21 Jun 2013 | Europe and Central Asia
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Prague earlier this year
Germany has reportedly blocked Turkey’s next steps towards European Union membership yesterday, as unrest continues in the cities of Ankara and Istanbul.
The protests, which began on 28 May, have been met with force from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and Germany has been critical of the crackdown on demonstrators. There have been 5,000 injuries as well as four deaths since the start of unrest.
Talks furthering Turkey’s case for membership were scheduled in its capital, Ankara, next week. Moving forward with the process would have required unanimous agreement from the European Union’s 27 member nations at a meeting in Brussels yesterday.
Diplomats representing Germany blocked the decision because of remaining “open questions.” According to an EU diplomat the protests “obviously had an impact on the decision.”
Turkey has fired back at Germany’s decision, warning that it would cool its relations with the European Union, and “draw a strong reaction.”
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin
20 Jun 2013 | Europe and Central Asia
Turkish composer and Index Award winner Şanar Yurdatapan
In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the IFEX General Meeting and Strategy Conference 2013, Index Director of Campaigns and Policy Marek Marczynski spoke with 2002 Index on Censorship award winner Şanar Yurdatapan, a composer and song writer who campaigns against the prosecution of publishers by the Turkish authorities. Yurdatapan shared his views on the events sweeping Turkey
Yurdatapan: It all started about three weeks ago when the government decided…well not the government actually…prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — who once was the mayor of Istanbul and who still thinks that he is — decided to change Taksim Square by reconstructing a historic military barracks as a shopping centre. It would mean cutting trees in Gezi Park.
People living in the area didn’t want the project so they began a sit-in to protect the trees. One day, very early in the morning the police came and took them out. They burned the tents they were living in. Thanks to Twitter and other social media channels, the protesters immediately informed others about what was going on. Thousands of people quickly came to Taksim Square. It quickly became what Tahrir Square was in Egypt during the Arab Spring.
Because of the brutality of the police the peaceful protest was not so peaceful anymore. Everybody was so mad and angry with the response of the police to this silent and peaceful occupation of Gezi Park. The police became even more violent. They used pressurised water and teargas.
The demonstrations spread quickly to other squares in Istanbul and other cities — including Ankara and Izmir. After the abuse by the police demonstartions were not peaceful anymore.
When Erdogan went on a vist to north African countries things became a bit better. The ministers tried to calm down the people by promsing that their concerns would be addressed. But when Erdogan came back everything became much worse. When he arrived he gave speeches at different places provoking people, using inappropriate and aggressive language. He called the people demonstrating “çapulcu”, or looters. So people started calling themselves looters. Someone even made a new song entitled “Every day I am Chapulling”, which is based on “I am shuffling”.
The Istanbul Bar Association said that there are 411 people currently in detention in relation to the protests. But these are only the registered ones. We don’t really know how many people are in fact arrested as the police do not register everyone. The bar association says that the real number might be over 2,000.
The latest demonstrations are silent. People are just standing still and saying nothing for hours. They are protesting against the police brutality and the government’s response to what was a peaceful demonstration
Index: Is that true that the police were also arresting lawyers?
Yurdatapan: Yes, it certainly was at the outset when some lawyers organised a press conference in solidarity with the demonstrators. The police came and arrested all of them. They were released on the same day, but it was a great shame for the justice system.
Index: How have the protest demands evolved?
Yurdatapan: Edrogan’s language is insulting people. He puts his nose in everyone’s private life. He decides how many children we should have or whether we should drink alcohol or not. Many different groups are very angry with him.
When the police brutality started, the protests became a collective hatred against Edrogan. On the second day of the demonstrations Nabi Avcı, minister of education, said a very nice thing which captures the current situation. He said something along the lines of: “We are very successful. It was very difficult to get people of so many different opinions together. Now we’ve succeeded in bringing all of them together against us.”
Index: So the demand is for the change of the government now? Or for democracy and freedom?
Yurdatapan: Yes, for democracy. We know that most people will vote for Erdogan. We have local elections this summer and then we have elections for the state president and one year later there will be general elections. Most people are happy with the economic life which is why they will support Erdogan. The demand at the moment is more democracy.
Index: What are the other human rights issues in Turkey at the moment?
Yurdatapan: Well, we’ve never had full freedom of expression in turkey. Of course it is not as bad as it was under the military regime, but you can never feel safe in expressing your ideas. Turkey is a country of contradictions. If you say one thing in one corner of Istanbul nothing happens. A few metres away another person says the same thing and they are prosecuted. The justice system is sick in Turkey.
