With the start of the new academic year at universities in Turkey, students who couldn’t find a place to reside in due to the insufficient capacity of the dormitories and the very high rent prices, began to sleep in parks in many cities of Turkey to protest. They started a movement with name “Barinamiyoruz Hareketi”, “We can not shelter”, movement. They also have a twitter account for their protests to be heard by a wider audience. From this point on, if I transfer what they shared on that account here, the reasons and demands will be better understood.
📢BÜTÜN KAMUOYUNA ACİL ÇAĞRIMIZDIR;
Bütün üniversite dayanışmalarına, topluluklara, sivil toplum kuruluşlarına, siyasi partilere, vekillere; sanatçılara, hocalarımıza, esnafa, işçilere, işsizlere, kadınlara…
(Translation in English) OUR EMERGENCY CALL TO THE WHOLE PUBLIC; To all university solidarities, communities, non-governmental organizations, political parties, deputies; to artists, teachers, shopkeepers, workers, the unemployed, women… To anyone who has trouble with this order that has left us homeless.
The text of the statement below the tweet is as follows by translating in English:
“We’ve stopped looking for houses, bargaining with apartments, looking for a job, and slept on the streets last night. From now on, we sleep on the streets every night, burdening the anger and suffering of millions of young people over whom even a roof is withheld.
We are calling you now. First of all, to all university students who were homeless before and homeless in these days, to the neighborhood residents who we can not be neighbors to, to those who work day and night so that their children can find a place to stay.
To all university solidarities, communities, clubs, non-governmental organizations, political parties, deputies, attorneys; to artists, teachers, shopkeepers, workers, the unemployed, women…
To anyone who has trouble with this order that has left us homeless. To our potential neighbors, to all our people, to millions.
We say to all of you, we call on everyone to take responsibility for the solution, to openly take sides with the students, to embrace us, to grow the movement.
Our request and things to do are very easy and clear.
Don’t just follow us silently, be our eyes, ears, and voice. Join our solidarity/need groups, our communication network. Open your home and cafe to students. We are in the parks of your neighborhood, come. Come with your anger, your energy, your voice on you, your tea, your soup, your food on your hands.
It is our open suggestion and call to everyone. If you can’t come, get ready wherever you are. You too go out with a thermos and a cardigan.
We stay in the parks every night, everyone can do it, you can do tonight too. Maybe one, maybe ten days, spend as many nights outside as you can. Don’t say I’m alone, I’m cold, bored, afraid. Choose not to survive for the rest of your life, but to live and let live today. Stay till morning in front of your door, in the nearest park, in front of the university, in front of the dormitories where they did not accept us. When we say we can’t shelter, if the only option they offer us is in custody, you go out there again.
There are thousands of young people who do not sleep, so you don’t sleep neither.
Let’s scatter in the parks, meet all over the country under the wide sky. Because during the day in the auditorium, at night in the park; we will survive and only in this way will we win. Housing is our right, we will take.”
With the announcement of the university placement results, students faced the problem of maximum accommodation. Millions of students across the country have entered a difficult process due to the insufficient capacity of the state dormitories and the rents of private dormitories and residences that have increased with the pandemic. In fact, this situation triggered the #We can’t shelter actions in various cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Kocaeli, where students slept in parks and gardens.
As of 2021, there are a total of 769 state dormitories in Turkey, according to official figures. The bed capacity of these dormitories is 719 thousand 567. The statistics of the Higher Education Institution (YOK) reveal that 7 million 940 thousand 133 students received education at universities in the 2019-2020 academic year in the country.
According to the research conducted by Bahcesehir University Center for Economics and Social Research (BETAM) based on the data pool in the real estate category of sahibinden com (buying and selling web page). The rent increase rate is 50.7 percent in Istanbul, 31.8 percent in Ankara and 30.9 percent in Izmir in one year…
(A student’s comment on the subject)
“The dormitory problem is actually a long-standing issue. This had to be stated now. It has become unusual to go home during the pandemic period. The capacity of state dormitories is quite insufficient. For this reason, some students cannot read and some have to drive 5-6 hours a day,and I am one of them. If my class is at 8 o’clock, I have to get up at 4 o’clock. We are used to being students like this in Turkish conditions. If the state wants to protect its own student, it has to find a solution. The dormitories built are just better than the prison.”
(A student’s comment on the subject)
“Most people in this country are children of workers. It’s hard to maintain a house, even as a civil servant. In this country, let alone eating meat, the weight of vegetables is around 7-8 liras.It is very difficult to live in this country not only as a shelter, but as a human being. We can only breathe in this country. With the 650 liras (student loan in Turkey) given, we can neither shelter nor take food home. If we want to buy a shoe, that’s it. A coat is not less than 300-400 liras.”
(A student’s comment on the subject)
“There is a lot of idle real estate in Turkey. Instead of building these vacant houses as student houses or dormitories, we are opening Turkish house in another country for billions of liras. It means that there is a financial power. Why are you doing something like this instead of spending it on your future?“
Young people from within the movement are also calling out to their friends around the world.
TÜRKİYE’NİN PARKLARINDAN DÜNYADAKİ GENÇLERE
Öfkemizin, direnişimizin ortak olduğunuzu biliyoruz. Sizi sesimize ses olmaya çağırıyoruz. İnsani şekilde barınabilmek herkesin en temel hakkıdır, alacağız. Aramızdaki sınırları dayanışmayla aşacağız!#ÇantamızYastık#barınamıyoruzpic.twitter.com/edX8jE9nRl
(Translation in English) FROM TURKEY’S PARKS TO YOUTH IN THE WORLD We know that you share our anger and resistance. We invite you to be the voice of our voice. Being able to shelter in a humane way is the most basic right of everyone, we will take it. We will cross the borders between us with solidarity!
The call to the youth of the world in the video under the tweet is as follows:
“Hello, we are university students from Turkey. After two years, we are returning to our campuses. We became homeless due to the inadequacy of state dormitories and scholarships, the expensiveness of private dormitories and apartments, and we became homeless due to the increasing rent prices during the pandemic period. We set out with requests for lowering the rents of houses and apartments, increasing the capacity of the dormitories, and financial support for student houses. We now use the only option they have left us. Every night, we sleep in parks, on the streets, in front of the university, at the door of the dormitories, and we wake up with our schoolmates. Instead of being alone in the damp, narrow rooms where they condemned us, we gather together under the stars. We know that thousands of students are resisting against this problem in many parts of the world, they organize campaigns and meetings. We invite you to be a voice for our voice, to go out with your pillows, thermos, tea in your hands, to spend the morning on the park benches for a day and to remember us, and to make the agenda in your own press organs. We know that our anger and resistance are common. We share the same steps even when we are miles apart. We look forward to your return and news. We send our greetings to all the youth of the world. Being able to shelter in a humane way is the most basic right of everyone. We will take this right, we will cross the borders between us. With solidarity; “we cannot shelter” movement.”
… Most likely the address of the speech is #rentstrike, the movement of university students around the world.
Almost in the ten cities as far as I have observed, many university students are currently spending the night in the parks of Turkey. If you look at the tweet addresses, you will see photos, videos from many places. Like this one:
(Translation in English) In Bornova Asık Veysel Park in Izmir, the real owners of the park accompany us…
Apart from the difficulty of their situation, it is difficult to predict how this movement will go on. Staying, sleeping on the street or parks, is not an easy option during the pandemic period. In many parts of the world, young people find it difficult to access education. Those who try to overcome educational inequality, on the other hand, take the path of acting alone individually or starting a movement collectively as we see it here. And they are on a very difficult path to voice their demands right now. I hope their demands will be reciprocated. I also hope that when they finish their schools, they continue their lives with the awareness that the main reason for all these experiences is capitalism.
In July 28, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 22,291 people, number of death for this day was 76. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows. “The cases are at a level that makes it difficult to control the epidemic. We must stop this risk with a common will and decision that will benefit all of us. Precautions should be followed and those who are not vaccinated should be vaccinated. The first dose is immediately, the second and third dose as soon as it’s time!”
On the same day, news of forest fires started to come in several of the similar spots from the south of the country. Forest fires started in the 4 provinces in the south of Turkey. Three of these provinces are on the Mediterranean coast, and one is in the same region just inside. Especially 2 of them have attracted the attention of all rulers throughout history with the forests at back and the sea in front. In Manavgat, Antalya province at 4 different forests, in Aydincik, Mersin province, Osmaniye province in 2 forests, Adana province in 21 different places.
Image taken from zoom.earth, date 2021-07-28,12:00 with fire layers option
Especially the fires that broke out in 4 forest areas in Manavgat and then spread to settlements/villages would continue for days…
On the very same day, a law was enacted about tourism promotion and forest areas, but it’s echos would emerge in a day or two, and some professional chambers, some professors teaching in this field, opposition media and political parties would raise their voice againts issue.
As the journalist Murat Yetkin mentioned in his article in July 31, with title, “Forests and coasts open to new looting before the fires extinguishing“
“…Interestingly coincidence, the Law No. 7334 on the Amendment of the “Tourism Promotion Law and Some Laws” was published in the Official Gazette on July 28, 2021, when the forest fires started. According to paragraph “d” of Article 1 of the Law, the forest lands “Even if it is outside the Cultural and Tourism Development Zones” will be included in the scope of public interest and can be opened to tourism investors. All state immovables in these areas, location, places and borders will be determined and announced by the President’s decision, will also be included in the scope of tourism…”
Again on the same day, on July 28, there were news on the newspapers that a new influx of refugees from Afghanistan could come. Some of these news included interviews that showed that “Afghan families” no longer want to live under the oppression of the Taliban mentality in Afghanistan. They said that their aim was to go to Europe via Turkey. Some newspapers, on the other hand, had news of close to 3.5 million Afghans will be at the Turkish border in near future.
Actually a video was released about 10 days ago before July 28, Afghans were unloaded from a truck on a highway connecting two cities in the middle of Turkey, and they were left in the middle of the road. How could the people who were viewed while crossing the border recently come to the middle of Turkey? ie about 1000 km.
Video from 17 July 2021 Cumhuriyet newspaper news with title “The Ministry denied it, but… Dozens of people were left on the highway like this” “Although the Ministry of Interior denies the claims of uncontrolled immigration to Turkey, controversial images are still emerging. continues.”
People started to talk that it was no surprise, that Afghans could easily cross the borders. However, the Afghans issue would be delayed for a few more days. Because the ruling party AKP Deputy Chairman and Head of Local Administrations, Mehmet Ozhaseki, had said the day before, “In some cities, they(Syrians) keep the industry alive“.
One of the comments on this subject came from a journalist, Murat Muratoglu.
In video between 3.25-5.00 minutes:
“Look, if the economy of this country is in this situation today, and if it will get worse tomorrow, one of the most important reasons for this is the refugees. Why? Because you have 12 million unemployed citizens in Turkey. You have 12 million unemployed and you make refugees work. Now there is an argument that “Turks don’t want to work”. Why do Turks not want to work? Because if you make the Turks work 16 hours a day, if you don’t pay their insurance, if you don’t allow them, (these are the problems) you can’t easily dismiss them when you want to fire them. But when you recruit Syrians, none of this is available. After making Syrians work like slaves for 16 hours, they say to Europe, “Look, we are teaching humanity to the world” (he is talking about the government sayings). Isn’t the biggest immorality in this world to take advantage of people’s plight? The men(Syrians) have no place to stay anyway. 20 people stay together in containers, they work for half the minimum wage, they do not provide food them, their social rights are not given (by the employer). They don’t even bother to fire them. But Turks have to take care of their house. “Have three children, have five children” (referring to the phrase that Recep Tayyip Erdogan often speaks to the Turks), is easy when you say it, you do it, you live in palaces. But for the people, will you pay the rent of the house or pay the bills like electricity? Refugees are already using illegal electricity, in containers that stay at companies’ construction sites. They don’t have an expense like the Turks. But the Turk has to look after his house. But, school is free for Syrians, and hospital (health services) is free. However, if the Turkish citizen does not pay the Social Security premium to the state, they are not allowed to enter the hospital.”
By the way, it should be noted that like Murat Muratoglu, both the majority in Turkey and everyone outside of Turkey who comment on this issue uses the word “refugee” for those who come to Turkey from Syria or other east countries. However, this is wrong. Being a party to the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, Turkey has narrowed the general geographical definition in this convention and only a person from European countries can become a refugee if they want to come to Turkey for reasons specified in the convention. In other words, Turkey only accepts those who come from European countries as refugees, as the party it has declared to its domestic law and to the United Nations. Because of those who came from Syria cannot be accepted as refugees, “Directive on Admission and Accommodation of Citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic and Stateless Persons Residing in the Syrian Arab Republic Coming to Turkey for Mass Asylum” was published as a circular in 2013. And “temporary protection status” applies to those coming from Syria. If they have not acquired Turkish citizenship during this period, none of those coming from Syria are refugees, nor asylum seekers. They are only under “temporary protection” status. Also, another point to be noted here is that this circular was issued only within the scope of Syrians. In other words, just like Syrians, unless a circular is added to the law for Afghans coming to Turkey and those coming from other eastern countries, it occurs currently a situation of unlawfulness.
