#DİREN TÜRKİYE! 12 hours of devastation…and resilience

Posted on June 15, 2013 by lizcameron

Child suffering from gas exposure being brought into makeshift infirmary in the Divan Hotel, June 15, 2013 (Photo by Yannis Behrakis of Reuters)

For the past twelve hours, we (me, occasionally M. who can barely stand it, and the entire Karagoz puppet troupe that inhabits my head during this cross-cultural marriage) have been glued to the Internet in order to understand what we can of the exceptionally brutal crackdown on the Gezi Parkı protesters in Istanbul – and of course on the many protesters around Turkey whose stories are not being covered.

We have seen the EU Turkish Minister explain that all who go to Taksim Square/Gezi Parkı will be treated as “terrorists.” Hacivad Bey the Sufi elder puppet lets out a distinctive sigh of shock at this statement.

We have seen photos and live feed of children, elders and families engaging in peaceful protest in Gezi Parkı. Soon after, we heard reports of police warnings amplified over the crowd, suggesting that children and elders leave the park, as it was about to be cleared. The protesters resisted by chanting slogans back at the police. Esma the hippie puppet chants along with them whenever we can get a live feed.

We have seen a sudden police action circa 8 p.m. involving water canons laced with chemicals from the TOMA (Panzers) and yet again scads of tear gas. We have seen photos and videos of people writhing in pain, people vomiting, people with great red welts, horrified children who cannot breathe and their terrified parents. We have seen great clouds of tear and/or pepper and/or vomit gas hovering over most of the city – even miles from Taksim Square. Even Karagoz, the oppositional trickster cannot speak about this.

We have seen protestors taking cover in the Divan Hotel, a fancy hotel where in the past, I often stopped to buy fistikli lokum – they make the best in the city – for my father, who loved it. We usually had a glass of Çay on the terrace before we left. We have seen that hotel turn itself into a shelter for protestors – and into a voluntary infirmary. We have seen police fire tear or pepper gas into that hotel – and to storm that hotel. Now, at 5 a.m. Istanbul time, we see those peaceful protestors sleeping on the carpet in the lobby of that hotel – afraid to leave as the police have threatened to arrest all who do so. Zenne, the nervous nelly like a glass of quivering quince jelly puppet, wrings her hands in anxiety at this.

We have seen the TOMA (Panzers) shoot the same chemical-laced water on people attempting to enter Istanbul’s Aleman Hastanesi (German Hospital), thwarting their attempts to obtain help. Celebi, the modern lover puppet, can only cover his eyes.

We have seen M.’s home street, Sıraselviler Caddesi bombarded with tear gas, bashed up by anarchist protestors – the lunatic fringe perhaps – still trying to fight the police. (Archers of Okcular, I welcome debate/opinion on that one). The chorus of little dancing ladies begin banging their pots and pans again at this.

June 15, 2013 arrests in Istanbul (Image from Europeans Against the Political System’s Facebook Page)

We have seen increased protest, arrests and fighting and resistance to police brutality in M.’s 80 year-old Aunt’s neighborhood, Şişli and so many other areas. So far, she is fine, she has lived through a lot, but we are still worried about her. Kenne, the Queen of Manners, demands that we call her at 5 a.m. her time to make sure she is safe, but M. nixes this idea and hopes that she is sleeping.

We have telephoned, Facebooked, Tweeted and Skyped friends who express the same range of emotions – devastation, anger, sadness, frustration, confusion, anxiety – and in the end, resilience.

In the last conversation of the night, I asked my very dear friend about her day. Mostly, she said, it was punctuated by fear about not knowing the location of one of her three sons for too many hours. When I asked her whether people buying her (truly delicious) Börek at one of her Börek Online franchises (still open and ready for business) she said “yes, business was good.” Continuing, I asked whether her customers spoke of what was going on – she stopped and thought. I watched her face for a while on our fuzzy Skype connection as silent but long deep tears appeared to slide down her face. She was tired, but more sad than tired. Finally, she said “no, we didn’t, we have to keep it like normal. We have to pretend like normal, or we go crazy.”

At this, the whole troupe of Karagoz puppets weep.

And while it is not normal to experience any of the horrors described above (Börek excluded), our only wish tonight is for the people of Turkey to find their inner resilience and to keep on going as they seek to find some balance and some peace between all parties.

Turks crossing one of the two bridges that span the Bosphorus Strait – from Asia to Europe (Image from Europeans Against the Political System’s Facebook Page)

And just when I thought that I could not look at Twitter one more time tonight or my heart would break, I did, and I began to see reports and photographs from trusted friends of thousands of people crossing from the Asian side of Istanbul, across one of the city’s two continent-spanning bridges, to support the protestors in Taksim.

