Better late than never, some more of my friends' AMAZINGLY detailed updates from Ankara, they are very long, but worth the read. Better than any newspaper article you will read, the older ones (further down) are pretty harsh. I urge you to read them, or at least to skim them ALL through, it is important to spread the actual happenings of what is happening - or happened.
Today
Quick sitrep for Ankara. It was a bit crazy this morning. We got tear gassed along with a group pretty early. I went home and took a nap. I woke up and went to the park around 6ish. The park wasn't too crowded but if filled up pretty fast. Then the protest moved down to Tunus street where the cops paddled our bottoms the day before. There was no police. They had completely abandoned trying to attack us. It was surreal. People were talking, chilling, and eating with the police. No violence except for a small scuffle with provocateurs was experienced. People have begun to prevent them from building barricades, they take their rocks away, and will physically restrain them.
It is important, however, to realise that while the protests have won a great victory with their message of peaceful resistance finally spreading to security forces their struggle isn't over. This attempt at fostering sympathy for the security forces is falling on deaf ears, however, as everyone remembers the merciless brutality they had been subjected to in the days before.
If the protesters lose this momentum, accept that they've won and stop coming out, then this has all been for naught. Nothing, apart from showing people that protesting can be a mainstream activity, has been achieved yet. Lets hope protesters can understand this and continue to protest until they get their answer. Time is on their side.
It is important, however, to realise that while the protests have won a great victory with their message of peaceful resistance finally spreading to security forces their struggle isn't over. This attempt at fostering sympathy for the security forces is falling on deaf ears, however, as everyone remembers the merciless brutality they had been subjected to in the days before.
If the protesters lose this momentum, accept that they've won and stop coming out, then this has all been for naught. Nothing, apart from showing people that protesting can be a mainstream activity, has been achieved yet. Lets hope protesters can understand this and continue to protest until they get their answer. Time is on their side.
Yesterday - with latest report first:
Going to observe the protests has reached a new level of monotony only broken by my absent-minded face-offs with riot cops. The protesters get to Kizilay in small groups. When ever there is a concentration of people they shoot tear gas canisters directly at them. They flee in all directions. Come back. Repeat until people can't see anymore.
Its not the fear of being gassed, most of the protesters have sort of gotten used to that, its the fear of a burning metal canister the size of a Samsung Galaxy (those ridiculously large phones) hitting you in the leg or the arm with enough force to break bones that tends to put people off and get them running. Its the same fear one has when facing men armed with bullets, its just that you can see the bullets coming and they're huge. Which really doesn't help with morale.
I somehow ended up holding up a giant Turkish flag and facing down a line of slowly advancing riot cops who thought it would be funny to shoot at our legs. I blame my friend for running out there to the flag guy. I couldn't leave the idiot out there alone. They then, as per usual, gassed the hell out of us. There was a regrouping at Kuglu Park. Then the customary gassing and charging of riot police in Bestekar. This time they also had a group up in Tunali, making sure the protesters could not regroup. I had to hide at home after that. Riot police patrolling and firing firing tear gas into my street.
There is no dialogue going on between the police and the protesters. Hurriyet and other supposedly pro-secular publications keep on saying that the police try to disperse the crowds with words before they gas them. Many of my sources in Istanbul and Izmir say the police just started firing upon them without any warning. I witnessed this myself in Ankara, the police show up, their siren wails, and they start firing. If the sirens are what Hurriyet considers dialogue then their reporting has take an even worse turn than I thought.
They've also claimed in a recent article that only stun grenades were used on a mostly high school crowd today. I was there, there was gas, stun grenades we used as well. The worst though is the way they're presenting the vice-prime minister, Bulent Arinc's speech; he apologised for the violence the first day of the Gezi Park protests; as in the violence that caused another protest against it which cause all the ruckus over here. Then he said he doesn't need to apologise for the way the police has been acting ever since. Which is why the protests are still going. This is much bigger than a group of environmentalists getting their ass handed to them amongst some trees. The Hurriyet, astonishingly, tried to sell it off as a full apology with a short, badly written article that an 8th grade misfit would be embarrassed about.
