Turkey on the tipping point

This week in Turkey, peaceful demonstrations against the demolition of Istanbul’s Gezi Park rapidly escalated into nationwide protests against the increasingly conservative measures enacted by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The disproportionate dispersion tactics used by the police catalysed an uprising in a population which has grown tired of being ignored and oppressed by the authoritarian mandate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Initially an ecological effort to prevent the demolition of the park in central Istanbul’s historic Taksim Square that intended to make way for the construction of a shopping mall, the demonstration has come to summarise a general discontent at Erdoğan’s polarised politics. Many feel his policies only represent the views of those who voted for him and ignore the remainder of the electorate. The AKP’s direction has recently deviated from its democratic agenda towards a more conservative one which some feel is attempting to impose religious values on a population that prides itself on its secular constitution.

Recent laws passed under Erdoğan include banning kissing in public, restrictions on the sale of alcohol and even the colour of lipstick worn by airline stewardesses. Other more intrusive impositions include prohibiting birth by Caeserian section, which Erdoğan views as “unnatural”, and restricting women’s right to abort.

Many feel Erdoğan’s policies are a step back from the modern secular current set forth as early as the 1920s by the first President of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, including his ardent promotion of gender equality. These sociopolitical tensions come as a product of the division between a conservative Islamic majority and a growing liberal population, which aspires to live in a modern society free from religious indoctrination.

The peaceful demonstrators in Gezi Park were surprised when in the early morning of Friday 31st May, a convoy of riot police armed with tear gas and pepper spray forcefully dispersed the crowds. These actions attracted more people to the park and soon the campsite grew in solidarity against the heavy-handed government response. The police offensive grew as they began dismantling the campsite, while undercover police set tents ablaze. Tear gas canisters were shot into the public, driving them out into the streets where they were met by an assault of water cannons from armoured police vehicles.

While the Turkish mainstream media refused to cover the protests in favour of cooking shows and penguin documentaries, social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter erupted with news from the ground. Tumblr blog occupygezipics.tumblr.com served as a photographic focus on the police brutality that overcame the streets of Istanbul and began to blow across the country. The blog diffused information on remedies against tear gas and provided telephone numbers of doctors and the locations of makeshift infirmaries. It also issued photos of injuries suffered by demonstrators as a result of baton strikes and impacts from tear gas canisters shot at point blank range, which resulted in 10 people losing an eye, and the death of 22-year-old Abdullah Cömert on Monday 3rd June.

Ethem Sarısülük was severely wounded after being shot in the head with a live bullet by a police officer. After days of intensive care, he was confirmed to have suffered brain death as a result of the injury. Police were accused of hiding the identity of the police officer responsible for discharging his firearm at the crowd. Eventually, amateur video footage revealed the identity number on his helmet.

Earlier that day, 20-year-old Mehmet Ayvalıtaş became the first casualty of the conflict after being run over by a civilian car, reportedly driven by an undercover police officer. At the time of going to print one woman remains in a coma after head injuries sustained during the police offensive on the first day of peaceful demonstrations in Gezi Park.

Police have shown no restraint in their attacks, with photographic coverage showing elderly people being hit with batons and a man in wheelchair being blown away with a water cannon. Other instances of unwarranted police aggression were filmed showing officers shooting tear gas into apartments, attacking bystanders who were not involved in the protests and even destroying makeshift infirmaries. Minister of Health, Mehmet Muezzinoglu, declared that the makeshift infirmaries around the protest areas are illegal and that legal action would be taken against the medics working in them, though no explicit mention has been made of any prosecution of the police officers who raided those infirmaries.

Barricades were constructed around Taksim Square to prevent entrance of armoured police trucks wielding water canons and, in several instances, driving directly into crowds. One bus driver used his vehicle as a blockade while a group of protesters rode an excavator against police vehicles.

Around Taksim Square, police placed jammers preventing internet and 3G network connections, to which local residents responded by providing free wireless access. The square became a hub of solidarity as a ‘Wall of Need’ was constructed to gather donations of food and other vital supplies. Homemakers offered food to those in the streets and even to riot police during the calmer moments. On Tuesday, the square burst into music as the so-called Gezi Park Philharmonic united independent and orchestral musicians. Across the country, people began to rebuild the fractured streets that had provided defence munitions the days before.

