Reflections on Turkey - Part 1 (Testimonials)

Towards the end of May this year, Turkey was shaken by massive protests which began with the attempted defense of Gezi Park, in central Istanbul, from a gentrification project. What began with roughly only a dozen environmentalist activists, turned into a full-fledged movement that encompassed every major urban centre of the nation.

I recently travelled to Istanbul to meet with numerous activist groups, of all denominations and political convictions, to get a better impression of the current developments of the Gezi Park/Taksim Square protests and movements, and what they entail for the future of Turkey and its political landscape. As such, this investigation is divided in two sections: This first one will report on the testimonials of both activists and supporters of the Erdogan government, to convey in their own words their beliefs. The second part will be a socio-political and geo-political analysis of the situation, based in part on these testimonials and my own personal observations.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the people interviewed do not necessarily reflect those of the author and have been collected purely for documentation purposes.

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Manuel - Manuel is a Spanish activist and a student of Art Science in the Netherlands. Having been heavily involved in the indignados  and 15M movement in Spain, he came to Istanbul as a show of solidarity with the protests nearly two months ago. As we are discussing, Manuel and I are walking from Galata Tower, through the Istikal Cadessi, up towards Taksim square and through Gezi Park.

"These days you will not see many protests in Taksim. Unfortunately, the police violence has been simply too much to deal with for the protesters, and they have had to relocate. We had use humour to deal with the violence though, to keep our spirits up, like when we appropriated the term 'Çapulcu' that Erdogan called us. You know, we made it ours. There we also many chants and songs made about [tear] gas: 'Gas Gas Gas, We Want More Gas!'.

A gas-masked protester (Ziya Azazi) performing a traditional Sufi spiritual dance in Gezi Park.

One of the amazing things about the Taksim protests is that they brought together all different groups. When I was in Barcelona and was taking part in the indignados movement, yeah there was support from all over the country, but there was no single-ideology present either no flag, there was an idea of an ‘Anonymous’ movement with no faces and no colours from any political side. Here instead the people of Taksim are very different from each other and every single flag was represented on the park, from the neutrality and no political images of the İndıgnados to the multı-coloured all-kind of images and political signs of Gezi.

You know, there has been a long and very hard rivalry between the three football clubs in Istanbul. Have you heard that? Well, for the first time ever the three football teams of Istanbul, who had always been bitter enemies and their ultras often got into fights, came together in support of the Taksim protests. They were holding each others arms shouting chants of unity and support, each with their football team's shirt. It had never happened before. And you know it's not true that it is an anti-religious movement, as there are many anti-capitalist Muslims in the movement and we have celebrated many Muslim holidays together, and have done Iftar during Ramadan.

It was a surreal experience, you know. When we managed to push the police and march through here [Istikal Cadessi], we'd have to break the tiles to have rocks to throw at them. The shop owners supported us, and sheltered us, and the police often broke their windows as intimidation and to blame it on the protesters. Sometimes they also used infiltrators and agitators. People would spray graffiti all over these walls. During the night when nobody was around, entire teams of people from the government would come, clean the place up, replace the tiles, and re-paint the walls - here, where you see that gray paint, that's where they repainted. It was to give the illusion that nothing had gone on.

The police would be waiting in the smaller back-alleys, waiting for protesters fleeing the gas to ambush them and arrest them, and bring them to prison after having beaten them in the vans."

As we walk up towards Taksim, Manuel explains to me why the square is of such symbolic value to the people of Istanbul.

"Taksim square used to be the water distribution centre for almost the entire city. The cisterns on the other side [of the Golden Horn] were for the rich and the Sultans. This is where the people came to get their most precious good for life, water. It is Ironic that the capital of three empires which had potable water hundreds of years ago now does not anymore. It is because of the dams that they have built on the rivers that used to bring the flow of water here. The flow has been largely interrupted because of the dams, and the city now has to get its water from other sources, which are not drinkable. So, now we have over 15 million people who have to drink from plastic bottles every day.

Here we are at Gezi Park. During the protest this place was amazing. First when there were only envıromentalısts it was ok, but you know, we were just sitting around and passively resisting arrests, and it wasn't working. When the workers and the football team supporters started to come down, they knew what they were doing! Hahaha. You see those fences [pointing]? They could dismantle them in just a minute, and bring them over and create barricades against the police. And that's when we really started putting up a resistance, when the football team supporters started to join us."

