Nothing is Lost Yet, There is Still Time

The Turkish parliament will be voting on two major proposals after February 18, following a long religious holiday. 550 members of the parliament will decide whether or not to give mandate to the government to 1) Permit the deployment of US soldiers in Turkey, and 2) Send Turkish soldiers to Iraq.

However, there is still time for the anti-war campaigners to stop and prevent them. The deputies have already received tens of thousands "vote no in my name" messages by GMS. e-mails and fax, particularly during the last three days and the protest continues: The GreenPeace activists hanged a 240 square meter large placard of "No to War" over the façade of the Ataturk Cultural Center, at Turkey's biggest square in Istanbul, as the deputies were just about to vote on "war" on Thursday.

Daily protests continue across the country. Lawyers, physicians, engineers. Academics, artisans, human rights activists, Labor unions under "Coordination For No to War on Iraq", the umbrella platform for 162 NGOs, daily make press releases, big or small demonstrations collect anti war signatures to finally present them to the parliament. Number of people on the streets carrying the badge "No to War on Iraq" daily grows, while the shops adjust their sales ads to the common anti war protest.

Even the barbers have brought in their own way of protest against the war on Iraq. In some towns the hairdressers are reported to refuse cut their clients hair in "American army style".

Women play a significant role in organizing ad extending the anti war campaign across the country. The popular badge "No to War on Iraq" has been designed and produced by a women group, now carried by tens of thousands of people in almost every city in the country.

Spokespearsons in almost every anti-war rally are generally women from all sectors- teachers, actresses, jurists, academics, and journalists. And the women come up with another fresh idea every day to carry the peace message through all veins of Turkey's public life.

Turkey's peace activists increase their efforts to focus the attention of international peace movement on Turkey. On 15th February at 20:00 PM with local time Turkish citizens are called to blink their lights at home as a warning for the wrongs of war and they call all the peoples of the world to join the protest at their own homes.

"The end of February or the beginning of March," that's the date the Turkish prime minister has set for the beginning of the American attacks.

"Ankara doesn't have any chance for peace," the TV anchor speculates. He reminds me the Iraqi Kurdish woman who was just about to give birth to her baby in a tent, at the Isikveren refugee camp in 1991, nearby the Turkey-Iraq border.

Actually, she couldn't see me. It was me who was watching her as tears dropped from my eyes. It was snowing, extremely cold and there existed almost nothing to cover and to feed the newborn: No milk, nothing.

Those days are now dubbed "the 1st Gulf war days". I wonder when was the second one fought ? They - the media-are psychologically preparing us for their prospective war. However, according to a recent poll, 94 percent of Turkish citizens oppose this "war" and carry on the campaign for peace.

Since last fall, Ankara has been a popular destination for top-level United States (US) politicians, diplomats and Pentagon officials. This time the decision-makers in Ankara were made to feel a different kind of pressure coming from a select group of peace activists from the USA, Britain, Israel, Yugoslavia, Greece, Sweden, Italy , and Germany alongside their own citizens,

They joined the"The Assembly of the Hundreds" in Istanbul on Saturday, January 25th a meeting of 2000 people, 100 representatives from 20 professional groups (academics, writers, workers, artisans, engineers, lawyers, doctors, publishers and translators, movie and drama players, business people, students, and 'the unemployed') each.

Spokespersons for each group stated their particular reasons to protest against war to concluded the meeting with a joint declaration for peace.

Among the "Assembly's" guests were also Peter Curman and Jan Myrdal from Sweden, who read excerpts from their works and made anti-war statements. Jan Myrdal pointed out the prospective catastrophic outcome of this war for the whole world and urged for broader democracy for the countries of the region.

Ryan Amundson, from the US, who had lost a brother in the September 11 attacks, urged the Turkish government to resist the demands of his government, not only in the interests of the Turkish and Iraqi people, but also in the interests of the American people.

"I know what it means for an object from the sky to come and kill a loved one. I don't want anybody else to experience this," he told.

Another US citizen, Professor Norman Finkelstein warned that a war on Iraq would ignite the Middle East as a whole and lead to catastrophic consequences.

" History is watching Turkey. The bottom line is: No Turkey, no war! Turkey's decision in the next couple of weeks will be a historical decision which may lead the whole region into a catastrophic war, or be a turning point for the prevalence of peace and the use of non-violent means to solve world problems," Finkelstein told.