In July 29, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 22,161 people, number of death for this day was 60. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows.
“The number of cases today is 22,161. It is not possible to be protected from the epidemic without following the precautions without vaccination. Let’s get back to the fight with vaccines and measures.”
On the same day, forest fires continued. There were really bad images coming from Manavgat, Antalya. Moreover, forest fires started not only in that region, but also in Mugla, which is Aegean coastal city in the south-west of the country. And again, as in the others, forest fires were seriously threatening the settlements.
Here is the link of the zoom.earth image like I added at the beginning, showing the fires in Turkey on July 29.
The serious threat of forest fires to both nature and settlement areas, and especially very few aerial firefighting planes and helicopters drew attention, disturbing both the residents of the region and the people in other parts of the country. Because the people of Turkey had gained the experience that whenever there was a forest fire, the Turkish Aeronautical Association had the experience of dealing with fires in a much shorter time with the intervention of firefighting planes.
The Turkish Aeronautical Association was established in 1925 by the order of Ataturk. It was an institution that survived through donations. While its function is to provide firefighting aircraft or ambulance helicopters, it has also provided the pilot training for years. According to its own web page, there are eleven M-18 Dromader and nine CL-215 Bombardier type firefighting aircraft in the fleet of the Turkish Aeronautical Association. For years, it evaluated the donations given by the people of Turkey and these services together with the tenders it received from the state. When we say donations, we are not talking about small donations. A significant number of real estate or land in many parts of Turkey are included in these donations. I am using the past tense about the institution, because it was learned that, in fact, a trustee was appointed to the Turkish air institution by the government. In other words, Turkish Aeronautical Association could not pay its debts and the state appointed a manager of its own choice to head the institution.
Now it may be asked, “yes, this institution somehow went bankrupt, but what happened to the firefighting planes it has?” This was the question that almost everyone started to ask that day. On the second day of the forest fires, which especially threatened the country’s south coastline, everyone was looking at the sky and rebelling with angry desperation, saying: “Where are our firefighting planes, why are they not coming to help?” The people of Turkey were right to say “where are our firefighting planes”. Because, as I explained above, this institution has come to this day in line with the donations made by the Turkish people for almost 100 years. The answers to these questions and more would emerge the next day.
On the same day, the following news appeared in the press. “NATO starts training Afghan special military units in Turkey” The entry of the news is as follows: “After the end of the training program in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of international troops, NATO is preparing to start its first training program abroad for Afghan security forces in Turkey. According to the information obtained by the German news agency dpa, a group of Afghan special military units flew to Ankara for training purposes. NATO plans to regularly train Afghan troops outside Afghanistan…”
Turkish government had already announced that it wanted to take on the task of protecting the Kabul airport in Afghanistan by meeting with the authorities in US about a month ago. According to the news in the press, Turkey was very keen on this issue, but the American side was cautious, constantly stating that it was of great importance to protect the Kabul airport.Despite the contradictory situation, US authorities on the other hand finds “Turkey’s protection of Kabul airport ‘vital’ for diplomatic presence in Afghanistan”, according to news. As if it was an undiscovered source of energy had been found on the planet, and this source was located right under the Kabul airport, and America wanted an election very carefully about who will protect this area. When we say an election, there is actually no election. Again according to the news in the press, there is no one who wants this job outside of Turkey. Every country wants to sever their ties with that place as soon as possible.
If you google why Kabul airport is so important, you will meet the followings.
“This airport has a vital role in establishing a connection between Afghanistan, which is located in a mountainous region, has no sea transportation and has a serious security problem on the roads, with the outside world.” According to this importance, since no one other than Turkey is willing to do this job, in this case, no country other than Turkey wants the people living in Aghanistan to contact the outside world.
“Kabul Airport is one of the priority places in terms of ensuring security after the withdrawal.” According to this importance, it is Turkey that wants the withdrawal of NATO troops to be carried out in the healthiest way possible. The 27 countries in ISAF are NATO countries, but inside them only Turkey wants to send everyone home safely.
“Some countries assert airport and air transport security as a prerequisite for holding their diplomatic missions in Afghanistan. Moreover, international aid organizations deliver the necessary humanitarian aid to this country using this airport.”I guess, again, any country other than Turkey does not concern about the security of diplomatic elements or international aid organizations.
Considering these importance items, Turkey seems kind of being more royalist than the king.
By the way, I came across another information about Kabul airport recently. The video below is a video published by Coskun Aral. He is Turkish war correspondent, photo journalist, television journalist and documentary film producer, according to wikipedia. But for the many Turkey people, he is the brave heart with his news from the battlefields in many parts of the world for many years, he is a great traveler because he has the ability to go to places you can never imagine and introduce and teach them, he’s a great photographer because the shots he captures feel alive. He is shortly one of the few good men for many Turkey citizens, and his comments about the issues he knows have high percent truth.
In video between 9:35-10:35 minutes “Well, even if Turkey is not in a combatant position to control Kabul airport, would it be a problem for Turkey to secure that airport? I think it does, because Kabul airport is a place where one or two airlines of the world operate, one of which is Afghan airline Ariana, I don’t know how many planes of its are left, and the other one is our Turkish airlines; it is an airport where only private planes land and take off for special purposes. Let me tell you what they are. Drug trafficking. Because Afghanistan is one of the leading countries in heroin production in the world, defined as the golden crescent this country due to this feature, only the Taliban’s income is close to one billion dollars from this. In the meantime, guess where that $1 billion worth of heroin reaches in the world markets. Because of such a market, the use of that airport brings other problems.”
In July 30, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 22,083 people, number of death for this day was 69. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows.
“We have not yet been able to keep the rate of increase in the number of cases under control. The way to do this is prevention and vaccination. Get your vaccine without wasting time, no matter day and night or the weekend, and follow the precautions.”
The General Directorate of Forestry announced that 70 of the 81 forest fires in 24 cities that broke out between 28-30 July were brought under control. According to the table published by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli on his social media account, 21 fire extinguishing works were continuing in 7 different provinces.
Here is the link of the zoom.earth image like I added at the beginning, showing the fires in Turkey on July 30.
Regional directorate of forest firefighting teams, firefighters sent to the cities where there were fires from many provinces, the people of the region, the volunteers who came to help by hearing the fire, non-governmental organizations and almost everyone were struggling with all their might to overcome the fires with the least damage. At the same time, everyone had the same question, “Where are our firefighting planes?” In response to these questions, on 30 July 2021, the Minister of Forestry made a press statement in Antalya, Manavgat. According to the statement, 3 firefighting planes were leased from Russia.
What matters is not what we fly in the air, but what we throw on the ground. No matter how much water we throw on the ground, whether it’s the Russian planes or helicopters we’re currently using, there’s nothing more capable than that. Now we are making purchases with the tender system. So we don’t have firefighting planes, we don’t have helicopters in our inventory. This has been the case since eternity, and we started to work on the purchase of aircraft in our inventory upon the instruction of our President.
He claimed, “We don’t have a problem with the Turkish Aeronautical Association, we can’t. The problem with the aircraft is not the capacity to fly, it is not capable of performing even if it flies.”
Pakdemirli continued his words by saying, “Helicopters were chosen according to the geography of Turkey. The planes of the Turkish Aeronautical Association are not capable of flying, but there are still making explanations like we should use planes from the 1960s like an antique shop.”
According to news “The description of the aircraft of the Turkish Aeronautical Association as “antique” also drew a reaction. Former THK Central Supervisory Board Chairman Bayram Duman said, “Turkish Aeronautical Association is not an antique shop. Our fire planes, on the other hand, are not antiques, they are world-class planes used by all Western countries. Our aircraft are capable of flying and have high performance. There are no old planes in aviation, there are neglected planes. These planes can intervene in fires when they are maintained within 4-5 days.”
A couple days later, according to the statements of the pilots who had previously worked at the Turkish Aeronautical Association, 11 pilots were going to say they are ready for the mission if the call comes. Also 4 million dollars is needed to prepare these planes. Russian planes were leased for 1.3 million Turkish liras for 153 days, or about 150 thousand Turkish liras per day.
In total, 203 million Turkish liras, or about 25 million dollars, was going to pay for the rental of 3 Russian planes. According to the following news in May 2021, “They rented planes from Russia for 1.3 million liras per day, while domestic facilities were available.” “The Ministry of Forestry opened a firefighting aircraft lease contract. The five ready-to-fly aircraft of the Turkish Aeronautical Association were not put into the tender this year either. 4 companies participated. The tender was given to the firm that submitted the most expensive bid. Turkey, which rots the planes of the Turkish Aeronautical Association in the hangar, will pay 1.3 million liras per day to 3 Russian aircraft, and 203 million liras in total for 153 days.”
And it would come out that the tender specifications of the Ministry of Forestry for fire extinguishing aircraft were changed and the capacity limit of 5000 liters was introduced. The Turkish Aeronautical Association could not get the tender with its 4900 liters fire planes, that is, because of the difference of 100 liters. However, it was very interesting that one of the Spanish planes that came to help a few days later was the same model as the Turkish Aeronautical Association inventory planes.
On the same day, in Konya, one of the provinces in the middle of Turkey, news came that 7 people belonging to a family of Kurdish origin Turkish citizens were killed…
On the same day, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu was with Minister Pakdemirli, who made a press statement on the Forest Fires. And according to the news: “Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, while talking about the continuation of forest fires in Antalya, stated that an account will be opened by the Antalya Governorship for “cash aid” and said, “Our nation is generous. They always do what they can for support.”
Mevlut Cavusoglu’s announcement that an aid account was opened in this way caused immediate reactions. In previous natural disasters, the authorities in Turkey opened an aid account and Turkish citizens used to donate money to this account. However, there was a situation like this. For example, the public had serious doubts that the aid money collected for the previous earthquake or the tax paid by every citizen under the name of earthquake tax were actually given as aid to earthquake victims. As stated in this news:
“Among the six taxes that were enacted after the 1999 earthquake to reduce economic losses, SCT is the only tax that continues to be levied until today. That’s why it was named ‘earthquake tax’. According to experts, approximately 70 billion liras of earthquake tax was collected between 2002 and 2020. This is estimated at more than $30 billion at annual exchange rates. CHP Istanbul Deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu’s asked question “Where were the earthquake taxes used between 2002-2020?” Answering the question, Minister of Treasury and Finance Lutfi Elvan reminded the principle of unity of the Treasury in the law and stated that it could have been used for any expense in the budget. Elvan, stating the Special Communications Tax (OIV), known as the ‘earthquake tax’ in the public, is used within the scope of the ‘Treasury union’, “It may have been spent on any expense,” he implied.
There are actually 7 basic tax types in Turkey. However, the tax types under these 7 basic taxes are listed according to their codes and there are more than 7 tax types according to the current list of the Presidentship of revenue management. In total, in 17 laws, 53 taxes, fees and shares. In other words, some kind of tax of tax is also paid.
There is a calculation of the collected taxes as follows:
In video between 6:56- 7:46 minutes: Ozlem Gurses: Murat, how much public loss do you think in Turkey? Murat Muratoglu: Haha, very good question. In which area? O. Gurses: It doesn’t matter at all, in total. M. Muratoglu: You mean what did they eat? O. Gurses: I don’t mean it in that sense. I mean, how rich we could have been get? What is done with these tender laws, irregularities, unnecessary expenditures, pomp. M. Muratoglu: If we calculate it this way, the tax collected since 2003 is 2.5 trillion dollars. Look around you, you could build 2-3 countries with 2.5 trillion dollarsfrom scratch. O. Gurses: $2.5 trillion dollars? M. Muratogu: Yes, taxes were collected. O. Gurses: So this is equal to Turkey’s income? M. Muratoglu: No, Turkey’s annual income is 750 billion dollars.
In many of the social media and public interviews this day, Turkish citizens was angrily asking where and when these taxes would be used, if they are not used in times like these.
Today, there were also news of “Afghan families” who want to go to Europe from Afghanistan via Turkey.
In July 31, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 22,332 people, number of death for this day was 79. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows.
“The number of cases is above the 20 thousand limit despite the weekend. It is possible to reverse this. If we comply with the measures and gain immunity with the vaccine, the situation will turn in our favor.”
The latest situation in the forest fires was not encouraging. Although the fires were extinguished at many points, the fires continued rapidly in some districts and villages on the southern line.
Here is the link of the zoom.earth image like I added at the beginning, showing the fires in Turkey on July 31.
The fires that started in the forests had also engulfed the settlements. People started to be evacuated from some parts of towns such as Manavgat, Marmaris, Bodrum and Fethiye.
By the way, I should point out that I am not adding the videos and images of the fires in this post.Those, who want see the level of disaster, can access all the images and videos if they write the names of these districts that I mentioned and write forest fire on google translate and translate them into Turkish, after google them. Why I don’t add it? Because I have never witnessed such a disaster in my life on this planet. Hundreds of years of forests were burning, animals, houses, the desperation of people, but the efforts to save every living thing until the last moment under this desperation, how rapidly the flames threaten life, were all more frightening than a chaotic movie.And adding these visuals would have made it very difficult for me to write this post as it would affect the reading of the readers by focusing.