Yet I've been hearing many reports, only 2 of them confirmed, that police have been threatening camera men with bodily harm and/or the barring of them from filming at all if they release any professionally filmed police brutality. This is why all the footage you've been seeing abroad is from phones and hand held video cameras. Its a poor excuse. A story about how the police threatened you and prevented you from doing your job is going to be much more journalistic than a half-assed government censored story a 14 year-old with a camera phone can disprove.
The pro-government media has become a source of entertainment for me. Their articles, as least Yeni Safak, Zaman, and Today's Zaman, are clumsily written attack pieces aimed at the protesters. Abdulkadir Selvi's one is especially nasty, claiming that protesters are violent psychopaths that froth at the mouth at the sight of head-scarf toting women. He claims that a woman trying to get to the metro was verbally assaulted as she walked through the crowd in Kizilay on the way to her daughter. In some of the pictures I put up yesterday you can see women wearing head-scarves in the crowd. Protesting. With the rest of them. Disproving his made up stories. The insults in other articles are hilarious; the protesters are all drunks, trouble makers, anarchists, homosexuals (nothing wrong with that, probably just jealous about how fabulous some of the protesters look), and violent arsonists.
Then there is the claim, by the government and pro-government media, that all of those sitting at home are supporting their side. That they aren't coming out because they believe that the government is the good guy.
Let me disabuse them of that notion. People aren't coming out because they don't want to get hurt or die. Everyone is young at these protests because the youth are the only age group that can survive this level of violence. And even then; if you live with your parents, as do many Turkish students, they tend to be a bit protective and not let you join the protests. Then you have those with no stomach for getting pounded by the police. Or the majority. People are terrified of what the Turkish police could do to them. And there is nothing wrong with that. That is why they come to the windows, almost all of them, and bang pots and pans together in support. The government has no claim on these people.
That's not to say they don't have support. Yet the majority of their larger, richer cities are the ones up in arms. Its fine having the support of rural areas yet claiming you own the hearts of those in cities because your gerrymandering has made your rural support part of the cities' electorate is plain misinformation. The government has support amongst the Turkish populace, but a sizable amount of it including some of their erstwhile supporters, are the ones with the grievances.
Speaking of horrid journalism, Turkish news sources act like the protests aren't even that important. Around a quarter, on average, of each news site is about the protests. The rest is silly tabloid articles, sports news, and worst of all; “clicking traps”. These “clicking traps” are articles with vague names that look like they might be about the protest. “Father and son die in horrible event”, “the truth you must know”, “a must see video”, “this article will change your life”. These articles will not have pictures by the link like other articles; leading people to click on them and spend, at least in my case, a precious 5 minutes wishing flayings upon the newspaper.
Yet have never heard of, and neither has any of my more experienced friends, a protest this big that has gone through so much effort to be non-violent. The protesters carried signs asking people to be calm and eschew violence. I saw protesters intervene several times with people attempting to throw rocks or vandalise property.
And then we have the disagreements between the President and the Prime Minister of what exactly democracy is. The Prime Minister has insisted that democracy consists of only elections. Elections are the only way we can exercise our right to free speech it seems. The President said there are myriad ways of exercising democracy and that demonstrations are a way of doing that. I find myself closer to the President but not exactly. I think that a representative democracy, as we sort of have here in Turkey, is when the minority helps guide the majority in their rule of the country. As in the majority doesn't lord it over the majority and the minority doesn't attempt to completely oppose everything the majority wishes. Because democracy literally means rule of the people. Which the majority are just a part of. When this agreement is broken the gloves, as we can see from the last week, are off. I'm off to get gassed again. Wish me luck and thanks for reading this drivel!
Its not the fear of being gassed, most of the protesters have sort of gotten used to that, its the fear of a burning metal canister the size of a Samsung Galaxy (those ridiculously large phones) hitting you in the leg or the arm with enough force to break bones that tends to put people off and get them running. Its the same fear one has when facing men armed with bullets, its just that you can see the bullets coming and they're huge. Which really doesn't help with morale.
