Category Archives: Texts

Al Monitor: Turkey’s ‘Erdogan Problem’’ – Tulin Daloglu

Protesters shout slogans as they block the main Istiklal street in central Istanbul, July 8, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Cevahir Bugu)

Until Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s future path in politics becomes clear, time to talk about political stability in Turkey is over. This has nothing to do with the ongoing scattered protests since June against Erdogan’s way of politics, which were sparked in an attempt to save a green space in downtown Istanbul but got out of control due [...] → Read the full article…

Etha: Tunç ‘Let them come and take us too’

haydar-tunç

Haydar Tunç, who is the father of Hasan Tunç who is 20 years old and one of the arrestees of Gezi resistance, believes his son was arrested to take revenge due to the Taksim Gezi Park actions. Tunç stated: “This process is not an organizational operation process. My child is a member of a legally acknowledged party. Being a member [...] → Read the full article…

Turkey Account of Violence: “ The ones who are weak are not the women, but the ones who perceive us as weak!”

eylemo

The Turkish police don’t hold back in prosecuting their own punishment mechanisms while intervening in the protests which have spread nationwide. With the aim of being the security force, the prosecutor and the judge all at the same time, the police not only torture but also sexually harasses the protesters they have detained or taken into custody. Eylem Karadağ, who [...] → Read the full article…

The Guardian: The Egyptian coup is a warning to Turkey – but will Erdoğan listen?, James E Baldwin

Although Ennahda's situation is much closer to Mohamed Morsi's than the AK party's, the coup is less threatening in Tunis than it is in Ankara. Photograph: Chedly Ben Ibrahim//Demotix/Corbis

Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Erdoğan’s AK party has alienated opponents. Ennahda in Tunisia shows a way forward for democratic Islamists Egypt’s coup was not just a major shock for Mohamed Morsi, but also for the Middle East’s most successful Islamist party: Turkey’s AK party. When news of the Egyptian army’s deposing of Morsi broke, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, [...] → Read the full article…

Taraf: The volunteer accused of being a “secret agent”

Céline Rousseau, a volunteer from the European Union (EU), recounted what she went through during her arrest because of Gezi incidents: “At the police department, they wanted me to undress. At District Police Department’s Foreigners’ Office in Kumkapi they refused to give me any water to drink. Céline Rousseau was one of the people who were accused as “the Gezi [...] → Read the full article…

Turkey Accounts of Violence: Turkey vs. the Police: Ethem Sarisülük, the Protester Who Was Murdered by the Police

Photo: Doğu Eroğlu

On the second day of the nationwide Gezi Park protests, June 1st, Ethem Sarısülük, a laborer and human-rights activist was shot in the head by a policeman. After spending 11 critical days at the intensive care unit, news of Ethem’s brain death arrived on June 12, only to be followed by his clinical death on June 14. Despite the hard [...] → Read the full article…

Statement from AICA Turkey: President of AICA Tr Osman Erden has been detained

Osman Erden

Osman Erden, Assistant Professor at Art History Department of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts and President of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) Turkey, has been detained on 13 July 2013 at Istiklal Sreet, Istanbul. From the video footage and photographs circulated in media he is thought to be beaten at the moment of arrest. Osman Erden has been [...] → Read the full article…

Etha: The Police tortured for hours

polis-iskencesi

The Turkish police, who has drawn enormous reactions from the people with its actions towards the Gezi protesters, has this time, in Gazi neighborhood, tortured Semih Demir who is 18 years old . The torture has continued for hours on the street, in the forest and at the police station. Semih Demir has described what happened to ETHA: “It was [...] → Read the full article…

Jadaliyya: Brand Turkey and the Gezi Protests: Authoritarianism, Law, and Neoliberalism (Part Two), Asli Igsiz

[Image via occupygezipics.tumblr.com]

Brand Turkey: Modeling Democracy and Neoliberalism When commentators for CNN International, the new bête noir of AKP supporters for its Gezi coverage, criticized the government reaction against the protesters, they claimed that Turkey had previously been held up as a model of democracy in the Middle East, but that the present situation showed that Turkey was a model for nobody. [...] → Read the full article…

FıratNews: Police terror ruins lives

The police terror, described by the PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as “epic”, has another one of its victims, İsmail Aslan, who is an undergraduate of philosophy at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. Aslan, attempting to enter Taksim Square on the 6th of July upon the call for action by Gezi Solidarity Platform, got injured on his forehead by a gas-shell, [...] → Read the full article…