For example, in the images of today that I have not included here, there are villagers in Mersin Silifke trying to dig a trench by digging the ground with their hands to prevent the progression of the fire 3 meters in front of them. Yes, with bare hands. Kazdaglari Istanbul Solidarity @kazdaglariist tweet on this subject was as follows: · “We will not be able to prevent this fire if you do not send a rake, a pick, or gloves to help us, and WATER. We are on fire!”
Or, in the images that I have not included here, there are citizens in Marmaris trying to fill the fire truck with 5 liters of water to make it move forward. Or, in the images that I have not included here, there is a man with his cows surrounded by flames, screaming for help. Or there are images of frogs and even butterflies escaping from the fire drinking water from people’s hands. You heard right, even butterflies!
And among all these and others, what was worse affecting was a burning forest video with a sound recording. The cries of animals, wild boars, birds and many other animals could be heard.
On the same day, according to the news of dw turkish, Turkey had a 10 million dollar mosque built in Ghana. Hearing that the mosque in Ghana was built by Turkey at a cost of $10 million, the citizens of Turkey were thinking of the $4 million needed to make the Turkish Aeronautical Association’s firefighting planes available.
Meanwhile, on the same day, while forests continued to burn in the south and south-west of the country, Baskale district of Van province in the east of the country flooded. While many houses were destroyed, a woman was also swept away by the flood waters.
In the evening of the same day:
Erdogan in the disaster area: “He threw tea to the people in Marmaris, that was fighting fires!” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is AKP member, said about the forest fires in Marmaris, “We will not leave the square to provocateurs.” After his speech, Erdogan threw tea to the people, as he did in flood areas.
In August 1, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 20,890 people, number of death for this day was 96. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows.
“What will stop the rise in the number of cases are the will we demonstrate and the measures we will accord with. Get vaccinated, stay away from crowds.”
That day, forest fires were continuning…
Here is the link of the zoom.earth image like I added at the beginning, showing the fires in Turkey on August 1.
And that day, the government, which was critized about fire-fighting, put the responsibility for forest fires to municipalities at first hand, so by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. All of the provinces’ municipalities on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts where forest fires occur in Turkey these days are governed by opposition parties not by government party AKP.
News: “Minister Pakdemirli: The responsibility in the forest areas that I see belongs to the municipalities.”
While the laws in Turkey were clearly written and in front of everyone, the debate on whether the primary responsibility for forest fires belonged to the municipalities or the government lasted for four days. By law, responsibility for forest areas belonged to the government. In other words, to the General Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. According to news on 4 August, Muharrem Ince a former deputy from the main opposition party, was going to respond to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who put the responsibility on the municipalities in the same way as the minister of his own government, as follows on Twitter:
“You can’t escape responsibility, Erdogan! You’ve been in power for 19 years, you haven’t bought a fire-fighting plane! You left the ours in the hangar. It’s a shame to say “fire is the responsibility of municipalities”! The fire that started in the forests came to settlements as a result of your incompetence. Tell the right, tell the truth.”
On the same day, apart from the coastal provinces, there was another province where the fire started. That was the province of Tunceli, that is, the province ruled by Turkey’s only communist mayor, Fatih Mehmet Macoglu.
A fire broke out in Hozat district of Tunceli province and when Macoglu set out to go to that area with his team, police forces prevented them from entering the fire area. Just on the day when the Minister of Forestry Pakdemirli said that the responsibility belongs to the municipalities, a dilemma arose such as preventing the fulfillment of the responsibility they had imposed on the municipalities.
Hozat Belediyesi'nin yapmış olduğu çağrı üzerine şuan Hozat girisindeyiz ve bir müdahale ile karşı karşıyayız. Tek derdimiz doğamız. Özel güvenlik gerekçe gösterilerek müdahale edilmesini doğru bulmuyoruz.
Tweet translate in English: “Upon the call of Hozat Municipality, we are now at the entrance of Hozat and we are faced with an intervention. Our only concern is our nature. We do not find it appropriate to intervene on the grounds of private security. We call on all our people to embrace our nature.“
Turkish journalist and columnist Ismail Saymaz made the following assessment on the situation in his column on this day: “…Reputation is burning furiously The President, like his minister, says that the Turkish Aeronautical Association does not have an airplane. If it has, he would surely have known. He recently flew eight planes to visit Cyprus. The last time Ercan Airport saw so many planes at the Cyprus extraction operation(in 1974). If the Turkish Aeronautical Association had a plane that could fly, it would have landed in Cyprus with the president’s fleet before extinguishing the fire. While Erdogan explains that having a complex with 1115 rooms, building a summer palace in Okluk bay and a winter palace in Malazgirt as “It’s not be retrenched on reputation”, he sees a fleet of 13 aircraft as a requirement of the state governing (mentioning presidential fleet). Turkey’s reputation has been on fire for three days, since the firefighting planes, which can be repaired with the income from the sale of one of these planes, are covering a spider web on the ground….”
Meanwhile, the flooding in Van province continued, according to news, thousands of animals died and dozens of houses were destroyed.
This day, also the following video about Afghans approaching the Turkish border were shared on social media.
Son 4 gündür tüm sınır hattını gezdim. Yapılan haberler sonrası mevcut rotalardan geçişler azaldı ancak devam ediyor. İran sınırında artan göçmen sayısı, yeni rotalara kayıyor. Görüntüler 3 gün önce yeni rotadan geçen göçmenlere ait. pic.twitter.com/WKhaLvWqsO
Translate in English: “I have traveled the entire border line for the last 4 days. After the news, crossings from existing routes decreased, but they continue. The increasing number of immigrants on the Iranian border is shifting to new routes. The images are of immigrants who passed the new route 3 days ago.”
In the first three days of press news that I included in this post, it was stated that those who were coming were always Afghan families. However, these images and many more images that would appear later showed that there were no women and children among those who came. It was only young Afghan men who came.
In August 2, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 22,898 people, number of death for this day was 91. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows.
“The rate of increase in the number of cases tends to decrease. We are the ones who will make it permanent. Get your vaccine without compromising the measure.”
Today, the fires in the Cokertme neighborhood of Mugla province and the Bodrum district were very large. For Cokertme, the mayor of Mugla wrote the following tweet on the night between August 1 and August 2: “Last look at our Cokertme neighborhood. We are in great sadness…” #weareonfire #Milasfire #wewantairintervention
Also today, the mayor of Antalya metropolitan wrote the following tweet: “The fire in Gundogmus has come to the city. Planes and helicopters are needed. As the Metropolitan Municipality, we are intervening on land with our relevant institutions and organizations. We are evacuating with our buses. Our lives are hurting. Let’s put out this fire together now.”
Marmaris Mayor told the authorities, “Hisaronu is on fire! Flames have reached the settlements, houses are being evacuated. Emergency air support is a must! Hear the screams now!” by making call on Twitter.
Bodrum Mayor‘s tweet about today was as follows: “Please hear our voice, we need urgent help. To defend the last remaining forests in Bodrum, to protect life.” # wewantairintervention #Bodrumonfire
By the way, I would like to add that these mayors and others didn’t just tweet during the fires, of course. They were helping by trying to coordinate between the people and the rescue teams in the constantly fire areas, almost 24/7 every day.
Here is the link of the zoom.earth image like I added at the beginning, showing the fires in Turkey on August 2.
While the news channels known for their closeness to the government were making news like “Turkey’s fight against fires set an example to the world,” the mayors of the districts where the fires broke out were tweeting pleadingly and asking for help.
Besides, according to the news on the same day: “Citizens chased the TRT (Turkish state television) crew in Hisaronu, which was still on fire: ‘Yesterday you said Hisaronu was saved!’
In Mugla Marmaris, fires continue in many regions for 5 days. One of the places most affected by the fires was Hisaronu in terms of the number of settlements.
As the flames started to rise again in the Hisaronu District, the citizens living in the area reacted to the TRT team by saying, “Yesterday, you said Hisaronu was saved,” saying that they saved their homes with their own efforts. Meanwhile, the NTV reporter said, “Who said it?” replied.
Citizens who said, “There is no intervention, we are burning here, the nation has come to this point,” demanded the TRT team to leave the region.
‘There is no police?’ A citizen said, “Then why is he distributing tea in Marmaris?” said. After the reactions, the TRT reporter yelled, by saying “Isn’t there a policeman?”
TRT crew had to leave the area by getting into their cars.
The main reason why the state’s emergency fire rescue teams and the firefighters of the provincial municipalities are insufficient, and the mayors of the districts especially ask for air support, is that these forested areas are on very rough and steep lands. Therefore, it is very difficult to reach by road. In addition, the fact that the burning pine cones jumped a few kilometers away from its place, like a firecracker, with the effect of the strong wind, made the intervention efforts from the land insufficient. That’s why endless efforts of the civilians, the firefighters from many provincial municipalities also forestry directorates were not enough.
Also during the day, news of a terrible murder came from Antalya. A young woman, 21-year-old college student, was brutally murdered and thrown into the forestland…
“Loan offer from Erdogan to villagers whose house was burned: ‘It’s like paying 500 Turkish Liras rent after 2 years…” Mustafa Cansız, the headman of Kalemler village, where was affected by the fire in Antalya’s Manavgat district, where also 7 people lost their lives in fires, stated that when President Erdogan who is member of AKP came to their village, and he promised that “everyone’s house would be built”.
Headman Cansiz said:
Mr. President said that for example, “if there is an expense of 500,000 Liras, we will cover 300,000 Liras of it, you will pay 200,000 Lira as a loan after 2 years, as if you are paying 500 Liras rent after 2 years.” But if our sensitive and helpful people pay for the remaining 200,000 Lira here, we will be pleased.
Emphasizing that there are citizens in their villages who will not be able to afford to pay for the rest of the loan of their houses, Cansiz said, “There are many people who will not be able to afford it. Everyone here is low-income. They’ve been victimized. Their houses and tractors burned down.
Meanwhile, on the night bewteen August 1 to August 2, Twitter users in Turkey started to add the hashtag #helpturkey to their tweets. With a kind of global call, they stated in tweets that air response planes were requested for fires to countries that wanted to help. According to analysis, around 2.5 million #helpturkey hashtags were used in one day. Immediately afterwards, government officials made statements that this hashtag made the country look weak. In this statement, they claimed that the twitter accounts using this hashtag were of foreign origin bot accounts.
Teyit.org (Confirmation org), which is investigating the accuracy of internet news on web, shared the following article on this subject:
Case study: The story of the #HelpTurkey hashtag
It can be suspected that the #HelpTurkey campaign was started artificially to show Turkey in powerlessness. But the scattering of shares was organic. There are dozens of multi-follower and verified accounts that cause the campaign to become massive.
Turkey has been coping with forest fires, which are constantly being added in the last few days. For the Mediterranean basin, this is normal to some extent; However, it is also the case that global climate change and other human factors increase the number of these fires and the areas they affect every year.
Aside from the claims that do not rely on any concrete evidence – at least for now – as the fires were caused by systematic arson, one of the main agenda items for the last four days has been that Turkey is unprepared for the fires that can be considered “predictable”, that it is incapable of managing the crisis and that its political priorities are inaccurate.
Moments of crisis can lead to tremendous collective panic. For example, 50 infernal images that an ordinary social media user sees in a row on his timeline can make it difficult to maintain common sense.
Cries for help in times of crisis and panic are also understandable. However, the post in English, which we think you have seen frequently on social media in the last few days and shared with the hashtag #HelpTurkey, brought up another delusion. When the text requesting help from abroad to Turkey was shared millions of times within hours, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun claimed that the campaign was deliberately launched by foreign powers who wanted to show Turkey incapable. Altun did not support his claim with any concrete evidence.
Of course, it is necessary to be organized in order to create a digital or daily campaign. Being an organized effort is not a good starting point for declaring a campaign “malicious” or “foreign-powered”. However, the claim that the campaign was produced “artificially” can be examined…
First of all, it is not unusual for countries to help each other for free during disasters such as earthquakes, floods and great fires. Countries with high per capita income may also need help in the face of such unexpected crises, no matter how prepared they are. Moreover, the offer and acceptance of help does not necessarily correspond to a physical need. It also means a mutual declaration of goodwill. As a matter of fact, Turkey has sent aid to many countries in similar situations and has received offers of assistance from many countries.
In the early days during the ongoing fires, Turkey did not request any assistance. The demand of the public has strengthened and new fires have been added to the fires with the effect of the air temperature. Finally, on August 1, Turkey asked for help from the Emergency Response Coordination Centre, the relevant unit of the European Union. Spain, which is part of the program, announced that it will send two planes and Croatia one…
In other words, first of all, Turkey offered foreign aid itself, and we have no reason to think that the motivation of their offer was to “show Turkey weak”.
