Militarism Under Fire in Ankara

The annual gatherings, organised by Turkish antimilitarist campaigners, aim to increase public awareness of militarist policies and symbols with peaceful and colourful events such as music and dances, visits to military symbols and marches.

While participation to the gathering from Istanbul and Izmir was comparatively less than the previous years, heavy rainfall and even heavier intervention by the Ankara police forced some program changes with a few of the visits scheduled to "symbols of militarism" being called off. Yet the event was as colourful as possible.

Approximately 40 activists came together on May 13 Saturday morning at the Ankara Gar where they started the day, similar to the past years, with a "program to greet objectors". A heavy police cordon around the group and presence of a number of police buses nearby led to jokes that there were more policemen to objector on site.

Toy guns broken

Music with tambourines, accordions and tabors led to the first press statement at the Gar noting its importance in being a "face of the state that never changes" and role of being an important transportation point for most military weapons.

Following the statement, the group broke toy guns demanding an end to weapons and started to march towards the city's Korean Monument, marking the role of Turkey and Turkish soldiers in the Korean War. Warned by the police not to carry any placards or posters, the activists wrote slogans against military service and encouraging draft dodging on the clothes they wore.

Deaths in a meaningless war

Arriving at the Korean Monument, the group were stopped by police who informed them that "reading a press statement at military facilities" was not allowed by law. The activists resisted saying that the monument was not a military facility but a public access area and insisted on reading a statement in front of the monument.

The statement said the monument was a symbol of those who gave their lives for Turkey to be accepted into NATO and called on antimilitarists to effort to end all wars. After the statement was read, black ribbons "dedicated to those who died in this meaningless war" were left in various parts of the monument garden.

Police barricade protects MKEK

Despite the heavy rain, the group continued their march towards Tandogan shouting the slogan, "war, war what do you get - make love to death" under constant warning by the police that the event should come to an end and that the scheduled program would not take place.

Negotiations with the police brought on an extension to the even with the activists marching on to the national weapons manufacturer Machine and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) building where the police set up a barricade to bar entry to the protestors.

Holding a press conference in front of the building, the antimilitarists pointed out that 10 factories under the Corporation were producing various types of weapons and arsenal and that a contemporary restructuring of the company had associated it directly to the National Defence Ministry rather than the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The statement said MKEK was "the official production centre of personal and mass weapons and arsenal", adding that it was also an exporter of weapons at a time weapons purchases globally had become increasingly easy "and could even be ordered over the telephone".

Police block Mamak Prison, OYAK and ASAL

Following a short statement in front of the Tandogan Officers Club the group then went on to march towards the Mamak Military Prison notorious for its role in the 1971 and 1980 military coups as well as the OYAK Army Cooperation Institution and the Military Recruitment Organisation ASAL but were prevented by the police.

Police officers were heard saying they did not care about the scheduled program and warning "we will intervene, you will be detained, then go and complain wherever you can" as the group was told to disperse

The group then appeared to disperse but travelled to Yuksel Boulevard instead where hundreds of off-duty soldiers soon watched them marching under the slogan "we will not kill, we will not die, we will not be anyone's soldier".

The activists held another press conference in front of the Human Rights Monument here where they staged another toy gun breaking event, at times being openly criticised by the crowds and called "traitors".

Dancing to their own music the antimilitarists ended their day-long festival at Yuksel Caddesi commended, eventually, by the police for being order throughout.

Panel hears antimilitarists

The second day of the festival saw a panel held at the Social Researchers Foundation on "Revolutions, soldiers, freedom" where author Mahmut Memduh Uyan explained the role of armed warfare in the revolutionary struggle of their past.

Uyan pointed out that in the 1970s a period between two subsequent military coups in Turkey, everyone involved in political struggle had to provide for their own personal safety as well as the safety of their property and that no one was keen on armed clashes. "In order for the national struggle to protect its personality and its identity, to defend out social form and policies we defended armed struggle" he said.

Uyan noted that movements such as antimilitarism added important values to the society and said "Movements that want freedom must act like the force they confront."

Antimilitarists should understand the war

Ozgur Gundem reporter Birgül Ozbarıs told the panel that violence in Turkey was not just limited to the attacks witnessed in universities and that the true violence in the country was the violent mentality with which the state and its army addressed its people.

Ozbaris recalled that five charges had been brought against her so far due to her reporting and interviews related to conscientious objectors while a sixth case was being brought up and said in reference to developments in the Southeast "in the past seven years period of peace no one fulfilled their responsibilities. The [new] Anti Terror Law will create a Martial Law. This is because the left is silent, is not moving and has divided its forces. Our problems are the same but we do not speak the same language".

"As antimilitarists, we should better understand the war taking place in our country and the conditions that have caused this war. I value conscientious objection, I believe it is a good civil disobedience against militarism".

After a short speech titled "We are all dreamer militia" by conscientious objector Mehmet Od, Ahmet Özdemir declared his conscientious objection and said in his speech that he was not only refusing to serve compulsory military service but that he would reject alternative service as much as doctors reports letting him off. (GG/KO/II/YE)