We take a seat to finish our food on the steps overlooking the fountain.

"You see over there? Those projects are continuing, they are for the creation of the car tunnel. We don't know if they will continue with the other projects, but they probably will. They are just waiting. When things were bad around here, there were supporters of the government that took advantage of the confusion to beat up people. They say that five people died in Istanbul, but I think it is much more. It's just that the families did not want to admit that their children had died in the protests to avoid political repercussions, and the media attention. Some bodies have just been found dumped in isolated areas.

When we controlled the park, here was the park's library [near the fountain], before they took it away. Now, all over the park there are undercover cops. The problem is that you know, in Europe you can tell an undercover cop at. They generally dress in black, with shades, and they are quite muscular. Here they had to recently double their employment of policemen, which means that they have taken in a lot of young people. So, they look like simple, normal people, almost like students, and it is hard to tell them apart. 

I ask Manuel what role has the Kurdish population played in the uprisings, since the peace process initiated by Erdogan and the consequent recognition of the Kurdish Language and limited autonomy was seen by many Kurds as promising. 

"The Kurds have mostly supported the protests. They recognize that the peace process is just a smokescreen to pacify them. And although they will take that over nothing, they realize Erdogan's authoritarian nature, and they know it won't last long. Plus, the violence that we have experienced here is nothing compared to the sustained repression and violence that they are accustomed to.

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Sven - Sven is a journalist working for a local socialist newspaper. When I met him he apologized for not having been able the day before, as he had to go to the hospital, and had an operation the day after we met. I would never imagine why until towards the end of our conversation.

"The first thing that people have to realize is that the current Taksim phenomenon is nothing new. Despite only being now picked up by the international media, Taksim has been a symbol of resistance and defiance against the state for nearly forty years. The first death in Taksim due to a demonstration took place in the first even May Day in 1976, when a protester was found with his cut throat in a side alley. But this was just the beginning; the following year the fascist Turkish security forces armed and aided by their US masters opened fire on the May Day demonstration, killing over 34 people. Since then, the Turkish government has decreed that gatherings in Taksim were to be illegal. Every year since then, however, May Day demonstrations have taken place in Taksim in defiance of the order, and usually ending in police violence." 

The 1977 Taksim Massacre

As we walk up the street from Galata Tower, we take a seat in a Koftë stall, and we order vegetarian Çig Koftë.

"Did you know where the largest May Day celebration was in 2012? The largest one was in Havana, Cuba, while the second largest one on the planet was held here, in Istanbul, but nobody talked about it then! The current Taksim protests are actually nothing new, they are just a new expression of a traditional phenomenon in Turkey. This country is still run as a feudalistic system which needs to be dismantled before a socialist revolution. But you cannot achieve a socialist revolution without having laid its foundations. 

So, in order to go through a socialist revolution, a country that is still in a feudal arrangement such as Turkey must go through a democratic revolution, and that is Taksim square. Then, to achieve a socialist revolution, the population will have to go through the concepts of Maoism  and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat."

I ask Sven about his activities as a journalist and whether those affect his experiences at protests.

"Well, Turkey is the country with the highest number of journalists in prison. I work for a socialist newspaper and so naturally they are watching me. Of course because I am a foreigner I have some protection, but that doesn't mean that I can't be arrested, tortured and then deported back to Germany, or that a bullet will not hit me when the police shoots on protesters."

Do they use live bullets?!

"Of course they use live bullets. They have no problems using real bullets. NO PROBLEM [he emphasized]. The only reasons they are not using real bullets against the protesters in Taksim is because they know that the international media is watching. Turkey has had a series of fascist governments in power since memory can recall, and now with Erdogan it is just a different brand of fascism, one which is not 'secular' and military, but that is 'Islamic' and maintained by the police. There is no real difference, except for the face of those in power. Anyway. Journalists here are at high risk. They can simply charge you of being a member of a terrorist or illegal organization, and they can keep you in for years. Just recently, two colleagues of mine were charged with between 13 and 21 years in prison. Of course they will be tortured. The media here in Turkey is completely controlled and that which isn't is very repressed and always at risk. Think about that a week into the protests when thousands of people were demonstrating, some people in Istanbul were not even aware that this was taking place. And they were watching the news every night."

Protesters resist against shotgun-propelled gas canisters.

