Well, it's been over 6 months since my last post and, if I'm honest, I had no intention of cranking this baby up again until I was in Oz...but then life over here started getting too interesting to use the 'I'm too busy' excuse. After a day talking to colleagues and friends, I have been shocked out of 'polite distancing' and into action.
Having checked the BBC regularly over the last 48 hours, I know that most people in the UK (and pretty much any other country in which I know people) will be aware that Turkey is experiencing some turbulence at the moment. As my Turkish is limited (to say the least!), this had been my only major source of information over the weekend. It wasn't until meeting up with colleagues today that I began to realise how under-reported events in Turkey have been. Being a sensible ex-pat, I have stayed away from the protests in the centre of Ankara - not because I didn't agree with the protestors ideals but because I am an alien in this country and, therefore, in a delicate position in as far as getting on the wrong side of the law. Quite apart from anything else, my lack of Turkish would have left me particularly vulnerable if I had strayed into the hands of the authorities.
What has become clear to me today, is that the regime here in Turkey is considerably more authoritarian than I (and perhaps many others) had realised. Although the Prime Minister is undeniably autocratic, I had been fooled into seeing this as the mark of someone with a clear vision (however misguided) of how to improve his country, and the chutzpah and wherewithal to achieve his goals. The economic reforms of the past decade are a testament to his ability to 'get the job done'. However, in light of recent events, it is obvious that his mask of respectability is exactly that: a mask.
I have been shocked today to find that the majority of Turks that I know are scared and intimidated by the police. It seems that they are able to act with impunity, regardless of the consequences of their actions - and with the full condonation of the authorities. Many people will have seen images and video footage from Istanbul showing the excessive force used by the police there to deal with mainly peaceful protestors. The authorities here may argue that they were acting in the interests of the wider public for any number of reasons...but it is a basic human right to peacefully protest and, regardless of what happened later on, nobody can claim that the original protestors at Gezi Park were anything other than peaceful environmentalists, protesting at the destruction of one of the last open spaces in central Istanbul.
What I can't fathom is how the authorities can justify the widespread use of teargas, water cannons, plastic bullets and batons against the groups of sympathising protestors in Ankara and elsewhere. Many colleagues (mostly Turks, but other nationalities too) have related first-hand accounts of unnecessary force being used. Some are personally acquainted with individuals who have received concussions, head wounds, eye injuries and even permanent blinding due to the firing of tear-gas canisters at point-blank range. Many innocent bystanders, including children and pensioners have been indiscriminately blanketed with tear-gas, beaten and arrested for daring to voice their disapproval of the government. Let us be quite clear here: this is not the self-interested lawlessness of the UK-riots of two years ago. The protestors here are from all age-groups, all social classes, all walks of life, making the simple point that 'This is not how we want you to run our country'. And yet the police have sent tanks against them... In our comfortable little 'civilised' world, does this even seem real?
The actions of the police here over the weekend have served to confirm suspicions that they are simply political attack-dogs, sent in by the authorities to deal with those who dare to publicly question the ruling party. Over recent months, many new laws and reforms have been subtly or swiftly introduced that are starting to limit the ability of everyday Turkish citizens to express themselves freely. While the police brutality in Istanbul was the catalyst, make no mistake that a group of politically-motivated opportunists were simply looking for an excuse for a brawl (this claim has been made by the government); there have been growing rumblings of discontent over quite some time...and it would seem that fear of retribution from the instruments of the 'law' is one of many reasons that people have not voiced their disquiet so openly until now. Corruption and back-handers are rife here, with major contracts for public works and buildings mysteriously ending up in the hands of personal friends and family of senior politicians. While corruption is not absent from politics in Britain, it doesn't have the sinister face of cops in riot-gear (with industrial tear-gas sprayers) waiting to snuff out any complaints.
There have been positives in the situation - seeing the solidarity between liberal Turks of all shapes and sizes has been heart-warming. On Saturday night, citizens in my local area showed their support for the protestors by banging pots and pans, flicking their light switches on and off and (the old Turkish favourite) beeping their horns. At first, before I realised what was going on, the solitary old lady banging her pan across the road was going to get an earful of British vernacular. But then others started to join in; vague distant chants became more audible; and a growing cacophony of dissenting noise brought me to the conclusion that the protests had spread far beyond the student districts and out into the 'respectable' suburbs of Ankara.
Tonight is set to be the largest protest yet - with thousands of students marching on the city centre from the out-of-town university campuses. The reason that the protests are growing is because Prime Minister Erdogan refuses to back down and is in fact making incendiary comments like a teenage child, desperate to get his own way and have the last word. The Turkish people have griped and moaned in private about his sweeping Islamist reforms. But police brutality and his smug, defiant autocracy have finally spurred this lumbering beast out of its torpor. If the Prime Minister continues to assume his air of untouchability and continues to allow his pitbulls off the leash, I think he might create a major problem for himself. The Turkish nation was founded in defiance, within the parameters of secularism and independence by the heroic figure of Ataturk - still revered by many Turks today. Erdogan threatens his memory and the institutions that he created at his peril. What this will mean for Turkey remains to be seen.
