Istanbul liberty and environmental protests hijacked by Kemalists

By Cinorek Dogan:

Some months ago, as I explained on my blog, a big destruction project got underway in Istanbul. A part of this process is to cut down trees in Istanbul’s Gezi Parkı area.

The aim is to re-build a version of the Taxim Topçu Military Barrack (Taksim Topçu Kışlası), which was completely demolished a century ago. Now the goverment dreams to recontruct this building. Furthermore, they plan to make this building a mall. Maybe this makes it clear: Capitalism has a dream. If it dreams so, it can re-build the Babel Tower.

A week ago, they tried to start cutting down trees. Thus, everything began. Firstly, young environmentalist activists resisted against the police, led by Istanbul deputy of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Sırrı Sureyya Onder.

At that point, it was a movement which was led mostly by Kurds and environmentalist groups. Istanbul BDP deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder helped halt an operation to remove trees in Taksim Gezi Park when he obstructed the path of a bulldozer, amid running altercations between demonstrators on one side and police and company workers on the other. Önder demanded to see the license for the demolition, which was not provided by municipality workers.

Pic: Osman Örsal (Reuters)

In a short time, this protest evolved into a revolutionary soul involving Kurds, and other socialist groups. Not only in Taksim, it also spread to other parts of the city such as Beşiktaş, Gazi, etc. It was like the riots in Athens, Tahrir… Everybody was demanding liberty, every protestor had an awareness of unity.

Then appeared the Nationalist groups like CHP,IP, TGP… They turned the riots into an nationalist show… Everywhere became full of Turkish flags. What a nonsense. You are fighting against the government and you carry its flags…

Kemalist groups saw this movement as booty. They misused it. They started to fight with Kurds in places like Izmir, where they attacked and stoned the local BDP offices.

They carry Turkish flags. They sing the National Anthem of Turkey. Rather than a revolution movement, this sometimes seems more like an fascist occupation.

Some socialist groups and the leader of the BDP have stated their anxiety about this stuation. However, the BDP is still continuing its support for this movement.

My thinking is that this movement will take on more the appearance of Nationalist-Kemalism in coming days, and this will lead to a break with the Kurds.

You can follow for the upcoming news: twitter.com/cinorek

Cinorek Dogan blogs at: dogania.wordpress.com