Category Archives: Regions

FNS – Erdogan and Demonstrations – Update

17 Monday Jun 2013

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After night fell, his security forces put these words into force. They used bulldozers to clear out Gezi Park, which had become a symbol of the resistance in recent days. They chased protesters and beat them down with clubs, and they shot tear gas into cafes and hotels as the people fled. Doctors who treated the wounded were arrested.

Popp, Maximilian and Mirjam Schmitt.  “‘Hateful’ Speech in Istanbul: Erdogan Throws Fuel on Flames.  Spiegel Online, June 17, 2013.

President Erdogan may mount pro-government demonstrations, but he has a way to go with regard to quelling anti-government unrest, and to judge both by the article in Spiegal Online and the balanced footage above, he’s inclined to do it with the heavy hand of a dictator.

The orchestration of his own AKP pro-government demonstration, which included busing fans to the location, while at the same time suppressing Taksim Square activity by clearing the streets with force and closing routes into the city reflects well the autocrat’s want to control without a lot of back and forth in the conference room or negotiating table.

Add:

  • Deflection of responsibility for his state’s spontaneous demonstrations to foreign influence (of some kind) and the international press;
  • Detention of lawyers sympathetic with demonstrators and the alleged arrests of doctors — that detail seems to be in the news today — attending those injured by government forces.

If preventing attention to the injured is a part of the governing ethic “over there”, that too speaks of the barbarian within and a reigning mentality not much different than that which has made a mess of Damascus.  The process doesn’t change: the greater and more extensive the repression, the more amplified the resentments and, when those surface, the response.

Describing Erdogan’s government as “despotic,” two main union blocs say they plan to march to Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which has been at the heart of more than two weeks of protests. It is the second time unions have called a strike to support the protest movement.

Penhaul, Karl, Ian Lee, Gul Tuysuz.  “Turkish unions call strike after weekend of street clashes.”  CNN, June 17, 2013.

Al Jazeera reports, “Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists are also said to have joined the strike on Monday. The striking groups represent about 800,000 workers” (“Turkey threatens to deploy army to end unrest.”  June 17, 2013).

Reuters reports today 441 persons detained in Istanbul on Sunday, 56 in Ankara, and 5,000 injured and four dead over the span of the unrest.

Additional Reference

Burch, Jonathan and Daren Butler.  “Striking workers face off with police in Turkish capital.”  Reuters, June 17, 2013.

Letsch, Constanze and Ian Traynor.  “Turkey unrest: violent clashes in Istanbul as Erdoğan holds rally.”  The Guardian, June 16, 2013:

Erdogan inveighed against the international media, blaming the BBC and CNN for distorting the drama of the past three weeks in what he repeatedly alleged was an international plot to divide and diminish Turkey.

“You will make your voice heard so anyone conspiring against Turkey will shiver,” he told the crowd. “Turkey is not a country that international media can play games on.”

Waldman, Simon A. and Emre Caliskan.  “Erdogan’s aim: Suffocate the right to protest in Turkey.”  Haaretz, June 5, 2013.

CNN.  “Demonstrations in Turkey.”  Retrospective slideshow.  June 16, 2013.

Michaels, Sean.  “Turkish police confiscate piano used to serenade Taksim Square protesters.”  The Guardian, June 17, 2013.

Peterson, Scott.  “Erdogan’s supporters rally, dismissing Turkish protests as a ‘big game’ (+video).”  The Christian Science Monitor, June 16, 2013:

Using language that belittled the protesters as disrespectful and irrelevant, Erdogan appeared to point the finger of blame at everyone except himself and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), citing instead the party’s economic triumphs and democratic reforms.

While the title includes the term “video”, when I viewed the piece at about 9:17 a.m. EDT, there was none.

Reuters.  “Hundreds of thousands rally in Turkey for Erdogan.”  June 16 2013.

Sky News.  “Turkey: Erdogan Supporters Rally in Istanbul.”  June 17, 2013.

The Guardian.  “Taksim square: riot police evict protesters in Istanbul – video.”  June 16, 2013.

Reflection

Political cartooning has gotten an update in recent years (or days, considering the pace of media technology development and its broad distribution.  I thought this piece catchy (yes, I am chatyping like the old man I’ve become here) and while it doesn’t reflect my thoughts, which are so much more sober, the presentation would seem part of the zeitgeist of a dawning political era.

