, and that place is Turkish land. We should definitely…
    Ahmet Davutoğlu: But we have already said that, sent them several diplomatic notes.
     Yaşar Güler: To Syria…
    Feridun Sinirlioğlu: That’s right.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: Yes, we’ve sent them countless times. Therefore, I’d like to know what our Chief of Staff’s expectations from our ministry.
     Yaşar Güler: Maybe his intent was to say that, I don’t really know, he met with Mr. Fidan.
     Hakan Fidan: Well, he did mention that part but we didn’t go into any further details.
     Yaşar Güler: Maybe that was what he meant… A diplomatic note to Syria?
     Hakan Fidan: Maybe the Foreign Ministry is assigned with coordination…
    THIRD SCREEN:
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: I mean, I could coordinate the diplomacy but civil war, the military…
    Feridun Sinirlioğlu: That’s what I told back there. For one thing, the situation is different. An operation on ISIL has solid ground on international law. We’re going to portray this is Al-Qaeda, there’s no distress there if it’s a matter regarding Al-Qaeda. And if it comes to defending Suleiman Shah Tomb, that’s a matter of protecting our land.
     Yaşar Güler: We don’t have any problems with that.
     Hakan Fidan: Second after it happens, it’ll cause a great internal commotion (several bombing events is bound to happen within). The border is not under control…
    Feridun Sinirlioğlu: I mean, yes, the bombings are of course going to happen. But I remember our talk from 3 years ago…
    Yaşar Güler: Mr. Fidan should urgently receive back-up and we need to help him supply guns and ammo to rebels. We need to speak with the minister. Our Interior Minister, our Defense Minister. We need to talk about this and reach a resolution sir.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: How did we get specials forces into action when there was a threat in Northern Iraq? We should have done so in there, too. We should have trained those men. We should have sent men. Anyway, we can’t do that, we can only do what diplomacy…
    Feridun Sinirlioğlu: I told you back then, for God’s sake, general, you know how we managed to get those tanks in, you were there.
     Yaşar Güler: What, you mean our stuff?
     Feridun Sinirlioğlu: Yes, how do you think we’ve managed to rally our tanks into Iraq? How? How did manage to get special forces, the battalions in? I was involved in that. Let me be clear, there was no government decision on that, we have managed that just with a single order.
     FOURTH SCREEN:
     Yaşar Güler: Well, I agree with you. For one thing, we’re not even discussing that. But there are different things that Syria can do right now.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: General, the reason we’re saying no this operation is because we know about the capacity of those men.
     Yaşar Güler: Look, sir, isn’t MKE (Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation) at minister’s bidding? Sir, I mean, Qatar is looking for ammo to buy in cash. Ready cash. So, why don’t they just get it done? It’s at Mr. Minister’s command.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: But there’s the spot we can’t act integratedly, we can’t coordinate.
     Yaşar Güler: Then, our Prime Minister can summon both Mr. Defence Minister and Mr. Minister at the same time. Then he can directly talk to them.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: We, Mr. Siniroğlu and I, have literally begged Mr. Prime Minster for a private meeting, we said that things were not looking so bright.
     FIFTH SCREEN:
     Yaşar Güler: Also, it doesn’t have to be crowded meeting. Yourself, Mr. Defence Minister, Mr. Interior Minister and our Chief of Staff, the four of you are enough. There’s no need for a crowd. Because, sir, the main need there is guns and ammo. Not even guns, mainly ammo. We’ve just talked about this, sir. Let’s say we’re building an army down there, 1000 strong. If we get them into that war without previously storing a minimum of 6-months’ worth of ammo, these men will return to us after two months.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: They’re back already.
     Yaşar Güler: They’ll return to us, sir.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: They’ve came back from… What was it? Çobanbey.
     Yaşar Güler: Yes, indeed, sir. This matter can’t be just a burden on Mr. Fidan’s shoulders as it is now. It’s unacceptable. I mean, we can’t understand this. Why?
     SIXTH SCREEN:
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: That evening we’d reached a resolution. And I thought that things were taking a turn for the good. Our…
    Feridun Sinirlioğlu: We issued the MGK (National Security Council) resolution the day after. Then we talked with the general…
    Ahmet Davutoğlu: And the other forces really do a good follow up on this weakness of ours. You say that you’re going to capture this place, and that men being there constitutes a risk factor. You pull them back. You capture the place. You reinforce it and send in your troops again.
     Yaşar Güler: Exactly, sir. You’re absolutely right.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: Right? That’s how I interpret it. But after the evacuation, this is not a military necessity. It’s a whole other thing.