Erdoğan denounced the protests at a press conference: “There is a problem now called Twitter and you can find every kind of lie there. Social media is the biggest trouble for society right now.” At least 38 people have been arrested for posting tweets he claimed incited anarchy. He dismissed protesters as extremists and looters or “çapulcu”, a term quickly re-appropriated in ironic defiance against the government’s disinformation campaign aimed at devaluing their efforts. Turkey currently holds the highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world, surpassing China and Iran, so it is no wonder there has been very little rebellion from the media. The game show ‘Word Game’ was pulled off air as host Ihsan Varol askedcontestants to guess words such as ‘gas mask’, ‘violence’ and ‘withdrawal’.

Despite the retreat of police forces from Taksim, confrontations continued throughout the country, particularly strongly in the capital, Ankara. Gezi Park has become a festive epicentre of the protest movement with thousands gathering there every day. This relaxation was intended to appease the strong foreign press presence in the city: the police offensive grew ever fiercer in other towns and cities where the local media still refused to cover the events. If anything, violence has continued to escalate, as police has begun using rubber bullets whiletear gas launchers are continually used as firearms, shot directly at people. Additionally, different types of tear gas are being used, such that the remedy for one kind of tear gas aggravated the symptoms of another.

By the night of Thursday 6th June, the number of casualties had risen to four, now including activist Ethem Sarısülük (due to head injuries, in Ankara) and police officer Mustafa Sarı (fallen from a bridge while pursuing protesters, in Adana). More than 4000 people have been injured since last Friday 31st May, and many protesters have been arrested. One girl reported having been beaten while under police custody, as evidenced by photographs she posted on Twitter.

While the deputy prime minister Bulent Arinç apologised for the excessive police response against the initial demonstrators, he spared the sentiment towards those who later joined the protests. Erdoğan assured the excessive police reaction would be investigated, though he justified the use of water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowds. In at least two instances, however, riot police were seen to have covered the identification number on their helmets with stickers.

Returning from a business trip in North Africa, on which he left amidst blazing protests, Erdoğan announced that the planned demolition of Gezi Park would go ahead. Against accusations of his erosion of democracy, he claimed, “for me democracy is all about the ballot box”. President Abdullah Gul disagreed, acknowledging the protester’s freedom to express their views.

On Sunday 9th June, 73 lawyers were arrested while protesting in the Justice Hall. Later that day, in what was revealed to be an elaborate farce by the government, undercover police posing as members of the opposition Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) threw molotov cocktails at police. Suspicions of the event arose after the mainstream media televised the entire event live.

On the morning of Tuesday 11th June, Mayor of Istanbul, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, wrote on Twitter that police would enter Taksim Square to remove barricades and banners from the area, with no intention of dispersing protesters. However, police began by shooting tear gas into the square and eventually into Gezi Park itself. Clashes intensified throughout the day. The following day, Erdoğan announced that Taksim Square would be cleared of all protesters within 24 hours.

In an effort to end the protests, Erdoğan said in a press conference that he would be meeting representatives of the Taksim Solidarity group to hear their demands. However, leaders of this group said they had received no such invitation and had instead heard about the meeting from other sources. Later it was revealed those ‘representatives’ would in fact be famous artists,including actress Hülya Avşar, presenter of the television show Turkey’s Got Talent, who supposedly has not been in Gezi Park since the demonstrations begun. The consensus among demonstrators in the park is that those invited to meet the prime minister are not well suited to represent their views.

Erdoğan has refused to hold early elections, reminding of the fair democratic proceedings which have granted him a decade in office. As with many of the Arabic countries which haverecently seen popular revolts against their governments, the opposition in Turkey remains too fragmented to convincingly contest the established leadership. Indeed, protesters have united not only over political differences, but in demand of basic civil rights such as freedom of the press, respect for individual liberties, restriction of police power and, certainly, respect for Gezi Park as a place of gathering. As long as Erdoğan refuses to listen to the people in Gezi Park and across the country, the public resistance will only grow stronger in its determination to fight for a dignified democracy.