Many local shops are looted by the protestors. Cars turned, stones thrown etc... So much for peaceful a protest. Mayoral election is less than a year away. Protest with your votes, not your fists.
Yeah, let's bring flowers to a tank fight.
What is Happening in Istanbul?
91–100 of 519 posts
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#92Can someone perhaps comment on the alleged use of agent orange? [1] From my limited knowledge of chemical weapons ( in lack of a better word), it is an deforestation chemical, and has no direct use for riot control. So currently my take is, that this is a rumor, since its use would better fit into the narrative than into a plausible police strategy. [1] for example: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1fi07t/i…
Pepper spray is orange, so more than likely it was that and people just don't know what to call it.
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#93One of the most challenging aspects of learning about important, under-reported events is correcting for the biases of individuals who are reporting on it For example, while there are no doubt many shopping malls in Istanbul, I doubt there is "at least one in every neighborhood!" (unless that word is better translated as something more like a suburb) This makes it harder to trust all of the details of the more seriou…
Your doubt is noted. It might be that your definition of either neighborhood or shopping mall differs somewhat from the local one, but since you don't actually explain why you doubt it I can't know.
"Shopping centers can be considered as a very young concept in Turkey, since the history goes back only to the late 80s. However, once the malls appeared on the shopping scene, the Turks embraced them. Almost every neighborhood has at least one." http://www.wittistanbul.com/magazine/top-9-shopping-centers-...
That said, it's not a literal statement. It's about rapid gentrification. It's happening all over Europe if not the world. It can get especially nasty when mixed with corruption, since there is great incentive to support large businesses over local ones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/world/middleeast/05iht-m05... http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.1011/abstract
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#94Aljezera has had this story in their line-up for a couple f days now, not sure what they said about it because I wasn't overly concerned. Nothing on BBC though. So atleast one international news organisation is getting the word out.
Nothing?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22744728 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22744895 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22740506 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20028295 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22740038
Why would you say something so absolute with out even checking? Are you one of those weirdo instant BBC haters?
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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According to Russia Today: "At least two people were killed in the demonstrations in Turkey, Amnesty International said on Sunday. Over 1,000 protestors were injured. Most of them were hurt near Taksim Square in Istanbul, the focal point of the recent protest." On the Amnesty International blog they wrote this (but it does not talk about any deaths): http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20803
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Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#96I recommend - http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/ What puzzle me the most, is the voluntary cooperation of the media with the government. Even if the media does not support this event, how they not cover it at all? sad, I always thought of Turkey as the most successful example of a Muslim democratic state.
The current Turkish government has been jailing journalists for years. Whilst the constitution makes the country ostensibly secular, the AKP has been slowly turning it into an Islamist state. I assumed that's what was fundamentally behind the protests, but maybe it's just another anti-corporate thing.
The initial action was a picnic of 50 people to protest removal of trees from Gezi Parkı which was subjected to intense police reaction.
If you recall the London riots (during which I was in Wales), rude attitude of police and political scandals were among the suggested reasons, which are also among the facts that inducted things happened here in Turkey.
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but some things are quite easily researchable online. You doubt that there is a mall in every neighbourhood, but a quick look on Google Maps: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=shopping+mall&hl=en&... And yup, there are a phenomenal number of shopping malls, some only a couple of hundred meters from another. I did spot check quite a few, looked at a few of the websites, and they are all multi-level, large shopping…
Just because you can type them into google doesn't mean they're 'easily researchable'. How many shopping malls in NYC? https://maps.google.com/maps?q=shopping+mall&hl=en&l... These results seem pretty lousy and not particularly different from those from Istanbul.
That is why I checked them before posting, viewed web sites and confirmed that the majority of results are actually shopping malls.
That's a really bad set of results for NYC though.
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but some things are quite easily researchable online. You doubt that there is a mall in every neighbourhood, but a quick look on Google Maps: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=shopping+mall&hl=en&... And yup, there are a phenomenal number of shopping malls, some only a couple of hundred meters from another. I did spot check quite a few, looked at a few of the websites, and they are all multi-level, large shopping…
Just because you can type them into google doesn't mean they're 'easily researchable'. How many shopping malls in NYC? https://maps.google.com/maps?q=shopping+mall&hl=en&l... These results seem pretty lousy and not particularly different from those from Istanbul.
Well, I've been to both cities for two weeks and I didn't find any mall in NYC (I'm sure there must be some, I just didn't find them) while in Istanbul they are really everywhere, you cannot ignore them if not only because they are usually guarded by security people with riffles. Here's a list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shopping_malls_in_Istan...
They are usually huge. I was very surprise because in my home country, Portugal, we used to believe we had a lot of malls (we do) but Istanbul is just unbelievable.
Back to Istanbul, in Levent (near the financial district) you can have three right next to each other. On one of my stays there my hotel was actually around the corner from one of this malls.
Re: What is Happening in Istanbul?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Muslim democratic state. There are very, very few religious democracies, and if you only consider those both officially and effectively religious, I won’t be able to name a single one.
There's that extremely influential one, whose currency states "in god we trust".
Deism has a negligible force as a religion. It is only used as a buzzword label to use when attacking enemies like USSR. It has no practical force on its own. If the phrase were "in USA we trust" it would have the same affect. In fact, the word "Unamerican" was used interchangeably with "godless" when it was at its height, and atheism wasn't even close to requisite for being labelled such.