#DirenTurkiye: The Karagoz Puppets provide a socio-historical cheat-sheet for what led to #OccupyGezi


The trees in Gezi Parki were really the tip of the iceberg - or the straw that broke the camel's back about things a large segment of Turks were frustrated about.  This post gives you the quickest ever read on all the context you need to grapple better with what's happening in Turkey today.  Image source unknown.

The trees in Gezi Parki were really the tip of the iceberg – or the straw that broke the camel’s back about things a large segment of Turks were frustrated about. This post gives you the quickest ever read on all the context you need to grapple better with what’s happening in Turkey today. Image source unknown.

Last night, I was moved to write a blog post after 12 hours of watching horror after horror unleash on the 99% of peaceful protestors in Istanbul.  What was worse was knowing we were not seeing it in the other 77 provinces that have risen up and spoken.  But the worst part of the night was seeing and hearing my Istanbullu friends so scared, sad and confused was terrible.

Since posting last night, I’ve had an email stream from a number of friends, family, colleagues and e-buddies.  Many are just tuning in to what is going on.  Many do not understand the larger context of what is going on.  Given that the Karagoz puppet troupe inside my brain can read my thoughts, they woke me up from my pain-medicine induced nap with the clattering and banging of pots and pans – much like what the Istanbullus have been doing from the 9 pm to 10 pm hour for the past 2+ weeks.

“We demand, M’lady,” (that’s what they call me, they are old fashioned, trained in Ottoman court etiquette) “that you provide a quick context for people who don’t know Turkey.  I mean, they could read (among others) the very easy to digest modern history of Turkey called Crescent and Star: Between Two Worlds which you can buy here OR you could just sum it up – you DO teach social policy after all, I’m sure you could muster that even through your medicated haze.”  

And so here it is – my own version of the context for Turkey’s current events over the past 3 weeks as narrated by the puppets, based on:

1) Personal observation of the country over the past 10 years,

2) 10 years worth of conversations with my Turkish-American husband, his family and friends in Turkey

3) A whole lot of reading in the book and newspaper department.

If I get something wrong- or you disagree – let’s talk about it.  I’m 200% open to dialogue.

If I had to sum up what’s going on in Turkey it would be this:

First, Celebi the modern lover poet explains “Turkey was founded as a secular state by modernist Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 – and has been a secular state ever since. At that time, the military was charged by Ataturk to at all costs maintain the secular state.  Ataturk modernized the country in many ways, moved from Arabic to Latin script, had a keen focus on women’s rights, voting, educational and otherwise. He wasn’t, however, always in the right – some might say he was, at times, as authoritarian as Erdogan is being today – for example – see today’s article in the New York Times

Second, Hacivad Bey the learned Sufi elder puppet explains “although people did practice Islam, of course, and 90% or so of people had ethnic Muslim backgrounds, perhaps before the past 50 years these people were not a majority in much of the country – especially in Anatolia (the Asian side of Turkey, and generally, the rural and agrarian part of the country). The one exception here might be the far eastern part of Turkey where there is extreme poverty and my guess is that some effects of the Iranian revolution in the 1970s went over the border to the eastern part of Turkey.”

Third, Mercan Bey, the Arabian Spice trader puppet who has travelled many roads and seen many things explains “due to the great poverty and lack of opportunity in the Eastern part of the country, a great migration to the cities began in the 1960s and 1970s – as well as the previous swarm of emigrations to Germany for the post WWII rebuilding effort. I believe this started after the non-Turkish goods embargo and as Turkey began to be more economically viable as an emerging market with a more solid GDP (but don’t, M’lady, assume that I buy wholeheartedly into macroeconomic measures alone). If pressed, I would say that probably started 25 years ago?”

Ever the interrupter, reinforced by my time making arguments in courtrooms and perhaps not feeling heard enough as a kid for reasons out of all of our control, M’lady (me) jumps in “Now, I’m not an expert in this topic but to give you a sense of the scale of the migration, when my husband left Turkey & emigrated to the United States about 20 years ago, Istanbul was populated by belki (maybe) 5 million people. Now, Istanbul is roughly 17,000,000 people. To give you a concrete example, whenever we are driving down to the south towards Gelibolu  in Edirne (on the European side) there are ever-expanding scrums of sprawli – new neighborhoods burgeoning like mushrooms.  These are neighborhoods that my husband has not seen before, names he does not know – all in places that were just trees and nature.  Once, when returning from the south, the highway was closed, and we became totally lost in the miles and miles and miles of these new areas – using my dead reckoning skills to get by.  As a Twitter friend reminded her followers today, it is 165 KM to cross Istanbul from side to side – it’s that big. OK, I’ll shut up.”

