Turkey: Erdogan says same forces behind Brazil and Turkey protests

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has suggested that the same outside forces are behind protests in both his own country and Brazil, as Turkish authorities continue their crackdown on overwhelmingly peaceful protesters.

Mr Erdogan was speaking hours before police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse thousands of flower-bearing protesters who gathered in Istanbul’s central Taksim square to commemorate four people who have died since the Turkish unrest erupted on May 31.

“The same game is being played in Brazil,” Mr Erdogan told a large rally of his supporters in the town of Samsun on Saturday. “There are the same symbols, the same posters. Twitter, Facebook is the same, so are international media. They are controlled from the same centre. They are doing their best to achieve in Brazil what they could not achieve in Turkey. It is the same game, the same trap, the same goal.”

While Mr Erdogan says the Turkish protests are linked to terrorism, an international plot against his country and “an interest rate lobby” disturbed by its recent high rates of growth, the protesters say they are motivated by increasing levels of authoritarianism under his government.

Some protesters waved Brazilian flags on Saturday night, in what they say is recognition of the mutual inspiration that the protests in Brazil and Turkey have caused.

The gathering in Taksim square was the largest since the prime minister ordered police to clear the adjoining Gezi Park a week before – but many protesters were nevertheless surprised when police ordered them to leave Taksim and then water-cannoned them.

Note EU-Digest: Mr. Erdogan has it right, except  for the reasons of these protests around the world. People are protesting corrupt, authoritarian governments, police brutality, and the lack of freedom of expression.

Read more: Erdogan says same forces behind Brazil and Turkey protests - FT.com

Turkey: An Islamic voice against Erdoğan - by Mustafa Akyol

Turkey is a very divided nation these days, in the face of the public protests that began in Taksim’s Gezi Park and spread across the whole country. Yet everybody knows that the park is just a symbol and the real issue is the governing party and especially its leader. The real dividing line, in other words, is whether you support or oppose Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

It is also true that this division roughly overlaps with the secular-religious divide in Turkish society. Most Erdoğan supporters are religious conservatives who have found more rights, prosperity and pride under his rule. On the other hand, most anti-Erdoğan groups are secular, and they find his assertive moral conservatism repulsive.

However, there are also voices that defy such a simple religious-vs.-secular divide. One of them is that of the “anti-capitalist Muslims,” a left-leaning Islamic group led by theologian İhsan Eliaçık. They condemn Erdoğan not for his religiosity but his hubris and his “neo-liberalism,” or what they see as crony capitalism.

About a week ago, another voice came from a more prominent and mainstream Islamic circle: “The Labor and Justice Platform.” At a meeting in the offices of Mazlumder, a leading Islamic Human Rights Organization, the members of the platform announced a declaration which condemned the “state arrogance” that the AKP government has shown against the protestors in Gezi Park. They argued:

“Ignoring Gezi Park protestors’ demands, and subsequently labeling them as ‘plunderers,’ reflects the arrogance of a political power that mistakes itself to be the country’s landlord. Ravaging of the environment, cars and stores were triggered by the rough treatment of the police, whenever police violence stopped, protests took a peaceful turn.”

Read more: MUSTAFA AKYOL - An Islamic voice against Erdoğan

Turkey: Freedom of Expression ? - Students face two-year jail sentence for throwing darts at Turkish PM’s photo

 A local prosecutor has demanded two years in jail for two Samsun university students for allegedly throwing darts at a board covered with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's photo.

Yıldırım Beyazıt Besim and Mert Deniz Özkaya, students at the Black Sea province’s Ondokuz Mayıs University, participated in a protest against new educational reforms last year in August by throwing darts at a dart board featuring Erdoğan’s picture. After the two threw the darts, police forces intervened to prevent others from doing so.

After a probe was launched into the incident, the two were charged with “overt defamation of a public official.”

"No kinds of opposition are tolerated in Turkey," Besim said, adding that their act was a democratic demand, not defamation.

Similar protests have been held in different parts of Turkey, he said.

The students’ first hearing will be held in June.A local prosecutor has demanded two years in jail for two Samsun university students for allegedly throwing darts at a board covered with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's photo.

Yıldırım Beyazıt Besim and Mert Deniz Özkaya, students at the Black Sea province’s Ondokuz Mayıs University, participated in a protest against new educational reforms last year in August by throwing darts at a dart board featuring Erdoğan’s picture. After the two threw the darts, police forces intervened to prevent others from doing so.

After a probe was launched into the incident, the two were charged with “overt defamation of a public official.”

"No kinds of opposition are tolerated in Turkey," Besim said, adding that their act was a democratic demand, not defamation.

Similar protests have been held in different parts of Turkey, he said.

The students’ first hearing will be held in June.

Note EU-Digest:: What has happened to Democracy and Freedom of Expression  in Turkey?

Read more:RIGHTS - Students face two-year jail sentence for throwing darts at Turkish PM’s photo