     SEVENTH SCREEN
     Feridun Siniroğlu: There are some serious shifts in global and regional geopolitics. It now can spread to other places. You said it yourself today, and others agreed… We’re headed to a different game now. We should be able to see those. That ISIL and all that jazz, all those organizations are extremely open to manipulation. Having a region made up of organizations of similar nature will constitute a vital security risk for us. And when we first went into Northern Iraq, there was always the risk of PKK blowing up the place. If we thoroughly consider the risks and substantiate… As the general just said…
    Yaşar Güler: Sir, when you were inside a moment ago, we were discussing just that. Openly. I mean, armed forces are a “tool” necessary for you in every turn.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: Of course. I always tell the Prime Minister, in your absence, the same thing in academic jargon, you can’t stay in those lands without hard power. Without hard power, there can be no soft power.
     EIGTH SCREEN
     Yaşar Güler: Sir.
     Feridun Sinirlioğlu: The national security has been politicized. I don’t remember anything like this in Turkish political history. It has become a matter of domestic policy. All talks we’ve done on defending our lands, our border security, our sovereign lands in there, they’ve all become a common, cheap domestic policy outfit.
     Yaşar Güler: Exactly.
     Feridun Siniroğlu: That has never happened before. Unfortunately but…
    Yaşar Güler: I mean, do even one of the opposition parties support you in such a high point of national security? Sir, is this a justifiable sense of national security?
     Feridun Sinirlioğlu: I don’t even remember such a period.
     NINTH SCREEN:
     Yaşar Güler: In what matter can we be unified, if not a matter of national security of such importance? None.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: The year 2012, we didn’t do it 2011. If only we’d took serious action back then, even in the summer of 2012.
     Feridun Sinirlioğlu: They were at their lowest back in 2012.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: Internally, they were just like Libya. Who comes in and goes from power is not of any importance to us. But some things…
    Yaşar Güler: Sir, to avoid any confusion, our need in 2011 was guns and ammo. In 2012, 2013 and today also. We’re in the exact same point. We absolutely need to find this and secure that place.
     Ahmet Davutoğlu: Guns and ammo are not a big need for that place. Because we couldn’t get the human factor in order…


    `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
     `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'
     `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
     `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #93 - March 29, 2014, 12:04 PM

    After that phosphorus a few years back, nothing they do will surprise me ever again.

    Don't let Hitler have the street.
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #94 - March 29, 2014, 02:29 PM

    It's all the West's fault. Afro

    `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
     `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'
     `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
     `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #95 - March 30, 2014, 03:20 PM

    http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com.tr/2014/03/googles-public-dns-intercepted-in-turkey.html
    Quote from: Google online security
    We have received several credible reports and confirmed with our own research that Google’s Domain Name System (DNS) service has been intercepted by most Turkish ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

    A DNS server tells your computer the address of a server it’s looking for, in the same way that you might look up a phone number in a phone book. Google operates DNS servers because we believe that you should be able to quickly and securely make your way to whatever host you’re looking for, be it YouTube, Twitter, or any other.

    But imagine if someone had changed out your phone book with another one, which looks pretty much the same as before, except that the listings for a few people showed the wrong phone number. That’s essentially what’s happened: Turkish ISPs have set up servers that masquerade as Google’s DNS service.

    I don't understand enough about this to know what the implications are. Some more for technical geeks here.

    Meanwhile voting has just closed in the local elections:
    https://mobile.twitter.com/basakgucyeter
    Quote
    #Turkey timeline is full of reports on election fraud. It is obvious now why gov. prefer #Twitter ban & why they always refer to ballot box

    #Turkey: 2 hours more left to vote in local elections and up to now, 480 incidents reporting frauds (all in favor of AKP) + 8 people dead.

    Fraud, power cuts, security forces, threats, forced votes, perpetrators are present all over #Turkey in local elections. Democracy, absent.