Images of Turkish gecekondu developments – from http://www.mimdap.org

Fourth, Bebe Ruhi, the puppet with Dwarfism steps up now. “These new areas M’lady described formed quickly. There is a term in Turkish “gecekondu” (geh-jeh-kon-doo) which refers to a hastily built house constructed in one night. People would come chock-a-block from the East, my family included, and build these types of houses just to get a foothold. A friend of M’lady’s tells a story of her husband’s doorman offering land to him for purchase on the edge of the Asian side of Istanbul.  The husband turned it down – and is now poorer by a factor of 10 than his former doorman, for example.  In any case, all of this growth was sped along as in order not to have a public health nightmare, the city began to install electricity and plumbing to people for free. Of course, this well intended policy had an unintended consequence….continued, unchecked development, a story we have heard around the world.”

Fifth, Kenne, the Queen of Manners and Maintenance of Ladylike Behaviors puppet steps up now with a haughty tone. “Well, it is my understanding that the increased presence of people in the gecekondu were practicing Islam more deeply than the traditional Istanbullu elite were at that time – and of course this was related to where ‘these people’ were coming from, uneducated swarms from the wilds in the East.”  At this point, Esma, the tolerant and dialogue-oriented hippy puppet pulls Kenne out of the way and speaks to her in an unusually sharp tone about her classist intolerance in explaining this part of the story.  Blushing, Kenne pulls her to the other room to end the argument like ladies (but she highly doubts Esma is a lady, really, what with all of her hippy ways…but that is a story for another time).

Image of a secular and Islamist pair of friends lunching in the sun (Image from Kobreguide.com)

Sixth, Yehuda Rebbe the Revered Rabbi Puppet walks to the forefront, ignoring the fuss in the other room. “During these past 25 or 30 years as more and more Islamic religious people came to live in the cities in the western part of the country – the breadbasket you might say – the secular and religious divide within Turkey became increasingly evident. You can see this divide in our very own Siamese Twin puppets who love/hate Turkey – meaning Sobra and Daf The secular people, a good chunk of whom referred to themselves as “Kemalists” a term that refers to the country’s founder back in 1923, are devoted to maintaining Turkey as a secular state and respecting peoples’ right to have whatever religion they want – as long as they stay out of the way of secularness.  Now as any true policy implementation scholar would tell you, this is easier said than done. Unfortunately, my revered Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the nation did things in those early years that have become very divisive in recent years – such as ban women from wearing headscarves in government buildings and universities.  He also banned the wearing of the Fez amongst men. and He also made sure that women had the vote and that women could go to school. He was not perfect by any means but the central tenets with which he founded the republic – often with an iron fist akin to Tayyip’s now – were and are very important to many a Turk.”

Seventh, Safiye Rakkase the vainglorious dancing girl puppet steps up, in an uncharacteristically non-fashion oriented mood and surprises us all.  ”When the Ak Partesi (the AKP or in English the Justice and Development Party, JDP) came into power about 11 years ago – they were referred to as moderate Islamists by many the world over.  They tolerated women like me who choose to dance for a living and don’t mind baring their midriff once in a while. Slowly, many in my secularist camp feel strongly that the AKP cronies have tried to chip away at the traditional secular laws and regulations put in place by our beloved Ataturk.  They have also slowly added laws and regulations that are seen as slightly more in line with sharia or Islamic religious law – but not overarching at all – nothing like Iran, for example, but still, bad enough over time given the snowlball effect. Now remember, Turkey is NOT a place where people have to wear headscarves – I never ever have – my hair is too lovely – and remember that many of the women who wear headscarves in the countryside do so for traditional reasons the same way M’Lady’s grandmother in Spain or her mother in New York City in the 1950s and 60s did.”