I somehow ended up holding up a giant Turkish flag and facing down a line of slowly advancing riot cops who thought it would be funny to shoot at our legs. I blame my friend for running out there to the flag guy. I couldn't leave the idiot out there alone. They then, as per usual, gassed the hell out of us. There was a regrouping at Kuglu Park. Then the customary gassing and charging of riot police in Bestekar. This time they also had a group up in Tunali, making sure the protesters could not regroup. I had to hide at home after that. Riot police patrolling and firing firing tear gas into my street.
There is no dialogue going on between the police and the protesters. Hurriyet and other supposedly pro-secular publications keep on saying that the police try to disperse the crowds with words before they gas them. Many of my sources in Istanbul and Izmir say the police just started firing upon them without any warning. I witnessed this myself in Ankara, the police show up, their siren wails, and they start firing. If the sirens are what Hurriyet considers dialogue then their reporting has take an even worse turn than I thought.
They've also claimed in a recent article that only stun grenades were used on a mostly high school crowd today. I was there, there was gas, stun grenades we used as well. The worst though is the way they're presenting the vice-prime minister, Bulent Arinc's speech; he apologised for the violence the first day of the Gezi Park protests; as in the violence that caused another protest against it which cause all the ruckus over here. Then he said he doesn't need to apologise for the way the police has been acting ever since. Which is why the protests are still going. This is much bigger than a group of environmentalists getting their ass handed to them amongst some trees. The Hurriyet, astonishingly, tried to sell it off as a full apology with a short, badly written article that an 8th grade misfit would be embarrassed about.
Yet I've been hearing many reports, only 2 of them confirmed, that police have been threatening camera men with bodily harm and/or the barring of them from filming at all if they release any professionally filmed police brutality. This is why all the footage you've been seeing abroad is from phones and hand held video cameras. Its a poor excuse. A story about how the police threatened you and prevented you from doing your job is going to be much more journalistic than a half-assed government censored story a 14 year-old with a camera phone can disprove.
The pro-government media has become a source of entertainment for me. Their articles, as least Yeni Safak, Zaman, and Today's Zaman, are clumsily written attack pieces aimed at the protesters. Abdulkadir Selvi's one is especially nasty, claiming that protesters are violent psychopaths that froth at the mouth at the sight of head-scarf toting women. He claims that a woman trying to get to the metro was verbally assaulted as she walked through the crowd in Kizilay on the way to her daughter. In some of the pictures I put up yesterday you can see women wearing head-scarves in the crowd. Protesting. With the rest of them. Disproving his made up stories. The insults in other articles are hilarious; the protesters are all drunks, trouble makers, anarchists, homosexuals (nothing wrong with that, probably just jealous about how fabulous some of the protesters look), and violent arsonists.
Then there is the claim, by the government and pro-government media, that all of those sitting at home are supporting their side. That they aren't coming out because they believe that the government is the good guy.
Let me disabuse them of that notion. People aren't coming out because they don't want to get hurt or die. Everyone is young at these protests because the youth are the only age group that can survive this level of violence. And even then; if you live with your parents, as do many Turkish students, they tend to be a bit protective and not let you join the protests. Then you have those with no stomach for getting pounded by the police. Or the majority. People are terrified of what the Turkish police could do to them. And there is nothing wrong with that. That is why they come to the windows, almost all of them, and bang pots and pans together in support. The government has no claim on these people.
That's not to say they don't have support. Yet the majority of their larger, richer cities are the ones up in arms. Its fine having the support of rural areas yet claiming you own the hearts of those in cities because your gerrymandering has made your rural support part of the cities' electorate is plain misinformation. The government has support amongst the Turkish populace, but a sizable amount of it including some of their erstwhile supporters, are the ones with the grievances.