  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #96 - April 01, 2014, 03:17 PM

    More tech stuff
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #97 - April 04, 2014, 12:13 PM

    The Islamic sex cult supporting Turkey's prime minister
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #98 - April 04, 2014, 12:44 PM

    Don't even have to click the link to know that would have to be Harun Yahya's bunch of nutters.

    Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West. bunny
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #99 - April 04, 2014, 12:46 PM

    It's all the West's fault. Afro


     yes

    "I Knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then." Alice in wonderland

    "This is the only heaven we have how dare you make it a hell" Dr Marlene Winell
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #100 - April 04, 2014, 02:48 PM

    Don't even have to click the link to know that would have to be Harun Yahya's bunch of nutters.


    Yes, I just did a search - I hadn't realised the forum was already full of threads about them.
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #101 - April 05, 2014, 10:46 AM

    Basically separation of powers is practically history. The government, especially the cult-of-personality-du-jour erdogan has without a doubt become severely authoritarian. The liberals have abandoned ship for the most part. The two opposition parties are old parties with history. One of them is a turkish nationalist party with right wing tendencies. Hated by left wingers, with reason. The other is the oldest, left-wing nationalist party. Hated by many for their past deeds, their elitism and the heavy handed curbing of religion. Especially the headscarf ban in schools that has just recently been lifted.

    The AKP ( governing party ) supporters are either
    - scared of a retaliation / going back to the old days
    - loving the way things are going and becoming more authoritarian by the day. this is especially the younger generation, raised with their families supporting the party once was a new hope for their parents.
    - actually believe this is all the work of evil foreign powers, anarchists and unsuspecting fools who side with them.

    The opposition is unhappy with their choices however, they are now willing to vote for anyone who can bring these people down and try them in court. The main opposition party has about 2/3 as much votes as the ruling party. This is the CHP. The first turkish political party.

    The rift between people is getting wider and wider. The mainly secular opposition is feeling helpless and determined, almost ready to take the matters in their own hands. Then there is the situation with syria.

    Shit hasn't hit the fan just yet. It most definitely seems like it will eventually.
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #102 - April 08, 2014, 07:51 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=d82cRXAFXNM
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #103 - April 08, 2014, 08:43 PM

    Nice vid. Afro

    `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
     `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'
     `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
     `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #104 - April 25, 2014, 03:45 PM

    Zeynep Tufekci on social media and the elections
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #105 - May 14, 2014, 07:23 PM

    Turkey mine explosion: protests break out after Erdogan speech
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #106 - May 16, 2014, 03:38 PM

    An excellent report from Alex Thomson for Channel 4. Follow the link for the video.

    Turkey: grief and anger met with contempt and thuggery

    Quote
    Yusuf Yerkel is a senior adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan – a man who thinks his country should join the EU.

    He is usually to be seen at the side of his boss. He is an educated man – not least at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.  So to say he should know better is putting it mildly.

    But there he is, in front of several photographers and cameraman, in Soma yesterday, kicking a protester whilst he is both lying on the ground and being manhandled by several military guards.

    It is not confirmed, but many reports say the man being assaulted by this senior government official as he lies on the ground is a relative of a dead, missing, or injured miner. Given the location in Soma the chances of that are very high.

    Mr Yerkel, to the best of my knowledge, has not been arrested by the police in Turkey. If so – why not?

    He has also, as I write, neither resigned nor been sacked – why not?

    It all compounds the sense that Prime Minister Erdogan does not seem to be aware what century we are now living in. Turkey’s astonishing economic performance in recent years belies an autocratic, dictatorial, political elite which we saw personified in Mr Yerkel yesterday.

    This insouciance was blindingly obvious when Mr Erdogan himself made some simply mind-boggling comments in his speech at the disaster zone.

    He said mining disasters are ‘usual’ and normal. His evidence was a string of disasters in England in the nineteenth century. Yes, really, the nineteenth century. .

    His implication was obvious – and not lost on the Turkish people who responded with anger – mining disasters are normal and no big deal, and we in Turkey are still in the nineteenth century anyhow.

    As a national insult, at this location, at this time, it is breathtaking.