So, many real Twitter users in Turkey used the hashtag #helpturkey, but asking for help from foreign countries was not something they did in the first place, as claimed. The government had already sought help from foreign countries before they did. However, this fact would not prevent an investigation into this hashtag by the prosecutor on August 5, 2021.
There is a phrase used by Turkish journalist Fatih Yaslı for situations like this about the government: “They invented a very interesting way of lying, they claim the exact antithesis of what they are, what they’re doing, whatever they think.“
Many thousands of Afghans and their immediate family members are at risk due to these U.S. affiliations and are not eligible for a Special Immigrant Visa because either they did not have qualifying employment, or they have not met the time-in-service requirement to become eligible; however, they may be eligible for a P-2 referral, and thus, to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Once we begin processing these cases, we will work with our resettlement partners in the United States to welcome these Afghan refugees to their new communities. Refugee resettlement would not be possible without the support of state and local governments, our resettlement partners and affiliates, nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, and the tens of thousands of volunteers across the United States who participate in this program….
This is [Senior State Department Official Three]. I’ll just add that in a typical refugee outflow, when refugees arrive at the border they would present themselves also to UNHCR, which is our primary partner on the ground. And they would be providing the international protection in addition to whatever protection might be provided by the government in which the refugee is seeking asylum.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: Yeah, and this is [Senior State Department Official Two]. I’ll just add one other thing, and that is that we’ve already been in discussions with neighboring countries as well as UNHCR to be prepared for potential outflows. So in a place like Pakistan, it’ll be important that their borders remain open. Obviously, if people go north or if they go via Iran to Turkey – we’ve already seen some arrivals in Turkey – that people have an opportunity both to enter the country as well as to register with either the government or with UNHCR.
QUESTION: Hi, thank you very much. Two quick clarifications. So just to be clear, the 12 to 14 months, that is from the time someone is referred until potentially accepted? Is that correct? Number two, you mentioned – sorry I’m out of breath, I’m running – you mentioned that these – these other countries that they could go to. Are there any countries where you’ll provide them any housing or any kind of support? And three, you just mentioned that you’ve already seen an influx into Turkey. Can you give us any sense of how many people have gone to Turkey who may be eligible or applying for this new visa? Thanks.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Thanks, Courtney. So first question on the time horizon, no, it’s not 12 to 14 months from the time they’re referred. The clock really doesn’t start ticking until somebody has left Afghanistan and we can begin their case processing. So the time horizon is really dependent on when they get out and when we can start the processing of their case.
In terms of assistance in other countries, as in any other refugee situation where people are fleeing the country and showing up in other countries, as I believe my colleague [Senior State Department Official Three] mentioned, there is an international response for that that is organized through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, where people can present themselves either to the government or to UNHCR to seek international protection while they wait for our program. And as part of that protection that is offered it oftentimes includes humanitarian assistance, and so that would be the mechanism by which we would look to have us and other donors support people who are fleeing.
I don’t have numbers on Turkey. I would say we haven’t seen major large outflows of people yet, but we have seen some numbers of people crossing, but not large numbers yet.
In short, it is said that “we(US) will expel the people with whom we fought together against the Taliban in Afghanistan, because we will no longer be in Afghanistan. We will give them a special visa. They will come to America with that visa. Exit from the country has already begun. We told Pakistan to keep the borders open. (Apparently they told Turkey as well) We will bring these people between 12 and 14 months.”
Only the number is not clear. US, which keeps account of everything, did not keep a record of who it worked with.(!) And although these people and their families are mentioned, there are no families as mentioned in the propaganda news, there are only young men.
In August 3, 2021, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health statement, number of Covid-19 cases for this day was 24,832 people, number of death for this day was 126. The tweet of the Minister of Health about today’s Covid-19 table was as follows.
“The number of daily cases approached 25 thousand. If we follow the rules of combating the epidemic and get our vaccinations, we will take action to end the epidemic. Like first-dose vaccines, second and third-dose vaccines are also extremely important.”
The fires continued. Especially in Mugla province and Antalya, many settlements and natural areas were under threat. In one video, a beekeeper who lost most of his hives was saying these words. “Suddenly, flames were starting in another place. It was as if the flame had feet.”
Here is the link of the zoom.earth image like I added at the beginning, showing the fires in Turkey on August 3.
The people of these regions live by olive production, generally small cattle breeding, and citrus production. Now many people’s olive or orange trees were burned. Animals likewise. As the beekeeper I mentioned above said: “If my bees were still alive, there wouldn’t be a plant left to land upon anyway.”
Speaking in a BBC News Turkish video about today, a young woman in Manavgat said: “Firefighters came to us from all provinces and districts. But nobody directed the fire brigades. We burned here right under everyones nose. While we were burning like this, a person did not come and give us a glass of water. Where did all these people’s years of hard work go? These people earned by farming.”
Some districts of the provinces in the region are municipalities belonging to the AKP government party. The president of one of them would say I was misunderstood the same day, for his speech the day before. In his speech he said:
Mayor of Antalya’s Gundogmus district, Mehmet Ozeren, praised the fact that TOKI(Housing Development Administration of Turkey) would build a reimbursed house in return for the houses damaged in the forest fires that caused great damage in the county.
Broadcasting the interview with a YouTube channel called “Alanyalı TV” live on his Facebook account, Ozeren talked about the support to be given to citizens whose houses were burned. Stating that a total of 50 thousand TL, 35 thousand TL and 15 thousand TL, will be provided to the citizens whose houses have become unusable, Özeren said that 10 thousand TL will be given to the citizens whose houses were damaged by the fire.
Ozeren said, “For our citizens whose houses have become unusable, TOKI will build a house with payment for 20 years. Maybe it is not right to say this, but those who have very old houses will wish that our house burned down too. The consolation grant of the state for them is too much,“.
At those hours time when the mayor said he was misunderstood, an elderly citizen was having a nervous breakdown in the middle of the road of Marmaris in an interview on KRT TV by saying followings:
“Now he tells me to evacuate the house. How can I evacuate my house? Is it easy? Where were you, where were you five days ago! I call the forest department, they say to me, we will send, we will send. They’re making fun of me! Is there such a thing! Damn them all! Damn those who run this country! Is that so? They say everything is on fire. Yes it can burn, but if it burns you will put it out. You stepped aside. You call The Turkish Aeronautical Association’s planes “antiques”. But the pilots say that give us a task and let’s put it out. It was so simple to put out that fire. There was a fire in the same place 18 years ago. I called then, a fire-fighting plane had arrived, water poured out. I’ve been begging for five days, begging for last breath. It’s been 5 days now, they just arrived, there wasn’t even a fire brigade. Do you know what the fire department said to me? Let us know when the fire come to the houses, we will intervene that time. Come on, intervene! Such an administration, such a system! No, not for me! I have served this country for 77 years. This must not like that! First, this country was burning without flame, it has been burning without flame for 20 years, now it is burning with flames. It must not like that!
In another corner of the fire area a peasant woman speaking to DW Turkish was saying: “We had no security other than olives. How are we going to pay the taxes to the state now. We can’t pay them. We couldn’t pay the water bills. We could not get fodder for our animals. We don’t have a pension. We don’t have an annual. No one is thinking about you.”
Also, during the day, the fire in Milas would come within 3 km of a thermal power plant towards the evening hours.
On the same day, Turkey Foreign Ministry replied to the USA about ‘Afghan immigrants’: “
The US statement will cause a major migration crisis in our region and increase the suffering of Afghans on their migration routes.”
…
If you ask how much area was burned in total, in this one week:
547.000 dekar alan yanmis şu ana kadar. Kül olan büyüklüğü kafanızda canlandirmak istedim: 81.398 adet futbol sahası büyüklüğünde bir alan yandı. Hala yanıyor.
Translate in English: “547,000 decares of land have been burned so far. I wanted to visualize the ashes of greatness in your mind: An area the size of 81,398 football fields was burned. It’s still burning.“
When Journalist Fatih Portakal, tweeted this, on August 4, the Minister of Health would add the following tweet for the daily Covid-19 table:”The number of cases is well above the 20 thousand limit, which we accept as the limit. It is in our hands to reduce the number of cases below this limit. Get your vaccine, stay away from crowds.”
Hundreds of refugees and migrants are trying to reach Europe via Turkish land borders and coastal areas after Turkey says it will no longer prevent refugees from reaching Europe.
After a series of airstrikes on late Thursday killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers and wounded 36 in Syria’s Idlib, a senior Turkish official told Reuters that Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea.
Hundreds of refugees have rushed into Turkey’s northwestern province of Edirne which is located along the European Union countries Bulgaria and Greece following the statements of Turkish authorities in the wake of the deadly airstrikes.
Some refugees came to the city by taxis from İstanbul as some others were transferred by buses to reach Kapıkule border gate after the airstrikes that killed Turkish troops in Syria.
As the refugees rushed into the border gate in Edirne, the border officials are claimed to direct the refugees to “the river or the forest” en route to Europe. Some different groups of refugees have been observed in Edirne, the city that has borders with Bulgaria and Greece…
Photo by Ayhan Mehmet – Anatolian News Agency
“No illegal immigration,” said the Greek prime minister, responded to migrants with tear gas…” video by euro.news
Some refugees speak in English, like Palestinian refugee who started talking in 1.5 minutes, but I tried to translate the others. In some places due to their Turkish is not good enough I translated word to word.
0-10 seconds:
-Why do you want to go?
-The price of everything is raised in here Turkey, there is no work, no money, what are we going to do?
0.50-1.26 minutes: Syrian refugee
-How long have you been in Turkey?
-One and a half months.
-Why do you want to go?
-To go Europe. There is war in Syria. Much problem. There is no life at there.
-So, have you tried to go from here before?
-Two times. Greece holds, hits, they took my money and my phone.Then I deported to Turkey.
-Aren’t you afraid of?
-I’am afraid already. You’re not like human at there. Much problem.
2.04-2.35 minutes: Afghan refugee
-Four months ago I came to Turkey.
-Why do you want to go? Where would you like to go?
-We are going to Europe.
-Why?
-There are many wars, prohibitions, everything in our country. This place is not so easy for us either. They don’t allow. They do not give a residence permit. Very difficult in Turkey. So much Afghan comes here, what will they do? That’s why we want to go.
-So, what if the border gates don’t open? (by Greece)
-It will be very bad. So many women, kids in here, what are they going to do? We are young, we would find a solution, but what are they going to do? Very difficult, very bad.
-So, do you want to live again in Turkey? What are you going to do if gates don’t open?
–We are desperate, of course we will live.
…….
As you can see, there are many refugees try to cross borders to go Europe from Turkey for last two days. Inside them, many Afghan, African, Uzbek, Iranian, Pakistani, Iraqi, Moroccan except Syrians. According to today’s figures by Interior Minister of Turkey, more than seventy-six thousand migrants have crossed the border of Turkey. I do not know how many of them have reached Greece or Bulgaria, or how many stay in the buffer zone in between countries. Yesterday, Greece said, they sent 4000 refugees back. Right now, beside it is not possible to tell the exact number of people who do not wait in the buffer zone and try to reach the Greek islands by sea. In the video below you can see how some African refugees have struggled to survive with difficulty with inflatable boat until they reach Lesbos Island. (1 minute video)
Even the women, men and children’s teeth are shaking from the cold. It is known Aegean Sea has high temperature in summer. But what the people who do not live in here, don’t know is when the weather is cold in the winter, and because of the high humidity, plus if there is wind and storm, you will feel the cold air until to your bones. All parts of your body must be closed, if there is a tiny open place, even the wind entering from there that can cause pneumonia. Believe me my earthling friends, the cold of Moscow is better than the cold of the Aegean sea that met these conditions. And when these people were trying to cross the Aegean sea, there was a strong storm, with a speed of 50-70 km per hour. The humidity is 73%. The air temperature was 7-11 degrees Celsius; 44-51Fahrenheit. So the conditions I mentioned were been provided. While most people are in their warm beds, they struggle to survive under these conditions.
Refugees have been captured by the consequences of the capitalist and imperialist world. Desperation is their living space. A young Pakistani refugee was saying in a video I did not share here: “Everyone wants to live in own homeland. But there is war, there is poverty; no one would want to leave homeland, live on the streets.”
There is nothing more to add on his words…
And the European or American, who do not want refugees in their country, do not rebel and do not go out on the streets for protest while bombing Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries with their own taxes or while colonizing Africa and still exploiting. But when the refugee comes to their country, they hate the refugees. Why? Aren’t your governments who milking you like a cow with taxes to ruin this planet? Or are you glad that your taxes find a good place themselves when your governments made open financial agreements on refugees, bargaining clearly on human life?
Or none of them. Well then, didn’t you then understand that those who still represent you in your parliaments do not work? The only right political parties on the planet are socialist and communist parties. Otherwise this cycle will continue as long as you vote for other parties.
Here I add an interview with Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece KKE in 28th February publishing in newworker.org, so that you can understand the difference. Greek communists speak out!