As Safiye Rakkase steps down from her virtual podium, most of the puppets are standing mouths agape, as she returns to look at her fashion magazines and sing along to “HollaBackGirl” by Gwen Stefani.  ”That was unexpected,” cry the little chorus of dancing ladies more used to the Harem than the dance hall.

Of course, I, M’lady, must force myself in on the contextual lesson once again “I will say that some of the things that I have personally seen the Prime Minister and the President do in the past 10 years have indeed been positive – provide more water sources for the arid land in the southeast so people can farm and make a living, say, near Sanliurfa, where we saw field upon field of pomegranites and nut trees for as far as the eye could see.  I have understood that the AKP has worked to provide more education for children and to implement a nascent child welfare, juvenile justice and disability services system – albeit drops in the bucket designed to please EU regulators (who will never accept Turkey anyway).  Tayyip is well-reknowned to have provided a better infrastructure in terms of roads and transportation. These are all very good and very needed things. Of course what the prime minister gets the credit for most is Turkey’s booming economy & GDP measures although it is quite unstable, rising up and crashing down many times in the last 10 years I’ve been watching. And the macroeconomic indicators do not necessarily indicate how well people are doing down at the bottom – there is an argument that there is an increased middle class I believe to be true to some extent but what middle-class means there may be very different from what middle-class means In Europe or the United States.”  At this points, the puppets gently push me back to bed rest.

Image of new Turkish Airlines uniforms from http://www.theworld.org

Seventh, we have a rare appearance from Perihan Hanim, the fairy Godmother puppet.  ”Hello dears, I will add that in the past year or so, all of a sudden, a series of smaller, more authoritarian actions began to take place at the tingling of Tayyip’s fingertips. For example, there were the recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., increasing incidents of disrespect/arrest/attack of people who do not follow Islamic religious holidays even if they are not following them in a quiet manner (such as being beaten by police for having a beer for dinner in a restaurant during Ramadan) or say a ban on Turkish Airlines stewardesses wearing lipstick along with the introduction of a very Burqa-like, hijab-oriented (modest dress) uniform. All these may sound like small things – but I think they have built up and people on the secular side of the great divide deeper and wider than the Bosphorus could ever be. And, whether right or wrong, I note that there has been a more authoritarian feeling with respect to how our Prime Minister has conducted business in a shady way, encouraged nepotism, become corrupt and bend rules for things he wanted.  Even M’lady’s brother-in-law began attending mosque just to make business connections, although he knows just about zilch about Islam.  That corruption is an issue in Turkey has been documented and discussed by M’lady’s economist brother-in-law – but let me not get lost in an area in which you will cease to listen to me.  Here is the core of the matter: When people learned that The Prime Minister pushed through (via his political majority) a government approved plan that was going to remove the beautiful Gezi Park – the trees became the straw that broke the camels back. And now here we are, in a chaotic situation and no one knows how it will end.”

As of this writing – we hear many voices.  Capulcular exhausted from weeks of well-intended capuling, old-hard line Kemalists saying “this is enough, the youth are being hurt, it is time to stop protesting” and other secular friends saying “we doubt the youth will stop.”  Regardless of what the future holds for Turkey – we hope that this Karagoz-puppet-inspired contextual analysis has helped you some, and indeed not set you off to sleep in boredom.

When one falls, a thousand stand up. (Image source unknown)

When one falls, a thousand stand up. (Image source unknown)

In the distance, in a far part of the house, however, we hear another puppet voice – that of Hacıyatmaz who just keeps on rolling – he is chanting “#DirenTurkiye” again and again. And so are we.

Related articles

#DİREN TÜRKİYE! 12 hours of devastation…and resilience


Child suffering from gas exposure being brought into makeshift infirmary in the Divan Hotel, June 15, 2013 (Photo by Yannis Behrakis of Reuters)

For the past twelve hours, we (me, occasionally M. who can barely stand it, and the entire Karagoz puppet troupe that inhabits my head during this cross-cultural marriage) have been glued to the Internet in order to understand what we can of the exceptionally brutal crackdown on the Gezi Parkı protesters in Istanbul – and of course on the many protesters around Turkey whose stories are not being covered.

We have seen the EU Turkish Minister explain that all who go to Taksim Square/Gezi Parkı will be treated as “terrorists.” Hacivad Bey the Sufi elder puppet lets out a distinctive sigh of shock at this statement.

