Updated and amended daily since May 29, 2013

I was in Turkey for a month in February staying mainly with locals. My couchsurfing friends there have been criticizing the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, who has been dismantling the democracy that Ataturk built nearly a 100 years ago. The last democracy in the middle east. The people revere Ataturk. This is of monumental significance for Turkey and for the world because Turkey is a pivotal point between East and West.

I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for 10 days now watching my friends in Turkey post videos and photos on Facebook and twitter. There has been a total blackout of all internal Turkish media so the people have been desperate to get the word out. Subsequently there have been supporting demonstrations all over the world. And the NYT published a crowdsourced full-page ad with the lead: What Is Happening In Turkey?

The Prime Minister wanted to raze Gezi Park in Taksim Square in Istanbul, cutting down ancient trees, to build a shopping mall with the contract going to his son-in-law. After the police routed the demonstrators with tear gas, some kind of yellow gas shot at the people with “water guns”, water shot out of big tanks (TOMAS) and beatings, the resistance turned against the “bulldozer” of a Prime Minister who has become authoritarian…imprisoning army generals and over 200 journalists, controlling the media and all manner of social mandates.

It didn’t really just start with Gezi Park in the minds of the people though. On May 1, Erdogan tried to curtail a traditional day of celebration for children instituted by Ataturk. He stopped public transportation when he saw so many people turning out as a statement of support for Ataturk’s democracy and by implication a judgment on his. And a mandate against public display of affection a couple weeks before Gezi Park resulted in young people turning to public spaces to hold kiss-ins. And his packing important posts with Islamists has been alarming. This has been slowly building and people see their beloved democracy…a beacon of democracy in the Middle East…slipping slowly away.

Gördüm – Bir Gezi Parkı Direnişi Belgesel Filmi / Documentary Film from R H on Vimeo.

Erdogan was elected Mayor of Istanbul in the local elections of 27 March 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to a ten-month prison term for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt in 1997. Before his conviction, the fundamentalist Welfare Party was declared unconstitutional and was shut down by the Turkish constitutional court on the grounds of threatening the laicistic order in Turkey. Erdoğan became a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his party colleagues. With the conviction, Erdoğan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections.

He served less than 4 months of the 10 month conviction from 24 March 1999 to 27 July 1999 for reciting the poem, which, under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code was regarded as an incitement to commit an offense and incitement to religious or racial hatred. It included verses translated as “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers”. The aforementioned verses, however, are not in the original version of the poem according to Wiki.

Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2001. From its first year, the AK Party became the largest publicly supported political movement in Turkey and the first single party government. And Turkey has done well economically. However, since then his democratic “reforms” have moved Turkey closer to an authoritarian state.

The ban on lipstick for flight attendants and a 10:00 p.m. ban on alcohol and no display of public affection…all of this is completely contrary to the lifestyle of young secular Turks who are objecting to Erdogan’s attempt to reorganize social structures and his authoritarian style of governing which is bringing religion into the public sector threatening secularism. They feel that he is a megalomaniac looking for a legacy. And they’ve had enough.

However, this article appeared in The Guardian entitled Why the Turkish protests matter to the west. This isn’t just about lipstick – if Turkey can’t reconcile secularism, Islam and democracy, there will be global repercussions

Education is in peril, she says with the lions share of the education budget going to mosques and muslim schools. Freedom of speech and the press has been curtailed. Corruption is rampant. And people are judged on the basis of their piousness. For example women are told to stay at home and have children.

The writer says: As a member of the opposition, what I want is not for the west to intervene in our internal affairs, but for it to stop shielding a government with such little regard for the values of freedom.

Who else will be able to reconcile Islam, secularism and democracy once Turkey fails? What are the global consequences of this failure?

I urge those in the west who believe that Turkey and the globe benefit from a democracy whose fabric is interwoven with religion to look again at what that fabric looks like today – our society’s rights shredded in the name of yet another intolerant majority.

Bear in mind how valuable a secular Turkey is for the world. Do not forfeit the last secularists in the Middle East to the purge that is taking place in the name of democracy, as if a lower level of rights is somehow “good enough” for our region, when you would never accept such restrictions in yours…

This is what I posted on FB:

The U.S. picked out Erdogan when he was a nobody, and even met with him in the States in the 90’s, to run for Prime Minister as a model of moderate Islam and to make Turkey a pivotal point in the struggle between west and east. The U.S. now needs to take him by the collar and explain that democracy doesn’t stop at the ballot box. And take their own advice as well. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen US bashing which is just as well because it would take the focus off Erdogan where it needs to be. Turks are smarter than the average joe around the world. 3 generations raised by Ataturk have seen to that.

The police are on a rampage…beating people at random who aren’t even demonstrating. Someone estimated that there was twice as much tear gas released in Turkey in the last week than all of Europe in 2012. Several thousand have been hospitalized, three have died and nearly a dozen lost an eye. The protestors set up a medical unit in a mosque to treat people. Now Erdogan is telling people that the protestors “attacked the mosque and entered with shoes and beers.” Inciting hatred…the very thing he was imprisoned for years ago.

I’ve never seen so much creativity and humor as I have seen in the videos and graffiti in response. And I lived through the demonstrations against the Viet Nam war. Oaxaca in 2006 could have learned something from the Turks. Instead of just sitting on the sidewalk and knitting, the teachers, during the strike, could have gone out at night to clean up the streets as the Turks are doing with thousands and thousands of tear gas canisters included. They could have tried to use their time striking by walking around informing people…with humor or not…as the Turks are doing. Instead they just alienated the general public who were trying to get to work and lost their support.

When I was in Turkey there was a subterranean heaviness in the people. But they are not afraid now and their hearts are free. Estimates of several million people have turned out in cities all over Turkey…young people, old people, students, unions…even bitter football rivals walking together in solidarity. And political factions from left to right. The Kurds are worried though that all this will interrupt the peace process that Erdogan has been working on. “It’s not good for us Kurds if Erdogan resigns,” said BDP member Erhan Calahan, who has joined the protests. “Our government is in the midst of a peace process. If it changes now, the country could face some turbulent times.” So as usual things are complicated.

Taksim yesterday:

https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=165718356934210

The police have pulled back from Taksim Square because of all the international media cameras.

Meanwhile the demonstrations and police brutality continue in Ankara (the capitol) Adana, Antalya, Antakya, Izmir and 70+ other cities across Turkey. There is still a blackout on Turkish media.