And with that, the puppets begin a never-ending whisper of a chat as we try to sleep – #DirenTurkiye!

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Taksim Square and #OccupyGezi: Of birds and bees, dogs and trees

Posted on June 14, 2013 by lizcameron

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The left-hand side of this photo shows peaceful protestors helping a dog who is suffering from pepper or tear spray – the right-hand image needs no caption. (Author of image unknown)

We have heard much about the peaceful protesters (a.k.a. “çapulcular“) who have gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square – and some about the non-peaceful protesters (who many postulate are actually police working undercover as protestors, and we agree based on photos we have seen as paranoid as that sounds). Much of what we have learned about what is happening has come from friends on Twitter.

Image of Istanbul dog in gas mask from Buzz Feed – click photo for link to original

As I scrolled through my Twitter feed the other night, I saw increasing numbers of reports from people living in the areas around Gezi Parkı – Taksim, Cihangir and Gümüşsuyu – about dead birds, bees, cats and dogs on the streets – apparently dead as a result of intense exposure to tear and/or pepper gas. Heartbreaking.

Perhaps as a result of Esma the hippie puppet’s Star Trek-like transport into the thick of the protests on the first day two weeks ago – and perhaps as a result of Esma herself being glued to my Twitter feed along with me, she has asked me to talk about the animals today.  Remember, Esma, the hippie puppet with a heart of idealistic and sometimes altruistic gold has a deep and sweet concern for all living beings.

Here is Esma, the hippie puppet - sans her usual rose petal dress - image from Karagoz.com

Here is Esma, the hippie puppet – sans her usual rose petal dress – image from Karagoz.com

When I awoke today, I noticed that the Esma had staged a sit in all around my head on the pillows – and had convinced all of the puppets to join her.  It is a rare show of unity among the rag-tag band of Karagöz Oyunlari who are known for their spats and indeed sometimes their puppet battles when differences between them erupt into whirling dervish swirls of mixed color and language.  So, the first words I heard this morning were a chorus of:

“hey hey, ho ho, NO blogs on animals have got to go!”

As soon as she saw that I was somewhat awake (which has relative meaning given the hardcore pain medicine I currently have to take while awaiting my next surgery) she began to read her proclamation.

“We, the unified and determined Karagöz Oyunlari demand that you, M’lady, write a blog post about the birds, the bees, the dogs and the trees over in Gezi Parkı and environs.  If you do not comply with this respectfully submitted demand, we will a) no longer deliver tea to you each morning in bed, b) no longer advise you on matters cross-cultural, c) no longer whisper the answers into your ears when you are struggling with Rosetta Stone Turkish and d) generally wreak havoc.”  

Well, I was in a position – but I reminded them that I would have written about the animals anyway.  I understood the birds, the bees and the dogs – but the trees? I was quick to be educated that Esma, you see, believes that trees are sentient beings, something I believe she learned after reading the entire Chronicles of Narnia and/or watching one too many Lord of the Rings movie on cable TV.  Who knows, maybe she is right.  In any case…let’s get on with it so the puppets will let me out of bed.

The trees in Gezi Parki were really the tip of the iceberg - or the straw that broke the camel's back about things a large segment of Turks were frustrated about. Image source unknown.

The trees in Gezi Parki were really the tip of the iceberg – or the straw that broke the camel’s back about things a large segment of Turks were frustrated about. Image source unknown.

Let’s start backwards from how today’s post is ordered – let’s start with the trees – we have heard a lot about the trees in Gezi Parkı, of course.  They are the straw that broke the camel’s back vis-a-vis this spontaneous Turkish people‘s uprising.  There are relatively few trees in Gezi Parkı – and trees are a lovely commodity in a city with so few.  It is often the trees – or more correctly the lack of the trees – that get M. so steamed as we drive around Istanbul. Last year, as we took a taxi over to see his Aunt, Teyze B., he bemoaned all the areas that used to have trees while he was growing up.

“What kind of government allows such unchecked development – and I’m not talking about the gecekondu on the outskirts of the city – I’m talking about here, right here in the city.  I could NEVER live in this city again – the Istanbul that I know is lost.”

Image from the collection of Liz Cameron's M.

Two young Istanbullus playing in Gezi Park, circa 1962.  Image from the collection of Liz Cameron’s M.

This sentiment, perhaps, is a part of what brought those very quiet and almost invisible tears to his eyes the other day as he emerged from rummaging around in the basement with a cherished photo of Gezi Parkı, where he was playing with his brother in a toy airplane – in roughly 1962 or so.  That Prime Minister Erdogan would just wipe out one of the few remaining parks in the city, well, it was just too much.  Too much for M.  Too much for Esma.  Too much for the Istanbullus – and indeed too much for the people of the Turkish Cumhurriyet.

