For Hrant.

Sezen Aksu – Guvercin

Today, January 19th 2010, it has been 3 years that Hrant Dink was brutally murdered. He was assassinated after years of being threatened, being ridiculed and hated upon. This was brought upon by nationalist, racist and fascist people, government and law. Till now only 5 people are under prosecution but there hasn’t been a verdict yet. It also seems clear that not only those 5 people are responsible for the murder of Hrant Dink.

Many more persons and even institutions inside the Turkish Republic are as such responsible. First and foremost for not protecting Hrant Dink for his right of freedom of speech and as one of the biggest fighters for Democracy in this country. But also for making it possible that there was a flood of hate against the man that only had the best in sight for a country that also he considered his home although he was from Armenian-Turkish descendant and therefor the victim of much racism. They are also responsible for hindering justice for the culprits behind the murder are still protected by those people and institutions and even are part of those very institutions that would make up this pretense of a democracy.

Thousands have stood, listening to friends and family of Hrant, this morning on the place where he fell. Thousands have walked Istiklal to ask for justice this evening. As they have done for several moments during these past 3 years. But still the culprits of the murder. The murder of the pretense of democracy. Are not even punished. They are being protected by whatever state calls itself a democracy. A democracy that can not even provide justice in a murder-case where evidence is very clear. Very clear that this Republic is rotten. Rotten by hatred. Rotten by the murder of innocents.

It is time that this passes. That this is cleaned up. That justice prevails. That democracy shines its light upon this country and that the hatred can be shot instead of those who want to bring peace and understanding. For Hrant. Because we’re all Hrant in this country. We’re all oppressed. We’re all Armenian.

Martin Luther King

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Politics in Turkey

Politics in Turkey is very different that I’m used to in Belgium or even Western Europe. And if for one thing being active in a European Political Federation is that is very informative about the sense of politics. Politics as in political parties. Politics as in a parliamentary democracy. Politics between right- and left-wing policies.

And in those things politics in Turkey is very different. In every sense.

It might be very strange to understand for anybody who is used to any kind of Western European kind of politics but it is so. I only hope that by writing this down I don’t seem too much like a spoiled Western European brat who knows things so much better. A kinder manner of neo-imperialism.

But things in Turkey are very different indeed. For one there seems to be no such thing as a difference between political parties. All of them seem to be very nationalistic minded, militaristic and conservative. There seems to be no such thing as a difference as in conservatives, liberals, socialists and progressives.
If there’s any difference then that should be that between black and white. There is no such thing as a grey area of politics. You’re either in favor or against. No middle way at all. And in such extremist surroundings it doesn’t even make sense to be grey. Not at all. No sense at all. Because that only confuses. And confusion in the field of politics, or for whatever else that matters is just not done in Turkish society.

This black or white thinking also makes it impossible to ever think about a parliamentary democracy. The closure of any Kurdish party (the only worthy opposition party possible) has shown this. Seven Kurdish parties have been closed down this way. Because they were against a majority thinking Because they were against a Turkish nationalistic approach. Because they defended a minority (maybe only the biggest minority in the Turkish Republic, but still). And this is unsettling in what should be considered a democracy. This is actually not even worth to be called a democracy when parties that stand up for minority rights are abolished just because of that. And all other reasons given are just crap.

Also the complete lack of something that could be considered a a left-wing party in the Turkish Republic is completely strange. Because no matter how progressive a party may seem here, it is always overshadowed by nationalism, by militarism or by clear racism. There is as such no such thing as critical thinking. And that is something that is needed to be left-wing, to be progressive. To be able to change.

And therefor I fear that this way of politics, that has drowned society, or that is maybe a result of the societies wishes, maybe never really ready for democracy. Or even the illusion of democracy. Because democracy as such takes courage to think differently. To be in acceptance of minimal change.