We have seen photos and live feed of children, elders and families engaging in peaceful protest in Gezi Parkı. Soon after, we heard reports of police warnings amplified over the crowd, suggesting that children and elders leave the park, as it was about to be cleared. The protesters resisted by chanting slogans back at the police. Esma the hippie puppet chants along with them whenever we can get a live feed.

We have seen a sudden police action circa 8 p.m. involving water canons laced with chemicals from the TOMA (Panzers) and yet again scads of tear gas. We have seen photos and videos of people writhing in pain, people vomiting, people with great red welts, horrified children who cannot breathe and their terrified parents. We have seen great clouds of tear and/or pepper and/or vomit gas hovering over most of the city – even miles from Taksim Square. Even Karagoz, the oppositional trickster cannot speak about this.

We have seen protestors taking cover in the Divan Hotel, a fancy hotel where in the past, I often stopped to buy fistikli lokum - they make the best in the city – for my father, who loved it. We usually had a glass of Çay on the terrace before we left. We have seen that hotel turn itself into a shelter for protestors – and into a voluntary infirmary. We have seen police fire tear or pepper gas into that hotel – and to storm that hotel. Now, at 5 a.m. Istanbul time, we see those peaceful protestors sleeping on the carpet in the lobby of that hotel – afraid to leave as the police have threatened to arrest all who do so. Zenne, the nervous nelly like a glass of quivering quince jelly puppet, wrings her hands in anxiety at this.

We have seen the TOMA (Panzers) shoot the same chemical-laced water on people attempting to enter Istanbul’s Aleman Hastanesi (German Hospital), thwarting their attempts to obtain help. Celebi, the modern lover puppet, can only cover his eyes.

We have seen M.’s home street, Sıraselviler Caddesi bombarded with tear gas, bashed up by anarchist protestors – the lunatic fringe perhaps – still trying to fight the police. (Archers of Okcular, I welcome debate/opinion on that one). The chorus of little dancing ladies begin banging their pots and pans again at this.

June 15, 2013 arrests in Istanbul (Image from Europeans Against the Political System’s Facebook Page)

We have seen increased protest, arrests and fighting and resistance to police brutality in M.’s 80 year-old Aunt’s neighborhood, Şişli and so many other areas. So far, she is fine, she has lived through a lot, but we are still worried about her. Kenne, the Queen of Manners, demands that we call her at 5 a.m. her time to make sure she is safe, but M. nixes this idea and hopes that she is sleeping.

We have telephoned, Facebooked, Tweeted and Skyped friends who express the same range of emotions – devastation, anger, sadness, frustration, confusion, anxiety – and in the end, resilience.

In the last conversation of the night, I asked my very dear friend about her day. Mostly, she said, it was punctuated by fear about not knowing the location of one of her three sons for too many hours. When I asked her whether people buying her (truly delicious) Börek at one of her Börek Online franchises (still open and ready for business) she said “yes, business was good.” Continuing, I asked whether her customers spoke of what was going on – she stopped and thought. I watched her face for a while on our fuzzy Skype connection as silent but long deep tears appeared to slide down her face. She was tired, but more sad than tired. Finally, she said “no, we didn’t, we have to keep it like normal. We have to pretend like normal, or we go crazy.”

At this, the whole troupe of Karagoz puppets weep.

And while it is not normal to experience any of the horrors described above (Börek excluded), our only wish tonight is for the people of Turkey to find their inner resilience and to keep on going as they seek to find some balance and some peace between all parties.

Turks crossing one of the two bridges that span the Bosphorus Strait – from Asia to Europe (Image from Europeans Against the Political System’s Facebook Page)

And just when I thought that I could not look at Twitter one more time tonight or my heart would break, I did, and I began to see reports and photographs from trusted friends of thousands of people crossing from the Asian side of Istanbul, across one of the city’s two continent-spanning bridges, to support the protestors in Taksim.

And with that, the puppets begin a never-ending whisper of a chat as we try to sleep – #DirenTurkiye!

