Veli Sirin
September 19, 2013
Mass protests against police abuses have resumed in the Turkish city
of Istanbul, as well as in Ankara, the national capital, and in Antakya
province on the Syrian border.
The latest country-wide demonstrations began after the death on September 10 of Ahmet Atakan, a male aged 22, in Antakya.
Atakan was an Alevi Muslim, belonging to a Turkish and Kurdish
heterodox sect that fuses Shia Islam, metaphysical Sufism, and
pre-Islamic Central Asian shamanism. Alevis make up about 20 million
people, or a quarter of Turkey's population of 80 million, along with
approximately two million Alevis in the Turkish diaspora in Western
Europe.
Atakan died when he was struck by a police gas canister, according to
opposition sources, or, in official accounts, fell from a building. The
tragedy occurred during a march of about 150 young people against road
construction that would uproot trees, damaging the environment on the
grounds of the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara. Alevis in
Ankara also expressed discontent at official plans to construct a
multi-use "cultural center" including a Sunni mosque and – as Alevis do
not pray in mosques – an Alevi cemevi, or "ritual house."
After Atakan's death, thousands of people chanting his name gathered
in Istanbul, Ankara, and Antakya. Although the demonstrators were
peaceful, they were assaulted by police. Mobilizations in response to
repression have continued daily.
In Istanbul, on Istiklal Caddesi, or Independence Avenue, a central
shopping and café boulevard, police have repeatedly fired countless
tear-gas rounds, pepper spray, and plastic missiles at bystanders and
protestors, who replied with fireworks.
The latest turmoil has been interpreted as a renewed push against
authoritarian tendencies in the "light-Islamist" government of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and
Development Party, known by its Turkish initials as the "AKP."
During the latest upheaval, police used water cannon and tear gas
against marchers in the Kadikoy neighborhood on the Asian side of the
Bosporus, the strait dividing Istanbul. But skirmishes between angry
citizens and police were observed across the city.
On September 16, according to the liberal Arab television network Al
Arabiya, a public concert had been held in the Kadikoy district under
the slogan, "Justice, Freedom and Peace." The concert was sponsored by
the Taksim Solidarity Movement, commemorating the civic challenge to
Erdogan's power in June, while displaying portraits of six murdered
demonstrators, and of one police officer who was killed at the time.
The victims, including the latest, Ahmet Atakan, were Abdullah Comert
(22), Ali Ismail Korkmaz (19), Ethem Sarisuluk (26), Mehmet Ayvalotas
(20) and Medeni Yildirim (18). The police officer, Mustafa Sari, fell
to his death from a bridge while chasing demonstrators in the town of
Adana.
At the concert, the audience was surrounded by police, and all
participants were required to undergo body searches. The Kadikoy event
ended with a dozen arrests, as police pursued members of the crowd into
the side-streets.
Poorly-informed foreign media and AKP politicians have tried to
"internationalize" the latest Turkish ferment. Some have claimed that
Alevi Muslims came into the streets in support of the "Alawite"
dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad in neighboring Syria. Yet the libelous
claim that the Turkish-Kurdish Alevis and Syrian "Alawites" are similar
or allied has been refuted decisively by serious scholars.
For his part, Erdogan, based on charges against the Turkish police,
has accused the European Union of a campaign against Turkey. The
Turkish Minister for Relations with the EU, Egeman Bagis, has dismissed
these concerns as "everyday problems." Bagis insists, "Turkey is on the
way into the EU – this is our clear aim."
Professor Cengiz Aktar of Bahcesehir University in Istanbul has
warned that, because of the anti-Erdogan protests last June and the
brutal reaction of the police to them, Turkey and the EU are now more at
odds than ever. Delay by Germany and other major EU countries in
negotiating Turkish accession to the EU may be interpreted by an element
of Turkish opinion as punishing the Turkish democracy movement and
civil society out of disgust with the AKP. The underlying reason for
Europe's coolness toward Turkish accession is clearly anxiety over a
demographic shift that, with Turkish entry, would make the EU a
majority-Muslim body. But Erdogan's behavior has aggravated the sense
of alienation.
According to Professor Aktar, the Turkish democracy movement upholds
environmental protection, free expression, and a liberal society. Its
message, he says, is clear: "We are like you. We are Europeans."
But the crisis in relations with Europe may be blamed equally on
Turkey, which had gravitated away from the EU during the AKP reign, and
turned, instead, to Islamist politics in the style of the Muslim
Brotherhood. Since the June clashes, a deep split in Turkish society is
visible: Both secular Turks and religious Muslim AKP voters see their
lifestyles threatened and their freedoms stolen.
Erdogan and the AKP have become increasingly more autocratic, and the
minority that opposes him is a major irritant even when its goal was
merely to protect one small city green area, Gezi Park, in Istanbul.
That set off the June "uprising." But it was only a symptom. At its
base, the Turkish confrontation involves social, political, and cultural
differences that cannot be concealed by the AKP, which, in recent
years, engages in constant propaganda about its successful economic
performance.
Meanwhile, the Islamist movement of Fethullah Gulen has distanced
itself from Erdogan's ambitions, which may erode or even atomize
Islamist politics in Turkey. Above all, as long as its people, whether
secular or religiously conservative, cannot enjoy peace and freedom in
their own country, Turkey has no future in the European Union.
Censorship of the media, arbitrary application of judicial power, and
excessive police action – all characteristics of Erdogan's incumbency –
are purely and simply incompatible with European values.
If Turkey changes its laws and their use in a decisive manner,
relations with Europe may improve. An impartial legal system, tolerance
of dissent, and free expression must be made stable and respected.
More AKP electoral victories – with a new presidential balloting
scheduled for 2014 – will not serve to conceal the dissatisfaction of
the Turkish populace.
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