Edit 02.03.2020
Taken from Istanbul Bar Association Human Right Center twitter account
Report on Istanbul Bar Association Human Right Center’s Visit to Pazarkule Checkpoint
I am happy, today, I am happy after a long time on this planet!
A city in Turkey, yes, a city mayorship of Turkey was took by the Communist Party Turkey, TKP. I had shared with you in December 2017, Ovacik county municipality has ruled by communist party member Mehmet Fatih Macoglu with my post “Communist bees” you would remember. And that man, was the candidate of the city Tunceli where Ovacik in at today’s election 31 March! And he took the Tunceli city’s mayorship! He rised such a star from among many ugly politics!
I want to cry!!! But I cannot, because of the extraterrestrial situations, as you know, our eye drops are not working too much. But if I had I would do!
I was waiting until that moment. Right now, the vote boxes open 85% in Tunceli(Dersim). But the difference between his votes and the closer competitor, HDP’s candidate is about 4,5%. This is not a difference easy to close. So Macoglu took!
You fly all red flags my earthling friends! I am happy, I am drinking vodka right now as you can guess, and this happiness I guess due to I felt real hope light! Nazdorovya! Haha!
This will change many things I know!
Salute you all my earthling friends and comrades! One of the city of Turkey will be ruled by Communist party after this! If it is happenning in Turkey, it can be in everywhere! Don’t lose your hopes ever!!! This order will change! Nobody has to live with this capitalist slavery order!
And salute you Fatih Mehmet Macoglu proudly!
Let’s fly all RED FLAGS today or tonight!
I guess, I will edit this post tomorrow with sober head, whatever, haha!
AK Parti or AKP acronym belongs to the ruling party and is managed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan
CHP: The opposition Ataturkist party, the largest number of seats in the oppositions parties at parliament, managed by Kemal Kilicdaroglu
MHP: Turkish nationalist party at parliament
HDP: Kurdish nationalist party at parliament
You can see at upper image where Communist Party Turkey has taken. I’ve put TKP symbol on Tunceli(Dersim), of course! What a wonderful feeling to do this, haha!
In 2014 the results was like that:
Also, interesting results came today especially from Istanbul and Ankara. Istanbul and Ankara have been ruling by AKP for last 25 years. And today we can see that both city taken by CHP.
The voters’ figures of Istanbul is about 9.3 millon, and Ankara is about 3,5 million. Both of their votes is equal almost another 10-15 cities in Anatolia. And such as Izmir (its voters about 2.9 millon), many city with a lot of voters especially at the shores taken by CHP in this election. I guess, these results will bring interesting period for Turkey’s political agenda in next days.
There is another protest group in France, as well as the Yellow Vests. They are high school and college students. They are against the government’s reform plans on new exam system, and they want Macron administration to listen them. In short, it is in this way, but the content is very wide.
To see the existence of freedom of expression is a lower probability than to see a dinosaur on the planet.
On December 6th, during French high school students’ protests, the images of the French police who humiliated the high school students tyrannically, were imprinted on everyone’s memory. Even in the most fascist administrations in history, it has been seen rare that young people were treated in this way. It is said that France is now governed with democracy. The guns with plactic bullets and tear gas that are bought by the public’s paid taxes, are also part of this democracy. This is actually present in almost all democracies around the world. In the definitions of democracy, it is defended that people should have freedom of expression. But somehow to see this kind of freedom which cannot find an existence, is even less than the possibility of seeing dinosaurs on the planet. Of course, the group that wants to express themselves most often is young people inside the human kind. This is a situation that arises from the need more communication rather than because of the difficulty of expression of themselves. The youth in France abided by this rule. Even, at a point where the adults had to stand out in the name of them, they entered a big job such as to get the ropes into their hands.
History of French students protests is older than Marvel cosmic universe
Student movements in the history of the world, far back to the very old dates. In the revolution of 1848, as in many European countries, students in France took part in the revolution movement. And of course 1968.
The “Red May” of 1968 made forever Paris a symbol of youth unrest. Thousands of students from the best universities in France announced an indefinite strike under the slogans “It is forbidden to forbid!”-“Il est interdit d’interdire!” and “Be realistic, demand the impossible.”-“Soyez réalistes, demandezl’impossible”…Their protest inspired millions of people and became the subject of many books, films and songs. Many teachers sympathized with the students, including the famous contemporary philosophers Michel Foucault and Jean-Paul Sartre. Student revolt against bourgeois society and bourgeois morality spread to the neighboring European countries.
As it turns out, these protests of French students are not the first and have a very old history. It can even be said that these protests are much older than the beginning of Marvel Cosmic Universe (1939). Well, are there any a hero or “villain” and “supervillain” in these youth movements? What do they oppose and what do they want?
I’ve learned after reading dozens of articles, hundreds of documents, and watching thousands of videos for this… (I am kidding.:)) It’s enough to watch one or two videos made with them to understand what they want. In other words, everyone who is not retarded can understand that they want to achieve quality education with the lowest possible price on the equal basis; and of course the subject of the university which will effect their future. Macron government has brought a system that badly affect the majority of young people in the transition to university. France’s new Parcoursup system for university entry is the first thing they don’t want.(*)
“Critics suspect the system increases inequality by introducing greater selectivity and competition. Students not offered a university spot can enter into government training programs for various careers…
“There are a lot of students who are quite anxious and upset,” said Muriel Paletou, president of the Toulouse region’s parents association. “This violence is an expression of that fear, but this reform is also being imposed in a way that’s also violent and very fast.”
Even before the new bac is rolled out, many high school students are upset by the introduction last year of a new college application platform called “Parcoursup,” short for “parcour superieur” or “path to higher education.” The lack of transparency around how Parcoursup works led many to suspect it was introducing even greater selectivity and competition among students who were once guaranteed admission to university if they passed the bac.”
They don’t want Jedi education; but of course, if they had it would have been cool
I’ve read an article about the French education minister’s concern in the education system. Quoted from the article dated December 2017 as follows.
“It follows an announcement by Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister, that mobile phones will be banned from next year in primary, junior and middle schools, a pledge that formed part of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign.
Mr Blanque believes that the time children spend staring at screens is a matter of “public health”. “These days, the children don’t play at break time any more. They are just all in front of their smartphones and, from an educational point of view, that’s a problem,” Mr Blanque said to the Local, an English-language publication, this week.”
As you can see, this concern is about the use smartphone/mobile phone of young people. And he describes it as “an educational point of view, that’s a problem,”. Not only young people, but almost every person has these phones in their hands and they can’t keep their eyes off them. This is already a ridiculous situation for all humans. However, while students obviously have a lot of problems, like not being able to get education at first, Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister’s doing is to play to the audience.
These young people do not want Jedi education, they want only the right, accessible and equal education for all. Of course it would be cool if they had Jedi training. Give these young people what they want; I’m sure when you give, the use of the smartphone which is a big problem, will be reduced at least half!
Also, if Macron government had been sincere that smartphones were the problem for human health, they would not have announced that their goal is rollout of 5G in 2020. 5G brings the smart meters next to itself. Smart meters will not harm children, young people, adults, even the nature, ie the health of the whole society? But it is okay for you. A few billionaires would put more satellites into space, space would return to the more dumpster, government allowance would give to these billionaires, money would allocate from the budget for them, more tax burden will be on the people’s back for the profit of rich people, the phone manufacturer billionaires would sell new 5G compatible phones. It doesn’t matter the people’s health is jeopardized, next to so many rich get more profit. Let’s you admit, you are hypocrite!
Z generation. (Why did we come to the last letter of the alphabet, will there be no other generation after that?)
However, they think that this generation called Z Generation, because of their navel cords were cut through the internet when they were born, they will swallow and digest whatever they are given about internet technology and on internet. “Already these teens share stories in instagram, they tweet and swear, laughs at videos that goats shout at each other, even they watch the game players instead of playing game, shortly waste their time without thinking.” These are not my thoughts. This is how most managements see Z Generation in general. Well, they all are really like that?
In fact, these researches show differences on the country basis according to social media researches. For example, Z Gen of US and Z Gen in France have not the same internet addiction. But generalizations on this planet, sharp-edges are very common. In more detail, while more than 90% of American Z Generation spend time on the internet, in France this figure is in the 63-65% range. The trend in internet sharing is not the same either between them. I didn’t do these researches. The companies that make these researches are the marketing companies that focus on young people. Their aim is, of course, to identify and direct the tendencies of young people, and in this direction, to make profits that they can manage within the capitalist system.
Are these young people, Z generation, really a marketing tool, so are they handy fools? In the meantime, why Z generation, why did we come to the last letter of the alphabet, will there be no other generation after that, why…? Hundreds of questions in my head.
Anyway. These teens show in a way that they’re not handy fools. If they are, some organizations in the world would not do research on the tendencies of socialism for both Millennials and Z Generation. I’ve thought about that too, of course.:) That’s what I realized: Generation Z was born in the period when the environment was polluted the most and this was done by capitalist companies plainly visible. On the other hand, perhaps they are lovers of animals and nature more than any other generation. In the surveys, a business that is intertwined with nature in the field of expertise/work for which they think in the future, is at a high rate with the work of information technologies. This, of course, is not only because of they are bored very quickly and want a job outside. They want to live in a clean environment, want to breathe.
by Brazillian cartoonist Andre Luiz
By the way, the condition of your planet is really bad; I should specify that the alarm level is even black. The planet earth with this polluted environment is as important as the Internet for Z Generation. In other words, we can say that, in fact, capitalism could not get the full result as it expected on them.
The continuing process from Homo sapiens to Homo robotus
However, the capitalism tries every way to achieve the goal. Capitalism is a system that makes ordinary people even worse poor, making the rich even richer. Perhaps the protests of these young people and the yellow vests can be compared to the Rebellion of Poor France. However, the definition of poverty is a different color for each country. The price increases especially in 2018 put the laboring French a difficult situation. This difficult situation determines the living conditions of French people. It would not be right to make the same definition in other countries. In other words, the definition of poverty varies according to each country. Capitalism offers you a different type of poverty according to the conditions in each country. It is up to you to choose and like or not.
If you do not accept one of the definitions of poverty, in this time you faced with police forces that the government has grown up with its hand, and their costs paid with your taxes again. These advanced camouflaged and armed police forces seem to have evolved as a new species. This new species, which will be called Homo robotus, has evolved until it reaches this level.
Find 10 differences between two pictures. There is no need 10 differences! At the first a young could talk to the police while laughing and at the second, a teenager is on his knees on the ground with his hands behind his head; in front of him there are 35 police officers I can count. Like a horror empire! In 50 years France has really made a lot of progress on human rights! In the last fifty years, of course, these new police forces, evolving as Homo robotus did not jump over the time by disrupting the rules of evolution. According to wikipedia, in the last 50 years in France 17 riots have been.
The 2006 youth protests in France and 2007–09 university protests in France, signed by the youth. French governments that faced with a revolt about in every 2-3 years in last fifty years developed police forces under their hands. New defense techniques and equipments were prepared for the new century. Their evolution, of course, returned back to protesters as plastic bullets, tear gas, pressure water, and the injuries, even deaths subsequently. Amnesty’s news with the title “Police must end use of excessive force against protesters and high school children in France” dated 14 December 2018 contains the following lines:
“As the clouds of tear gas lift, a clearer picture has emerged which shows police have used excessive force against largely peaceful protesters, journalists and even children,” said Rym Khadhraoui, Amnesty International’s West Europe Researcher.
“Whilst policing demonstrations is a difficult task and some protesters have committed unlawful and violent acts, it is essential that both French law and international human rights law is respected. Police have a duty to maintain public order, and in doing so they may use force only when strictly necessary. If the use of force is unavoidable, it must be done with restraint.”
Official figures show that 1,407 protesters have been injured – 46 of them seriously – since protests began on 17 November. In total, 717 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters also suffered violence. Whilst the authorities, have repeatedly and legitimately condemned acts of violence by protesters, they have failed to express concern over the excessive use of force by the police which must be the subject of an independent, impartial and effective investigation…
Mathieu Barraquier, a teacher in Garges-lès-Gonesse, a Paris suburb, described escalating tensions on 5 December outside the Simone de Beauvoir high school, after a tree was set alight and police started putting on riot gear. Some children started throwing stones and in once instance, a small burning projectile in the direction of the police who were about 30 meters away. “Then, without any reason, I heard a rubber bullet and I saw a student collapse. I ran to him and as he turned his head I saw that his cheek was burst open like a split pomegranate. He had not been throwing stones. He had just been talking with his friends.” The boy was hospitalised for two days.
On 6 December, there were clashes between police and students of Saint-Exupery high school in Mantes-la-Jolie, another suburb of Paris. In all, 163 children, some as young as 13, were arrested, and footage of dozens of high school students forced to kneel with their hands either behind their heads or handcuffed behind their backs went viral.
If you ask whether the police violence still continued or not after this news, yes, of course, is this question a joke? For more details of the violence of the Homo robotus of France government, it is enough to take a look at these two articles.
Would Sartre, Hegel or Khayyam play World of Warcraft?