Referral

Al Jazeera’s running a “live blog” — sure glad it’s not a dead one — on Turkey’s unrest: http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/topic/turkey-protests-20176

Turkey’s ‘Woodstock’ Moment – A Concert at Taksim Square

13 Thursday Jun 2013

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Riot police looked on from the fringes as crowds mingled late into the night, some protesters chanting and dancing, others applauding a concert pianist who took up residence with a grand piano in the middle of the square.

Tattersall, Nick and Jonathon Burch.  “Turkish protesters party in square despite ruling party call.”  Reuters, June 12, 2013.

From the same article: “Erdogan has accused foreign forces, international media and market speculators of stoking conflict and trying to undermine the economy of the only largely Muslim NATO state.”

Setting aside that mouthful I call “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy (FBPS)”, which may deal too much with motivation and personality and too little with “cognitive style” I’m starting to think autocrats internally muddled, unable to deal with criticism, open processes — including for Taksim Square specifically, urban development and land use planning — and the possibility that they themselves are a little bit a part of larger political and social issues.

American analog – Erdogan / Taksim: Nixon / Woodstock.

The Turkish youth are okay, and perhaps so is the state’s middle class.

Additional Reference

BBC.  “Turkey protests: Erdogan in ‘final’ warning.”  June 13, 2013.

Hacaoglu, Selcan and Ben Holland.  “Istanbul Protesters Hear Piano Concert as Calm Returns.”  Bloomberg Business Week, June 13, 2012.

Odds-N-Ends: Iran’s Upcoming Election

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Iran, Regions

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“Any one of these men picked by Khamenei will execute his orders,” the 80-year-old said in an interview in his house near Paris, where he has been exiled since 1981.

“The Republic is erasing itself in the face of the Leader.”

Reuters.  “Iran’s former president: Khamenei erasing elections.”  The Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2013.

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;
He rages against all wise judgment . . .

Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty,
And before honor is humility.

Proverbs 18:1 and 12, Bible Gateway.

Who in Iran will vote against their own will, against their own interests, against themselves?

Perhaps a few Iranians are mulling that question as I type.

Al Arabiya asks in its related header (June 11, 2013), “Does the president even matter?”

The article will go on to answer the question it has posed.

It seems there are nuts and bolts issues to be tackled by an Iranian president — inflation and unemployment, at least — but power ultimately resides with Ayatollah Khamenei by divine right.

From Washington, Iran Election Watch notably covers the candidates on their positions having to do with Iran’s nuclear programs (June 12, 2013): “Nuclear Issue Provokes Strong Reactions in Presidential Debate.”  The article quotes candidate Ali Akbar Velayati as saying, “We need to insist on our right to enrich uranium and at the same time act cleverly and avoid being perceived as whimpering by other countries.”

Perhaps its that “act cleverly” part that will spur some Iranians more concerned with inflation and unemployment to vote for other than Velayati.

Reporters Without Borders condemns an increase in the Iranian government’s harassment of Iranian journalists in the final days before the 14 June presidential election and the restrictions imposed on the few foreign journalists allowed into the country to cover it.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB).  “Harassment, Restrictions and Censorship Limit Election Coverage.”  June 12, 2013.

Manipulating elections neither fair nor free nor open, the Grand Peacock has perhaps exerted sufficient control over elections — by approving only a narrowed field of candidates and by managing the “Iran Curtain” to slow Internet traffic and reduce domestic and foreign media criticism and impact, which management seems to have included already the arrests of two domestic journalists (Omid Abdolvahabi and Hesamaldin Eslamlo, according to the RWB page cited) — to keep himself feeling good about himself.

Reporters Without Borders goes on to note, “Today is the second anniversary of Iran-e-Farda journalist Hoda Saber’s death in detention, 11 days after journalist and women’s rights activist Haleh Sahabi died as a result of the beating she received at her father’s funeral. No one has been arrested or tried for either of these deaths.”

In the atmosphere of such governance and unsolved political crime, one might ask Persians who intend to vote whether they mean to express preference at the polling stations or general approval of their country’s state of affairs.

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A Glance at RT’s Coverage of Turkish Protests

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

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“We were patient, we will be patient, but there is an end to patience, and those who play politics by hiding behind the protesters should first learn what politics means,” Erdogan said.