    It would have killed the political career of any US or European leader stone-dead on the spot. In Turkey things just roll on.

    Today PM Erdogan is still in power. No resignation. No apology.

    The goons of the various paramilitary Turkish police forces across the nation are right now ready to attack protesters on the streets. Who knows – the government may again shut down social media to stop anyone voicing their opinion in “democratic” Turkey.

    Meanwhile (in a country strikebound today in protest over Erdogan’s close ties to the mining company and his governments quashing of a safety probe into the mine only last month) Turkey’s President is in Soma today.

    Will he show the same utter contempt for the Turkish people that the Prime Minister and his thug-in-a-suit advisor  Yerkel did yesterday?


  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #107 - May 16, 2014, 04:00 PM

    Assault by Erdogan and his security people shown at the end of this video:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=grRcPL9f0Ko
    http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/05/15/turkeys-erdogan-shouts-anti-israel-slur-while-slapping-mine-disaster-protester-video/

    Quote
    Turkey’s embattled Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan screamed an anti-Israel slur at a Turkish citizen, local media reported on Thursday.

    “Why are you running away from me Israeli sperm,” Erdoğan reportedly said, using a Turkish word that is used as a curse.

    The incident took place as the premier toured the western city of Soma which was recently devastated by a coal mine fire that left close to 300 people dead.

    In footage of the incident published online Erdoğan is seen surrounded by security personnel who proceeded to beat the man following the incident, according to the reports...

  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #108 - May 16, 2014, 04:20 PM

    In Turkey's mine disaster Erdogan turns tragedy into farce.
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #109 - May 16, 2014, 04:35 PM


    well zeca it is worth watching the clips

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KITjzN0wT1o

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa-3Cx1eYjU

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8F_XqnA-s

    That fellow thinks he is above all  criticism ., It is Islamic mindset behind such "I am the Best in Turkey  And I am chosen  by allah"  thinking ..

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #110 - May 16, 2014, 07:02 PM

    From the Turkish Awakening blog:

    Soma updates and donations
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #111 - May 18, 2014, 06:37 PM

    A report from a Turkish left communist:

    https://libcom.org/blog/turkish-miners-soma-workers-murdered-profits-17052014
    Quote
    It is not clear yet how many workers have been murdered in the mining disaster in Soma, Manisa in Western Turkey. At the time of writing the official death toll stands at 304 though workers in the town claim that they are being lied to about the numbers, and many more have been killed. What is clear is that it is not true that “these types of incidents are ordinary things" as Prime Minister Erdoğan is suggesting. He made a great show of in the immediate aftermath of these terrible events of demonstrating his knowledge of the history of disasters in the mining industry, stretching back to Northumberland in the UK, and placed particular stress on those that happened in the US, a country which has, to quote Erdoğan again “every kind of technology”. The implication, of course, is that these sort of things just happen, they happen everywhere, and they can't be avoided.

    This is not the case. Accidents are endemic in coal production because of the drive for profit. The Turkish mining industry has always been infamous for its accident and death rate, and since privatisation in 1984. Alp Gürkan, the CEO of Soma Mining Inc, the owners of the mine, has been claiming this week that “We have spent our income to improve working conditions to avoid possible accidents”, but not so long ago, he was boasting in the media how that before his company took over the Soma mine coal used to cost $130-140 to produce, and that now it costs $23.80 to produce “thanks to the operation methods of the private sector”, which have included cuts in safety precautions, a highly unpopular casualisation of the work force, and buying cheaper locally produced equipment, such as transformers, which were previously imported .According to early reports, it was the explosion of a transformer that set off a chain reaction that led to the Soma mine being filled with suffocating gases..

    Turkish mining has an absolutely appalling safety record. The coal industry accounts for just over 10% of industrial accidents, with 13,000 miners involved in accidents last year. Since the year 2,000, 1308 people had died in coal mining accidents prior to these latest events. All this makes Turkey the country with the highest number of mining fatalities in the world after China. However, these figures are deceptive, and when the details are examined, Turkey has a death rate per million tons of coal production of 7.22 workers compared to 1.27 in China and 0.02 in the United States. What this actually means is that workers are nearly six times more likely to die in a Turkish coal mine than a Chinese one, and 361 times more likely than US mine workers.