Tears For Heaven

Many bitter tears I’ve shed tonight. Much shit has been spilled tonight. And it has been good. For the first time in a very long time – and maybe for the first time I’ve felt like myself. Myself. And that’s a bloody hard thing for me.

I’ve come a very fucking long way. I’ve moved here to Istanbul with the illusion to find myself. With the pretext that in Belgium I couldn’t find myself. Drawn back from reality. Far and far away from anything that felt even remotely real. Not even close to be myself. Not in identity. Not in Thinking. Not in feeling. Thinking it was the Western European Way of things. That that was what I couldn’t feel. But here. Where I built this illusion to be close to what i really am i can’t even get close to anything. I’m even further away from finding myself.

And that realization that everybody. Every fucking body here in Turkey is so fucking far away from their own identity. From their own feelings. That that coldness. That that embodiment of being closed down is everywhere. That is killing me.

After all these years of feeling excluded. Of feeling left out. Of thinking of differences I finally wanted to come home. To feel a part of something. But apparently even that seems impossible. There will always be a non)belonging. That’s for sure. As it i impossible to live in 2 worlds. There’s only 1 world. And I don’t belong. I don’t feel it. Therefor I shouldn’t be. Just not be.

Murathan ’95

Karanlik odada üç gölge;
Ikili ilişkileri kuramayan insanlar,
üçlü ilişkileri deniyorlar.

Rumi

Listen oh listen to my plaintive cry
Listen to my my longing or else I die
From the sweet home of my bed I was torn
So my pain and crucial longing was born.

With so many secrets I sing aloud
But none sees nor hears in this crowd
Oh for a friend to know my burning state
That our souls may mingle and contemplate.

The flame of Love discourses in me
The wine of Love so enforces me.
Do you wish to know the fire, the flow
Listen my listener then you shall know.

Mathnavi 1.1

Politics and Love in Turkey

This is something strange. It’s something I’m not sure I understand nor if I want to understand. It’s something so deeply rooted it’s even quite worrying. And it even might be fucked up. But at the same time it might just be me reacting on the cultural chock I’m living through since moving to Istanbul.

In Turkish society even the people calling themselves a-political are very much political. Everybody has an opinion on what is happening. Everybody. No exception possible. It either be a nationalistic (many), either anarchistic (very few) or leftish (very few as well). It’s incredible as people are opinionated. To the very extreme. It’s either you’re in favor or you’re against something and with that that very person who stand for those idea’s. It’s very much black or white. There seems no existence of the color gray. No fucking way.

And people are not afraid to come out and talk about their opinions. About their ideology. Not afraid at all. There’s so much openness about it it might be impossible to comprehend. But it seems that this goes hand in hand with the polarization between ideologies. Between black and white.

This makes it very strange that in a different part of people all is hidden. The part that isn’t politics but is our personal emotional behavior. And when I write hidden I actually mean Hidden. Completely covered up. Non accessible. Not at all.

It’s like people are too afraid to describe, to even talk or think about what is going on inside them. What they are feeling. What they are experiencing. That is something that is not in accordance with that crazy openness about everything that is political.

It makes one wonder how complete this society or even an individual is when there’s only polarization on the political level of life and there is no talk of what is going on in our heart. Can this then really be a society where respect and love is present? When there’s so little of that respect and love for each other actually shown between individuals? Or maybe it’s all about politics here. Nothing about love. Nothing about the heart.

You say Peace, I say Hope

Last week the Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers signed 2 protocols in Switzerland. Two historical protocols I might add. The protocols include the willingness of the 2 countries to 1) establish again diplomatic connections 2) opening the borders and establishing a committee to research the history between the 2 countries. This is as such a huge step set on the road to peace between the republics of Turkey and Armenia. Therefor it is understandable and very much a positive sign that so many people both in Turkey and Armenia are over the moon with this.  It is as such something historically important in the sight of peace. But nonetheless there’s much more work to be done. Work that the Armenian and Turkish republics and their citizens might not be ready to undertake.