Speaking of horrid journalism, Turkish news sources act like the protests aren't even that important. Around a quarter, on average, of each news site is about the protests. The rest is silly tabloid articles, sports news, and worst of all; “clicking traps”. These “clicking traps” are articles with vague names that look like they might be about the protest. “Father and son die in horrible event”, “the truth you must know”, “a must see video”, “this article will change your life”. These articles will not have pictures by the link like other articles; leading people to click on them and spend, at least in my case, a precious 5 minutes wishing flayings upon the newspaper.
Yet have never heard of, and neither has any of my more experienced friends, a protest this big that has gone through so much effort to be non-violent. The protesters carried signs asking people to be calm and eschew violence. I saw protesters intervene several times with people attempting to throw rocks or vandalise property.
And then we have the disagreements between the President and the Prime Minister of what exactly democracy is. The Prime Minister has insisted that democracy consists of only elections. Elections are the only way we can exercise our right to free speech it seems. The President said there are myriad ways of exercising democracy and that demonstrations are a way of doing that. I find myself closer to the President but not exactly. I think that a representative democracy, as we sort of have here in Turkey, is when the minority helps guide the majority in their rule of the country. As in the majority doesn't lord it over the majority and the minority doesn't attempt to completely oppose everything the majority wishes. Because democracy literally means rule of the people. Which the majority are just a part of. When this agreement is broken the gloves, as we can see from the last week, are off. I'm off to get gassed again. Wish me luck and thanks for reading this drivel!
Earlier
Quick sitrep. We went to Kizilay around 3ish. We got gassed before we reached the square but it wasn't aimed at us, they were attacking the high-school students with the flags. We attempted to calm down crowds; stop them from running. We got to the street by the park and a large crowd joined us. They were clearing the side streets until the police noticed there was quite a large number of us and we were blocking traffic. They cleared it up. Me and and a friend helped that crazy flag guy and stood with him for a bit after making sure everyone got back. People were passing out and getting hit by the canisters. I'm not going to lie, the adrenaline boost of facing down that police line was exhilarating. Yet most of the crowd was composed of younger people. There was no way they would stand up to a police line. We then started walking to Kuglu, I went for the pictures and to see what was going on, and my friends to support the protest. They attacked us by the Double-Tree right by Kolej, a Akrep (its an small armoured car made by the Turkish company otokar) showed up and started shooting into traffic to get to the protesters there. Helicopters fly over and try to pinpoint groups and they send in the Akreps to prevent them from getting to Kizilay. We got to the park. They began walking down to Kizilay. We stopped in Tunus. We got stomped on. Bad. In my attempts to calm down the crowd I found myself, once again, looking into the eyes of a bunch of riot cops. They started firing at us again. I thought it would be a good idea to slowly leg it, speeding up when their aim started getting better. I'm trying to be neutral here but the police didn't even try to engage the protesters in dialog before attacking. There is no attempt to peacefully solve this situation. Sorry about the crazy updates. My internet keeps on getting blocked on the phone. Jammers are in effect around Kizilay and the government is leaning on cell phone operators at the moment. I'll write something a bit less rushed in a few hours. I'm exhausted, I'll catch a quick nap while I wait for the police to leave the street and go pick up my friends.
Earlier
According to most of my sources the police crushed the protests in Izmir and some areas of Istanbul violently. I saw with my own eyes how they broke up the protests in Ankara late last night. Clouds of tear gas, clumsily driven water cannon trucks, and the riot police charge me and Joel narrowly avoided. I lost myself in the moment; yelling at one of the trucks as it, like a teenager asking his crush to prom, awkwardly tried to approach us.
The square was even worse. We were attacked 10 minutes after approaching the square. And this is on the outskirts of the group, just recording and watching the the main crowd get gassed. They fired upon us from a range of around 50 yards, aiming at our legs and failing to hit anyone initially. They then started to fire a constant barrage at the crowd.
The tactics the police seem to be employing in Ankara are simple. They know that crowds will gather to march on Kizilay. They wait until enough people have gathered as to make it hard to run away, then send in a truck to bunch them up after a light tear gas attack. Then they pour in the gas, have the truck attack, and have the riot police charge in to mop it up.