    That said, it is unsurprising the Erdoğan's statement that "Explosions like this in these mines happen all the time. It's not like these don't happen elsewhere in the world” was met with anger and disdain by mineworkers in Soma. Erdoğan proclaimed that there would be three days of “national mourning”, but for workers in Soma this has meant them being attacked by water cannons and gas. The government also added a personal touch to all of this, with an official from the Prime Minister's office, Yusuf Yerkel, being photographed kicking a relative of a dead miner, and the Prime Minister himself being reported to have hit somebody too. The offices of the ruling AKP in the town were smashed.

    It was not only workers in Soma who are very clear about where the blame for the disaster lies. Demonstrations quickly spread across the country, and on all of them there were banners proclaiming that it was not an accident, but murder, and that the government was responsible. Demonstrations took place almost immediately all across the country. On Wednesday night, large numbers of people were confronted by police with water cannon, and gas guns, in Taksim square, the centre stage of last years protest movements, as well as in Ankara, and Izmir, and other big cities.

    Thursday saw a one day general strike called by the left-wing trade unions, DİSK, KESK, TMMOB, TTB and TDB. The main trade union confederation Türk-İs called for a three minute strike. Angry workers, and students in Ankara attacked, and occupied their offices in response. The strike seems to have been the largest general strike in Turkey for decades. Usually general strikes tend to involve somewhere around half a million workers from these left wing unions. The strikes yesterday went far beyond this, with hundreds of thousands of factory workers, from places where DİSK doesn't have a presence, joining in with the strike, and the protests, and not only for three minutes either. Amongst the strikers were workers in the infamous Tuzla shipyard zone, where over 200 workers have died in industrial accidents in the last three decades. The government seems to be in no mood for taking a conciliatory attitude to strikers, with around 10,000 striking coal miners in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak being docked two days pay despite only being on strike for one day. Incidents like this seem designed to antagonise workers further, and some demonstrations by workers have continued on the day following the strike action. All this two weeks before the anniversary of the start of the Gezi protests suggests that there could well be further struggles in response to these murders and the state brutality that has accompanied it.

    D. Valerian 16/5/2014


    And from the comments below the article:
    Quote
    The government banned any demonstration in Manisa - the larger city where Soma is located- on Saturday after rising protests by the relatives of mine workers. Today, people from other cities who go to the area to express solidarity with families of dead workers and the people of Soma are checked by the police at the entrance to the city. Most of them are not allowed to enter the city. These kinds of encirclements, indeed, have been made mostly in the Kurdish populated regions in the history of Turkey. The government uses the argument that those outside comers are provocateurs. Indeed, the government is trying to surround the city in order to hide the brutality that they caused.

    The city has been important for the Ottoman Empire. Most of the şehzades (the son of the Ottoman sultan) were trained there and became rulers of this city on their way to the dynasty which is made necessary by killing ones' brothers. The city has always been remembered with this Ottoman past by the rulers in Turkey. One of the most important figures of the ruling government Bülent Arınç is also from this city where they always march for remembering the Ottoman past. People of Manisa mainly vote for either Islamic ruling party or the nationalist parties such as kemalists or anti-communists. Anti-communist party (national movement party) won the last local elections. The city is, indeed, one of the largest industrial areas in this region and populated mainly by paid-workers. However, with this event, it seems that the “Turkish nationalism” is hurt to the quick.

    Many lawyers went to the city after the incident. These leftist lawyers try to examine the incident by collecting some evidences from the witnesses. As the government tries hard to hide the real numbers of dead workers- I think it is no less than 500 miners as there are casual workers too and some argue even that Syrian refugees were among the dead miners including child workers. 36 of lawyers are taken under arrest today with no "rational justification".

    Also, there are student occupations at the universities in İstanbul. Mining Department at Istanbul Technical University is occupied. Students along with other demands ask for the expulsion of a professor who is a consultant to the Soma Mining Inc-the running company. He appeared also on tv after the event saying that carbon monoxide poisoning is a “sweet dying” for miners. (I don’t understand why these students do not try to find this silly man and beat him).