Protesters have accused Erdogan of becoming authoritarian during his 10 years in power and attempting to impose the Islamization of Turkey, which is currently governed by secular laws. Erdogan brushed off the accusations, calling himself a “servant” of his people.

RT.  “Turkey police crush protests, govt refuses to resign (PHOTOS, VIDEO)”.  June 10, 2013.

For his post-Kamalist autocratic methods, Erdogan makes an easy foil for the political opposition not only in Turkey but, opposite NATO (over Syria, lately), in Russia too.

As popular demonstrations attract everyone with a political bone to pick — or youthful and wild energy to expend — they can get out of hand to the point where authority (of any kind) must intervene with force.  So here one may ask: apart from the Turkish middle class and whatever known fringes may be familiar to the Turkish political scene, who else may have been in that crowd?

And who put them there?

Ah, the gate opens to wild speculations.

To trim that some, I thought we might look together at RT‘s coverage of the story.

“There is now a menace which is called Twitter,” Erdogan said on Sunday, dismissing the protests as organized by extreme elements. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”

RT.  “Turkish activists rail against media for ignoring protests, police brutality.”  June 5, 2011.

Turkish police have taken several dozen lawyers into custody for joining the ongoing protests. The arrests in Istanbul come as police launched a crackdown on protesters in the city’s Taksim Square.

RT. “Turkish police ‘attack’ protesting lawyers at courthouse, many arrests (VIDEO).”  June 11, 2013.

If you were the Russian autocrat, would you not wish to fan the flames beating at the bottom of the Turkish one?

Perhaps “yes”, but I’m not certain I would have to work hard, or even at all, to play up the drama, disrupt Erdogan’s Administration, and, just a jogging bit, shake the NATO tree.

RT has put up a live updates pate on the Turkish protests, but this last seems to feature the same timbre in headlining that seems to me also . . . fair:

“There are serious clashes in the small streets surrounding the square. They are running after each other tossing stones, bottles and smoke grenades there. It’s a real meat grinder in there,” reports RT’s Ashraf El Sabbagh.

RT.  “Turkish police oust Taksim protesters with tear gas as Erdogan cheers removal of ‘rags’.”  June 11, 2013.

Is the statement embedded in the RT article inflammatory or just plain good dramatic reporting?

My call: the latter.

Autocratic regimes or ones drifting in that direction — I would not write differently about Putin’s — do it to themselves.  The more they feel they control in their spheres — and control is what autocrats and “malignant narcissists” are all about, that plus themselves, their image, their glory — and the more they extend that control into the reasonable provinces of constituent life, the more resentment they sow and, over time, the more chaos too when those resentments surface from multiple constituencies, including those with whom they have dealt with a heavy hand.

Frankly, the story more prevalent in the news I’ve been encountering along the way seems to be the Turkish media’s blackout on the protests.

Additional Reference

Al Jazeera English.  “Turkey’s media: Caught in the wheels of power?”  June 8, 2013.

Oktem, Kerem.  “Why Turkey’s mainstream media chose to show penguins rather than protests.”  The Guardian, June 9, 2013.

The Voice of Russia.  “Turkey unrest: ‘Turkish spring’ or just a seasonal storm?”  June 2, 2013:

Tarasov also names the government-led soft Islamization as a possible reason. Some people didn’t like plans to demolish the Ataturk Cultural Center and build a mosque at the site, thus neglecting the heritage and legacy of the first President of Turkey Kemal Ataturk.

Remember: It’s Never the Narcissist: Erdogan Blames Woes on “Vandals and Terrorist Elements”

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Regions, Turkey

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Reference for the partial quotation in the above title:  Tattersall, Nick and Ayla Jean Yackley.  “Turkish riot police fire tear gas at Istanbul protest.”  Reuters, June 11, 2013.

*****

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Erdogan’s in moral and psychological trouble, and that trouble starts with denial and the convenient pointing of the finger elsewhere, but by the numbers, he’s not in political trouble.

The opposition currently appears too weak to play a significant role. The Republic People’s Party (CHP) of Kilicdaroglu is not expected to total more than 25 percent of the vote; the ultra-nationalist ‘Grey Wolves’ of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are estimated at around 10 percent while the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party will probably total 6 percent of votes.

ANSAmed.  “Turkey: Erdogan has no rivals in 2014 presidential vote.”  July 17, 2013.

