Police is adding some kind of chemical to the water that burns skin.
Turkish union supports protesters
The left-wing Kesk trade union confederation, representing some 240,000 workers, accused the government of committing “state terror”.
(Source: sigma-x)
CS Gas used at May Day 2013, Istanbul
Although described as a non-lethal weapon for crowd control, many studies have raised doubts about this classification. As well as creating severe pulmonary damage, CS can also significantly damage the heart and liver
(Source: Wikipedia)
Arms-Trade Data-Sharing: Riot-Control CS Grenades Used Late Tonight and Early This Morning Against Protestors in Armutlu.
Samples from the United States and Brazil. Details are obvious enough: manufacturers, models, production lot numbers, production dates, etc.
By the author. Just now. Antakya, Turkey.
There are massive protests happening in Turkey right now to overthrow the Islamist government, and this is the front page of CNN.
For updates, you can follow: http://istanbulfreepress.com/ (Some images are quite graphic)
(via otto-obrien)
An iconic picture taken earlier today in Ankara.
Power around the world is having a harder and harder time maintaining social cohesion, while the centrifugal force of globalization and it’s neo-liberal motor, disintegrate cultures and society. Turkey appears to be bursting at the seams. by desperate people eager to have a say in their future.
Self Portrait with Peppers Eggplant and Yogurt
Turkey 2009, photo by tsparks
(Source: Flickr / tsparks)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/03/12/120312fa_fact_filkins?currentPage=all
rtnt:
Turkey’s Deep State
Since Turkey’s secularization in 1923, many have alleged of a “deep state”, a presumed clandestine network of politicians and military officers who conspire to uphold the secular order by any means necessary. For The New Yorker, Dexter Filkins explores whether Prime Minister Erdoğan’s efforts to dismantle the deep state have been sincere, or have been a cover to suppress political opposition.
Friends and colleagues say Erdoğan worried that the deep state would never allow him to govern. But, to the surprise of many, he has pulled Turkey closer to the West, opening up the economy and becoming a crucial go-between for the West with Palestine, Iran, and Syria.
…
But Erdoğan’s rule has another, darker side, which the West seems intent on ignoring: an increasingly harsh campaign to crush domestic opposition. In the past five years, more than seven hundred people have been arrested, including generals, admirals, members of parliament, newspaper editors and other journalists, owners of television networks, directors of charitable organizations, and university officials. Some fifteen per cent of the active admirals and generals in the Turkish armed forces are now on trial for conspiring to overthrow the government.
The people are already struggling to find food, how will you feed the Libyan people? Sanctions, an intervention, would force the Libyan people, who are already up against hunger and violence, into a more desperate situation. We call on the international community to act with conscience, justice, laws and universal humane values not out of oil concerns.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urging the Security Council not to sanction Libya, saying that the international community was showing concern for Libyan oil, not the Libyan people (via thepoliticalnotebook)
(The sanctions against Iraq in the 90’s caused untold damage to the Iraqi people but no damage to Saddam Hussein.) - my comments
(Source: thepoliticalnotebook)
Turkish PM Erdoğan backs Egypt protesters
Erdogan urges Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to “lend an ear to the people’s cries” and herald a new era of reform.
Turkey has finally broken its silence over the Egyptian crisis after major newspapers criticised the government for its inexplicable silence on the issue.
Addressing members of his AKP party in parliament, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, has thrown his weight completely behind the protesters in Egypt.
Erdogan appealed to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president: “You have to listen to the wishes of the people in order to create security and stability. First you must take steps that are good for Egypt. You must take steps that satisfy the people.”
Erdogan said on Tuesday that he was putting off a visit to the Egyptian capital of Cairo next week, but would go once Egypt returns to normal.
Turkey is hailed as the only democratic country in the Muslim world.
‘Reforms needed’
Erdogan called for anti-government protesters to refrain from violence and protect the country’s cultural heritage. “Everyone has the right to fight for freedom, but without violence,” said the Turkish PM.
“You must not forget that the people who oppose you are still human, still your brothers.”
He also talked about political reforms in the Middle East. “Our greatest wish in Egypt and Tunisia is that reforms are implemented as soon as possible, but also that peace and security are established,” said Erdogan.
He also underlined Turkey’s priorities towards supporting democratic cause. He said: “I spoke to president Barack Obama. He found it important to hear Turkey’s view as a democratic country in the region.”
Iran sees ‘Islamic Middle East’
Also supporting Egyptian protesters is the government of Iran.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the Foreign Minister, said Iran will offer its support to the protesters in Egypt.
“On our part we are going along with the freedom seekers of the world and support the uprising of the great nation of Egypt. We sympathise with those injured and killed” in the protests, he said.
Iran said on Tuesday the uprising in Egypt will help create an Islamic Middle East but accused US officials of interfering in the “freedom seeking” movement which has rocked the Arab nation.
Salehi, who was officially endorsed by the Iranian parliament on Sunday as foreign minister, said the uprising in Egypt “showed the need for a change in the region and the end of unpopular regimes.”
“The people of Tunisia and Egypt prove that the time of controlling regimes by world arrogance (the West) has ended and people are trying to have their own self-determination,” said Salehi, who also oversees Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
A Chef in Istanbul
AUDIO SLIDE SHOWA Chef in Istanbul
APRIL 19, 2010
This week in the magazine, Elif Batuman writes about the Turkish chef Musa Dağdeviren and his restaurant Çiya Sofrasi. “Tapping into a powerful vein of collective food memory, Çiya was producing the kind of Turkish cuisine that Turkey itself, racing toward the West and the future, seemed to have abandoned,” Batuman writes. Here she describes her reaction to Dağdeviren’s dishes and her memories of her Turkish family. Photographs by Carolyn Drake.