The fact that the Armenian Government is under attack by both the opposition in their own country and the Armenian Diaspora all around the world for not being able to let the Turkish republic recognize the Armenian Genocide is a huge strain on this peace process. And of course the fact that the Turkish republic still refuses to recognize anything in relation to the Armenian genocide is more that a strain, it is simply a reluctance to act responsibly towards its past. What this will give in the committee that will be established to research the history between Armenia and Turkey. Nobody knows. There’s only hope for this matter to be resolved

One can also hope that this committee will look into the ‘Turkification’ of many Armenian children during and after the Genocide. This as an undisclosed amount of citizens of today Turkish Republic have been raised under the impression of having the Turkish ethnicity whilst actually their parents or their grandparents were taken from Armenian families and brought up in orphanages or by Turkish families  to make them Turkic. Their whole culture and ethnicity was cleared only because that was for the greater good of Turkish Nationalism. These people deserve their past and their culture. Even tough many are still unknown to these historical facts.

As far as the recognizing the mutual affecting past of Armenia and Turkey one doesn’t even have to look for separating issues from over a century ago. One can also just look at the history of only a decade ago; the Armenian and Azerbaijani conflict. There it is clear that the 3 countries have acted from a very etno-centric  point of view. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan, under the false impression of sharing the Turkic ethnicity and speaking a similar language, have acted in such a racist and irrational manner towards Armenia that peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia is far from actual reality. This whilst both Turkey and Azerbaijan have an ethnic diversity witch both countries till this day still deny.

This always returning nationalism and etno-centrism is something that puts the peace process in a different light. Or rather in the shadow. And this is truly harming it. It is only a matter of time before this etno-centric and nationalistic again come to the surface and blocks this hope for peace so many carry. And what will happen then? Hope that is scattered? Where will that bring us?

IMF defol

On the 6th and 7th of October the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had their annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. They discussed changes to be made in the structures and priorities in their core being. Something that was also discussed during the G20 summit held earlier in Pittsburgh, USA.
Whilst so-called world and financial leaders were gathering in the Congress Valley thousands were marching and protesting against them.
Ironically just as Turkeys Prime Minister opened the IMF’s and WB’s meeting addressing change and stating that this new world order also had to listen to the protesters outside his police forces gassed the non-violent and peaceful protest with tear gas.
It was clearly a contradiction between acts and words by a neo-liberal and neo-conservative prime minister trying to shatter every bit of leftish and progressive politics that was left in the nation state that is the Turkish Republic.

But worse than this contradiction is the complete and utter manipulation of the media that was followed after the severe attack on protesters and innocent people on the 6th of October on Taksim Square. The media was sold the story that the police only gassed the protesters on Taksim Square after they provoked the police and ‘leftish groups’ or ‘ civil society groups’ started throwing molotov cocktails. Witch was a complete lie.

It is true that groups of protesters were in a something that resembled a guerilla war with the police. But this only happened after the attack of the police on Taksim Square. Nobody of the protesters on the square was expecting such a brutal attack by the police. We were barely recovering from the happiness of being on Taksim Square, since after the riots of 1979 no political or activist group was allowed to protest on the square itself. And then it happened.
It was clear that the police waited till all the protesters groups arrived on Taksim Square to throw Tear gas bombs into the people. This was so shocking that some protesters have indeed reacted in a violent manner by throwing molotov cocktails and trying to destroy the banks that were located in the main shopping street of Istanbul, Istiklal. But remaining non-violent was not helped by the word on the street that right wing groups were hunting down protesters who fled Taksim after the tear gas attack nor the brutal and violent behavior of the police by randomly arresting and beating people in the streets surrounding Taksim and Istiklal. For hours that area resembled a war zone with activist fleeing, the police shooting tear gas and then beating the people they came across as every person on the streets was perceived as an activist.

