I’m sick of İstanbul. Not its people or the place, which is one of my favourites in the entire world. But, but… It is like İstanbul is Turkey itself.
Nearly all TV series are set there, concerts and art events take place predominantly there. The news is about İstanbul, even the weather reports are predominantly from there. Occasionally Ankara and İzmir will raise their heads. Reports in other areas only really happen, if there is a disaster there.
It has become a CHP stronghold, due mainly to Ekrem İmamoglu; and CHP support hugs the Aegean and Mediterranean coastline, but is barren in Anatolia. It is almost as if they have given up there, believing no CHP sapling could grow, leaving it to the ruling party and religious parties to do what they will.
And then… There is Yozgat. A few tractor drivers were fined for blocking a road in support of İmamoglu following his detention. Maybe a seed could grow? I’m sure Özgür Özel would have thought; he and İmamoğlu paid the fine.
And then last weekend Özel lead a tractor convoy, proudly wearing a Turkish hat. 100s of tractors behind him, leading to a substantial rally in the main square. It was reminiscent of the photos of Atatürk I had seen, during the independence war in Anatolia. Özel waved to the crowd as he went by the banners, one had one clear message thank you for not forgetting about us. It was like they had come home.
A farmer gave a powerful and bristling speech, maybe not as elegant as an İstanbulians, but with a power to rip into your soul and stay there. This really is now fertile ground for the opposition.
Distant rumbling and real danger
Children’s day is probably one of the loveliest traditions in the world, coming as it does on the anniversary of the first Turkish parliament.
It is a gift to the children here in which they take centre stage, and across the world, as children from all countries are warmly invited to celebrate in Turkey. I particularly like the dancing show; all are winners and there is unity and friendliness which so called adults could learn from across the globe.
The CHP gathered at the first parliament and then miraculously just casually cut through the police barriers and marched to Atatürk’s mausoleum Anıtkabir, although the governor had banned it. The impact of this would have been stronger but all eyes were on İstanbul after the earthquake, which thankfully did little damage with no fatalities, more about this later.
Each weekend the main opposition party put on an event attended by thousands of people seeking change within the country, it is an impressive sight. This is gleefully reported by opposition leaning TV channels who prefer these jamborees than getting down and dirty with the kids, as they say. Their comfort zone is having a discussion panel (to be fair, all news channels do this) but it is nauseating as this has replaced reporting on the ground. Here middle-aged men yes, it’s nearly always men will discuss some item of news like they are in a tea house. They appear to have little or no knowledge of what is happening on the ground or what they want or are doing.
The distant rumble of dissatisfaction is, however, still being felt. A member of the Galatasaray board openly heavily criticised the club for not understanding or caring about the young people demonstrating and detained.
Protest is still happening at high schools and universities in the major cities, one such sit-in resulted in unpleasant scenes.
This is as I said is happening in the mists of an earthquake in İstanbul. If it had been any bigger magnitude the loss of life would have been unimaginable. I’m not an earthquake expert but could so much development in İstanbul and now a new canal makes the situation even worse?
Like wild fires, floods, and landslides a whole new approach to how the environment is managed has become even more critical, not just in Turkey but in the whole region.
MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!
On the day itself (1st of May) there was in fact little or no emergency. Rumours of mass unrest, due to reasons disorder started in the first place, did not materialise.
It was helped by closing İstanbul down and arresting as many people as possible (500 approx.) Once these provocateurs had been removed -as one side see them or just demonstrators to others- there was little or no one left to do anything. The authorities made sure crowds would not gather in the square.
The most memorable moment of the day for me was when rather blurry eyed I watched a breakfast political show in which they discuss newspapers and have a guest on, all rather sedate and informative. All of a sudden, the reporter on the ground showed images of the demonstrators being herded onto buses like reluctant children going on a field trip, but with considerably more pressure and force. The studio presenter was in shock almost wishing to apologise for showing such images. After much shouting the images went of and he returned to interviewing a very old man. This is not happening still repeating in his mind. (DM/VK)