The makeshift aid stations were also attacked last night. Volunteer doctors and those with first aid training used several buildings by the squares to treat those that had been injured by canisters or overcome by the gas. The police forced their way into the buildings, gave everyone including the patients their customary beatings, and arrested the whole lot. Even in war zones one leaves medical areas alone. If Nazi's managed to do it I would think our police could manage that basic concept.
They attacked the opposition's buildings yesterday as well. At one point even the chickenshit Turkish media was reporting that around 60 parliamentarians were trapped in their building and the police were lobbing tear gas inside.
The justification for all of this; victory during the elections. The President of Turkey attempted to correct the Prime Minister in his hubris, however, reminding him that a democracy does not only run on the elections; it relies on the constant input of its citizens and a government that listens to them. I understand that the Prime Minister was elected by the people. I respect that even though I don't agree with his policies. It seems, from what we've heard, that his announcement are just fuelling the fires.
The Prime Minister has claimed that the crowds are fascists, extremists, and CHP provacatuers. He has said “if they like trees so much we'll hang them from them”. He has claimed foreign powers are causing the unrest; channelling his inner Assad. He has let his emotions work his tongue and that is a major failing in a legislative politician. His sectarian attitude, the constant insults, and the police's violent crackdown could be a result of him feeling not only politically threatened but also physically.
As much as the protesters are in the right; they have no right to physically threaten Erdogan or his family. They have the right to ask for change, demand his stepping down, and legally prosecute him for gross incompetence but he, let them not forget, is still a Turkish citizen with all the rights that we claim for ourselves. The attacks should be aimed at his party. At his policies.
And this could explain his, I repeat myself, uncharacteristic nervous body language during his press conferences and speeches. He looks terrified. The protesters must rememberr that it is not Erdogan himself that is powerful, it is Erdogan supported by his party and media apparatus. Cutting at the head of a hydra only makes it worse.
I've read reports that the much of the media that formerly supported him is now against him. Straight up lies that. Yeni Safak, recently lauded by Stratfor, the BBC, the HDN, and other English language publications, has already turned upon the protesters; calling them “members of illegal organisations” and claiming “drunk protesters are defiling mosques”. Zaman has claimed protesters are destroying everything they can get their hands on because “they're all anarchists”. The only channel that is trying to showcase what is really going on, Halk TV, has just received a warning from the state media controller warning them that “insulting the personage of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is against the law” and this was their last warning.
The most worrisome issue for the protesters is the police and their erstwhile allies of the AKP's Youth Arms' recent invasion of social media. The government has never been known for their intelligent usage of social media and as a result the it has always been the arena of the opposition. This has backfired spectacularly with the sending of misinformation by the security; particularly the planting of fake stories. After planting the fake stories and waiting for them to make the round they are then disproved, casting the protesters in a bad light.
They have also used the social media to lure protesters into traps as many of my sources have attested. I have eye-witness accounts in Izmir of how they told protesters to come to the Basmane district, waited until enough of them were there, and had the metal baton-armed youth arm and police attack them. They send messages saying “they're sending in the trucks!” or “they're attacking with the riot police”. People scatter.
The second biggest problem the protests are experiencing at the moment is the focus on Taksim. The live feeds, the enormous media presence, and the government's withdrawal from the area has boded well for those in Taksim but has hurt efforts elsewhere. The media should get out a bit, see Besiktas and Ortakoy's chaotic streets. They should take pictures of the massive beatings in Izmir. They should film attacks on aid stations in Kizilay. The protests need more coverage. And the media, foreign or local, is not providing it. I'm off for my daily dose of free water and gas. Good luck and good day.
The square was even worse. We were attacked 10 minutes after approaching the square. And this is on the outskirts of the group, just recording and watching the the main crowd get gassed. They fired upon us from a range of around 50 yards, aiming at our legs and failing to hit anyone initially. They then started to fire a constant barrage at the crowd.
The tactics the police seem to be employing in Ankara are simple. They know that crowds will gather to march on Kizilay. They wait until enough people have gathered as to make it hard to run away, then send in a truck to bunch them up after a light tear gas attack. Then they pour in the gas, have the truck attack, and have the riot police charge in to mop it up.
