What's going on in Turkey?

I am a Turkish person, and riots(almost reminding Arab Spring, but hopefully without imperialist influence) are going on all over Turkish cities. Police is using excessive force against protesters. Tear gas is everywhere, İstanbul city center. We do not know how many people are hurt, but we are hearing people injured, and dying. There are even news about police throwing gas-bombs into the metros where people are hiding from the police.

Greatest problem is media is NOT speaking. All of our news are from facebook and twitter. All nation is organizing and posting our situation in international platforms. This is exactly what I am doing.

For the BBC News in English with pictures and videos : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10fa2s_bbc-in-az-onceki-yayinindan-01-06-2013-04-00-tsi_news#.UamEfdhmMYs

For the pictures: http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/

DETAILS: Everything started 5 days ago, when a park named "Gezi" was tried to be demolished, to build a mall. An environmental group organized the protest. Police reacted with tear gas, but not too much voilence. Then Police raised their force, and things got out of control. And protest started to happen in other cities as well.

But why such a great reaction from the citizens?

In order to understand exactly what's going on Turkey, you have to know it's politics. One of the greatest fears that grows in a Turkish person(at least half of the nation), is the collapse of the secular country and installment of a Islamic regime. In the last 90 years of the history of Turkey, there had been Islamic parties, but their all actions were generally stopped by a military intervention(I am not defending military interventions just talking about the situation). Ten years ago, today's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party AKP(Party of Justice and Progress) came into the government, and the last decade was a stage to a lot of changes. Increasingly police started use force in protests, "conservative" laws and actions were constantly applied. The speeches they do had more and more Islamic themes. They have put their men into every institution this country has. Our military generals, admirals and so on are in prison with the accusation of organizing an intervention.They are constantly degrading the values that caused the Turkish Revolution against the Ottoman Empire in 1923. They started to talk badly about the founder of the country Mustafa Kemal Atatürk(His policies and actions are subject to debating, while I support he should not be considered as a god, AKP's actions are not sincere). Yet the last month had many crazy things. In the May 1st The Worker's day, those who came to celebrate the holiday were brutalized. In May 11th a bomb in Reyhanlı, Hatay(city in the border of Syria) exploded resulting with the death of 53 people. More are considered to be dead, but not announced. The Syria policy that is currently applied is considered the reason of this explosion. 2 weeks ago a law passed the parliament, forbidding the sell of alcohol after 22:00 PM. And the last week was full of Gezi Park protests.

Practically Tayyip Edoğan, and his party are not supposed to be dictators or tyrants as they have been elected 3 times in a row with almost %50 ratios. However the rest of the country can not tolerate their lifestyle being ripped off, country losing its values and freedom and democracy just being simple words.

I want you to understand, even though some Europeans and Americans with prejudices think otherwise, Turkish Republic(at least according to its constitution) is a completely modern, secular and democratic country. We intend to keep it that way. The dynamics that exist in out country are radically different from the Arabs, we have a culture of democracy, even if its the tyranny of the majority.

If you have any questions, I can answer them with ease, I guess they are not that brave enough to cut off internet. However live feed from these protest events were impossible jammers were working all the time, vidos and pictures from telephones are all we had. And also TV's are not speaking the truth for us.

Also twitter and facebook is crawling with protests. You can find them if you look, but most of them are in Turkish.

Last edited by Darth South on 31 May 2013 - 23:16.

That really sucks. I hope

That really sucks. :( I hope you are safe.

I am for now, but there is

I am for now, but there is meeting today that I am planning to attend, we'll see what happens there.

This is terrible. My thoughts

This is terrible. My thoughts and prayers are with Turkey.

Do you know why people enjoying Labour Day were brutalised? Could you say why the AKP has remained in power if they've been moving away from secular ideas, or has this been a recent shift in policy?

Apologies if my questions are silly; I'm not really familiar with Turkey's recent history.

seems the young generation of

seems the young generation of turks is awake and have found out whats really going on, and they want to prevent the country getting plunged into a full blown regional war in the middle east.

The corrupt government has been training and sending insurgents into syria, to fight in the "civil war".

If syria falls, turkey will be next on the list.

Or maybe im wrong?

hmm, after seeing youtube videos about it, i dont know what to think. I dont understand turkish so i dont know what their message is.