    I can say that ordinary people are very angry with the system during these days. Wherever you go, you can see working class people talking about politics in a different manner, questioning not only the government but the whole system. There is also a tendency expressed by those petty bourgeoisie people who are trying to normalize the situation as the prime minister Erdoğan call these miner deaths as a "fate" as Valerin has pointed out.

    However, one point I need to make, this is not only about making profit. İt is more than that. Those people are obliged to go to the mine for living. Most of the workers or their families used to be farmers until to the 1980s. This company is working with Erdoğan and they are producing coal mainly for the working class people to be distributed "free of charge" by the local organs of the ruling party in return for votes in the elections. Since the 2003s, social transfer costs which are either in the form of direct or indirect has been on steady rise which also explains why the islamic oriented party holds the power.


    Some of the above is confirmed by this Reuters report:

    Turkish mine disaster town under lockdown as death toll rises to 301
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #112 - May 19, 2014, 12:51 AM

    Something has to give.

    Don't let Hitler have the street.
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #113 - May 22, 2014, 01:23 PM

    The pro-Islamist left, Turkish version - how liberals and Marxists managed to persuade themselves that the AKP was a force for progress. Partial quote below but worth reading in full.

    http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/17706/stillbirth_the-new-liberal-conservative-mobilizati

    Quote
    Among other factors, the 1980 coup convinced many intellectuals that the military was at the root of Turkey’s problems. Therefore, any civilian initiative deserved support. This belief was further strengthened by the global spread of liberal discourses after the defeat of the 1968 revolutionary wave. “Civil society” became the buzzword in academia and independent intellectual circles. The new focus on civilians and civic actors (somehow believed to be brought into existence without state and military involvement) got an additional boost from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European intellectuals’ liberalism.

    The rise of the Islamist movement put a new spin on this emergent discourse. The dominant intellectuals perceived Islamism as a threat, but also a possibility. It was obviously one of the voices in society against the state; but it also harbored a lot of authoritarianism. If the civilian elements within the Islamist movement could be harnessed to the liberal project, then the resulting combination could turn into a veritable force against the state. Simultaneously, many intellectuals within the Islamist movement also started to use the vocabularies of liberalism, civil society, and, interestingly enough, postmodernism. The question then became: were these just isolated and unrepresentative maverick intellectuals, or was there a social force behind them?

    Here, a liberalized Marxism rushed to the rescue. Liberalized Marxists had been arguing for a while that the lack of an independent bourgeoisie was the main cause of the lack of a true democracy in Turkey. The existing bourgeoisie was the result of official manufacturing. Young Turks and their descendants, the Kemalists, had first forcefully dispossessed the non-Muslims and then artificially created a new bourgeoisie. As a result, the business class in Turkey was indebted to bureaucrats from the get-go. It could never become the voice of democracy as it had in Europe.

    By contrast, the emergent bourgeoisie of the 1980s had developed as a result of market dynamics. Kept in check under the corporatist regulation that characterized Turkey from the 1930s to the 1970s, small merchants and entrepreneurs were set free by the liberalizing atmosphere of the 1980s, especially thanks to Turgut Özal’s reforms. Conservative religiosity had bound this class together during these unfavorable decades; now the language and networks woven by that religiosity further allowed it to flourish. Unlike the official bourgeoisie, this emergent bourgeoisie did not have a bloody record. Among those less educated, Islamism was a movement of cultural reaction against westernized and educated people. But in the bosom of this authentic bourgeoisie, there were deeply liberal orientations; hence the quite grounded Islamic liberalism of the above mentioned intellectuals.

    In sum, society’s struggles against the state and civilians’ fight against the military found their class counterpart in the struggle between the new, autonomous bourgeoisie and the officially created, inauthentic bourgeoisie. This chain of equivalence was no longer an intellectual exercise by the 2000s. It had become official ideology. Some leftist intellectuals declared the victory of a bourgeois revolution when the Islamist party (which was reconstituted and reformed along pro-business lines in 2001) assumed governmental powers. The president Abdullah Gül, the Islamist who became the intellectuals’ hero, echoed their sentiments by announcing that they were carrying out a “silent revolution.” The wildest intellectual dreams had come true. The bourgeoisie was in power. Democracy had arrived…or was around the corner.

