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Protesting the autocrat of Ankara
By adamg on Sun, 11/22/2020 - 9:25pm
Photo Advocates of Silenced Turkey.
Members of Advocates of Silenced Turkey held a protest in Harvard Square yesterday to protest the more than 130,000 people imprisoned by the Erdogan regime in a crackdown.
The white chairs symbolized the white plastic chair in which Mustafa Kabakcioglu, a former Istanbul police official, died in solitary confinement earlier this year, four years after his arrest for allegedly being a follower of a Turkish cleric living in exile in the US, whom the government charges was behind a failed coup attempt in 2016.
The government claims Kabakcioglu died of Covid-19, supporters say he was tortured.
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Comments
empire
I am glad, some people are protesting the rise of a new Ottoman Empire.
Wow
I really need to keep up. I knew Erdogan had pretty much eliminated democracy in Turkey, but I had no idea he had extended his rule from Budapest to Baghdad. Has he conquered Jerusalem and Cairo yet? Has he named himself Caliph? Is he knocking at the gates of Vienna?
Just About
Well, he helped Azerbaijan in their attacks against Armenians living in Artsakh, so he's not above paying other people to do it.
I would have thought that one
I would have thought that one of the fundamental considerations when organizing a protest is ensuring that your audience is in a position to do something about the issue in question. Whenever I pass things like this, I'm always tempted to say: "sure, I'll get right on that..."
They are working
to communicate to the citizens of the most powerful country in the world that one of its allies, to which it supplies substantial aid, has become a dictatorship. That seems like a reasonable tactic to me. They are weak and and their enemy is strong. They need to build their strength, and persuade his allies to become theirs. Holding up a few signs in Harvard Square may not seem like a very effective way of doing this, but it's a very hard task, and most of the labor that goes into achieving it will probably be wasted. I think the willingness to continue in those labors, without any expectation of immediate success, because the work is necessary, is to be admired.
Erdogan is a piece of shit.
"...to communicate to the citizens of the most powerful country in the world that one of its allies, to which it supplies substantial aid, has become a dictatorship."
Um, ya. About that. Turkey is a member of NATO.
But you knew that, right?
As far as their leader, the Russians and the Turks are old enemies. Turkey deserves better than Ergodan. These people are protesting and risking the lives of any relatives they might have in the old country.
Your point
if you have one, escapes me. Of course I know that Turkey is part of NATO. Why do you think I called them allies?
Other than that, you seem to be condemning Erdogan for being a dictator, and these protesters for calling him one. If this is your idea of being even-handed, you will end up with a very long list.
Remember anti-apartheid protests? Rallies for Soviet Jewry?
There's a long tradition of this sort of thing, calling attention to problems in other countries that the US might be able to influence (once we have a responsible federal government again).
and this location makes sense for protests
Harvard Square is the center of the Boston-area academic community.
They are blocking the
They are blocking the sidewalk with their chair barrier.
Um... I know being irritating to others is standard advertising technique to make them pay attention, but for people like me it backfires and nudges my opinion against whatever they are promoting, in this case a political viewpoint.
Visual and audio pollution is a somewhat protected right, but blocking pedestrian passage?
Discuss.
also
there's a component of international visibility that is often very important to communicate to people and authorities "back home", particularly now that social media and the interwebs in general make it so easy and fast to share information.
being able to share high-impact images of public demonstrations from multiple international locations is a pretty effective way of reminding regimes that "the whole world is watching".
so sometimes things like this really aren't for you. sometimes they are as much for the government being protested as for the country in which the protesting is happening.
but you know, it's good to pay attention and understand your neighbors and their concerns, even if you personally can't do anything about them.