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Istanbul's police violence is no surprise to Turkey's minority groups
SEMRA SEVI
The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/istanbuls-police-violence-is-no-surprise-to-turkeys-minority-groups/article12986317/
Published Thursday, Jul. 04 2013, 12:23 PM EDT
`Now do you understand what we have gone through?' That's what Kurds
and Alevis say to the protesters who have convulsed Turkey since May
31. Kurds are Turkey's largest minority, and Turkey has long had a
policy of assimilating them. Alevis are a nominally Shiite religious
minority whose distinct identity and largely non-religious culture has
placed them at odds with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's devout
Sunnis. Both groups have been persecuted throughout Turkish history,
and in modern times Turkey has all but denied their existence,
outlawing the Kurdish language and Alevi organizations and pursuing,
until very recently, a policy of forced assimilation.
MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY
CLAIRE BERLINSKI Tear gas is a symptom of Turkey's weak democracy
LYSIANE GAGNON In Istanbul, you could see the culture clash coming
DOUG SAUNDERS A new Middle East can be seen through the teargas of Istanbul
VIDEO
Video: The sound of silence in Turkey
VIDEO
Video: Syrian protesters show support for Turkey demonstrations
VIDEO
Video: Dramatic bus crash in Turkey caught-on-tape
The result of this has often led to violent confrontations: the kind
of violent police repression we have seen in Istanbul for the past
month has been happening in Turkey's southeastern provinces for
decades, but Turks have often been unaware of these events.
The recent wave of protests, which began after a violent clearing of a
sit-in in Istanbul's Gezi Park, has underlined divisions in an already
polarized society. Mr. Erdogan cracked down brutally on protesters who
objected to a plan to close the park and replace it with a shopping
centre. Since then, matters have spiralled out of control. Police
violence, excessive use of tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets, and
the arbitrary detention of protesters, journalists, lawyers and
doctors are symptomatic of the shortcomings of Turkish democracy. But
tensions between these protesters and the Justice and Development
Party, AKP, has made the wider Turkish population acutely aware of the
sort of police and military mistreatment that has long been
experienced by Kurds, Alevis and other minority groups. Many of these
groups are now backing the protests, and this means that a wider group
than may be visible in Taksim are now organizing against the excesses
of this government.
The government's response to these protests is nothing new. But for
the first time excessive brutality is happening in the centre of
Istanbul in the age of Twitter and Facebook and in full view of the
population at large. Despite the government's intentions to keep its
people ignorant they are now becoming aware of the Turkish
government's dark side.
Mr. Erdogan's government has made every effort to cover up the nature
and scale of the recent protests. This has taken the form of
self-censoring by cowed state media outlets such as CNN Turk, which
showed a documentary on penguins when the protests broke out. The
government has gone further and blamed the BBC for being part of an
international conspiracy to prevent Turkey's rise.
The prime minister has used strong words like `looters' and
`terrorists' to describe the protesters and repeatedly bent the truth
to discredit them. In order to foment the ire of religious Turks, Mr.
Erdogan has repeatedly claimed that protesters drank liquor in a
mosque when in fact the local imam had already denied these claims as
the mosque had been turned into an infirmary in the early days of the
clashes.
Kurds who have been the subject to ongoing oppression look at all of
this and remark how confidently Mr. Erdogan used the word `terrorist'
to describe peaceful protesters exercising their democratic rights.
Kurds observing the brutality of Mr. Erdogan's recent crackdown have
every right to demand sympathy for what they themselves have endured.
Recently, police fired at protesters in Lice, a Kurdish-dominated
district in the southeast, for protesting against the construction of
a new gendarmerie outpost. Kurds note that while protesters in western
Turkey are subject to teargas and rubber bullets, they are often shot
at with real bullets.
While Kurds are very critical of the government's handling of the
protests, they haven't been out on the streets in full force as they
are engaged in a peace process with Mr. Erdogan's government and do
not want to disrupt it.
But the Alevis, on the other hand, Turkey's largest religious
minority, are very much involved in the protests. Alevis have felt
alienated by the increasingly sectarian nature of the ruling Peace and
Justice Party's domestic and foreign policy. Their demands for
religious equality including recognition of their houses of worship,
called cemevis, have always been denied. Car bombings in Reyhanli, a
town close to the Syrian border where Alevis reside, on May 11 have
attracted great controversy because there was a court-enforced media
ban immediately after the attack and journalists who tried to cover it
were detained.
On May 29, the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, the
third bridge over the Bosphorus (currently under construction in
Istanbul) was named after Yavuz Sultan Selim. This was the last straw
for Alevis: Sultan Selim, who reigned in the early sixteenth century,
is infamous for having persecuted and murdered more than 40,000
Alevis. The Alevi minority reacted to this piece of state propaganda
with horror. But unlike the Kurds, who have a few organizations which
represent their views, Alevis have no recourse under Mr. Erdogan's
oppression.
What does all this mean? The protests that began at Gezi Park
represent a watershed moment in modern Turkish politics. Turkish
minority groups may well find that their best hope is in unity against
Mr. Erdogan's policies. If this is the case, then Kurds, Alevis, and
perhaps even Armenians and the few remaining Greeks in Istanbul may
well make common cause against Mr. Erdogan's repression and agitate
for a more inclusive, multi-ethnic Turkish state. But the fabric of
Turkish democracy and secularism has worn very thin, and Mr. Erdogan
seems bent on crushing opposition. Though Turkey is indeed at a
turning point, it may well fail to turn.
Semra Sevi is a Masters student in Political Science at the University
of Toronto.