Karagoz was quicker than my Turkish economist friend in checking out the Prime Minister's math - he says "483 trees per day, 24-7 for 365 days for each of 11 years? (Image by Liz Cameron)

Karagoz was quicker than my Turkish economist friend in checking out the Prime Minister’s math – he says “483 trees per day, 24-7 for 365 days for each of 11 years? (Image by Liz Cameron)

What has been perhaps most humorous about the whole tree issue in these protests are the responses from the Prime Minister himself.  He keeps insisting that over the last 11 years, his party has planted 2 billion trees across Turkey.  As a Turkish economist friend quickly calculated, this is quite a statement (see Karagöz’ photo with the calculations here).  As much as I hate to admit it, I do have to point out that one of my favorite agent provocateurs over in Okcular, Turkiye, environmentalist activist extraordinaire HAS reported on major tree planting efforts in some areas…so in an effort to be balanced, there you go.

A protestor and his beloved dog resting in Gezi Park between, presumably, peace attacks.

A protestor and his beloved dog resting in Gezi Park between, presumably, peace attacks. (Source unknown)

Well, let’s move on to the dogs. When I began spending time in Turkey, ten years ago, I saw many stray dogs – and few dogs as pets.  I have noticed an increase in dogs as pets as the years have gone by.  While many expats in Turkey have championed the cause of caring for street animals (thank you Ayak’s Turkish Delight who led me to this organization, Far from the Sticks and Adventures in Ankara), what many may not know is that Istanbul does quite well, these days anyway, with tagging stray dogs for annual vaccinations – and many feed the dogs on a daily basis. It may not be Blue Ribbon dog food – but they are being fed.

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Image of dog cursing “son of a bitch Tayyip” from Buzzfeed

As we have watched recent events unfold in Turkey, I had not thought much about the dogs – but as I was scrolling through my Twitter feed last night, I came across a friend’s post about a Veterinarian near the Italian Hospital who was remaining open to treat dogs hurt by the 19 hours worth of tear gas that the Istanbul police let fly on Wednesday night.  As people in love with our own beloved rescue dog, the images we have seen of dogs in and around Taksim Square and Gezi Parkı have broken our heart – and we include some of those images here. In general, we hope that the dogs have had the good sense to run as far as possible from the gassed area – and that they will be alright.  (Esma the hippie puppet emits an empathetic moan at this sentence).

Collage image of dogs in Gezi Parki from One News UK (click link for source)

Well, that leads us to the bees.  I am sure that there are not many bees in Istanbul, given the lack of flowers and trees (see lack of tree rant, above).  We do know that there is an international bee emergency – and that much of what is sold as honey in Turkey and worldwide has been found to have little to no pollen in it…instead replaced with the dreaded corn syrup.  We are sure any bees left in Taksim are dead anyway.

Author of this image is unknown.

Author of this image is unknown.

…and that leads us to the birds…and the FB posting that made me start crying today – of a dumpster full of dead birds in and around Taksim Square and Gezi Parkı in Istanbul, Turkey – dead as a result of excessive tear and pepper gas bombing over the last two weeks. I’m not sure M. would be as bereft about the birds as he would be about the trees.  As a child, it was always the Istanbullu pigeons that made his father aware of all the daily wrongdoings he had done before getting a punishment.  Still.  What of the chain of life?  As The Archers of Okcular reminded us on FB today, there was a reason that the Geneva Convention banned the use of gas on people. 😦

Well, now that I near the end of today’s rant – the puppets are slowly making their way off the sit-in bed and heading out to get some cay brewing.  Esma kisses my hand and places it on her forehead (something Turks with manners do to honor an elder) and says “Thank you, M’lady. May this current Turkish crisis end soon.  May the animals return.  May the Turkish environmental movement flourish more than it already is – and Namaste.”

(And to my dear friends who have encouraged me not to be such an obsessive perfectionist in favor of health, I have left mistakes in this post in the form of not putting all of the proper Turkish characters where they should be because I am just too sick – and because the point I want to get across has been made – and because this is just good ENOUGH.)
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#OccupyGezi and Youth: What I thought I knew – and didn’t know

Posted on June 13, 2013 by lizcameron

Youth we know protesting near Dolmabahce Cami in Bekistas - one is throwing a gas cannister back towards police (Image by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

Youth protesting near Dolmabahce Cami in Bekistas – one is throwing a gas canister back towards police (Image by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

It would be a lie to say that I could summarize or explain “the protesting youth of Turkey today.” Who could? The New York Times takes a stab at it here.  The key sentence in their piece, as I see it from the vantage point of the youth I know is “They don’t want to seize the state so much as teach it to behave.”