    Certainly, the bourgeois revolution is not an overnight event, and it takes effort to finalize it. The new official ideology underlined this fact by emphasizing how the new governing party, the Justice and Development Party, was in power, but still not completely empowered (iktidar oldu ama muktedir olamadı). The military, the judiciary, universities, and the media were full of old elites still seeking to obstruct the bourgeois revolution. A secularist coup against the government was imminent.

    Most liberals were extremely enthusiastic about the Justice and Development Party from the very beginning. The dominant intellectuals of the left, by contrast, had their moments of optimism and pessimism. In 2010, however, all caution was put to the side. The intelligentsia threw its wholehearted support behind the government’s thus far most massive attempt to purge the bureaucracy of the old elites...

    ...Leftist intellectuals did not singlehandedly concoct this fairy tale of the authentic bourgeoisie. They just made it more beautiful, forceful, and persuasive. Their voices intermingled with other streams of discourse, mostly originating from liberal sources ... But all of the latter lacked the bite, the combativeness, the élan that would arm disparate social groups with conflicting interests and unite them behind the project of the rising bourgeoisie.

    This is a wonderful narrative indeed. We can lose ourselves in its consistency and beauty. Or we can check some basics to see whether any part of this tale stands scrutiny...

  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #114 - May 22, 2014, 03:50 PM

    Talking of the pro-Islamist left, here's a quote taken from a discussion about the SWP on another forum a couple of years ago:

    Quote
    While I am posting on this thread, the Turkish sister section of the SWP supported the Turkish government in its referendum in 2010, and were congratulated by the Prime Minister afterwards:

    Quote from: Tayip Erdoğan
    "Bu değişikliğe destek veren CHP’li, MHP’li, BDP’li kardeşlerimi tehditlere aldırmadan sandığa giden kardeşlerimi kutluyorum. Başından itibaren “Evet” diyerek desteğini veren Saadet Partili kardeşlerimi, BBP’li kardeşlerimi, Hak-Par’lı kardeşlerimi, Bağımsız Ülkücüleri, Kürt Aydınları, Devrimci Sosyalist İşçi Partili arkadaşlarımı kutluyorum. Başından beri evet diyen AKP’li kardeşlerimi kutluyorum. Genç Siviller’i kutluyorum."

     

    The bit in bold translates as "I congratulate my Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party friends". Also mentioned alongside them are "his brothers" in the Saadet Party (Islamicist), and the Büyük Birlik Party (ultranationalist)

    A link can be found here.

    Devrim

  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #115 - May 23, 2014, 12:35 PM

    Two dead in clashes in Istanbul - Erdogan says he's surprised by the patience of the police.

    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=238&nID=66869&NewsCatID=338

    Quote
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he was surprised by the "patience" of security forces during bloody clashes in Istanbul's Okmeydanı neighborhood, while slamming mourners of Gezi victim Berkin Elvan, saying the death of the 15-year-old has become “a thing of the past.”

    "For God's sake, should police stand idly by against all of this? I don't understand how they stay so patient," Erdoğan said in Ankara at a party meeting May 23 following clashes in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı that left two people dead. Turkish PM said that police officers were injured when their car was hit by a Molotov cocktail thrown by protesters.

    Some demonstrators in Okmeydanı were demanding to hold a ceremony for the victims of last week’s Soma mine disaster, as well as Gezi victim Berkin Elvan on May 22, before police intervened to disperse the group.

    “What is it? They wanted to hold a ceremony to commemorate Berkin Elvan. Will we perform a ceremony for every death? He died and it’s over,” Erdoğan also said.

    Elvan died in March after spending eight months in a coma after being hit by a police tear gas canister during the Gezi protests last summer.


    The Guardian has a report on the first death:

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/22/cleaner-shot-riot-police-istanbul-funeral
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #116 - May 23, 2014, 08:28 PM

    An in-depth report on the background to the Soma mine disaster:

    http://turkeyetc.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/soma-lifting-the-stone-on-the-new-turkey/
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #117 - May 26, 2014, 06:16 PM

    Some more links on Soma.

