Message from David Barchard summarizing yesterday ...
Begin forwarded message: > From: David Barchard <[email protected]> > Subject: The Eleventh Day > Date: June 7, 2013 10:11:19 PM GMT+03:00 > To: undisclosed-recipients:; > Bcc: [email protected] > > > Day 11 of the Gezi Park Demonstrations passed peacefully in Istanbul with few > signs that moves to disperse are imminent. > > A British blogger in Istanbul writes a little ecstatically: > > “I have never seen anywhere radiate so much bonhomie and fellow feeling. On > the (policed) streets of every city in the world, theft and harassment exist > in varying degrees. In Taksim Square and Gezi Park, there is none. Everyone > is in a wonderful mood, having the time of their lives, sharing everything > from books to fried meatballs to musical instruments, and the longer they > remain there, the more they will resent being made to give it up. > > “ It sounds corny, but this honestly feels like a utopia, mainly because > people want it to be. The combined happiness of these people has taken on a > hive-like buzz, and has characterised an area which was, until recently, ugly > and forbidding with bulldozers and craters. The atmosphere is infectious and > uplifting. It is thrilling to walk around a place where people are dressed up > in carnival gear and wigs 24/7, for no reason at all except that Taksim has > been saved, Tayyip is on the run and it is Party Time.” > > Harun Tekin, pop musician and environmental campaigner, wrote in what > must be the worst tweet of the day in Turkish that the people in Taksim > Square were “cheerful as hobbits, fine as elves, and as brilliant-white as > Gandalf.” There seem to be no limits to the aesthetic damage being done by > globalization. Meanwhile Turkish Greenpeace triumphantly offers > demonstrators snacks cooked by solar energy. > > Meanwhile two Kurdish MPs from the Peace and Democracy Party visited > Gezi Park and relayed a message from the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah > Öcalan. He warned the crowds that the “Ergenekonists” (alleged Kemalist > secret conspirators against the AKP) should not be allowed to take over the > movement. This sounded like definite support for Mr Erdoğan, who is in the > midst of negotiating a settlement with the PKK. > > > In Ankara much of the Tunus Caddesi area of Kavaklıdere is also full > of protestors and tents are said to be going up in Kuğulu Park—if there is > room. [Photo attached] Some of the Ankara demonstrators claim that they have > taken the lead from Istanbul – but if they have, it has had little impact > because the international media have ignored them almost completely. However > it seemed that all across Turkey, for the first day for a week, there were no > clashes between police and demonstrators in any large city.However the public > made its continuing dissatisfaction known at 9 p.m. when households flashed > their lights on and off and banged pots and pans in protest—a tradition which > stretches back to the 1990s in Turkey but to date seems to have notched up > not a single success. > > But everyone knows that the Taksim party must come to an end sooner or later. > The governor of Istanbul, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, its chief of police, Hüseyin > Çapkın, and the city’s chief prosecutor, Turan Çolakkadı, held a three > hour-long crisis meeting today. Afterwards no statement was made but > journalists’ sources disclosed that there would be “no intervention before > Monday”. This was a relief to demonstrators in the Square among whom there > was a rumour circulating that a police operation might begin today after the > prime minister’s speech to an international conference ended. The > demonstrators countered the chants of the prime minister’s supports at the > airport to be allowed to march on Taksim with their own chant—“Let them come > to us and we will show them humanity.” > > The police also denied that Turkey’s premier hacking group, the mysterious > ‘Red Hack’ had broken into their computer system, following a similar assault > on the prime ministry computer system a day earlier which apparently caused > it to go offline for several hours. > > Just under a kilometer from Taksim Square, at a conference in the > auditorium of the Swissotel, Enlargement Commissioner Stephen Fule and the > Turkish prime minister engaged in delicate indirect exchanges about the form > that the ‘intervention” to restore law and order might take. Mr Fule, who as > Commissioner has been a good deal more forthright on press freedom and human > rights violations in Turkey than some of his predecessors, denounced the > excessive violence of the police last week, noted that there had been a > government apology (though this was apparently taken back by the prime > minister in his speech on arriving at Ankara airport), but said there must be > a “swift and transparent inquiry. ” Some of his listeners detected a threat > hanging in the air that if the demonstrations were put down violently, this > could be the end for Turkey’s semi-moribund EU application process. > > Mr Erdoğan replied in much quieter tones than his airport speech > twelve hours before, but his message equally uncompromising, though he did > indicate that the Taksim shopping mall might not go ahead after all. However > he still seems to think that sinister forces, including foreigners and the > ‘interest rate lobby’ are the cause of the problem. The demonstrators were on > the brink of illegality, he appealed to them to leave. He indicated that he > would be prepared for violent clashes if necessary by saying that such > clashes had taken place in several EU countries over the years, including > Greece and Britain, and that in the OccupyWallStreet riots, twelve people had > been killed. This triggered an instant tweet in response from the US Embassy > in Ankara pointing out that in fact there had been no such deaths. The prime > minister’s remarks were taken as a criticism of Britain (widely held by > government supporters to be behind the demonstrations) despite the continuing > silence from William Hague and the Foreign Office on recent events in Turkey. > Mrs Merkel, the German Chancellor however, did speak out today. She called on > Turkey to allow normal freedoms to demonstrators. > > The Stock Market was unexpectedly encouraged by the contents of the > prime minister’s speech and rallied after its sharp falls on Thursday, > closing at 3% higher on the day. Nonetheless Turkey could face a summer of > economic difficult. Emre Deliveli, Turkey’s leading economic commentator, > warned that the demonstrations have come at a time when the economy was > already under pressure. The trouble could not have come at a more awkward > time as far as foreign currency earnings from tourism are concerned – and > investors in Turkey who thought that they did not have to worry about > political instability will now have to price it back into their calculations. > > Deliveli writes in his column today that “the next few months will be > anything but rosy because political stability, which had been priced into > Turkish assets, is not a given anymore. Turks did not rise against a mall; > they were simply fed up with the authoritarianism taking the form of alcohol > bans, police brutality and the like. And so even if things calm down, I would > not be surprised to see similar protests the next time the government tries > to enforce its will on the people.” > > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]