But let me talk about our own experience over the last week, during which we have been very worried about our young family members and young friends in Istanbul. We often wonder whether they are being beaten or tear gassed or water hosed just for peacefully demonstrating about their concerns.  Then, this afternoon, as I was taking a nap, I felt a tap tap tap on my cheek. Squinting one I open, I saw Kenne – otherwise known as the Queen puppet responsible for the maintenance manners and the protection and promotion of ladylike behavior et alia. As usual, she had a sour look on her face, and was displeased with something.

“Youth today,” she spat, “really! They are çapulcular indeed!”  In case you don’t know what çapulcular are – check out this link.

Wagging the paper at me, I saw she was holding up an image printed from the computer. It showed three young men in the midst of a smoky gas cloud with one throwing something into the air. I immediately knew it was Istanbul, and that probably the young men were throwing a teargas canister back at the police who had likely shot the teargas at these young men. This is now a familiar image to me over the past 12+ days. The particular picture in question, the caption read, was from Beşiktaş, near Dolmabahçe mosque – the mosque that Prime Minister Erdoğan had accused people of drinking and fornicating in – when in fact the Imam of that mosque said “No – not true – it was used as a triage hospital when the police attacked the people who were peacefully protesting.”

Istanbul Octobre 2010 - Mosquée de Dolmabahce

Istanbul Octobre 2010 – Mosquée de Dolmabahce (Photo credit: Valerie Hukalo)

Shots of this type of action have been all over the Turkish news – And I have seen those images as classic adolescent and young adult bravado. You know, the way you feel invincible, that nothing could touch or hurt you? But I know that bravado is also driven By frustration at incremental change towards policies and regulations in daily Turkish life that slipped significantly from the secular upbringing these young people have experienced. However, I have been convinced that the Molotov cocktail throwers have been the minority – certainly not the young people I know.  Also, from cruising the Turkish media, I am sure that some of these protesting youth include Islamist youth who are demonstrating as they are displeased with the iron fist represented in the police response ordered by Prime Minister Erdoğan’s interior minister (who is in charge of the police).

Finally, after a week of being angry about the lack of media attention to these major events in Turkey, we at least began to see images of what I thought were these “outlier” young men on CNN last night -mostly men from what I can see – throwing Molotov cocktails and returning shot gas canisters by hand towards police. I engaged in a one sided screaming match with the television, begging the reporters to report on the much larger community of youth who were NOT what my Turkish friend perfectly refers to as the “crackheads” crazy enough to still be inside the park and engage in such behavior. Crazy indeed, I thought! Who would be stupid enough to do that – put your life in danger? But as soon as I said it, I remind myself again that teenagers and young adults feel invincible untouchable and that explains a lot what I was seeing. Falan filan.

I watched and watched – although my husband could not stand to be in the room looking at the TV pictures of the Square so near his home (as I wrote about yesterday). Although I must say the coverage was more focused on the fact that the reporter had to wear a gas mask then on the substance of the situation in Turkey – but eventually some really good commentary came on CNN).

But let me take you back to this afternoon. Kenne Left me with the photo of these young çapulcular çapuling With their gas masks, rubber gloves and bravado. When I woke up again, I had the surprise I did not expect.

The surprise came in the form of an email from one of the young Turkish men I know very well who has lived with us. He sent me a link to an Internet site – a news site with 43 pictures of young people protesting in the streets of Istanbul. Let’s not even get onto the topic of how the media seems to indicate that all of the protest is only going on in Istanbul and not in all the other cities. As I began to scroll through the slides – my young friend sent me another message – “I’m in picture number 30” he said, “I’m in the middle with a gas mask on!”

My heart stopped as I clicked as fast as I could to number 30. And there it was, the photo that Kenne had printed out for me (see photo at top of post). It was one of the beloved young ones that I know. My mind raced as I tried to make sense of this. This young man studies a serious topic in University, is a kind person, always helped my ailing father during family visits, how could he be in a gas mask in the middle of the major fighting in Beşiktaş? I had to revise my view on what I was seeing on CNN – on what I was thinking I knew FOR SURE about the young generation – at least those that I have known.  These were young, secular men I knew, engaging in this behavior – as a result of having tear gas shot at them while peacefully protesting. It’s a lot to sit with – the notion that this sweet young man was fighting fire with fire.  As our e-conversation progressed, this young man told me he wanted his grandkids to remember him as a çapulcu who fought for what was right in the hope that the government would listen and things would be better.  It’s a lot for me to sit with.  It’s a lot for all of us to sit with.  I just hope that Tayyip sits with it a bit more.

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