Being imprisoned is not the problem.
The problem is how to avoid surrender.
—Nazım Hikmet (from the biography Romantic Communist)
My wife was finally getting back to work and I could hear the rapid noise of the keyboard being attacked. It was music to my ears, a few moments of normality.
I left the TV on silent in the background, whilst I tidied around. From the corner of my eye, I could see a white van snaking up some deserted road, the TV crews followed it.
It was like a royal marriage or funeral from back my home country. I shouted out to my wife “White Van!!” I often appear incoherent at such times. She didn’t answer, headphones on singing Turkish folk songs.
I turned to the screen and my heart sank; I was overwhelmed with sadness.
First the barbed wire came into focus and then the watch towers like in some American state penitentiary. This was jail for an undetermined length of time.
I doubt he really envisaged this happening. He is essentially a kind man who did not think that the numerous charges against him would amount to anything significant.
His wife and children though clearly distressed show a razorlike determination, and a refusal to surrender, as her husband is also with notes of hope from prison; both taking a leaf from Nazım’s book.
The authorities, however, are adamant that crimes have and continue to be committed and people will pay for them in court.
They say they have the evidence to convict council employers, demonstrators and journalists, to name just a few.
Defiance
In the afternoon we went to CHP office for my wife to vote in a symbolic show of support for İmamoğlu (15 million others did the same across the country). Going there she thought she would be the only one there and appeared resigned to this lonely fate. This was not a CHP heartland, to put it mildly.
The bus dropped us off and we saw a large crowd at the CHP building, and yes, they were voting. The crowds spilled onto the streets and there was a real sense of solidary and comradeship in the air, she was not alone. My wife soaked up the hope. “Even here,” she smiled, which never left her face all day, and even broke into laughter when the BBC interviewer asked an expert on Turkish affairs in the evening. “Is there any truth in the allegations made against the İstanbul Mayor?” “Absolutely none, nonewhatsoever,” he bluntly replied, she was taken aback.
Western propaganda? It depends which lens you are looking through, and how distorted it is. For the government the CHP is corrupt and they say they will prove it.
We wait and see…
Nazım (see above) seems to refer to not surrendering one’s belief when in prison, or in wider society. At the moment protesters believe the whole country is not free. Inside, İmamoğlu appeals to the Turkish people not to surrender their ideals and his supporters will not give up on him, or their vision for the country.
As the thousands protesting on the streets every night testifies to.
For the authorities the protests are in fact ‘evil’ and provoked by the opposition, who are trying to destroying the nation.
We all wait… and see.
Protests and boycotts
Tonight, will be final night of official protests in front of the council building in İstanbul, they had served their purpose. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
Last night’s rally was in comparison to other nights rather peaceful. Over a 100 opposition MPs on the streets protecting the young people, as they saw it, may have been a contributing factor. As were the massive escalation in the presence of western media outlets and journalists. The BBC sent three of their best; one normally reports from war zones, make of that as you will. One had last been in İstanbul during Gezi Park protests and the last lives in the area. Images were coming out that I had not seen on any Turkish new channels. They did not portray the government in a very good light.
During the day activists produced a list of firms which they urged the public to boycott, who have strong links to what they claim are pro-government new channels, who are ignoring the demonstrations and not airing their grievances.
I had helped with boycotting companies that supported apartheid South Africa in my youth. It takes a while to be affective, not here.
A coffee company in the line of fire kept shouting help help and threw oil on the burning fire, making it worse. No no we just sell coffee, crying into their now empty cups.
There are others on the list who may also feel the squeeze. Then I saw the betting company was one of them. Oh shit, I thought. Well, I never win anyway… (DM/VK)