The makeshift aid stations were also attacked last night. Volunteer doctors and those with first aid training used several buildings by the squares to treat those that had been injured by canisters or overcome by the gas. The police forced their way into the buildings, gave everyone including the patients their customary beatings, and arrested the whole lot. Even in war zones one leaves medical areas alone. If Nazi's managed to do it I would think our police could manage that basic concept.
They attacked the opposition's buildings yesterday as well. At one point even the chickenshit Turkish media was reporting that around 60 parliamentarians were trapped in their building and the police were lobbing tear gas inside.
The justification for all of this; victory during the elections. The President of Turkey attempted to correct the Prime Minister in his hubris, however, reminding him that a democracy does not only run on the elections; it relies on the constant input of its citizens and a government that listens to them. I understand that the Prime Minister was elected by the people. I respect that even though I don't agree with his policies. It seems, from what we've heard, that his announcement are just fuelling the fires.
The Prime Minister has claimed that the crowds are fascists, extremists, and CHP provacatuers. He has said “if they like trees so much we'll hang them from them”. He has claimed foreign powers are causing the unrest; channelling his inner Assad. He has let his emotions work his tongue and that is a major failing in a legislative politician. His sectarian attitude, the constant insults, and the police's violent crackdown could be a result of him feeling not only politically threatened but also physically.
As much as the protesters are in the right; they have no right to physically threaten Erdogan or his family. They have the right to ask for change, demand his stepping down, and legally prosecute him for gross incompetence but he, let them not forget, is still a Turkish citizen with all the rights that we claim for ourselves. The attacks should be aimed at his party. At his policies.
And this could explain his, I repeat myself, uncharacteristic nervous body language during his press conferences and speeches. He looks terrified. The protesters must rememberr that it is not Erdogan himself that is powerful, it is Erdogan supported by his party and media apparatus. Cutting at the head of a hydra only makes it worse.
I've read reports that the much of the media that formerly supported him is now against him. Straight up lies that. Yeni Safak, recently lauded by Stratfor, the BBC, the HDN, and other English language publications, has already turned upon the protesters; calling them “members of illegal organisations” and claiming “drunk protesters are defiling mosques”. Zaman has claimed protesters are destroying everything they can get their hands on because “they're all anarchists”. The only channel that is trying to showcase what is really going on, Halk TV, has just received a warning from the state media controller warning them that “insulting the personage of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is against the law” and this was their last warning.
The most worrisome issue for the protesters is the police and their erstwhile allies of the AKP's Youth Arms' recent invasion of social media. The government has never been known for their intelligent usage of social media and as a result the it has always been the arena of the opposition. This has backfired spectacularly with the sending of misinformation by the security; particularly the planting of fake stories. After planting the fake stories and waiting for them to make the round they are then disproved, casting the protesters in a bad light.
They have also used the social media to lure protesters into traps as many of my sources have attested. I have eye-witness accounts in Izmir of how they told protesters to come to the Basmane district, waited until enough of them were there, and had the metal baton-armed youth arm and police attack them. They send messages saying “they're sending in the trucks!” or “they're attacking with the riot police”. People scatter.
The second biggest problem the protests are experiencing at the moment is the focus on Taksim. The live feeds, the enormous media presence, and the government's withdrawal from the area has boded well for those in Taksim but has hurt efforts elsewhere. The media should get out a bit, see Besiktas and Ortakoy's chaotic streets. They should take pictures of the massive beatings in Izmir. They should film attacks on aid stations in Kizilay. The protests need more coverage. And the media, foreign or local, is not providing it. I'm off for my daily dose of free water and gas. Good luck and good day.
Earlier
They're raiding the aid stations and arresting the lot. Istanbul's Besiktas area, most of Ankara, and Izmir is under siege. They've broken up the bestekar group. They've attacked opposition buildings and people's apartments. They've assaulted everyone they can get their hands on. Ankara is just getting worse.
Earlier
Just got tear gassed. They're using the special stuff with the normal stuff. Watch out.
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