Later that night, after enjoying some tea and Zapatista coffee at the 26A Anarchist collective in the back-alleys around Istikal Cadessi, Sven and I make our way back towards the port to catch our last bus/boat to take us to our respective residences. During the walk, as we move away from the crowd, I ask him about his head wound.

"I was at an assembly two days ago and there were about thirty of us. The police came in and started shooting real bullets. I'm not an expert so I don't know if they were using air guns (it sounded like it) or real ones, but the bullets were most definitely real. How do I know? I got a piece of shrapnel of it in my head!

He pulls out his phone and shows me a picture of his head wound with a piece of metal barely visible, covered by blood and hair.

"I was very very lucky. The bullet his a column besides me and a piece of shrapnel entered my head, but did not penetrate the skull. A few more millimeters and I would have had brain damage. I was taken to the hospital by some comrades, but I have surgery to take the piece of metal out tomorrow. So, that's the reason why I couldn't meet with you yesterday... Sorry."

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Bolo - Bolo is a literary and publishing agent. I spoke with him in his office in the area of Üsküdar. When asked what his political stance was he avoided saying that he was pro-Akp or that he had any sympathy for Erdogan.

"Well, you see, I believe that the world is controlled by all these secret forces of groups such as the Bilderbergers, the Rockefellers and the Knights Templars. They are the powerful forces that control the major events in and around the world, and there is almost nothing that has a global significance that is not orchestrated by them. Well, look at the manufactured revolution in Syria, and the uprisings in Egypt, they are all manipulations of these elites. The same thing is happening in Turkey. For years they have fomented internal issues to keep us looking inward, having to deal with our internal problems like the Kurdish fight instead of looking outward. Turkey is now becoming a world power, we have been politically stable for years, and we are one of the rising economies of the world. We are uncomfortable to the already established powers, and they want to take us down.

You see, there are many Turkish people in North Africa and it was part of the Ottoman Empire, most people to the east of Turkey are Turkic people, and there are many Turkish people in all of Europe, East and West. If Turkey becomes a powerful country, Turkish people in these countries will have more power and control, even more than the old Ottoman Empire. This is what the elites are worried about. Europe needs Turkey because we are one of the main energy conduits from the oil-producing countries in the east, and we are so spread around the European Union that we are in key places in the economy and have influence on politics.

Besiktas football fans build barricades against the Police armored vehicles.

We like strong men, strong figures, and many Turkish people are highly attracted to a strong leadership figure, hence the success of Erdogan. Not everyone that has voted for him agrees on everything he says, but they all believe that he is the strong leader that the country needs to compete with other countries head to head, and to become a superpower in the region and the world. "

I ask Bolo how this picture reconciles with the policies of appeasement and normalization towards Israel, including the recent rapprochement with the intelligence meetings in June and the friendship with the United States he gives me the following answer:

"Well, for years we have been aware of these 'elites', and we had to be pragmatic and realistic. Israel was someone that we had to keep as a friend, or at least not an enemy, because we had too many problems of our own to deal with them. Since they are supported by the United States and other western powers, and we were involved in our own internal struggles, we could not afford to really deal with Israel. Now that we are becoming a world power and we have enough influence in the area, soon we can start looking at taking Israel head to head and at becoming its main challenger as regional power."

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Mala - Mala is an English teacher at one of Istanbul's private schools. When I spoke with her she was with a colleague of hers, an English teacher from the United Kingdom, teaching at the same institute. Mala took part in the protests when they were in their infancy, and regularly takes part in the student and general assemblies in Kadiköy.

"One of the problems with the protests is that there is no apparent leader, individual o group. Don't get me wrong, it's also one of its best traits, but that means that in Turkey's political climate it will hardly be able to assert itself in the mainstream political arena and achieve institutional change. 

If the Akp gets elected once again, and they are as powerful as they are now, I will leave Turkey. I will have to leave Turkey in order to preserve my way of live and my liberties. They are already trying to regulate alcohol consumption and women wearing the veil in the public sphere. I'm not anti-religious, on the contrary, i am a believer myself. I am simply against the encroachment of religion in the affairs of the state. It is women who are most affected by this, and soon women will also have their own bodies regulated. Already they are trying to make it hard for us to get abortions.

When we occupied the park, the ironic thing is that despite the term 'çapulcu' being attributed to us, it was better run and cleaner than it ever was! We were very careful about not giving the media and the police an excuse to misrepresent us. But it was more than that. The park was symbolic of the struggle, and if the struggle was to be maintained and to be vibrant and educated, and so was the park."