Scores Hit the Streets to Protest Government’s Policies of War
Scores of demonstrators hit the streets across Turkey on Thursday and Friday to protest the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) increasingly belligerent policies and its ongoing dispute with Syria that led to an exchange of artillery fire across the border this week.
The Istanbul Assembly of the People's Democratic Congress, the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP,) the Turkish Communist Party (TKP,) the Istanbul Medical Chamber, Istanbul Chamber of Pharmacists, the Istanbul Provincial Coordination Council of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB,) the Halkevleri ("Community Centers") and the Istanbul branches of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) gathered in Taksim Square on Thursday to denounce the prospect of a war with neighboring Syria.
"Long live the brotherhood of peoples," "Hands off Syria, AKP," "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism," "We do not want war with Syria," "This is not my war," "Bread, Peace, Freedom," the demonstrators chanted as they marched toward the Galatasaray High School in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district.
"The AKP has not only failed to take any measures to protect the people of Akçakale who have been feeling the effects of the war for a month, it has also accelerated its efforts to provoke a war," Özge Özen said on behalf of the protesters.
"[They] are aiming to rain death upon the peoples of Syria from this land with the addition of new clauses to the Iraq [cross-border raid] motion that has turned into a tool to attack the Kurdish people. The AKP which escalates policies of war rather than finding a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem and which has sent 10,000 Kurdish politicians to jail is also causing the deaths of Turkish and Kurdish youngsters on this soil every day. Now it is the turn of neighboring peoples," she said.
The government is channeling laborers' tax money into a war they do not want to become a part of, she added.
Özen also called on the government to halt the entry of militas and gangs into Turkey, in a reference to the Free Syrian Army (FSA,) who are distinct from civilian refugees.
"We are not going to permit a war with Syria. We are not going to be the footsoldiers of imperialism. We are going to broaden the war against anti-Kurdish hostility, against the escalation of nationalism and racism, the policies of war toward the Kurdish people and anti-Alevi rhetoric and policies," she said.
"Provoking civil war in Syria"
Meanwhile, police forces intervened against members of the Halkevleri ("Community Centers") who attempted to march toward Parliament in Ankara while deputies were meeting over the motion to authorize the government to send troops abroad on Thursday.
The police halted the demonstrators at the Akay Intersection and intervened against them with gas bombs on four occasions, Oya Ersoy, the head of the Halkevleri, told bianet.
"They do not allow us speak up. We said we have the right to do so and that we were determined to go to Parliament," she said.
"It is the AKP, and primarily [Foreign Minister] Davutoğlu, who is responsible for the deaths in Akçakale [on Wednesday,] as they have been allowing shady people called the Free Syrian Army to use this country's soil as a base [for operations] while making policies that provoke a civil war in Syria. We want peace in our country and the Middle East," she said.
The Labor and Democracy Platform also marched in the western province of Manisa on Friday and decried the government's policy of organizing the armed opposition forces in Syria.
The protesters also called for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan to enlist in the military, given their enthusiasm for war.
The KESK, the Turkish Medical Union (TTB,) the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP,) the main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP,) the Republican Women's Association (CKD,) the TMMOB, the Alevi Culture Association (AKD,) the Chamber of Pharmacists, the Equality and Democracy Party (EDP,) the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK,) Emekli-Sen, Labor Party (EMEP,) the People's Democratic Congress (HDK,) the ÖDP, the TKP, the Kemalist Thought Association (ADD,) the Independent Revolutionary Class Platform (BDSP,) the Hacı Bektaş Veli Anatolian Culture Association and the Yeni Uşak Village Institutes Association were all present at the demonstration.
"Tall tales about leadership in the Middle East"
More protesters also gathered in the northwestern province of Edirne and marched toward the AKP's provincial office on Thursday.
"We are not going to allow the AKP to drag our country into a war with neighboring peoples in pursuit of imperialist projects and tall tales about being a leader country in the Middle East. We are not going to serve as the footsoldiers of imperialism," Gamze Gezer said on behalf of the protesters.
The demonstrators also called for the resignation of Foreign Minister Davutoğlu.
"Policies that have turned this country's soil into a [military] base that instigates civil war in Syria and which provides military training and shelter for combatants there must be abandoned," she said.
The Communist Party, the Student Collective, the HDK, the ÖDP, the Youth Opposition and other local associations and groups also lent their backing to the protests.
"The whole country would turn into a battleground"
Meanwhile, a number of organizations including the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP,) the Human Rights Association (İHD,) Greenpeace Mediterranean and the People's Democratic Congress (HDK) also issued respective statements denouncing the government's Syrian policy.
"We are calling on everyone from every faith, language and culture to stand up against the AKP's policies of war, the 'War Motion' and an attack against Syria. The peoples of Turkey want peace at home, peace with their neighbors, peace in the region and the globe," the HDK said in its statement.
The Central Executive Council of the SDP also put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the AKP and those who voted in favor of the motion to authorize troop deployment outside of Turkey's borders:
"The government wants to put its calculations into effect by dragging [Turkey] into a war that could destroy the peoples of the region. Turkey is behaving like a little America. It ought to be known, however, that such a war would not merely take place in Syrian or Iranian soil. This war would not only be felt in Diyarbakır and Hakkari. The whole country, from east to west, from Diyarbakır to Istanbul and Şırnak to İzmir would turn into a battle ground," the SDP said.
"Such a war is also tantamount to a war against the Alevis living in our own soil. The state also wants to go to war against its own citizens, the Kurds and the Alevis," the SDP said, adding that the government regarded the prospect of Syrian Kurds gaining official status in that country as a "nightmare."
"The state is neither concerned with the people of Syria nor democracy. Its sole concern is to prevent the liberation of Kurds. It seems ready to enter an imperialist war that could also involve Iran under the veil of sectarianism to this end," the SDP's statement said.
Greenpeace Mediterranean also issued a statement on the matter:
"Guns must fall silent and people must speak instead to prevent further deaths. Where there is violence, there is fear. We can only transcend this fear as the people of Turkey and Syria by talking and putting an end to violence," Greenpeace said.
"An misadventure with unforeseeable consequences"
The Human Rights Association (İHD) also called on the government to resort to diplomacy to resolve the ongoing affair and cautioned against dragging Turkey into a misadventure with unforeseeable consequences.
"A war motion that has [been rushed through Parliament] and which aims to attack other countries will do no good to our country and our people. Problems ought to be resolved through peaceful means within the framework of international law, diplomacy and negotiations," said the İHD.
İHD also warned that the intimacy between the Turkish government and the Syrian opposition had reached an uncontrollable point.
"Turning a blind eye to this opposition's acts and behavior that might drag Turkey into the civil war in Syria will cause Turkey massive problems in the future," İHD said.
İHD further called on the government to shut down the camps that are hosting the Syrian rebels, to disarm them and move them into secure refugee camps away from the border area. (AY/BK/EÇ/EKN/HK/YY)