“The Turks argue about three trees in a park, in which no one was interested so far.”

Nobody seems to believe in this, though the Turkish government repeats it steadily. After the outbreak of the mass demonstrations, Erdogan, for days, is speaking about “three to five robbers”, for who he will not back away from his plan.

His plan is the construction of a shopping center (and later a mosque), which is intended to replace an existing Turkish park — the Gezi Park — which is set to be demolished for it.

The initial situation

Turkey is a divided country. In a previous article I described that Turkey consists of two to three larger fractions: primarily the devout Muslims and the Kemalists, who are the followers of Ataturk.

But let’s start a little bit earlier with our history, let’s start with a tribe from today’s Mongolia. Once upon a time…

In my article “Wer oder was sind eigentlich diese Türken” (“Who or what are these turks?”), I have written about the origins of today’s Turks. What many do not know is that the Turks are relatively new in the country in which they live today. Originally, it was the land of the Hittites, Babylonians, Greeks, Kurds, Armenians, Jews, but eventually the Ottomans came…

However, the Ottoman conquerors were quite liberal people, which meant that who pays the taxes and keeps quiet, lives peacefully in this multi-ethnic empire. The Sultan was the ruler of the Ottoman Empire and at the same time of all Muslims in the world. Therefore, his kingdom was the center of Islam.

With the economic decline of the Empire, this multi-ethnic state began to fall apart from the inside at the end of the 19th century. The individual nations began to revolt violently against the centuries-old oppressor. During WWI, the Ottoman Empire casted their lot with Germany. A fatal error…

The major European powers won the WWI and had already planned the dismantling of the severely weakened Ottoman Empire on the drawing board. The first Greek invaders were already in the country and the British besieged the coast in western Turkey…

Kemalism and Atatürk’s heritage

As we all know, Turkey has defended the current state structure. This was only possible through a concentrated joint action of all the people who saw themselves as being a part of this country. The leader of this historic “war of liberation”, as it is called by the Turks, was Ataturk: The father of all Turks. He had witnessed the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the uprisings within the (non-Turkish) population.

Ataturk regarded Europe as progressive, while, Islam meant regression in his view. One of his pro-European quotes, for example, is: “There are many cultures, but only one civilization — The European civilization.” On the linked page you will find some of his anti-Islamic quotations. If one reads up on this subject, it is noticeable that Ataturk’s ideology envisioned a state based on the Western model.

He separated religion and state (secularism), introduced the Republic as a state form (republicanism), saw the power with the people (populism), introduced a form of command economy (statism) and aspired a radical transformation of the old structures rather than slow processes (revolutionism). In addition, he created a Turkish national identity (nationalism) as a counter construct to the failed multi-ethnic state of the Ottoman Empire, which, however, must be interpreted differently than the common understanding of this term. Anyone was welcome, who wanted to live in this newly created state and regarded himself or herself a Turk (“Ne mutlu Türküm diyene!”). This means that he did not focus on the ethnos which originated from Mongolia, but on the completely heterogeneous mass of people that emerged from the mixing of the Hittites, Babylonians, Greeks, Kurds, Armenians, Jews and Ottomans.

Before many other European countries, he introduced suffrage (and, in general, privileges) for women. He enacted and supported nationwide literacy campaigns. In addition, he constructed a apparatus of state that should protect itself against a relapse into a theocracy — even with military force. In my article “Warum die Türkei ein starkes Militär braucht” (“Why turkey needs a strong military”), I describe the role of the Turkish military and why a supposedly undemocratic military coup in Turkey is necessary.

Ataturk decided that neither husbands of veiled women, nor veiled women themselves may take on a task in the apparatus of state, in the judiciary or within the police and military. Furthermore, they are not admitted to higher educational institutions in the country. The background is very simple: a devout Muslim wants his wife to conceal herself and Ataturk did not want any devout Muslims in the system, in order to protect the system from relapsing.

The Turkish people worship Ataturk — at least I had been convinced of this until recently. But even that has its historical roots. For example, the Turkish national anthem is recited by each student before class, ever since: a very patriotic act. Much of the upbringing and the school system is dimensioned for the war of liberation, the ideology of Ataturk and for a strong sense of unity. The original idea was to unite the many different ethnic groups by a common history. However, a public deviation from this line was punished with long prison sentences. This is also a historical legacy of Ataturk, which had been designed to prevent Islamist tendencies. Though not very democratic, it still necessary to protect the nation.

The AKP

The current ruling party, the AKP, is a conservative Islamic party. Its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the present Prime Minister of Turkey, has been in office for ten years. He was always elected democratically, but this is certainly also owned to the failures of previous governments. (Even the purchase of votes for bread in the poorer regions of Turkey is an issue, as well as election fraud, as determined and reported by Danish election observers to the European Parliament).

Yet, his victories were more than clear. In the last elections his party won slightly less than 50% of the votes, whereas the kemalist CHP was only able to draw slightly more than 1/4 of all votes. The nationalist MHP was able to pool forces of only 13% of the voters. The turnout of 83% was very high. I will not further comment on the relevant fact, that Kemalist soldiers have no right to vote.

But Erdogan and his AKP are not particularly democratic, and they make no secret of it. In 1998, Erdogan was sentenced to ten months in prison in Turkey, because of this statement: “Democracy is only the train on which we ascend until we reach our goal.” Therefore, democracy is not regarded as a political ideology, but as a means to an end to achieve other goals.

He begins many of his public speeches with a call to Allah. He says that the power does not lie with the people, but only with Allah himself. One could not resist against it. Thy will be done. YouTube is full of (mostly older) speeches. So this is — as you can well imagine — completely contrary to the pro-Western anti-Islamic ideology of Ataturk.

