Four protesters and one police officer have been killed during the protests and Turkey’s doctors association said an investigation was underway into the death of a fifth protester who was exposed to tear gas. More than 7,800 people have been injured; six remain in critical condition and 11 people have lost their eyesight after being hit by flying objects.
Last week’s unrest, only quelled this week, has left Turkey a divided nation with President Erdogan’s voting majority AKP jubilant in its denial of its impact on all others. With so many business and political rivals neutralized, generals sacked, and journalists jailed, Erdogan has proven he can muscle up an adoring crowd while his police go about battering and blinding those who dissent.
Here was a bellicose leader who dismissed overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators as “looters” and “terrorists”, who railed against international media for their “disinformation” campaigns, and who criticised volunteer medics for treating injured protesters.
“The big loser (in the crisis), is the prime minister who is fighting for his political survival,” said Cengiz Aktar, a political science professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir university.
ZeeNews. “Turkey PM risks political fallout after Gezi Park.” June 18, 2013.
Here in my “Second Row Seat to History”, I am not part of any media conspiracy, government agency, anti-government organization, or strident political or religious movement.
I have only watched the footage.
“Unfortunately, we have been witnessing undesired attacks and provocations over the past few days. We are once again experiencing the traps that were set in the past to threaten governments and create chaotic scenes to pave the way for interventions against democracy.”
Whose past, Mr. Erdogan?
To whose “interventions against democracy” have you referred?
May the reader wrap his mind around the Turkish President’s Orwellian rhetoric.
The open democracies of the other NATO states reject the tyranny of the majority, the state’s suppression of media and of the earnest and responsible journalists on whose mantles rest decency and integrity in reporting, and, every single one of them, deeply rejects the rejection of the popular criticism of ordinary constituents, whether aligned with a majority part or distant from it.
Protesters have accused Erdogan, who has been in power for a decade, of taking Turkey down the road of authoritarian and Islamist rule. Erdogan, who has triumphed with wide electoral majorities, has dismissed the protesters as militants and losers.
Last week, the Ataturk Society UK reported three dead, 4,785 injured.
President Erdogan’s own ham-handed behaviors in office have inspired the opening of a fissure in Turkey’s body politic, and it will not close.
From the album online, “Heartwarming Images from the Turkish Resistance (created two weeks ago)“.
“Three different ideologies side by side” (photographer unknown).
Two weeks ago?
Has it been that long?
The Wikipedia entry “2013 Protests in Turkey” says it has (initial protest: May 28, 2013).
It feels like forever.
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