Job Discussion Forums

[sixthchild]

Anyone got any comments on the local protests?
Current events seems to have run out of steam!

[oipivo]

According to my friends who still live in Taksim, the police attacks have calmed down and last night was actually extremely peaceful and fun. Everyone was just chatting and cooking some food in Gezi Park. They also said that outside of Taksim and Besiktas the city is running as normal.

While I'm glad I'm not living in Taksim right now (my old flat would have been filled to the brim with tear gas I think) I couldn't be happier that these protests are happening. I'm still honestly shocked that it's grown to this level. Good job Turks.

[sixthchild]

Yes agreed, however do you think they will keep up the protests through the summer?
Personally I doubt that although in Izmir there is an active group organizing the protests each night in my district.
I have heard at least one fellow yabanci state its the most excitement he has ever seen in the city.
Notice the exchange rates are getting hammered if you need to buy foreign currency for that summer break!

[manalive]

[sixthchild]

Had also noticed a distinct lack of headscarfed ladies of late, don't know if there is any connection!

[Dedicated]

I have just returned from a lecturing tour around Turkey, and popular protests seem to have spread across Turkey with all the speed of a dangerous brushfire. No fewer than 67 cities have now experienced marches and when I left, the demonstrators had de facto possession of Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul.

The real lesson of these events is about authoritarianism: Turkey will not put up with a middle-class democrat behaving like an Ottoman sultan.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won three elections, two by landslide majorities, the most recent being in June 2011. In some ways, Mr Erdogan has done well. GDP growth has averaged over 5% a year since his Justice and Development party (AKP) took office in late 2002. He has delivered a sustained economic boom. Yet these protests did not come out of the blue. Mr Erdogan and his party have Islamist leanings which appear increasingly at odds with the secular republic forged by Ataturk 90 years ago. When the prime minister urges Turks to have "more than three children", tells people who drink that they are "alcoholics", and then restricts the sale of alcohol, many naturally question his intentions.

Mr Erdogan has authoritarian instincts and does not take easily to criticism. He has intimidated the media into self-censorship :as the protesters choked on tear gas, the TV networks carried programmes about cooking and penguins ! This is probably because Turkey has the dubious distinction of keeping more journalists behind bars than any other country, including China. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists 49 journalists currently languish in jail.

Mr Erdogan's self-belief long ago swelled into rank intolerance and his social conservatism has warped into social engineering. The risk is that he will now hold onto power even more tightly. Under AKP party rules that limit deputies to 3 terms in Parliament, he must stand down as prime minister at the next election in 2015. So folk believe he will aim to be President.

Many Turks are tiring of him, just as poll-tax riots in 1990 signalled that Britons had tired of Margaret Thatcher, or the French rejected de Gaulle after 1968. If Mr Erdogan stays, he may find his country increasingly ungovernable. Sustained unrest in Turkey, an aspiring member of the European Union bordering both Syria and Iran, would affect us all.

[Sashadroogie]

What are the chances of another military coup? The top brass has taken a beating by the government over the last few years, but perhaps the generals may conclude now is a good time for a junta.

[PC Parrot]

[sixthchild]

So in the long term will this affect him and the AKP at the next election? Will this also affect Turkey's bid for the 2020 Olympics?

[wander&teach]

Yes, yes, and yes.

[sixthchild]

Nice to see that at least someone acknowledges that the economy has more than picked up over the last decade, whereas the club they have been excluded from is going through a crisis.
I think if you don't mind me saying so, Dedicated: the fact that journalists are sitting in jail right now is nothing new to this country, they have been going through that well before the AKP came to power.
The election in 2015 will gave the ruling party enough time to put this issue to bed, he needs to bend a bit, he has made a mistake in ignoring the protests, but I feel come the election all of this will be forgotten. As for the olympic bid, Istanbul are still favourites, Toyko has done it more than once and Madrid like the rest of the country and the euro zone are under pressure to get their finances back in order.
I feel this whole thing will blow over very quickly if he does a bit of back pedalling, to do otherwise would make a bad situation worse.
I would like to say that the opposition were worth looking at or considering if I had to vote, but not many people seem to know what they stand for except they are anti- AKP. Hardly credible to run the country.

[oipivo]

The best thing for Erdogan to do now is nothing. A few friends have been at the protests in Taksim every day and finally went home last night because it's just turned into a massive party. The different political parties have been fighting and throwing rocks at each other. It was really overly optimistic of me to really expect anything else. I would be extremely surprised if they protestors stuck it out and stayed organized, although I certainly hope that it happens.

[sixthchild]

well, now he going to talk to someone,better late than never!

[sixthchild]

A little something for the protesters and the rest of the country, maybe wake them up a bit!



We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again

Change it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that's all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?


There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Do think there are more than a few relevant phrases here. don't you?

[ecocks]

How are things on this front?

Complete calm or censorship keeping it quiet?