In this context, I would venture a digression about the Gulen movement, which seems to be associated with AKP and the Prime Minister. Spiegel Online writes that Gulen hands out advices in his writings: “’The students should gain the infidels and disguise themselves as friends, if necessary.’ ‘With the patience of a spider, we lay our web to catch those people in it.’” Ataturk’s protection measures described by me (no strictly religious people in the apparatus of state, …) are completely undermined by these calls. A state within a state.

This movement also maintains many facilities and schools in Germany. I advise everyone to have a look at this worrying (and much too superficial!) video by the WDR. This issue affects us here in Germany.

The economic development of Turkey

Well, many quote to the economic rise of the Anatolian Tigers state and do not understand why suddenly a crisis has erupted in their own country, right now. The economy is flourishing and the people’s situation has improved. This statement is a double-edged sword, because it is both right and wrong: Yes, the economy is flourishing. Yes, it is good for people. But how sustainable is this development for the Turks? The current recovery is based on privatization of the Turkish economy. Most Turkish companies were sold to American, European and Israeli investors. The list of privatized companies is very long and prestigious, among which are also a number of (air) ports and major public companies, such as, energy suppliers and telecommunication companies. Some Turks believe that they only live on the fruits of a decades-long development.

Who wants to have credible numbers on the Turkish economy, I recommend the book “Türkiyenin Gücü” (“The Power of Turkey”). As far as I know, it is only available in Turkish …

Ergenekon and the disempowerment of the military

Ergenekon refers to a supposedly existing underground organization that was founded in 2003, with the aim to overthrow the AKP government. Under this pretext, more than 300 people were arrested in Turkey since 2007, including many (ex-) military judges and (pro-Western) journalists. The climax was reached with the 2011 indictments, (in an election year) when a large number of Turks were suddenly prosecuted. Among them were 116 high-ranking military officials. The abolition of the military apparatus, which is the protecting power against the Islamization of Kemalism in the country, was finally accomplished. A military coup is quite unlikely from today’s perspective, rather it boils down to a civil war between Islamists and Kemalists.

The transformation of Turkish society

In recent years, I have written comparatively often about the creeping Islamization of Turkey — as many other bloggers. Today, I stumbled upon an exciting quote on Facebook: “The Islamization is not fast enough for Erdogan. Now he puts the pedal to the metal.”

For example, he recently issued far-reaching prohibition laws in Turkey. Alcohol would not fit well to Islam, the Tagesspiegel cites. I think it is even worse, that Turkish couples had been attacked by supporters of the AKP, because they kissed in public, though police force was present, according to Spiegel Online. When I addressed this topic on Twitter, I was attacked, as well, verbally. Accordingly, a kiss in public would not fit Turkish culture.

But the destruction of the cultural heritage of Ataturk is no secret to the AKP, but rather strikes them as a necessity. For example, the “TC” (= Turkish Republic) has been removed from all public facilities and its communication. Therefore — in solidarity with the legacy of Ataturk — many Turkish Facebook users recently added the prefix “TC” to their on-screen names.

Erdogan is always coincidentally on business trips on all nationwide holidays, which have been introduced by Ataturk. His police attacks peaceful citizens celebrating these historical holidays with water cannons and tear gas. At the same time he allows Kurds, who are celebrating their New Year’s Day justly, to chant some subversive (PKK) slogans without any intervention. He calls the murderer of thousands of Turks and PKK leader, “Mr. Öcalan”, though he is an internationally recognized terrorists. However, he calls the founding father Ataturk and his loyal companion Inonu “Iki ayyas” (Two alcoholics).

So far, so good…

Violence against demonstrators and the media censorship

Yes, it all started in Gezi Park with a few peaceful protesters. But the violence of the police against the protesters and Erdogan’s ignorance (in spite of much larger criticism, he has only talked about “three to five trees in Gezi Park” until recently) has released the accrued frustration of the people. State television has broadcasted senseless daily soaps and cooking shows for days, while pretending that police violence in Istanbul never happened. This image illustrates this beautifully.

The media is totally controlled by Erdogan and is castrated concerning its content. The cameras of Halk TV, which was the only brave station to report about it, were destroyed on the spot by the police.

Thanks to social media and live reports from friends and relatives from Turkey, I have a completely different view about the degree of escalation in Turkey. Tear gas, water cannons, police violence, more than 5,000 have been injured and three (registered!) deaths have occurred. Friends report that AKP followers get police uniforms, to fight against people.

No wonder that Erdogan regards Twitter as the greatest evil for the state. He had dozens of Twitter users arrested, because they allegedly called for coordinated protests against the government. The trigger in the tweets was what can be seen in the video linked below. The content of the video is very tragic. I had shared it, as well.

This demonstration are not about a few trees anymore. It’s about democracy, human rights, equality and freedom — and it is against the Islamization of our country and our cultural heritage. We do not want to be a model for Egypt, Afghanistan, Libya and Nigeria. We are a European nation and for that we fight. Or, in the words of Ataturk:

“We are one people, calling for life and independence, and only for this we are ready to sacrifice our lives.”

© Jan Schuler — Fotolia.com

© oncelercin — Fotolia.com

Disclamer

This translation refers to my original post that can be found here: http://alperaslan.biz/2013/06/12/direngeziparki-oder-was-gerade-in-der-turkei-passiert/ Therefore many links refer to german websites. The text was translated by a reader of my original german blog post, who wanted to give everybody in the world the chance to read this article.