While I feel Erodan’s right to suggest protesters meet him at the ballot box, God knows how the autocrat has been working the ropes to rig them. He’s ditched a class of career military men and jailed or harassed publishers and journalists, for a start.

Ben Caspit writing for Al Monitor (“Erdogan’s Sin of Hubris”) last week noted the following:

Erdogan’s growing appetite has become truly swinish and planted in him the messianic belief that he was sent directly by the Divine Presence to return Turkey to its days of glory and rebuild the Ottoman Empire. This was viewed by many as the main source of Erdogan’s megalomania that is now absorbing a strong, unexpected blow from the masses in Istanbul’s squares, who call him “tyrant” and “dictator.”

Five days ago from Haberler.com:

Erdogan is no creator, nor a prophet, and has not been in heaven – only in North Africa here on earth. But he should take advantage of the deep faith of many Muslims and turn away from his intransigence against those who disagree with him, against awkward media and against his critics in Turkish society. Gül und Arinc have prepared the way. This is Erdogan’s last chance to break from his harsh policy.

Haberler.  “Opinion: Erdogan’s Last Chance.”  EN.Haberler.Com, June 6, 2013.

Does Erdogan read?

Does he know what he looks like to the free world — the world that hosts the United Nations, the Center for the Protection of Journalists, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and Haaretz?

Soon the square, home to days of protests over what demonstrators call an increasingly authoritarian government, was filed with chaos. Hugely loud bangs echoed through the area — likely the result of stun grenades. Thousands packed back into Taksim Square, surrounding a large bonfire that they were fueling with whatever they could pick ups.

Walsh, Nick Paton, Arwa Damon, and Gul Tuysuz.  “Tear gas, stun grenades, fire: Chaos overtakes Istanbul protests.”  CNN, June 11, 2013.

Once again, but differently then when the oldsters here first heard this chant: “The whole world is watching!”

******

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*****

Slideshow: “Photos: Anti-government protests in Turkey.”  CNN, June 11, 2013.

You get the idea:  ” . . . vandals and terrorists . . . .” say the dictators, chief themselves among Vandals and terrorists.

(And sorry for putting up the Bobbies as Turkish footage — I need more powerful coffee to catch some who post footage from one context and past over it some immediately relevant headline.  That clip is gone, and all else seems to have come from Turkey in the last 24 hours or so).

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A Passel of Updates on the Snowden Story

10 Monday Jun 2013

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What they’re ignoring is that this is actually how democracy works. Even in a free society, the state has to have some secrets. The means and methods by which it tracks terrorists should, I’d suggest, be one of them. Should those means and methods be subject to scrutiny? Yes. Should that scrutiny come from our democratically elected representatives? Yes. Should the powers being scrutinised also be the subject of checks and balances from the courts? Yes. In other words, precisely what has been happening with Prism.

Hodges, Dan.  “We don’t want to spy on terrorists, we don’t want to kill them, we don’t want to deport them.  What do we want?”  The Telegraph, June 10, 2013.

Jeffrey Toobin posting on The New Yorker’s web site: “Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the Guardian and the Postthat even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The Postdecided to publish only four of the forty-one slides that Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s.”

Toobin’s colleague John Cassidy provides counterpoint: “He is a hero. (My colleague Jeffrey Toobin disagrees.) In revealing the colossal scale of the U.S. government’s eavesdropping on Americans and other people around the world, he has performed a great public service that more than outweighs any breach of trust he may have committed.”

In Politico, Tal Kopan has worked up a scathing indictment of Snowden’s character founded on the slant of the details, from Snowden’s dropping out of high school, albeit completing his GED coursework in the community college system, to the stickers on his laptop: “4. His laptop stickers reveal his beliefs. Stickers on Snowden’s laptop express support for Internet freedom, The Guardian said. One reads, “I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation,” and another is for the Tor Project, an online anonymity software.”

From Kim Hjelmgaard filing from London and published in USA Today with the title, “Edward Snowden says he seeks safe harbor in Iceland”:

But Iceland says he is missing a key element.

“The main stipulation for seeking asylum in Iceland would be that the person must be in Iceland to start the process,” said Johannes Tomasson, the chief spokesman for Iceland’s Ministry of Interior in Reykjavik. “That would be the ground rule No. 1.”

Uh oh.