SEMRA SEVI
The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/istanbuls-police-violence-is-no-surprise-to-turkeys-minority-groups/article12986317/
Published Thursday, Jul. 04 2013, 12:23 PM EDT
`Now do you understand what we have gone through?' That's what Kurds
and Alevis say to the protesters who have convulsed Turkey since May
31. Kurds are Turkey's largest minority, and Turkey has long had a
policy of assimilating them. Alevis are a nominally Shiite religious
minority whose distinct identity and largely non-religious culture has
placed them at odds with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's devout
Sunnis. Both groups have been persecuted throughout Turkish history,
and in modern times Turkey has all but denied their existence,
outlawing the Kurdish language and Alevi organizations and pursuing,
until very recently, a policy of forced assimilation.
MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY
CLAIRE BERLINSKI Tear gas is a symptom of Turkey's weak democracy
LYSIANE GAGNON In Istanbul, you could see the culture clash coming
DOUG SAUNDERS A new Middle East can be seen through the teargas of Istanbul
VIDEO
Video: The sound of silence in Turkey
VIDEO
Video: Syrian protesters show support for Turkey demonstrations
VIDEO
Video: Dramatic bus crash in Turkey caught-on-tape
The result of this has often led to violent confrontations: the kind
of violent police repression we have seen in Istanbul for the past
month has been happening in Turkey's southeastern provinces for
decades, but Turks have often been unaware of these events.
The recent wave of protests, which began after a violent clearing of a
sit-in in Istanbul's Gezi Park, has underlined divisions in an already
polarized society. Mr. Erdogan cracked down brutally on protesters who
objected to a plan to close the park and replace it with a shopping
centre. Since then, matters have spiralled out of control. Police
violence, excessive use of tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets, and
the arbitrary detention of protesters, journalists, lawyers and
doctors are symptomatic of the shortcomings of Turkish democracy. But
tensions between these protesters and the Justice and Development
Party, AKP, has made the wider Turkish population acutely aware of the
sort of police and military mistreatment that has long been
experienced by Kurds, Alevis and other minority groups. Many of these
groups are now backing the protests, and this means that a wider group
than may be visible in Taksim are now organizing against the excesses
of this government.
The government's response to these protests is nothing new. But for
the first time excessive brutality is happening in the centre of
Istanbul in the age of Twitter and Facebook and in full view of the
population at large. Despite the government's intentions to keep its
people ignorant they are now becoming aware of the Turkish
government's dark side.
Mr. Erdogan's government has made every effort to cover up the nature
and scale of the recent protests. This has taken the form of
self-censoring by cowed state media outlets such as CNN Turk, which
showed a documentary on penguins when the protests broke out. The
government has gone further and blamed the BBC for being part of an
international conspiracy to prevent Turkey's rise.
The prime minister has used strong words like `looters' and
`terrorists' to describe the protesters and repeatedly bent the truth
to discredit them. In order to foment the ire of religious Turks, Mr.
Erdogan has repeatedly claimed that protesters drank liquor in a
mosque when in fact the local imam had already denied these claims as
the mosque had been turned into an infirmary in the early days of the
clashes.
Kurds who have been the subject to ongoing oppression look at all of
this and remark how confidently Mr. Erdogan used the word `terrorist'
to describe peaceful protesters exercising their democratic rights.
Kurds observing the brutality of Mr. Erdogan's recent crackdown have
every right to demand sympathy for what they themselves have endured.
Recently, police fired at protesters in Lice, a Kurdish-dominated
district in the southeast, for protesting against the construction of
a new gendarmerie outpost. Kurds note that while protesters in western
Turkey are subject to teargas and rubber bullets, they are often shot
at with real bullets.
While Kurds are very critical of the government's handling of the
protests, they haven't been out on the streets in full force as they
are engaged in a peace process with Mr. Erdogan's government and do
not want to disrupt it.
But the Alevis, on the other hand, Turkey's largest religious
minority, are very much involved in the protests. Alevis have felt
alienated by the increasingly sectarian nature of the ruling Peace and
Justice Party's domestic and foreign policy. Their demands for
religious equality including recognition of their houses of worship,
called cemevis, have always been denied. Car bombings in Reyhanli, a
town close to the Syrian border where Alevis reside, on May 11 have
attracted great controversy because there was a court-enforced media
ban immediately after the attack and journalists who tried to cover it
were detained.
On May 29, the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, the
third bridge over the Bosphorus (currently under construction in
Istanbul) was named after Yavuz Sultan Selim. This was the last straw
for Alevis: Sultan Selim, who reigned in the early sixteenth century,
is infamous for having persecuted and murdered more than 40,000
Alevis. The Alevi minority reacted to this piece of state propaganda
with horror. But unlike the Kurds, who have a few organizations which
represent their views, Alevis have no recourse under Mr. Erdogan's
oppression.
What does all this mean? The protests that began at Gezi Park
represent a watershed moment in modern Turkish politics. Turkish
minority groups may well find that their best hope is in unity against
Mr. Erdogan's policies. If this is the case, then Kurds, Alevis, and
perhaps even Armenians and the few remaining Greeks in Istanbul may
well make common cause against Mr. Erdogan's repression and agitate
for a more inclusive, multi-ethnic Turkish state. But the fabric of
Turkish democracy and secularism has worn very thin, and Mr. Erdogan
seems bent on crushing opposition. Though Turkey is indeed at a
turning point, it may well fail to turn.
Semra Sevi is a Masters student in Political Science at the University
of Toronto.