Tuesday, 20 May 2025

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Protests in Turkey: A Turkish Spring?

The events in Turkey are being watched with interest. There have been disquieting reports over the last year that the ruling Islamic conservative party the Justice and Development Party (AKP) were beginning to tighten their grip on Turkish political and social life. All manner of citizens were concerned, liberals, nationalists, social democrats and socialists. The initial protest over turning a public park into a shopping mall started small but quickly mushroomed in reaction to the brutal police reaction. As National Liberals we view with disquiet the reaction of the Police to legitimate and peaceful protest and the steady erosion of civil liberties in general. Our National Liberal correspondent in Turkey, Ozgur Karakok, sends us this report.

At the beginning it was to save 600 trees and the park area at the center of Istanbul by Taksim square. However, faced with the horrifying attack by the Turkish police force on the protesters campaigning against the redevelopment of Gezi Park in Istanbul it grew into something more. Whilst the protest started small, it soon became an example of the struggle for more freedoms in Turkey. Mass protests spread all over Turkey because of bans and pressure on people to adopt Islamic rules and the unfair actions of public institutions. The latter in particular is seen as evidence of orchestrated political processes and control over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of Government by Turkey’s ruling party ,Islamist conservative party AKP.

The excessive use of power by police raids is in the social media on facebook, twitter, and YouTube. The police are beating everyone they catch and these attacks are often seen in many cities. This barbarous action, in the so-called name of democracy, freedom of speech, and human rights, is a disgrace. Many of us worry about the fate of the many protesters held by police at police stations and their consequences are still not known and there is a suspicion that violence is visited upon them.

Now AKP is not keeping promises and there is no democracy anymore in Turkey for there is a dictatorship regime and there is a change from a secular to Islamist state. AKP is abandoning all the good things that secularism brought to them and us all slowly but surely.

I will try to tell you that how Turks allowed AKP come to power:

First of all I can tell you that people were not happy with the previous system and legislation because for a long time it was infested with corruption and the public body lost its fidelity, dependability and reliability in the eyes of the people. This gives them (AKP) a chance to tell lies and create a scenario of hope to the public to entice them to reject the past dogmas. I can also tell you that the elections have been worth by fraud twice since 2002 and that AKP party won the election. Later I can tell you that Turkish people are not very familiar with the concept of democracy and people’s ability to adopt democracy is taking time to process, if you compare any developed country’s people with the Turkish people I can really tell you that there are couple decades of a period of maturity for Turkish people to reach those developed countries peoples level. Finally I can tell you that most of those protesters belong to younger generation so they are very adaptable to change but their future expectations are equal to their generation expectations in developed countries. They do not belong to any political party or group and all have different political point of view and thoughts. They know their individual rights and freedoms and they know that they deserve respect as citizens. And the people (the civilians) understand that they are the protectors of the Ataturk legacy and no longer the army because over the last 10 years all the secular generals have been removed from the army by AKP through several dirty tricks.

At the end of it all we will see whether these protests are able to open a door for a Turkish Spring or just the anger of the people which calms down over time? I hope it is the latter.

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From the Liberty Wall – Nations without States

MATEBELELAND is named after its inhabitants the Ndebele, a distinct ethnic group who share a common culture and language. Situated in the West of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) it consists of three provinces – Matebeleland North, Matebeleland South and Bulawayo.

The Ndebele are proud of their traditions, customs and way of life. They want nothing more than to simply live in peace and freedom.

However, the hated President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has other ideas. Since the formation of Zimbabwe in 1980, Mugabe has conducted a war against the Ndebele. This has varied in intensity from tribal discrimination (Mugabe belongs to a group known as the Shona) to genocide.

With this in mind is it any wonder that the Ndebele want Self-Determination?

However, just talking about this concept has landed Paul Siwela – President of the Matebeleland Liberation Organisation – in hot water. Paul and the MLO want a negotiated settlement with Mugabe. All they want to do is peacefully break away from Zimbabwe and set up a Republic of Matebeleland. They are more than willing to live with their Shona neighbours in peace and co-operate with them when and where necessary.

Mugabe doesn’t see it like this. Thus Paul Siwela has been placed virtually under house arrest and will soon be on trial for High Treason.

Despite the unpopularity of Mugabe the world’s media has strangely been silent on this matter. As one of Paul Siwela’s supporters noted:

“The problem is that outside Bulawayo, the press is boycotting Paul’s case. Not a peep out of the usually anti-Mugabe press in the UK or South Africa. The only thing worse in their eyes than Mugabe is a so called secessionist. Believe me, we have tried – this treason trial should be big news.”

Nations without States supports the idea of Self-Determination for all. Thus they have produced an e-poster (pictured) which prominently features the recently unveiled flag of the much-longed-for future Republic of Matebeleland. The e-poster attempts to draw attention to Paul’s case in particular and the right of his people to a free and sovereign State of their own – Matebeleland.

NwS urges everyone to repost this e-poster – it needs to go viral – to draw attention to the suffering of the Ndebele under Mugabe’s near totalitarian rule.

Check out the Liberty Wall HERE

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The internet is global and so are the threats to its privacy!
As liberals we fear the loss of our privacy to Government snooping and recently launched a petition against the Surveillance society (sign here  http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/say-no-to-the-surveillance-society.html). In the US however a bill is already being proposed to allow their Government to spy on their citizens.
Cyber campaigners Avaaz are also running their own petition against the US ‘The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)’. They say

‘CISPA would allow companies doing business in the US to collect exact records of all of our online activities and hand them over to the US government, without ever notifying us that we are being watched. No warrant, no legal cause and no due process required. To make matters worse, the bill provides the government and corporations with blanket immunity to protect them from being sued for violation of privacy and other illegal actions. The bill’s supporters claim that consumer information will be protected, but the reality is that huge loopholes would make everything we do online fair game — and nowadays, from banking to shopping, our private information is all stored on the Internet. CISPA is being moved forward in Congress and will be voted upon in days. Let’s raise a massive outcry to stop corporations from giving the US a blank check to monitor our every move. Click below to take action: http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa_corporate_global/?vl

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