I was always suspicious that

I was always suspicious that something was happening in Turkey. So many of my websites have been taken down or defaced by Turkish hackers that I assumed that the government had bigger things to do than deal with all their infamous hackers. Now I know why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAUXyaK6Lz4

The question why AKP can

The question why AKP can remain in the government puzzles the minds of many. Maybe people are just waking up, or the only ones who started to riot are the other half.

However, when you look at the profile of AKP voters(I hate classifying people and doing this sort of elitism but unfotunately this has to be done) you'll see they are, religious, uneducated, illiterate people. So they are not really capable of voting for the right person. Also there were some liberals considered AKP to be the gateway liberalization from the military and old constititioun.And the other half fails to unite. At least failed till now... I am going to Kadıköy(Asian center of the Istanbul) at 16:00 in Turkish hour(four hours later), and from there to Taksim, wish me luck.

good luck with that! erdugan

good luck with that! erdugan is bought by the west, he is just a puppet for western interests in the middle east, he has no interest in the people.

I hope not the islamists radicals will be inspired by this!

Turkish people crossing

Turkish people crossing continents from the Bosphorus Bridge. It is normally closed to pedestrians.

My prayers go to the Turkish

My prayers go to the Turkish people in the hope it all ends well and you are all safe. Humans are the worst race I've ever seen. Not even thousands of years were able to teach us how to respect each other. Amazing.

you got to remember there is

you got to remember there is a hidden hand in this, the so called powers that be. the common man has nothing to do with this, they are just pawns in a bloody world conquest going on for thousands of years.

its all a divide & conquer fest

And im not kidding either :P

I agree with you Eloth. It's

I agree with you Eloth. It's always about dividi et impera. Time goes on but it never changes.

Politics is the worst thing

Politics is the worst thing created by mankind. only works in one direction and for a specific group of people. and all the others must work 24 \ 7 \ 365 and should not have their own opinions and brains at all. and no matter what your system is democracy, or whatever, it all the same for each country. if people are becoming more intelligent, then the politicians will cry. hard.

I have just returned from

I have just returned from Taksim Square and Gezi Park. Luckily all the police retreated befor I arrived. Taksim was a place of celebration, everyone was throwing slogans against the current government and celebrating the victory.

My personal idea with the police retreating these riots will not go longer. As the Gezi park saved(court has given a decision to stop the demolishing, till a defense comes from the civil government) and a clear message to the government sent there is not much else to do. If we are to change the government we still can do it in the elections. Still facebook and twitter is crawling with resignation demands to the government..

Other than that, these protests were done by groups of multiple political ideas, including socialists, nationalists, kemalists, anarchists. A group of good intentions controlled for evil desires is seen a lot in the history, but what I have seen was every individual was pretty conscious of their actions.

i think some stupid agitators

i think some stupid agitators put a big tent on fire now, and suddenly all started escalating again.

Yes, everything got all

Yes, everything got all heated up again. I am safe in my home right now, I will be busy tomorrow, if things go like this I will be back to the Taksim on Monday.

UPDATE ON THE

UPDATE ON THE STATUS:

Protests are still going on over the Turkey, however police violence gradually decreases; causing the protests to gradually decrease too. As I said from before even though Turkey has a democracy of majority, we still have election rights. We had to send a message to the government, and it's sent. Everyday the protests go makes it only more clear.

Violence still goes on in Istanbul but Gezi Park is occupied by protesters right now. I've been there yesterday and in constant communication with my friends there. Gezi park is practically an anarcho-communist state in Istanbul now. Everybody is helping out in each other in complete solidarity. I couldn't count how much people offered me food and water. I've seen pictures of libraries being built by hand(but probably will mess up in case of rain). A Kitchen has been built up that makes hot food and serves. Everything for free of course. We gave up some things as well when we were leaving. It's a small version of Paris Commune right now there.

Right now everybody in my neighborhood is making noises from the windows and every friend I talk says same thing happens all over Istanbul.

Everybody except the PM Tayyip Erdoğan apologizes and says the message is taken(including president[which is NOT equal as in authority to American President] Abdullah Gül), which generally satisfies people but prime minister insists everybody are violent protester while everyone I saw are very mature.

Finally, wall writings of humor are all over Taksim Square; but I am going to share you one that I think you'll find particularly funny.

EDIT: I've just seen another picture of someone who wrote "LEAVEMEALONE GTA" to another wall. To people who can not understand the joke, It was the cheat code used to stop the police in GTA: Vice City.

Thanks for keeping us updated

Thanks for keeping us updated Dark South, just found the thread, read it, and am praying for you and for Turkey.

-Ice