Brutal force and violence was executed by both the police and the right wing groups who came to help the police. And this was only the first day. The second day of the IMF and WB meeting things were not better. Protests were provoked and activist were intimidated. With the outcome that again in certain parts of Istanbul riots broke loose. The protests that remained non-violent were under great stress from the police forces as no effort was spared to try and get them to act violent as well.

It is pure irony that as such the real criminals of this world, the cause of todays economical and ecological crisis were inside the Congress Valley, protected by the police force. This whilst they who were protesting the imperial policies of the IMF and WB, the suffering they have caused in the Global South, the adaptation to a global capitalist economy of countries that didn’t need it in the first place, was battered in such a manner. It is also a clear example of how this supposedly New World Order wants to continue. They want to continue on the path of richness for few and poverty for many forgetting any kind of humanity and even the Millennium Goals they themselves signed not so many years ago. I’ve only got one word for this; hypocrisy.

And that’s just what it is. Hypocrisy. The IMF and the WB want to be perceived as democratic entities that do good for the global community and countries that struggle with their economies. But in reality they are just a means for oppression. By the hands of neo-liberal economy. But also by taking away participation, ignoring civil society, oppressing different voices, etc..
It’s the economy stupid. For wealth and well being of few.

Resistanbul 06.10.09

Nuts! That’s the only word I have to describe this day.
What started out as a very pleasant day. Accompanied by a great samba band the group of direnistanbul marched from Tünel square over Istiklal to Taksim square. The march in itself was very amusing as we sang songs, danced and had a great time. Till we came on Taksim Square.

We expected large police barricades preventing us to enter Taksim square. But the square was completely free to enter. Many groups had already entered the square and were listening to speeches of unions. The moment we, the direnistanbul group, entered the square we were the last to enter.
And hell broke loose. The police sealed the square off whilst not only activists were on the square but also normal citizens who expected nothing of such kind. There was even traffic still circulating.

Teargas coming from everywhere and going everywhere. It was the most terrifying moment in my life. Complete chaos. People running without seeing where. People panicking as they couldn’t breath. For a moment I was quite sure i was gonna die. The first time i’ve ever encountered a gas attack. Brutal. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t breath. My lungs were on fire. My nose was burning. My skin was fired up. I was in pain. Terrible pain. I lost my friends. I felt lost. People were stumbling over me. Panic. The mere thought that this could happen to a non-violent protest was a shock. And i’m still in shock.

In this shock i stumbled off the square as soon as the massive gas cloud was blown away by the wind and my eyesight minimally returned. I called friends as I felt lost and the police was charging in on the activists.
The sight was terrible. People in pain everywhere. And the feeling was pain as well.

Finally we managed to regroup with some friends and made a run for it. We ran for safety. We ran away from more teargas and violent police that was charging with their sticks and guns. After taking many detours and scary moments we arrived to safety in the Green House.

For hours after the attack on Taksim the whole neighborhood looked like a warzone. Police charging everywhere. Teargas everywhere. The black block anarchist were fighting back. Citizens who didn’t even know what the IMF was got trapped in between. In clouds of teargas. Horrible sightings. Horrible.

News was coming in from everywhere. Twitter was on fire. Text messages kept coming. Phone calls followed. Tanks were suddenly appearing. News of arrests. News of extreme right groups in search of activists to beat up. Police that was beating bystanders taking pictures. A war going on Istiklal. Friends getting arrested.
And that vicious smell of teargas everywhere. Nuts.

The few times I left the Green House to see what was happening left me in a bigger shock. All the news was true. There was violence everywhere. The police state was a reality. Freedom of thought and voicing of an opinion was not permitted. Freaky. Scary.

This is not even close to what could resemble a democracy. This was pure injustice. And out and about. No boundaries. Pure violence. Pure oppression.

I’m not sure if i’ll ever get out this shock. I’m still trembling. My stomach hurts. My skin still burns. My head hurts. My bruises ache. My eyes are swollen. And this hours and hours after the attack.
I’m trashed. Shattered even.