    From the Turkish Awakening blog:
    "Coal isn't free" - Turkish government culpability for Soma

    From Hurriyet:
    Soma miners force union officials to resign after mine disaster

    From libcom:
    If Gezi never happened the anger at Soma could not have burst forth
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #118 - June 02, 2014, 06:53 PM

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=gLk9k_4NbAs
    Gezi one year on: in pictures
  • What's actually happening in Istanbul?
     Reply #119 - June 04, 2014, 03:57 PM

    http://turkishawakening.com/2014/06/03/geziversary-a-dark-commemoration/

    Quote
    On Saturday 31st May, 2014, people gathered in the streets near Gezi Park, Istanbul as they had done exactly one year before. This time their mood was very different, however – bitter and fatalistic, with little of the exhilarated energy that characterized protests last year. This year, Gezi Park was cordoned off hours in advance. Civil policemen holding batons patrolled street corners, sinister backup for the thousands of riot police and their water canon trucks stationed around Taksim Square. Only the most determined and politicized of protesters headed out to the unequal battle with their gas masks and hard hats, leaving mainstream Gezi veterans watching events unfold on their TV or Twitter screens at home. This year, the government has learned from its mistakes.

    The obvious but crucial point to be made about this year’s protests is that they happened at all: people are still angry. There is plenty to protest about in Turkey; arguably much more than last year, considering the allegations of grotesque government corruption, business cronyism and misconduct that have emerged in the wake of the December 2013 wiretapping scandal and the recent Soma mining disaster. Yes, Gezi Park has been saved, but the Gezi protest movement has moved far beyond that now. The reason so many people rushed to support the original group of protesting environmentalists back in May 2013 was the violence of the police suppression, and that is still part of what people are protesting, in a horribly predictable vicious cycle. Images of people beaten, gassed and detained in cities across Turkey circulate with sickening familiarity on social media, and they are certainly not confined to those protesting the status of a small but iconic urban park.

    These images are shocking, but the shock is – sadly – dulled now by the knowledge that this has become the norm, and will probably stay the norm for some time. It is difficult to imagine anything on the scale of the public’s two week occupation of Gezi Park last year happening again under this government’s watch. The events of May 2013 caught the government off guard. In the last year, there has been plenty of practice for the police force described by Prime Minister Erdogan as “heroic” to become adept at stopping any significant protest gathering momentum. That knowledge is at the core of many people’s anger at the government, and at the same time the reason that they cannot fully express it.

    My favourite memory of the protests last year is a crowd of people holding out red carnations to commemorate those who had already died, pressing around an advancing TOMA (water canon) in Taksim Square. These people were so determined to protest peacefully, so united, it was impossible not to be moved. This year, the event that stuck in my mind was someone throwing a glass bottle at police from an unseen window on high. The bottle smashed and police quickly pointed their guns at the crowd, who backed off. Here was explosive anger and cowed fear, a horrible indication of how peaceful protest is becoming increasingly desperate.

    We’re also hearing ever-more polarizing language from the government, in particular the Prime Minister. One of the most famous clips of Saturday’s protests is of CNN’s Ivan Watson being forcibly detained mid-broadcast by a policeman who refuses to accept his press card as proof of his journalistic credentials. The ridiculous spoof-like quality of the clip has caused much merriment, but that merriment turned sour today after Erdogan referred to Watson as a “creep” and an “agent” who was caught “red-handed” provoking trouble during the protests. The fact that the Prime Minister can refer to a journalist doing his job (and brusquely prevented from doing so) in such a way is not, at this point, surprising, but it is worrying because so many people who listen unquestioningly to their Prime Minister take his words very much to heart. When journalists tried to get to the protests on Saturday, they were stopped by police who accused them of having fake press cards, and then told that only Turkish press were allowed to cover the protests. Several of them were asked, with great suspicion, if they were German journalists, because Germany happens to be the main target of Erdogan and the pro-government media’s xenophobia at the moment.

    It will be a very sad day when the raging rhetoric of an unscrupulous government makes foreign nationals feel unwelcome in Turkey, to the point where they want to leave. I hope fervently that will not happen. In the meantime, I applaud the attitude of Ivan Watson, who has entered into the spirit of events by changing his description on Twitter to “siyenenci” – or CNN-ci (purveyor of CNNism). A light touch, Mr Watson, bravo.

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