It is now overwhelmingly on the planet, there are limited, even non-freedoms, the hegemony of capitalism, police violence, wars and interventions, a polluted environment. Under these conditions, young people want to step forward and shape their future. It is already the ideal one. The adults should not make judgments without hesitation, while sitting on the chair. Okay, this generation has a lot of shortcomings, but which generation hadn’t? Wouldn’t every new generation always tagged by the previous one? I think the most important problem of this generation is their importance to the visual perceptions. Communication is usually provided on social networks on the internet through photographs or similar visuals between them. So time is short for them; they spend this time for watching, not to read. Visual perception is open to manipulation. Without knowing what is really in the background, a watched video can cause war cries against a person or group who does not deserve at all in the room.
Of course, these young people will look for answers of the same questions over time as same as the adults did before. “Why am I here?” is the first one. Who didn’t ask this question? Many philosophers have tried to find the causes of human and all existences on this planet. But if they had lived today, or if they themselves were Z generation, for example, Hegel, Khayyam or Sartre, would they give the answer to this question via twitter? Or maybe they would become youtubers. Or maybe they would play World of Warcraft. I don’t think Sartre or Khayyam would play WoW, but I think Hegel would have played. He had got that light.;) Even when playing, Hegel could have raised a new idea and said “Virtual reality is rational, and rational is virtual reality,” haha!
As a result, present youth in France will also criticize the next generation. Due to we came to the last letter in the alphabet, probably the next generation will be called something like Version Z2. Of course, nowadays they have a stance against the system and they will have the right to criticize the next generation. While they are taking part in all these struggles, adults have to give up on promises to them with empty words and feel the same fear for the future of human and the planet. Both are already connected with each other. For now, there is no other planet where the human species can live. For that reason, if there is a will in a anywhere, they may be in young people even children, adults need to take their side. In the end, it should be remembered that the future of humans is belong to the youth with free mind and free conscience.
(*)I’ve tried to get in touch with their union to learn exactly what their demands are about 2 months ago. I had thought to make an article about them. Because in the English-speaking world, it is very difficult to find articles about the struggle of French high school students. But, I had to postpone a lot of things, including this article, because of ear infection I had last month. Also yes, the high school students in France have got the union, UNL-SD (Union Nationale Lycéenne – Syndicale et Démocratique), you did not hear wrong, my earthling friends. (By the way, we don’t even have an union, I envy you!) However I do not know French. When I tried to contact with them(union members), probably they didn’t understand what I asked. I only know three of the world’s languages, and all three are half-way I guess; but I can handle in a way as you knew my earthling friends.;) I think they were naturally suspicious of “why an extraterrestrial ask these questions to us” in justified. On this planet I’m an observer for the Galactic Council that these young people have no idea. I hope that after this article, they will realize that I am not here to invade the planet earth and my goal is peaceful. Of course, they can always comment on this blog, they’d like to add something if they want to add or connect with me. Of course not only members of the union, it’s open to everyone who participates in the protests and says “there’s something I want to say.” You all welcome.
I have read this article about wildfire in Greece 3 days ago in SoL.haber Turkish web page. I had not find it in English at that day. But today I have seen it in English in SoL international. When seeing it in English due to I can share it in my blog I was excited; because this article by Aris Chatzistefanou was one of the good critizes that I have read in this year. In here you will read about how SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government encircled the public with capitalism and makes pressure on them.
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Aris Chatzistefanou, a Greek journalist and director, wrote an article against SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government, its supporters and bourgeois opposition movements that started a witch-hunt for citizens who demanded accountability for the recent wildfires that claimed the lives of 87 people in Athens, Greece.
Wildfires ravaging through the seaside town of Rafina and the nearby villages of Mati and Nea Makri near the Greek capital torched homes, cars and forests, claiming the lives of at least 87 people while wounding hundreds on July 23, 2018.
Ksenya Kunalaki, one of the editors at right-wing Greek newspaper ‘Kathimeri’, claimed after the wildfire in Athens that the austerity measures implemented by the Greek government could not be blamed for the recent fires alone. Kunalaki argued that there were many factors that contributed to the disaster including unplanned settlements, citizens parking their vehicles on the emergency lanes, and the lack of volunteers to intervene in the wildfires…
Yet, Kunalaki, of course, intentionally ignores the role of Greek capitalist class paving the way for opening forestlands to the settlements through various legal regulations for getting unearned income in collaboration with political powers in Greece for decades.
Greek firefighters had explained in an event organized by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in May 2018 how the SYRIZA-ANEL government cut the Fire Brigade budget, saying that the Greek government had not provided for a single new equipment to the firefighters for the past seven years.
Aris Chatzistefanou, a Greek journalist and director, wrote a piece against SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government, its supporters and bourgeois opposition movements that started a witch-hunt for citizens who demanded accountability the recent wildfires claiming the lives of 87 people in Greece’s Athens. We are sharing Chatzistefanou’s article published on info-war.gr with the readers of soL News Portal…
“You cannot dictate to us when we can and we cannot criticise you!”
The government and bourgeois opposition supporters have recently started a witch-hunt against those criticizing the current and previous governments about the tragedy caused by the wildfires in Attica.
Whoever dares to speak the truth is treated as if they have barricaded the streets to prevent firefighters or to sabotage the fire-fighting aircraft.
This is actually a routine practice implemented by every government in order to conceal their responsibility especially within the first 72 hours of such crises ─ as journalist Christos Avramidis reminded us.
After every terrorist attack in France, mainstream media has labelled everyone drawing attention to the foreign policy followed by Paris over the Middle East or to the bad situation in the outskirts of France, which are the main factors that arm the terrorists, as “traitors” The only thing we are allowed to say: “Our thoughts are with the families of the victims.”
When an armed group terrorized civilians in an American school, you cannot question the right to acquire guns, the liquidation of health and wealth services (especially the ones related to mental health) or any other factors that could explain this issue and prevent the recurrence of such incidents. You can only pray for the victims.
The dreadful difference we observed in the recent wildfires in Greece is that this practice is not only implemented by the government, but also by the main opposition party under the leadership of Kiriakos Michotakis [the leader of the right-wing New Democracy]. According to the leader of the New Democracy, now it is not the time to hold those responsible for this crime accountable; but it is the time for “unity and solidarity”.
So, what is happening? Have the former rivalries among the political parties given way to a “political unity”? If so, why does the media such as the SKAI television supporting the New Democracy continue its atrocious (mostly unjust and vulgar) aggression against the government?
There is a simple explanation of this “paradoxical” issue. This time, the criticism of the Greek citizens is not only about the inadequacy of the state mechanism (the response of every government is the same to this criticism: “We inherited a wreck”), but also about the political preferences of all governments in the years when it comes to the implementation of austerity measures.
People lose their temper when they witness the crocodile tears of Jean-Claude Juncker [President of the European Commission, one of the symbols of austerity policies in Greece] or other European officials; because they are aware that these politicians and officials have imposed the austerity policies that entirely paralyzed the Greek state and cut the budget on fire safety.
When listening to the speech of the Bishop Amvrosios of Kalavryta blaming atheism for the devastating wildfires, people burst with anger; because they remember that we bribe (literally) the bishops instead of allocating budget for doctors and firefighters.
People are very well aware of how many firefighting aircraft the Greek government can afford to purchase if we were not the only country that allocates the highest military budget among NATO members after the United States, and the only country that increases its defense budget in the middle of an economic crisis, receiving loans from the U.S.
Yet, the main opposition does not have even a word to utter despite the anger of the Greek people; because they also signed the same austerity agreements as the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government have done; they transferred millions of money to the clerics and approved the same budget increases for war.
That is why you cannot tell us when we can criticize you!
We can donate blood for wounded people and carry out food aid, while we can also question your intentions.
On the one hand, we can extol the heroic firefighters and volunteers with all our hearts, while on the other hand we can lay bare the terrible weakness of the state apparatus due to the austerity policies you agreed to implement.
We can also list how many frigates the Greek creditors have forced you to purchase, and how many firefighting aircraft you have sacrificed to be able to get the F-35 war planes from the United States.
NOTE: As we have said before, there is no such thing as ‘‘natural disaster’’. When a natural event occurs in a region where people live, it automatically becomes a political event and this event is responded to by political actions, not by wishes or prayers. SYRIZA was aware of this in the wildfires in 2007, but it seems that it has forgotten this fact in the fires in 2018.
WHO IS ARIS CHATZISTEFANOU?
Aris Chatzistefanou is a Greek journalist and filmmaker.
Born in Athens, Chatzistefanou started his career as a journalist in 1997 at Radio Skai 100.3, wherein 2005 he began his own show Infowar, a big success on Greek radio. In April 2011, he released Debtocracy, a documentary co-directed by Katerina Kitidi about the Greek debt crisis, which, despite garnering almost a million viewers on YouTube was not well received in the traditional media and caused the cancellation of Infowar and his dismissal.
He has worked for the BBC World Service in London and Istanbul, and contributed short documentaries and articles to The Guardian and other international media outlets.
In 2012, he co-directed with Katerina Kitidi, the documentary Catastroika that focuses on the effects of massive privatization in Greece and several other countries, the documentary features Naomi Klein and others. The film was released by the co-owned Infowar Productions.
Aris Chatzistefanou co-founded the magazine Unfollow in January 2013; in 2014, he directed Fascism Inc., a documentary that shows how the economic elites supported fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, comparing it to the present situation. In 2016 he directed the documentary. This Is Not A Coup focusing on the effects of ECB and Eurozone policies in the European periphery.
Also, some quotes about wildfire in Greece from a writing with title “Wildfires in Greece: A capitalist crime”, in In Defence of Communism web page for reading:
The SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government has unleashed an outrageous communicative campaign in order to throw the blame for the disaster somewhere else, except from itself. They blame the “weather”, the “climate change”, the supposedly “unprecedented weather conditions”, the “wind”, etc. In an interview to the BBC, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos had the audacity to blame the residents themselves because, as he said, they contributed to disaster by building illegal homes. In a shameless effort to justify the unjustifiable, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talked about an “asymmetrical phenomenon”.
Behind such communicative tricks of mockery, which deceive and provoke the people, they are trying to hide the actual culprit of the tragedy: the barbaric capitalist system which generates the pursuit of profit. Profit-making is behind arson and land enroachment. A burnt forest consists a splendid opportunity for investment and profitability by capitalists and business groups. Capitalist development imposes- through one or another way- the concentration of land in fewer hands.
In capitalist Greece, fire protection measures and forest fire-fighting infrastructure do not consist a priority. The policy that serves the capitalist profit do not regard fire protection as an important matter. The Greek governments pay up to 4.2 billion euros annually for military expendidures related to NATO, but when it comes to fire protection measures there is no money. You see, fire protection and fire-fighting infrastructure aren’t a profitable sector like the arms industry.
Once again Mr. Tsipras is lying to the Greek people. The wildfires aren’t an “asymmetrical phenomenon”. What consists an asymmetrical phenomenon- which poses a continuous grave threat to the people- is capitalist system itself. This is the system that SYRIZA, New Democracy and the other bourgeois parties are serving.
Enought with lies and hypocrisy! The unspeakable disaster of the last days in the suburbs of Athens is nothing but the mirror of capitalist barbarity.
This interview was taken from SoL.news. These comments of Kemal Okuyan are providing to more understand especially the situations of the Turkey’s pro-system opponent parties and they help to explain the leanings of the electors of Turkey.
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
soL news interviewed Kemal Okuyan, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), on the results of June 24 election results. Okuyan reminded that the political power had organised electoral manipulations quite before the elections and that the TKP pointed this out strongly in those days. He highlights that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “success” should be evaluated starting right from this point. Okuyan also noted that the coalition of the opposition was designed as a “project of the capitalists”, and that the “pro-establishment left” quit adhering to leftist values since anti-establishment left moved away from these values.
Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) had unlawfully prevented TKP from entering June 24 elections and TKP undid this inhibition by running independent communist candidates in parliamentary elections through This Social Order Must Change Platform. The platform was established following the call of TKP. The platform ran a total of 17 independent candidates in different provinces of Turkey.
Erdoğan portrayed quite an incapacitated and disqualified image before June 24 elections. However, Erdoğan won the elections in the first round. What do you think had happened?
We have to talk about the electoral system first of all. Electoral manipulations are being set before the elections, not on the day of the elections, as we always say. We warned about electoral inks, unsealed envelopes and ballots, ballot box relocations and such before when we said: “no to elections under these circumstances”. The [parliamentary main opposition party, CHP] Republican People’s Party and others just let people put up with all that, saying “they cannot do anything”. And yet, the problem is not only related to the electoral system. The strategy of defeating the [ruling party] AKP by resembling the AKP itself also failed.
We will come back to this point again but I would like to resolve the issue of electoral frauds. What could have they done, really?
Apart from the things they did on the day of the election, the real issue rests on voter lists. The electoral turnout is quite high. I personally do not believe that the ratio of turnout is real. We know that people voted instead of the dead and the ones in abroad. Also multiple votes… We witnessed countless times that civil servants voted more than once with their officer IDs. More importantly, the system in Turkey makes it impossible to track down “virtual citizens”. They are in control of the ID system. The ballot boxes are a complete mess and no one can inspect; people living in the same apartment are registered in different ballot boxes. When you gather all that together, it makes something huge.
