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With Stephen Harper speaking to the British Parliament Thursday, here’s the first of several pieces from writers addressing the politics of the UK. In this piece, Anita Ogurlu urges the people of Britain to see the popular protests in Turkey as a phenomenon linked closely with their own struggles for justice and against austerity. 

Has it not yet occurred to anyone that the recent outbursts of protest in Turkey are about something everyone is protesting these days: labour, living wages and the privatization of resources and services, inclusive of looming wars? Is it not true corporations have overstepped their bounds everywhere?

Foreign media cover much of the Turkish resistance through a certain lens such that fraternity and empathy be kept weak amongst the European working class. Why does the media quickly pick up the “spring” trope? Why not the Spanish Spring, the German Spring, the Portuguese Spring? How quickly foreign media jump to conclusions about the seasons! I know it’s been rather rainy and cold here in London lately, but really, are we so nostalgic for spring? It was an unseasonal hot “British Summer” in 2011.

All across Europe and beyond, protests are taking place against global injustices — particularly the ‘lower-middle classes slipping from grace.’ How many have considered that massive privatization of services has forced the cost of electricity and water, not to mention health care, to rise exponentially over the past ten years?

Do you think it’s any different in Turkey? How many of you have taken a wage freeze or cut in pay or been put on short-term work contracts? How many of you are not allowed to unionize or have been fired for being in a union? Today hundreds upon hundreds have been fired from their jobs at international corporations like DHL for their struggle to become unionized in Turkey.

How many of you now have to pay outrageous university fees up to £9000 ($14,400) for your children’s education or to continue your own education? What if your university became “affiliated” with an American for-profit university chain? That is exactly what happened and continues to happen in Turkey. Would you not admit police brutality was uncalled for when Alfie Meadows was nearly beaten to death in a London student protest against increasing tuition? Why wouldn’t Turkish students and the many lower and middle-class people joining them from all walks of life, express their opinion to secure democratic freedoms that have been lost, with a media that doesn’t report them?

While you may have heard a lot about alcohol freedoms being snatched away in Turkey, keep in mind your own government has in place measures to cut intake. Youth are youth anywhere and in a country like Turkey, where tourism is all around us, it’s only natural to buy a pint at the corner store. But on the topic of conservatism, did you know in Canada, apart from Quebec, in many provinces Canadians purchase alcohol at a special liquor board store? I know the Canadians aren’t known for traditions like the British, but isn’t that a bit much? Instead of being concerned about issues of drinking alcohol in Turkey, why not put your own pint down and join the Turkish people in Trafalgar Square in their struggle to uphold their democratic freedoms.

Who’s protesting in Turkey today? 

In the near future you will see all kinds of headlines about ethnicity, cultural clashes, sects and harsh oppressive governance. Do you know who is in the streets across Turkey right now? People just like you and me. They are people who live a democratic lifestyle, who go to the same types of restaurants, watch the same kinds of films, wear the same brands and go to similar places on vacation. Hardworking, often with two jobs, some joining the protest live a little more frugally these days.

Students, professors, doctors, lawyers, dentists, chemists, writers, actors, poets, social groups, union members, non-union members, leftists, Greenpeace activists, pious or atheist, environmentalists, mothers with children or without, with or without husbands, divorced, gay, straight, young, old, Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Circassian, Laz, Jewish, Alevi, Sunni and so on and so on. Forgive me if I’ve missed anyone: fellow humanity all around you. What they have lived over the last ten years is a government which began fair and democratic and that vowed to take Turkey along an even better 21st Century path. Human, only too human, power can tend to blind us to ourselves on occasion. We saw it with Rupert Murdoch and other people in high places too —  it’s certainly not unique to Turkey or her politics.

If you felt your lives were being squeezed by not having a chance to protest against the issues of corporate resource extractions — as Pinar Aksogan wrote on her blog, “The fight to protect Turkey’s green spaces began decades ago” — how would you react? Gold mining — like joint venture between a Turkish-Canadian corporation to give one example — is ruining towns and communities in Turkey. Then there is the issue of rent. Istanbul and all the other major cities are sites of huge posh residences engulfing the city, forcing local communities out of their homes. A few months ago, an advertising campaign ran across Turkey claiming Jennifer Lopez invested in a few penthouses. Who will buy all these crystal palace views? Gentrification of a city disregards so many, all for a posh life for the few.

Was it Turkey’s fault an Arab uprising happened next door? Was the war in Iraq Turkey’s doing? Was it Turkey’s fault that, being humane, they accepted so many refugees from Syria? Is it Turkey’s fault they still remain under the shadow of U.S. Cold War foreign policy? Is it fair to blame only the leader when there are extenuating circumstances and tensions, in a world of political and economic crisis? Perhaps some of those protesting are concerned Erdogan collaborates too closely with the U.S. on Syria. Over 200,000 Syrian refugees are on the Turkish side of the Syrian border. Recently, on May 11, two bombs detonated in Reyhanli, Hatay — a town on the Turkish-Syrian border killing over 51 innocent people and injuring more than 140.

I think the people of Turkey are most reasonable and democratic to reject Erdogan’s escalating war rhetoric. Weren’t there a million people in London who protested in February 2003 against the U.S. led Iraq invasion? Where are you today? Furthermore, protesters, sit-ins, and those on strike find a tone of language used against fellow citizens distasteful. I feel the same distaste when a Torontonian mayor slanders Canadians only to solicit support and votes from like-minded cronies. The current ruling government has brought many sweeping changes to Turkey’s infrastructure, however a leader’s increasing over-confidence and involvement in everything, like parsley, as the Turkish saying goes, has for some perhaps made him appear too large a reflection in the mirror. A poet at heart, the resistance should not remained focused on him alone.

Should the people of Turkey take everything sitting down? Have they not been more than patient? In the freezing winter of 2009-2010 the TEKEL (Turkish Tobacco Workers) camped out in the heart of Ankara for over 78 days. Struggling to keep their jobs, after BAT (British American Tobacco) had bought the company and promptly folded the operation. Is that fair play? Several thousand resisters ran an efficient system, which had communal kitchens, a university, media center, medical center and teahouse spring up on the site, long before anyone had even thought of the New York Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.

Why has the very same government been so harsh this time round, although it was no bed of roses for the resistance in 2009? How can this impasse be solved? Several possibilities exist. Open discussions could be held to debate how to ease tension. During this process the government would come to realize the protesters and sit-ins are not dangerous or marginalized radical groups. The more than liberal use of tear gas could be stopped, which only angers people more. The protest could be allowed to continue legitimately to create dialog.

To conclude, if you visited Occupy London in 2011, how did you feel about the writing on the walls? The slogans are the same in Turkey, just in Turkish and of course some Kurdish too. The location happens to be Taksim Gezi Park, a symbolic place like Trafalgar Square is for London or Times Square in New York.

Remember many Turkish journalists have been jailed because they tried to write what I’m writing now and much more. I am grateful to Elif Shafak for her kind remarks in her recent article, “The view from Taksim Square: why is Turkey now in turmoil?” illuminating the cultural aspects of the resistance.

However, wo(man) cannot live on language alone, (s)he needs bread and respect too!

Taksim Everywhere. 

 

Anita Ogurlu is a PhD Candidate in Humanities and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London.