Also appearing in USA Today:

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, AOL and Paltalk erected what the New York Timesdescribes as “locked mailboxes” in which to place data on suspicious persons requested by the government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The Times’ description, published Saturday, used unnamed sources.

Basically, it looks like the post-911 Bush Administration launched a broad and comprehensive effort to detect terrorists and their operations (apparently, ignoring plain old gumshoe Russian intelligence sharing prior to the Boston Marathon bombing shouldn’t be mixed in with this NSA story), and, legally, Congress-approved, by law, Obama has sustained the Bush Administration plan.

This is for my paranoids — it’s at least four years old, has been viewed more than 57,000 times, and it will take you where you want to go.

I’ll save readers the trouble of clicking around: NOVA.  “The Spy Factory.”  Video.  Aired February 3, 2009.

God has not exempted geeks from having their own character and personality issues, so here I may lump Assange, the Wikileaks guy (click for the latest on that), and Snowden together — birds of similar feather, says I, and asylum, indeed, is what they have needed.

Other Reference

Owen, Paul and Tom McCarthy.  “Edward Snowden revealed as NSA whistleblower – reaction live.”  News Blog, The Guardian, June 10, 2013.

UTTM. “Edward Snowden: Ex-CIA worker drops out of sight, faces legal battle.”  Interview with Michael Cohen and accompanying reportage.  Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2013.

FTAC – An Off-Hand Note on Al Qaeda in Syria and Arab and Western Participation

10 Monday Jun 2013

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Regarding what we think we know and what we know we know: the world has a huge black market going in military arms. You should know the name Viktor Bout and then imagine that personality recapitulated for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the FARC (Colombia), the Sineola people (Mexico) and so on. The small stuff, like the Kalashnikov the Russians overproduced to keep factory employment high, and the RPGs and other small, transportable arms seem to have zero issues getting to these small conflicts. Even when Al Shabaab were kids running amok in Somalia, they were able to fire an RPG into a living room (they didn’t like the man watching a soccer match on his television). To say the U.S. Government supports Al Qaeda in Syria is an “iffy” supposition.

However, let’s look at the kind of curtain suspended everywhere in Islamic and related tribal states — also in states dealing with other insurrection or organized crime: it’s curtain sewn of privacy in communication. A wink, a nod, a slip of paper, a promise, a signal can do untold damage anywhere in the world at any time predicated on the will of those colluding to do evil.

It is natural for the United States to oppose dictatorship of any kind anywhere in the world, but the realpolitik also involves enormous sums in cash, hard assets (like landing strips and naval ports), and investments, and the states of the Arab Peninsula have made fortunes on energy sales, essentially, and reinvestment: there is no one surprised that they would use that financial power to expand their combined political-spiritual enterprise. Whatever officialdom may say, OBL showed the power of the individual to act in accord with the sword verses and sally forth into the infidel world.

If General Idris could get his grip on the loose collection of rebel forces reporting to him and exercise true western-backed control, the Al Qaeda presence in Syria would be marginalized, but because of religious fealty and motivation, which may be misguided (you heard that from a Jew) but is powerful, that Al Qaeda presence may be holding its own in the Syrian — soon to be Syrian-Lebanon — theater

The story is complicated and more so than Facebook “bilge talk” (or international cocktail-type chatter) allows.

To bring freedom to parties who fear it and constituents whose information environments have been managed specifically to engender the fear and hatred of others on one hand and an immense “civilizational narcissism” (check in with Mobarak Haider’s on that) on the other proves difficult — one may stop to look over the Iraq story on that.

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FNS – Iran’s Virtual Elections

07 Friday Jun 2013

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But on June 7 a group of Internet activists hopes to give Iranian voters a taste of what an open election feels like by launching an alternative election featuring 20 candidates. The candidates not only include the officially approved eight, but 12 more, ranging from people who failed the official vetting process to reformist leaders and political prisoners.

Recknagel, Charles.  “Virtual Election Gives Iranians Chance to Vote for Unofficial Candidates.”  Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, June 7, 2013.

Radio Free Europe features other stories on Iran’s upcoming elections, of course, but still it’s good to pass along information that indicates interest in more authentic representative government.

Iran’s official elections take place next Friday (June 14, 2013).

Also in the news as I type:

Hosseinian, Zahra.  “Electrion candidates clash over Iran foreign policy direction.”  Reuters, June 7, 2013.

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