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Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

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Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#11

Post by JamisonM »

maeon3 wrote: post #7

The following is a description (slightly modified) from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat. As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness. At 2% and 3% t…

Wow. That is one serious load of garbage! Never mind the incredibly baseless and stupid contents that follow, the premise is wrong: the protests themselves in the first place are opposing the present government's attempts to undermine Turkey's longstanding tradition of secularism.

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#12

Post by spiek »

maeon3 wrote: post #7

The following is a description (slightly modified) from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat. As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness. At 2% and 3% t…

This is ridiculous, racist garbage. You cannot extrapolate the actions of a group of people based on their percentage of the population.

Furthermore, the "Muslim population" is not a single mass, it is split into numerous sects.

This kind of comment has no place on HN.

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#13

Post by andyjohnson0 »

maeon3 wrote: post #7

The following is a description (slightly modified) from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat. As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness. At 2% and 3% t…

Member for 1199 days and you post this rant. Seriously, the best thing you can do right now is delete your HN account and not come back.

Edit: Assuming that maeon3 is merely trolling and is not actually deranged, please lets not feed this troll any more.

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#16

Post by Jun8 »

I've got to say, compared to some photos I've seen on my Facebook feed, these are nothing, many people lost an eye or had concussions when the police aimed the gas canisters directly to their heads at close range (I really don't want to share these, they're gruesome).

The now-famous "woman in red being tear gassed" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/06/03...) photo, taken by a Turkish Reuters photo journalist (who later was wounded himself by a gas canister) has been used as a symbol of the brutality of the police. But wait, maybe this was manipulation on the photographer's part (know to happen) and the policeman did it by accident? Yesterday, the followup shots to that photo were released: http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/galeridetay.aspx?cid=69735.... Note how the guy is very deliberate in his spraying, angry that this woman had the guts to stand against them.

Lest you think this was just a twisted policeman, let me assure you that the violence is very common. The police has always been violent against protesters in Turkey, irregardless of who's ruling, so this is not a first with AKP. What was interesting, however, was the persistence of people against the onslaught.

If you have a couple of minutes, here's a nicely done video summarizing the Gezi Protests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=demnc4sQ0VI

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#17

Post by maeon3 »

Jun8 wrote: post #10
maeon3 wrote: post #7

The following is a description (slightly modified) from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat. As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness. At 2% and 3% t…

Apart from its virulent anti-Islam sentiment this is a really confused comment: these protests are totally against the Islamist authoritarianism of the government!

Interesting, tell me more about this Islamist Authoritarianism in the government and the peace ushered by it.

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#18

Post by jacquesm »

Shocking pictures.

This is converging with alarming speed on an all out confrontation. Turkey is a very beautiful country balancing on the Europe-Asia divide with a lot of internal pressure built up over a long time. If the government keeps pushing like this it will likely reap a lot more than they've bargained for.

The Turks that I've known in my life are tremendously proud and very hard working people, push enough of them around for long enough and all that energy will be directed back at the one doing the pushing.

I really hope that the Turkish government will read the writing on the wall and will change course, if they don't do that then I fear that a lot more lives will be lost.

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#19

Post by ludwigvan »

swombat wrote: post #5

My question is, how long before the peaceful demonstrators turn hostile? If I were there, I would feel like the government has crossed the line into violence and that therefore the crowds have no choice but to defend themselves. Soon enough, Turkey won't look that different from Syria, if the police keep that up.

The situation has more or less calmed down, police has started to behave more carefully. The PM has gone abroad, and the deputy PM yesterday made a somewhat warmer speech, recognizing some part of their mistakes. The president has also given a speech saying the message was taken. The media has started covering the issues finally. I would say there is an air of happiness among us, protestors now. We feel strong and united.

What the protestors now want in the short term, is an apology from the PM himself, but that's probably not very likely. We'll see when he returns from Algeria. (Isn't it stunning by the way that he went abroad while the protests were at their peak, in effect ignoring the protestors?)

Re: Evidence of Turkish state violence in pictures

#20

Post by JamisonM »

swombat wrote: post #5

My question is, how long before the peaceful demonstrators turn hostile? If I were there, I would feel like the government has crossed the line into violence and that therefore the crowds have no choice but to defend themselves. Soon enough, Turkey won't look that different from Syria, if the police keep that up.

Saying that "Turkey won't look that different from Syria" is not really a sensible statement. My understanding is that other than the Kurds in the south Turkey does not really have "factions" in it population beyond the normal urban/rural divide. It is not primed for any kind of civil war.

While one could argue that another Arab Spring nation could provide a parallel situation I do not think that any are very similar. Turkey has a history of repression by authority but it has relatively free and fair elections and it is not governed by anything resembling a brutal dictator. What it does have as I understand it is a government that has its base in the rural population and thus does not reflect the interests of the urban population very well.

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