Taksim Square and #OccupyGezi: Of birds and bees, dogs and trees


20130614-120335.jpg

The left-hand side of this photo shows peaceful protestors helping a dog who is suffering from pepper or tear spray – the right-hand image needs no caption. (Author of image unknown)

We have heard much about the peaceful protesters (a.k.a. “çapulcular“) who have gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square – and some about the non-peaceful protesters (who many postulate are actually police working undercover as protestors, and we agree based on photos we have seen as paranoid as that sounds). Much of what we have learned about what is happening has come from friends on Twitter.

Image of Istanbul dog in gas mask from Buzz Feed – click photo for link to original

As I scrolled through my Twitter feed the other night, I saw increasing numbers of reports from people living in the areas around Gezi Parkı - Taksim, Cihangir and Gümüşsuyu - about dead birds, bees, cats and dogs on the streets – apparently dead as a result of intense exposure to tear and/or pepper gas. Heartbreaking.

Perhaps as a result of Esma the hippie puppet’s Star Trek-like transport into the thick of the protests on the first day two weeks ago – and perhaps as a result of Esma herself being glued to my Twitter feed along with me, she has asked me to talk about the animals today.  Remember, Esma, the hippie puppet with a heart of idealistic and sometimes altruistic gold has a deep and sweet concern for all living beings.

Here is Esma, the hippie puppet - sans her usual rose petal dress - image from Karagoz.com

Here is Esma, the hippie puppet – sans her usual rose petal dress – image from Karagoz.com

When I awoke today, I noticed that the Esma had staged a sit in all around my head on the pillows – and had convinced all of the puppets to join her.  It is a rare show of unity among the rag-tag band of Karagöz Oyunlari who are known for their spats and indeed sometimes their puppet battles when differences between them erupt into whirling dervish swirls of mixed color and language.  So, the first words I heard this morning were a chorus of:

“hey hey, ho ho, NO blogs on animals have got to go!”

As soon as she saw that I was somewhat awake (which has relative meaning given the hardcore pain medicine I currently have to take while awaiting my next surgery) she began to read her proclamation.

“We, the unified and determined Karagöz Oyunlari demand that you, M’lady, write a blog post about the birds, the bees, the dogs and the trees over in Gezi Parkı and environs.  If you do not comply with this respectfully submitted demand, we will a) no longer deliver tea to you each morning in bed, b) no longer advise you on matters cross-cultural, c) no longer whisper the answers into your ears when you are struggling with Rosetta Stone Turkish and d) generally wreak havoc.”  

Well, I was in a position – but I reminded them that I would have written about the animals anyway.  I understood the birds, the bees and the dogs – but the trees? I was quick to be educated that Esma, you see, believes that trees are sentient beings, something I believe she learned after reading the entire Chronicles of Narnia and/or watching one too many Lord of the Rings movie on cable TV.  Who knows, maybe she is right.  In any case…let’s get on with it so the puppets will let me out of bed.

The trees in Gezi Parki were really the tip of the iceberg - or the straw that broke the camel's back about things a large segment of Turks were frustrated about.  Image source unknown.

The trees in Gezi Parki were really the tip of the iceberg – or the straw that broke the camel’s back about things a large segment of Turks were frustrated about. Image source unknown.

Let’s start backwards from how today’s post is ordered – let’s start with the trees – we have heard a lot about the trees in Gezi Parkı, of course.  They are the straw that broke the camel’s back vis-a-vis this spontaneous Turkish people‘s uprising.  There are relatively few trees in Gezi Parkı - and trees are a lovely commodity in a city with so few.  It is often the trees – or more correctly the lack of the trees – that get M. so steamed as we drive around Istanbul. Last year, as we took a taxi over to see his Aunt, Teyze B., he bemoaned all the areas that used to have trees while he was growing up.

“What kind of government allows such unchecked development – and I’m not talking about the gecekondu on the outskirts of the city – I’m talking about here, right here in the city.  I could NEVER live in this city again – the Istanbul that I know is lost.”

Image from the collection of Liz Cameron's M.

Two young Istanbullus playing in Gezi Park, circa 1962.  Image from the collection of Liz Cameron’s M.

This sentiment, perhaps, is a part of what brought those very quiet and almost invisible tears to his eyes the other day as he emerged from rummaging around in the basement with a cherished photo of Gezi Parkı, where he was playing with his brother in a toy airplane – in roughly 1962 or so.  That Prime Minister Erdogan would just wipe out one of the few remaining parks in the city, well, it was just too much.  Too much for M.  Too much for Esma.  Too much for the Istanbullus – and indeed too much for the people of the Turkish Cumhurriyet.