Like in the former communist countries many judges and prosecutors think that their duty is not to protect the law but to defend the state. Several years ago there was a survey conducted and 70 per cent of them said openly that when it comes to defending state the law is not important anymore. We see it in practice all the time.
In the past the justice system was in support of the military. They did whatever the military said. Erdogan needed to fight against the military and he won. But instead of becoming impartial and independent, the justice system has just changed its boss. They are serving in the same way to the new government now.
Index: Do you think that because of the protests we will see a long term change in Turkey?
Yurdatapan: It’s absolutely a turning point and things will never be the same again. People are not afraid anymore. We don’t have guns — police do; we don’t have gas — they have, but we will still stand here.
Index: the whole world is watching what is happening in Istanbul at the moment. Many people express their solidarity. How important is this for you in Turkey?
Yurdatapan: The government always says that they don’t care, but that’s not true. They care a lot. I encourage all of our friends to send protest messages to Turkish embassies in their countries; make appointments or stand outside the embassy quietly as people now do in Istanbul. No doubt Turkish ambassadors will report it to Ankara. If the reports start coming from around the world it will make a huge difference.
When I was in prison Amnesty International initiated a solidarity action. One day two postcards came, another day 20, the next day 100. You should have seen how happy all of the political prisoners were. We knew the world was watching. I will never forget that. We would get postcards from far-way countries we’d never visited. It was amazing! We felt we were not alone. It gave us hope. If you give people hope they become more courageous.
Index on Turkey: Turkey losing its way on free speech | The EU must take action on Turkey
12 Jun 2013 | Europe and Central Asia, Turkey
In a bid to gain control of Taksim Square, Turkish security forces last night clashed with antigovernment protesters camped out in Istanbul’s centre. Sara Yasin reports
Riot police raided Istanbul’s Taksim Square last night, in efforts to implement promises of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who vowed to bring an end to anti-government protests. Bulldozers cleared out barricades in the square early this morning.
The square was the site of an overnight territorial battle between protesters and security forces, who fired tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons, and rubber bullets onto the crowd. In the 10 days since unrest began in the country, three have been killed, 600 police officers injured, and approximately 5,000 wounded according to the Turkish Medical Association.
On BBC Radio 5 live this morning, Index on Censorship CEO Kirsty Hughes said that Erdoğan’s response “has been increasingly heavy-handed, and not constructive and open towards demonstrators.”
“In the last 24 hours, and just overnight last night, he’s veered towards a very tough response, which I think is going to inflame the situation,” Hughes added.
Several hundred protesters remain camped out in the neighbouring Gezi Park, where protests were initially sparked over a plan to turn the green space into a shopping mall, which snowballed into countrywide protests against the current government.
Turkey’s Broadcasting Authority yesterday said that four stations will be fined for covering the unrest, accusing them of incitement to violence.
Addressing a crowd including Erdoğan in Istanbul this week, EU commssioner Štefan Füle was critical of the government’s violent crackdown on protesters, and called for a “swift and transparent” probe into the violence. He also said that countries wishing to gain entry to the European Union should “aspire to the highest possible democratic standards and practises.”
7 Jun 2013 | Campaigns, Europe and Central Asia, Turkey Statements
Index on Censorship is calling on EU Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle to press Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a meeting today on the need to ensure Turks can exercise freedom of assembly and expression in Turkey.
The commissioner should urge Edrogan to foster dialogue with the protesters and to allow the media to report on the demonstrations without fear of censorship.
Unprecedented demonstrations swept the country in reaction to plans to build a shopping centre on Gezi Park in Istanbul. Police reacted with violence and intimidation.
Related: Protests expose the extent of self-censorship in Turkish media | “There is now a menace which is called Twitter” | Turkey losing its way on free speech
Index Events
Join Index on Censorship and a panel of Turkish and British writers to discuss free speech in Turkey, 22 June, Arcola Theatre London
After a four-day trip abroad, Erdoğan returned to Turkey on Thursday night, where he told a crowd of supporters, “These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end immediately”.
Index on Censorship CEO Kirsty Hughes wrote on Monday:
“The EU insists all candidate countries meet its ‘Copenhagen Criteria’ that say candidates must be democracies who respect the rule of law and human rights. Back in 2004, when the Union’s leaders agreed to start talks Turkey was said to “sufficiently meet” those criteria.
“It is no longer clear, given its deliberate creation of media censorship, and the brutality of police in the face of mass protests, that Turkey does meet those criteria. If the EU stands for human rights in its neighbourhood, surely it should make a much stronger, robust condemnation of Turkey’s growing anti-democratic tendencies and its attacks on freedom of expression.”
