What
Turkey is witnessing today is a broad-based popular rebellion against
the authoritarianism of its conservative neoliberal Islamist
establishment.
Originally published by WhatIsHappeningInIstanbul.com,
a grassroots initiative in citizen journalism aimed at covering the
ongoing protests in Turkey and posing a counterbalance to the co-opted
corporate media.
It started with
hundreds of peaceful protesters resisting the demolition of Gezi Park,
one of the very few green spaces left in the center of Istanbul. There
are plans to replace it with yet another shopping mall. The
disproportionate police response to the peaceful Gezi protests has
triggered a nationwide revolt within a matter of days. What we have
witnessed since the early hours of May 30 is not only a display of the
collective will of Istanbul residents claiming their right to the city
but also a broad-based rebellion against the authoritarianism of
Turkey’s conservative neo-liberal Islamist government.
Hundreds
of thousands of people of all ages and political stripes have united
around slogans such as “shoulder to shoulder against fascism,” and
calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan. The
protests have spread from Istanbul to Ankara, İzmir, Adana, Eskişehir,
Samsun, Konya and Mersin among other cities, despite the brutal and
relentless attacks by the police. From the very beginning of the
protests, Turkish police used water cannons and tear gas against the
demonstrators. The streets of Istanbul and other cities have become
battlefields; hundreds have been hospitalized and several unconfirmed
deaths have been reported.
As this
unprecedented wave of protests spread across Turkey, there was an
unofficial news blackout across the mainstream media. The censorship of
Turkish media has increased sharply in the last few years. According to
Reporters Without Borders’ 2012 report, Turkey has become “the world’s
biggest prison for journalists.” Protesters have been mobilizing
nevertheless, mainly through social media.
Despite
the clear dangers posed by an unrestrained police force, people have
taken to the streets without fear. This ongoing protest is unique and
historic, not only because the people insist in ever greater numbers on
reclaiming the streets from the riot police, but also because it
represents the hope for a genuine people’s movement beyond the usual
political factions.
The protesters of
#OccupyGezi are anything but a homogeneous group. It is comprised of
millions of people from all over the country, young and old, leftists
and nationalists, liberals and Kemalists, middle class and working
class, believers and atheists, gays, lesbians, transsexuals and football
fans, all united by one collective demand – the end of AKP
authoritarianism. There is no central political organization bringing
these groups together, yet the protesters have displayed enormous
solidarity.
The protest aligns them.
The affect of being together in this revolt unites them. The will to end
authoritarianism and police brutality motivates them to revolt. The
desire to preserve common public spaces and to resist their
appropriation by local/global capital empowers them.
The
reaction against the brazen force used on the Gezi Park protesters was
the culmination of a series of incursions into basic liberties: the bombing of civilians in Roboski in December 2011; last month’s bomb attacks in the border town of Reyhanlı; the restrictions on women’s reproductive rights; the major crackdown on 1 May demonstrations; the recent curbs on the sale of alcohol; the onslaught of neo-liberal capitalist attacks on historical and cultural landmarks such as Emek movie theater and the port areas of Karaköy, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy in Istanbul; and the breaking ground for the widely unpopular third bridge across the Bosphorous, have all contributed to the widespread discontent on display.
What
must appear at first glance as a simple protest about trees was infused
with passionate frustration by a citizenry that has finally lost
patience with the autocratic and clearly undemocratic tendencies of
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan who has been touted as a beacon of
democracy by the global ruling elite. The people on the streets of
Turkey send a clear message to the world today: democracy will not be
coopted. Erdoğan has famously called for other leaders — Mubarak,
Gaddafi, and most recently Assad — to listen to the voice of their
people. It’s time he started to listen to his own.
No comments:
Post a Comment