Turkey Update

[gwydion]

It's the 12th day of protests over the right wing government's crack down on all sorts of liberty, and the Turkish government moved in on protesters in Ankara with water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, etc.. The government goal was to clear out all the protesters in advance of tomorrows negotiation. I can't tell you how it turned out as I was watching in real time right now. People are definitely injured, but there is no way to tell how many yet. It sounds like the crack down in Ankara may be more brutal, but reports are mixed.

I am terrified that we are watching Democracy die in Turkey. Let's all hope that we aren't and that the Protesters win.

Comments

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

I was just watching Anderson Cooper's coverage of that on CNN. The Turkish PM is calling the protestors 'terrorists'.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

They've been doing that since the beginning. The protesters are mostly well educated left wing middle class Turks. Environmentalists,Trade Unions, Civil Rights Groups, feminists, gay rights groups, free speech advocates, etc.. There are a couple of communist and anarchist groups that throw rocks, and there have been actual riots in some areas, but the bulk of the protesters are peaceful people exercising what we would call free speech. The President considers any defiance or dissent to be terrorism. This is more analogous to our Occupy Wallstreet protests or Moral Monday Protests against the right wing takeover of North Carolina than say 9/11, although it's way more complicated than that. They have arrested at least 30 for sending tweets the government didn't like and are calling them terrorists to give you an idea.