Doesn’t the opposition parties know about that?
Let’s call them pro-system opposition. They are responsible from the continuation of this damned system as much as the parties in power, and they act accordingly! They acted accordingly during the Gezi Park resistance, after the local elections in 2014, and the referendum [in 2017], and during the period when they devised Yenikapı spirit [AKP’s meeting at Yenikapı in İstanbul after the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.] They never want the people to question the legitimacy of the system. It is absurd to have elections under such an electoral system and yet they made people accept it by saying “we are in charge of everything.” Erdoğan should thank such an opposition.
Then, what about the TKP? Why did it enter the elections, even by means of independent candidates?
Apart from the regulations in the electoral system that favour the political power, obstacles that hinder the toiling masses to get involved with politics are present all along. There is the 10 percent electoral threshold, treasury grants, obstacles before getting organised and making propaganda… TKP is not a party for elections and yet responsible for spreading its voice in the elections, getting organised and point at a real alternative. We could not, and did not, have abstained from such duties when a large section of the society had high hopes from the elections. You cannot call for a boycott whenever you are right. We are always right against the dictatorship of the capital.
Elections have been the only option of the people of Turkey until yesterday. We shared our warnings regarding that and it was not a waste of time for us. We are used to discourses like “let’s talk about after the elections”. The elections are over now and the number of people who find us right is increasing. People always look for a solution, a way to survive. Elections and pro-establishment politics were “solutions”, and yet they blew up. Organised struggle and the demand for social order change are the only solutions at the moment and they never miss the target. In that sense, the TKP whispered in the people’s ear “you know it best, but this is not the solution” during the whole electoral period.
A CERTAIN SECTION OF THE SOCIETY THAT HAS ENMITY TOWARDS ERDOĞAN DO NOT SEEK SOCIAL ORDER CHANGE
What about the reactions of the people you contacted?
A certain section of the society who have enmity towards the political power is not interested with the demand of social order change, and even more, do not have such a demand. They cling on the system, and some of them even have interests in the maintenance of the system. These people do not even want to hear us. They gave up defending secularism except for their sensitivity for “way of life”. They remember the “sovereignty of Turkey” when Erdoğan gets closer to the West, and the “Western civilisation” when Erdoğan rows with the West. These people used to close their ears when they saw us; now some of them will hide in their nests, while some others easily adapt to the conditions, and a small number of them will leave the country. In other words, we and these people reciprocally avoided each other. Our common ground “anti-Erdoğan stance” is not enough to breach the gap between us, it cannot…
Do we need to consider these people as belonging to the middle class?
Some of them are the privileged segments of the working class with higher wages. Some other have small enterprises, or entrepreneurs, as usually called…There is a segment who are executives…Some are rentiers… They are also influenced by economic developments and yet they manage in some way.
You noted that you were not able to contact them during the electoral period…
We preferred not to. However, there are intersections between the classes in Turkey and in social life. When we try to contact them, it becomes obvious that we are not talking the same language. There are of course exceptions. The sections within this social segment who strive for social change and willing to act on it with their intellect, consciousness and life practice, but they are of the minority.
We are essentially interested in the ones who are harmed by this social order, and are conscious of that, and who have nothing to hold on to against economic hardship. These people do outnumber. Some of them cling to the political power when poverty strains them, search for stability with fear of security and there are some who are deaf to any kind of voice. However, we realised that some people among them listened to us, approved of what we said and even supported us. There is also a certain toiling mass who had long disapproved the political power and increasingly turns it towards social system criticism. That segment was the one we especially strengthened our contact.
Getting the working class organised is our main priority. This electoral period showed us that there is a considerable increase in the anger, rage and search of the toiling masses.
Then why didn’t it transform into votes for the independent candidates?
We didn’t make all these just to get votes. We were aware of the pressure on the people. We did all we could to save them from the trap and yet it was also obvious that quite a few of the ones we convinced were to vote for us. We were not blind to the feeling that “First Erdoğan has to go, and then we can discuss”. Some people who were close to our party even said they were going to become a member of our party on the 25th of June. They thought “I would have to vote for the independent candidates if I become a member of the party.” We also get in contact with a considerable number of new people with whom we settled to meet on the 25th of June, and now we discuss with them. We cannot get crossed with them only because they did not vote for us. After all, they are in fact cross with themselves!
‘WHY WOULD A COALITION SAYING NOTHING NEW APART FROM POSITIONING AGAINST ERDOĞAN ATTRACT THE PEOPLE?’
I would like to go back to my first question. Why did Erdoğan win? You talked about the electoral system but also noted: “this is not the main reason”.
Winning and losing are relative concepts. I will answer with this caution. The bourgeois opposition did establish the widest possible coalition against Erdoğan. However, it was not clear why these actors were against Erdoğan. One man rule, authoritarianism? These are abstract concepts. This widest coalition put secularism aside, propagated pro-NATO politics, and reassured TÜSİAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association). Then, what was their problem with Erdoğan? When differences get blurred, the voters naturally prefer a single person, the one man. For one thing, there is a floating segment apart from the fixed party supporters. There is the youth who vote for the first time in each election, who don’t even have any party affiliation. Why would a coalition say nothing new apart from positioning against Erdoğan attract the people?
Did Erdoğan say anything new?
By saying new, I mean an alternative. If you rival with Erdoğan in İslamism and right-wing politics, and if you say “There are politicians within the AKP who are well-trained there and useful for the country”, where would you end up? It became obvious that creating an opposing camp within the society through Erdoğan has come to its limits, it is of no use, or it is of use for Erdoğan himself. You should also add discussions regarding [the pro-Kurdish] HDP party to this. HDP’s all electoral propaganda rested on the argument “If you don’t vote for me, AKP wins.” HDP did not have to undertake any electoral work since [parliamentary main opposition party] CHP had done it instead of HDP. HDP is being continuously either drawn towards the system or pushed away from it. The people who orchestrate this believe that their social engineering will reverberate exactly within the society. The unexpected conservation of [the pro-Turkish] MHP party’s votes definitely rests on concerns regarding discussions on HDP.
In terms of Erdoğan…In some senses, Erdoğan says something new every day, and repeats the same things in other sense. Turkish society has an interesting adaptation capacity in the face of economic, cultural and social complications. This contradicts the definition of conservatism in some senses. The political definition of this is opportunism. Erdoğan is capable of manipulating this. He will secure a certain support until such political behaviour does not answer the security need of the people.
Are other politicians not capable of doing this?
It is odd to expect principled and consistent behaviour in bourgeois politics. Erdoğan’s sharp turns exceed this. The rivalry of the bourgeois opposition rests partly on right-wing propaganda and partly on imitating Erdoğan’s opportunism. It seems that they will keep this track at full speed following the June 24 elections.
THERE IS A CERTAIN ‘LEFT-WING’ TENDENCY AT EASE WITH ADOPTING SHEIK SAID TEACHINGS AND FLIRTING WITH THE TÜSİAD
Isn’t it logical to address to the right-wing voters to increase votes?
The success criteria of the bourgeois politics and ours are quite different. Votes obtained in an election do neither legitimate you nor are they the only criteria of success. This is how we perceive it. Everything rests on the elections in bourgeois politics. There is also the rooted perception that “the left cannot get votes more than a certain amount.”
Isn’t that perception true?
This perception rests on a distorted perception of the “left” and “right”. But let’s accept that the pro-establishment left assumes the role of blocking the real left and keeping the masses within the limits of the social order. The left has some values. These are laicism, anti-imperialism and being on the side of the toiling masses in Turkey. The pro-establishment left gave up adhering to these.
Why?
Because a considerable segment of the anti-establishment left moved away from these values. Therefore the social order does not necessitate a firm leftist stance of the pro-establishment left. Then what are we discussing! There was a “progressive left” who championed that the AKP “accomplished a democratic revolution.” And now, they are easy with adopting Sheik Said teachings [Sheik Said Nursi was a reactionary Kurdish theologian who was of service to the anti-communist initiatives of Turkey’s right-wing governments] and flirting with the TÜSİAD. Then CHP can slide to the right even more, until the psychological barrier in front of the strong organisation of the communists within the society. It is soon…
But a second Ekmeleddin case did not happen. There was a strong objection to Abdullah Gül’s candidacy…
(Migarium note-Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was the common candidate of CHP and MHP at the presidental election in 2014. The influence of the name of this candidate on the CHP electors was a big disappointment.)
Abdullah Gül(former AKP deputy also was president of Turkey in 2007-2014) is among the foundational core of the AKP; there is no need to tell who he is. Discussions on his nomination as a candidate and it’s renouncement only through Akşener’s [the leader of the ultra-far Good “İyi” Party] opposition to it is a total scandal. They said Muharrem İnce [CHP candidate, Erdoğan’s main rival in presidential election] is a good speaker, honest and sympathetic… These don’t explain the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is that Muharrem İnce has been called a right-wing politician even by the administrators of CHP. Let’s leave the names aside; CHP tried to seem sympathetic to the right-wing voters, while the Good Party and the Felicity Party [an Islamist party that took part in the alliance with CHP and the Good Party in the elections] to the voters of CHP. Such an alliance!
THE ‘COALITION OF THE OPPOSITION’ WAS DESIGNED AS A PROJECT OF THE CAPITALISTS, IT PROVED UNSUCCESSFUL IN THE ELECTIONS BUT WAS SUCCESSFUL IN ANOTHER SENSE
TKP insistently highlighted that this coalition was a project of the capitalists. Erdoğan won the elections. Does TKP still argue that?
TKP shared its initial electoral evaluation on 25th June. We said there too that the opposition coalition was a capitalist project. We also know more or less who and which circles played a special role in the formation of this project. However, Erdoğan himself is also a capitalist project. The ‘opposition coalition’ was unsuccessful in the June 24 elections and yet the project proved successful in certain senses. The ones who provided opportunities to this opposition coalition didn’t specifically aim to push to the political power. I the total formation of the political sphere in a country, the design of the opposition is as much important as the formation of the political power. A design of certain circles does not aim for total success; in addition to this, each and every design does not need to reach its target. Social dynamics and politics have a most problematic relation with calculations. The ‘opposition coalition’ was unsuccessful in the June 24 elections and yet it proved successful in certain senses.
But June 24 elections witnessed the highest mathematical calculations.
The result is obvious! What happened to the argument that the political power would lose parliamentary majority when HDP breached the electoral threshold? Mathematics is not to be blamed.
Do you think that Erdoğan got more powerful with June 24?
Let’s see that Erdoğan is not that powerful in terms of the political calculations, if mathematics matters that much. He is powerful neither in terms of social dynamics nor in any other sense. This may mean a more easily managed Erdoğan for the capitalist class and the imperialist centres. Arguments that Erdoğan got very powerful and that Turkey is in a total collapse are complete nonsense. The tasks before Erdoğan were challenging and they become even more so every day. The cunning people who propagated these feelings before June 24 are going to prepare the people for the upcoming local elections by saying “this is the last chance”, and they have already started to talk about that.
The final exit before the bridge?
I don’t know, maybe they will feel ashamed to say so and call it “final U-turn”.
‘TKP WAS ABLE TO RESIST THE TIDE’
What will TKP do? It couldn’t get energy from yet another electoral period…
TKP is a party that knows how to resist the tide. It knows how to contract without turning inward when the tide accelerates. An alternative to this is stepping aside. We didn’t step aside June 24, resisted the tide and contacted countless people drifting away in the opposite direction. Everyone makes mathematical calculations during the elections, but we calculate our move after the elections. Yes, we were unsuccessful in terms of vote rates and yet TKP will quickly claim space in the post-electoral period when the speed of tide decreases and even dies out. We have no concerns regarding this. We had new members just before the elections, and it increases now.
The people who follow what TKP says knew that TKP may become isolated on the election day and considered this not that important. The crowd of people TKP gathered on May Day is more than the number of people who voted for it in the elections. This is, of course, something problematic and yet I will say without hesitation that the important thing is the ability of acting together with the people. The number of the people TKP is able to mobilise and act together will quickly increase from now on. This will reflect on the electoral results in a certain period, you may be sure of that. In terms of the energy you mentioned…I said it before, this electoral period has opened very valuable channels for TKP, and we had an important experience. This is the energy. Positive reactions towards the statement of TKP on elections create a great energy. Now we will mobilise this energy in line with our political and organisational targets.
Elon Musk, who tweeted this yesterday, made a determination. Of course you can not expect a non-cliché from a capitalist tech broker. If we go through on this tweet;
So, then, if his claim “Those who proclaim themselves “socialists” are usually depressing, have no sense of humor” is true; with the opposite thesis, according to Elon Musk, the capitalists should be described as follows:
“Those who are capitalists are usually fun, they have a sense of humor.”
Hmmm, really?