Karagoz was quicker than my Turkish economist friend in checking out the Prime Minister's math - he says "483 trees per day, 24-7 for 365 days for each of 11 years? (Image by Liz Cameron)

Karagoz was quicker than my Turkish economist friend in checking out the Prime Minister’s math – he says “483 trees per day, 24-7 for 365 days for each of 11 years? (Image by Liz Cameron)

What has been perhaps most humorous about the whole tree issue in these protests are the responses from the Prime Minister himself.  He keeps insisting that over the last 11 years, his party has planted 2 billion trees across Turkey.  As a Turkish economist friend quickly calculated, this is quite a statement (see Karagöz’ photo with the calculations here).  As much as I hate to admit it, I do have to point out that one of my favorite agent provocateurs over in Okcular, Turkiye, environmentalist activist extraordinaire HAS reported on major tree planting efforts in some areas…so in an effort to be balanced, there you go.

A protestor and his beloved dog resting in Gezi Park between, presumably, peace attacks.

A protestor and his beloved dog resting in Gezi Park between, presumably, peace attacks. (Source unknown)

Well, let’s move on to the dogs. When I began spending time in Turkey, ten years ago, I saw many stray dogs – and few dogs as pets.  I have noticed an increase in dogs as pets as the years have gone by.  While many expats in Turkey have championed the cause of caring for street animals (thank you Ayak’s Turkish Delight who led me to this organization, Far from the Sticks and Adventures in Ankara), what many may not know is that Istanbul does quite well, these days anyway, with tagging stray dogs for annual vaccinations – and many feed the dogs on a daily basis. It may not be Blue Ribbon dog food – but they are being fed.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BL3P4GlCEAAFDCp.jpg

Image of dog cursing “son of a bitch Tayyip” from Buzzfeed

As we have watched recent events unfold in Turkey, I had not thought much about the dogs – but as I was scrolling through my Twitter feed last night, I came across a friend’s post about a Veterinarian near the Italian Hospital who was remaining open to treat dogs hurt by the 19 hours worth of tear gas that the Istanbul police let fly on Wednesday night.  As people in love with our own beloved rescue dog, the images we have seen of dogs in and around Taksim Square and Gezi Parkı have broken our heart – and we include some of those images here. In general, we hope that the dogs have had the good sense to run as far as possible from the gassed area – and that they will be alright.  (Esma the hippie puppet emits an empathetic moan at this sentence).

Collage image of dogs in Gezi Parki from One News UK (click link for source)

Well, that leads us to the bees.  I am sure that there are not many bees in Istanbul, given the lack of flowers and trees (see lack of tree rant, above).  We do know that there is an international bee emergency – and that much of what is sold as honey in Turkey and worldwide has been found to have little to no pollen in it…instead replaced with the dreaded corn syrup.  We are sure any bees left in Taksim are dead anyway.

Author of this image is unknown.

Author of this image is unknown.

…and that leads us to the birds…and the FB posting that made me start crying today – of a dumpster full of dead birds in and around Taksim Square and Gezi Parkı in Istanbul, Turkey – dead as a result of excessive tear and pepper gas bombing over the last two weeks. I’m not sure M. would be as bereft about the birds as he would be about the trees.  As a child, it was always the Istanbullu pigeons that made his father aware of all the daily wrongdoings he had done before getting a punishment.  Still.  What of the chain of life?  As The Archers of Okcular reminded us on FB today, there was a reason that the Geneva Convention banned the use of gas on people. :(

Well, now that I near the end of today’s rant – the puppets are slowly making their way off the sit-in bed and heading out to get some cay brewing.  Esma kisses my hand and places it on her forehead (something Turks with manners do to honor an elder) and says “Thank you, M’lady. May this current Turkish crisis end soon.  May the animals return.  May the Turkish environmental movement flourish more than it already is – and Namaste.”

(And to my dear friends who have encouraged me not to be such an obsessive perfectionist in favor of health, I have left mistakes in this post in the form of not putting all of the proper Turkish characters where they should be because I am just too sick – and because the point I want to get across has been made – and because this is just good ENOUGH.)