Category Archives: News

New York Times: Turkish Protesters Defy May Day Ban; Dozens Detained

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Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Istanbul on Thursday in May Day rallies, confronting riot police officers to protest a government mired in a corruption scandal and accused of imposing a creeping authoritarianism in Turkey. The police fired tear gas, used water cannons and shut down main streets to disperse hundreds of protesters seeking to challenge a government [...] → Read the full article…

Bianet: Police detains children on Children’s National Day

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Police detained 4 children for chanting “Berkin Elvan is immortal” during Istanbul’s official April 23 celebrations attended by Governor Mutlu. Police detained 4 children for chanting “Berkin Elvan is immortal” during Istanbul’s official April 23 celebrations attended by Governor Mutlu. The incident took place as Governor Mutlu headed toward the podium for an award ceremony. The aforementioned children initially faced [...] → Read the full article…

The Independent: Turkey’s actions in Syria see PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan go from model Middle East ‘strongman’ to tin-pot dictator – Robert Fisk

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Erdogan sent in the police to crush the demonstrators of Gezi Park last year, went berserk when it was suggested his party and relatives were involved in corruption scams, and fired or removed hundreds of police and security officers. Then he promised to wipe out “social media” before the municipal elections which he inevitably won, and uttered the kind of [...] → Read the full article…

Hurriyet Daily News: Interior Ministry report on Gezi protests clears police and governor

The report said there was no need for an investigation as 'no act contrary to law was found' during the countless police raids and interventions. Daily News Photo

  Both the police department and Istanbul’s governor have been cleared of using excessive violence against protesters during last year’s Gezi events in a report from Interior Ministry inspectors assessing their response to the demonstrations, daily Radikal has revealed. In the report dated Sept. 18, 2013, those responsible for the escalation of the local protests into nationwide demonstrations were declared [...] → Read the full article…

Jadaliyya: Digital Platforms, Analog Elections: How Civic Groups Are Trying to Bring Back Democracy in Turkey

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When Gezi protesters occupied the park last summer and took their frustration with the government to the streets, Prime Minister Erdoğan told them to “be patient and face off at the ballot box.” It was exactly Erdoğan’s reductive framing of democracy, which limits political legitimacy to elections and takes an uncompromising, polarizing stance against opposition, that Gezi protesters stood against. Nonetheless, unlike [...] → Read the full article…

Vice: We Quit Working for Erdogan’s Propaganda Mouthpiece – Kate O’Sullivan and Laura Benitez

Police crack down on a free speech protest in Istanbul in February. (Photo by Charles Emir Richards)

  “Journalists wanted for international news agency,” read the Guardian job ad. As an editor in an industry where opportunities seem to be fading away by the day, you apply for pretty much any full-time job you see. A couple of months later, we arrived in Ankara, Turkey, ready to “write history” as the first international journalists to be welcomed [...] → Read the full article…

Washington Post: ‘No Opposition, No Democracy’ in Turkey’s elections – Lisel Hintz

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Not just the mobilizational power but also the spirit of Gezi pervades objections to electoral manipulation, defying the AKP’s attempts to snuff it out. The wickedly humorous wit and creativity used to critique the AKP’s brutal police crackdowns that drove millions of people to the streets during the height of the Gezi protests in 2013 are being deployed in full force to [...] → Read the full article…

Al-Monitor: Erdogan plays Egypt card in ‘ballot box’ victory – Semih Idiz

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters with his family members in Ankara

It is evident from the 45% of the overall vote the AKP won in the local elections that Erdogan’s strategy of converting the “Dec. 17 corruption scandal” into the “Dec. 17 coup attempt” was also successful. With the aid of a pro-government media, reinforced after the AKP’s business cronies began buying mass circulation dailies at Erdogan’s behest, the conservative masses — which still constitute [...] → Read the full article…

Hurriyet Daily News: Another child injured during police intervention

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A 10-year-old child was seriously injured during a protest in the southeastern city Diyarbakır March 25, allegedly hit by a tear gas canister. After Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) electoral rally at Azizoğlu Square in the Silvan neigborhood, a masked group pelted police with stone and shot fireworks at them, semi-official Anatolian news agency reported. As police intervened with tear [...] → Read the full article…

Channel 4 News: Seven reasons why Turkey’s Twitter ban matters to the world – Paul Mason

Erdogan attends a ceremony marking the 99th anniversary of the end of the Gallipoli campaign in Gallipoli

1. Erdogan’s pretext for shutting down Twitter is the existence of two accounts he claims are slanderous, which have been linking to allegedly fake recordings that show him as corrupt. This is not the first time a government has threatened, or acted, to shut down Twitter when faced with political opposition. When Mubarak did it he was overthrown shortly afterwards. Erdogan enjoys [...] → Read the full article…