Let’s see what the capitalists give the value for humor. They must have an actional qualification so that humor can be produced on it. That is to say, humans who make a humor must add humor to their lives.
As Elon Musk, who tweeted this, let us imagine that, we think that he adds humor to his life as a capitalist.
Let’s look at the actional activities of a CEO of a big company, and now let’s imagine how he could make humor with them.
According to the news at Businessinsider May 18, 2017, the workers in Tesla’s Fremont, California plant, which is advertised as “factory of the future”, are working under bad working conditions.
Inside the news, some factory workers say that:
“I’ve seen people pass out, hit the floor like a pancake and smash their face open,” said Jonathan Galescu, a production technician at Tesla. “They just send us to work around him while he’s still laying on the floor.”
How Elon Musk may have made a humor on this subject through his actions in his life?
But with the hearing of this incident, he could have made an ad like this. Following could be my advertisement recommendation to him:
“At the future factory, we calculated the speed of falling down of every workers. The result has surprised us all; despite all fatigue, the fall rate of an exhausted worker is 0.03 seconds! It is possible with us to make this figure ideal! Come together, let’s accelerate the fainting times of the workers at future factory!”
Another worker says at the same news:
“It’s like you died and went to auto-worker heaven.”
Most likely, this worker’s remarkable word “auto-worker heaven” also probably may have made Elon Musk laugh.
Then he could make an advertisement like this. My another ad offer to him:
“As our future factory workers have stated, auto-worker heaven is possible with us!”
Because of I am not a capitalist, Elon Musk can use my advertising suggestions, if he wants; I will not claim any profit from him, haha!
Four days ago, Elon Musk tweeted another tweet. And he has shared the news which was already infiltrated press that 9% of Tesla employees will be dismissed.
Difficult, but necessary Tesla reorg underway. My email to the company has already leaked to media. Here it is unfiltered: pic.twitter.com/4LToWoxScx
He says that “It’s a hard decision, but we need to reduce costs and become profit,” at the tweet.
So about 3,600 people are getting out of the business, let’s say that they are family consisting of at least 4 people, with this about 14,600 people’s life conditions will become difficult after then. Over that, Musk, what a humor he can make? In account of the necessity of humor in the actions of his own life as a capitalist. I think he can sample Marie-Antoinette, and if he can say shortly, “Let them eat cake”.
Today, Musk who talks about socialists and mentioned that they supposedly lack of humor, does not he know that the real humor comes from the intelligences of the system opponents who evaluate the absurdities as best? The best humorists who joke with the socialists come out from socialists again. For example, the Trotskyist produces humor against Stalinist, or Leninist against the Maoist. Elon Musk, please show me(or anyone else) one example of a real humor, that humor is made by a capitalist against a socialist or communist. Just show only one; really, if he does do that I’ll explain it here, and I’ll applaud him here. But unfortunatelly, he will look for it in vain.
In addition to all of this, I also saw his another tweet while looking at Elon Musk’s tweets. He says,
Should prob articulate philosophy underlying my actions. It’s pretty simple & mostly influenced by Douglas Adams & Isaac Asimov.
It seems that Elon Musk never understood Asimov. I give bad news to Elon Musk. It seems that he believed very much to the some people who make similarities between Hari Seldon and himself; but only superficial and coercive resemblance can be created between Hari Seldon and Elon Musk. I do not even mention Douglas Adams. How may Elon Musk embrace the philosophy of a gifted writer who set up perfect phrases such as, “I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day,”?
There are also those who praise Elon Musk under his tweets, there are those who defend him; their situation is piteous. If you ask them, most of them are paid jobs, they are exploited for long hours. But the power of the mainstream media is this: To make people feel like about some such as their pioneers or heroes; for people who contrast their realities in virtual worlds without seeing their own reality. Who feel like that are kind of the Violinists at the Titanic, haha!
I would also give a tip to Elon Musk as a communist extraterrestrial by violating at least three rules of the Galactic Council: The human species will not colonize successfully on another planet for at least 250 years. And that planet will not be Mars. So you can forget about Mars. 😉
In 24th June, there will be an election in Turkey. There will be two ballot boxes in front of the voters. For one of them, the voters will use their votes for president candidates, the other one will be used for the members of parliament, so to the deputies. The president candidates were determined. There are six president cantidates in election race. Some political parties were not allowed to present candidates. Communist Party of Turkey(TKP) is one of them. TKP cannot present a president candidate, but it can present independence deputy candidates to the second ballot box for parliament at 24th June. This post tells how TKP follows a path and the supports that are given for TKP.
Based on additional conditions that are not written in the law, the Supreme Electoral Council concluded that the Communist Party of Turkey, which has already satisfied all conditions that political parties are required to fulfill in order to participate in elections, will not be allowed to take part in the general elections to be held on June 24, 2018.
This is not the first instance when the ruling party and the bureaucracy under its command attack the Communist Party of Turkey’s will to get organized and do politics in order to overthrow this rotten social order. Taking a stand against such attacks and fetters, the TKP has been and will always be carrying the struggle of toiling masses for emancipation forward under any circumstances.
In contradistinction to other parties, our party does not perceive elections as the only channel of doing politics or of the struggle for political objectives. As it stands, it is utterly futile to expect elections that are “fixed” through arrangements entirely in favor of establishment parties to bring emancipation to toiling masses.
However, elections also provide significant opportunities for promoting socialism, i.e. the only future for humanity, and the alternative of socialist power, i.e. the only way out for our country, before broad masses; for appealing the oppressed to organized political struggle, and for creating conditions for the communist deputies to be the voice of the fight for socialism both within the parliament and local governments.
Under no circumstances will we renounce the right to make use of these opportunities on behalf of the working people.
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES IN GENERAL ELECTIONS
The TKP will participate in June 24 general elections with independent candidates in various provinces under the slogan “This Social Order Must Change”.
In the coming days, Popular Committees will hold meetings in their constituencies in which they will nominate their candidates. The voice of the toiling masses, the voice of socialism will be louder than ever in these elections.
The outlines of the election manifesto of those who say “This Social Order Must Change” will also be drawn up in these meetings.
SPOILT VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Regarding the presidential elections to be held on the same day with general elections, the TKP calls for the people to turn their back on not only to the candidates, but also to this election and the political regime it represents.
The presidential system is nothing but a one-man rule. Our people should reject both doing politics on this ground and submitting their will to a single person.
Besides, the rules and the calendar set for the presidential election do not allow nominating a people’s representative who would question, protest and challenge this system.
The names that have come up so far for nomination in the course of the unscrupulous quest of establishment parties for alliances provide sufficient proof on the rottenness that presidential election, which has already been fixed with an unlawful and rigged poll, will bring about. Our people should take a stand against this rottenness. Just as this presidential system is “spoilt”, our vote should be “spoilt” as well.
Turkey does not need a President with unlimited authority; she needs the millions to get organized and take the bit in their teeth.
THE TKP IN LOCAL ELECTIONS
In local elections to be held in March 2019, we will take a stand against all establishment parties as a party. We will achieve this end by satisfying all additional rules imposed by the Supreme Electoral Council arbitrarily far and above.
As the communist and workers’ parties listed below, we condemn the Turkish government’s fait accompli in the strongest way possible, which prevented the Communist Party of Turkey from running for the elections on June 24th as one of the candidate parties.
We call on the people of Turkey for refusing to choose between one or another actor of the capitalist order. We invite you all to vote for the independent candidates of “This Social Order Must Change” Platform and to raise the flag of socialism in and after the elections. Do not let the bourgeoisie to hold your future in their hands!
We express our comradely support and solidarity to all independent candidates running for the upcoming elections under the “This Social Order Must Change” Platform, that have taken the responsibility to serve as the source of hope and voice for the working class of Turkey.
Sunday, 10 June, KKE sent a solidarity message to Turkey’s ‘This Social Order Must Change Platform’ and its communist candidates for the June 24 elections
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on Sunday expresses its support for Turkey’s ‘This Social Order Must Change Platform’ and the platform’s communist candidates. The message comes in the run-up to legislative elections on June 24.
The KKE Secretary-General, Dimitris Kutsumbas have read the support letter to 17 candidates of This Social Order Must Change Platform.
“The Greek workers are on the Turkish working people, with the struggles of our peoples we can create a region without monopolies, without exploitation, without racism and wars,” Kutsumbas said in a video message.
“The Communist Party of Greece expresses its international solidarity with the Communist Party of Turkey, supports its electoral campaign This Social Order Must Change and its independent candidates. The exploitation of labour from capital, the attack on labour-popular rights, poverty, unemployment, refugees, wars show that there is no ‘good’ capitalism, this is confirmed by our experience in Greece and the anti-popular SYRIZA government,” Kutsumbas says in the video message.
My voting district, the city of Izmir, there are two parliamentary candidates of TKP. One of them, Kemal Okuyan from the second voting district of Izmir, Karsiyaka. The second one is psychiatrist Dr. Deniz Arik Binbay from the first voting district. As far as I have seen until today, both them are really hard working for elections. They are trying to reach almost every corner of the city. They are preparing for the election day, despite of financial shortcomings, as a party that does not receive any monetary aid, especially according to the election law with both these two candidates and the TKP members’ self-sacrificing activities. I am sure the other 15 candidates of TKP at the other cities are working at the same conditions and with same effort.
My earthling friends, more or less know Kemal Okuyan due to my previous posts. I want to mention a little the other candidate Dr. D. Arik Binbay. She is both warm and rational, and also an energetic and enjoyful person, according to my impressions.
The people can see her one day while she is cycling,
Or on another day, when she is chatting with an elderly man in public bazaar,
Or when she is singing Bella Ciao in a concert,
Yapıcılar konserinde bir sürpriz…
İzmir'de güzel ve kızıl çiçekler açtırabilmek için buradayız, bir aradayız. İzmir'den, ülkemize ve dünyaya umudu yükselteceğiz ve bu düzeni önünde sonunda değiştireceğiz. Nâzım'ın da dediği gibi umut insanda!!
— Deniz Arık Binbay (@denizarikbinbay) May 26, 2018
Her performance is not so bad. 😉 But I have liked the most, her speaking in an interview:
Translation in English:
“As a psychiatrist, as a physician, as a mother, as a woman in this society I have always been someone who struggling and heal people. But I always saw that to heal people by one by was not enough. You can not heal people who are oppressed in order, by giving them a medicine. Profession of a doctor is the same way again; that is, we can not be enough individually, even if we do all the things we best while the problems of public health continue and people are pulling to the bottom. This is a ridiculous system. Someone has to fix this… We decided to start from somewhere to change this order.”
(She continues to speak with refering to the parties which are opposed to the ruling party after this point. In other words, it is an example speech for the billions of people in the world who feel obliged to vote for political parties that do opposition inside system, and voting for them is not an exit from system but a cycle. My opinion, this is the most important part of her words.)
“It is said that there is a being trapped, and let’s just get rid of them. Of course we understand that on the one hand. But we do not think it is possible to relax without changing this order. Some people come to us, some of our patients say that my sleep is out of order, I feel very tired myself, I feel very unhappy. We can not look at the real reasons for this. We can say that it is a temporary relief. “Here you take this pills,” we can say you can relax. But if this person is going to work the next day, if he(or she) is working 12-14 hours, when he goes home in the evening, if he does not have enough energy and time to spare his children, if he can not produce enough, if his produce is exploited, if he does not get the right he deserves, he will be tired. So people who work for this country, people who make money with labor, continue to be exploited, but this order would change just a little. Is that it? I do not think it is.”
Today, it would seem that my front, my back, my right, my left, all my sides are economic crisis. 🙂
The economic crisis does not affect only ordinary people in the world, it affects extraterrestrials like us. (Do not believe in science fiction movies, we do not spend our lives on this planet with the lightsabers in hand or super-advanced equipments. We do not even have an union.:)) That’s why I have picked my song. Here it is. It is Cem Karaca’s song in Anatolian-rock genre from 1999.
The song that is quite entertaining, as can be understood from its rhythm. It’s lyrics are sarcastic. And here it’s lyrics: -I have translated only some parts because it is very long-
We’ve boarded on something really big, we go to the end of the world. (amanin)
Road you said, like every road
it should reach a place
While we turn and turn around
we come always to the same place
This cycle is vicious cycle
There is no begining and no end
I am turning but I can not turning back
There is no exit at the end
(amaninnn)
We’ve boarded on something really big, we go to the end of the world (amaninnn)
Local and general election
You select, let’s select
So we turn and turn around of it
we come always to the same place
Old times, we were like every man
We sat down and ate appetizers
Now, like eating appetizers
we sit and eat the man.
Then, you get your deserts!
What is really going to happen at the end of these things
In truth, there is no question “what will be”
We will turn, we will turn, we will come back to the same place
There is no begining and no end
I am turning but I can not turning back
There is no exit at the end
(amaninnn)
We’ve boarded on something really big, we go to the end of the world,
let’s dance!
We’ve boarded on something really big, we go to the end of the world.(amaninnn)
…
What is your song my earthling friends, that you listen while the economic crisis is rising? 🙂
unnecessary news from earth 