Among other international guests to the meeting were also Scilla Elworthy, the director of the Oxford Research Foundation and a three-time Nobel peace prize candidate, Marijana Komarcevic, of the Women in Black in Belgrade, Obrad Savic, a Milosevic opponent and alternative publisher, Raya Rotem, war widow and member of the Bat Shalom women's group in Israel, John Hipkin, spokesperson for Campeace, the Cambridge Campaign for Peace, Dusan Bjelic, a criminologist from the University of Southern Maine Yorgos Tolis, a medical doctor and professor from Greece, Daniele Tramonti, an anti-militarist activist from l'Associazione Papa Giovanni XXIII, Italy, Tony Simpson from the Bertrand Russell Foundation.

During this "peace weekend", anti-war messages were conveyed in the streets, in city squares, in congress halls, in theatres, in music clubs as well as in the meeting rooms of the parliament with the same motto: "Let's turn Ankara into a capital of peace".

This "long peace weekend" had started with a manifesto of the conscientious objectors, an unusual public statement for a country where military values are generally praised among the men. 10 young men of "military service age" declared their objection to all wars and to military service. "We refuse to be soldiers for US" they declared .In a press conference by objectors at the Human Rights Association (HRA) in Istanbul.

Turkey's other big cities too witnessed massive protests. 7 thousand people in Izmir, hand in hand formed a "Peace Chain" to surround the city's biggest square. In Mersin 20 thousand people rallied for peace, in Gaziantep thousands were out on streets with the same slogan echoing the popular conscience: "No to War on Iraq".

On Monday January 27th, a delegation of international and domestic peace activists visited the Deputy Prime Minister Ertugrul Yalcinbayir, the Speaker of the Parliament Bulent Arinc, and the Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission Mehmet Elkatmis, handing them written peace statements (including the verses of the brand new Peace Song) and urging them to clarify their position in relation to the war plans.

In the Deputy Prime Minister Yalcinbayir's office the campaigners found a receptive ear. Yalcinbayir, designating Iraq as an already "surrendered country" added: " Iraq has already agreed to UN Inspections. This is a modern form of surrender. Why does the USA want to strike to a surrendered party? What is their aim?"

Since December when the first major anti-war rally in Istanbul was organized by a coalition of more than 160 NGOs anti-war campaign has gained a popular character in Turkey

The anti-war rally on December 1st, brought together ten thousand people from almost all shades of public opinion from the labor unions to gay groups, from the Islamists to anarchists, and from environmentalists to Kurds who added their own creativity to the chorus of peace.

Yet the anti-war rally on January 26th in Istanbul was even massive and embracing the ordinary citizens who usually did not appear in mass protests. Families were there with their children. They had come to urge for an end to war plans. Little kids carried signs: "Children should not die"...

The only opposition party in the parliament "social democratic" CHP (The Republican People's Party) leader Deniz Baykal criticized the government decision. "Game is over!" "We have to be faced with the realty." Yet, Baykal pledged that his deputies would vote "Yes" for a prospective Turkish military intervention in Northern Iraq "in order to safeguard Turkish interests"!

"I'm fed up with listening to the excuses of those people who are always busy and don't have time to do something in order to prevent the US aggression," says a friend. "They don't see that they will not have anything to work on if the war would start."

His argument seems quite true: The priorities are very likely to be changed if the "war" becomes a reality. Turkey's footballs authorities are already considering suspend the scheduled games in the eastern and southeastern part of Turkey.

Turkish government's decision to take side with the USA seems to have pleased only the Bush administration, and the award is increased US economic aid to cover Turkey's prospective losses in the war. Let aside the disproportionate figures in face of prospective immense material losses what could be the material equivalent of human lives, and who will compensate the losses of the lives thousands of Iraqis and with what?

Yet, I am still hopeful and say, "nothing is over" just like all the anti-war people and actually I have personally sent letters to the 45 of 550 deputies in the parliament including the Prime Minister and parliament speaker on Thursday. The ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) administrators complain their faxes and phones were blocked. I am happy I was one of those who did this.

We have little time left to prevent the aggression. But not pessimistic the anti war movement led by The Coordination for No to war on Iraq prepares for a new rally on Feb. 15 to join the global protest what will bring us together from every part of the world. (NM)

* The article was published by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in February 15.