Today is the 2nd anniversary of the start of the occupation of Gezi Park. Police have blocked off the entire area most of the day and closed down metro stations nearby. Taksim Solidarity, the collective of organizations that organized the protests, had called for an anniversary protest, is now rescheduling for the 10th, after the election. Not that their protest would have changed many voters' minds, I suppose.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Back in Istanbul
just in time for election
It seems Putinesque the way Erdoğan, who now that he is president is supposed to be unaffiliated with any political party, has been bending the campaigning rules backward and using state resources to do so. For instance, no sooner had I gotten on the metro this morning than I was confronted by this public announcement poster for the 562nd anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans. In small letters it says that the celebration will be attended by Erdoğan, which I guess is what justifies slapping a huge picture of his head on the poster and the slogan "Once Again Resurrection, Once Again Uplift." A modest comparison of Tayyip to Mehmet the Conqueror.
Last week he was in Hakkari near the Iraq border--not campaigning of course as that would be illegal, but for the opening of a new airport, which all local civil servants were told they had to attend or face legal action. Erdoğan brandished a Kurdish-language Quran and talking about his "Kurdish siblings" and trash-talked the HDP. The AKP is targeting the Left Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in particular both as usual to stir up nationalist Turkish sentiment but also because the HDP is right on the cusp of meeting the 10% threshold that would entitle the party to representation in parliament. If the HDP gets in, the AKP will not get an absolute majority of MPs and will be forced to go into a coalition, probably with the ultranationalist MHP.
It seems Putinesque the way Erdoğan, who now that he is president is supposed to be unaffiliated with any political party, has been bending the campaigning rules backward and using state resources to do so. For instance, no sooner had I gotten on the metro this morning than I was confronted by this public announcement poster for the 562nd anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans. In small letters it says that the celebration will be attended by Erdoğan, which I guess is what justifies slapping a huge picture of his head on the poster and the slogan "Once Again Resurrection, Once Again Uplift." A modest comparison of Tayyip to Mehmet the Conqueror.
Last week he was in Hakkari near the Iraq border--not campaigning of course as that would be illegal, but for the opening of a new airport, which all local civil servants were told they had to attend or face legal action. Erdoğan brandished a Kurdish-language Quran and talking about his "Kurdish siblings" and trash-talked the HDP. The AKP is targeting the Left Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in particular both as usual to stir up nationalist Turkish sentiment but also because the HDP is right on the cusp of meeting the 10% threshold that would entitle the party to representation in parliament. If the HDP gets in, the AKP will not get an absolute majority of MPs and will be forced to go into a coalition, probably with the ultranationalist MHP.
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