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This image has been used by many, in Turkey but also internationally until it is debunked. In fact, despite the debunking, all pro-government media continues to use. We are going through a massive nationalist theatre in which there is no place for factuality or no place anything smaller than “mega” scale. The rally must be so big that it should be seen from the space… Turkey’s official news agency, Anatolian Agency, declared that there were 5 million citizens in the rally. Mathematically, it can’t be more than 1,5 million… But if you contradict the official statement in behalf of realism, you might end up being labelled as a traitor by internet trolls. The fact is that the rally is already a major one without exaggerating the numbers. But anything less than mega is not acceptable in this context of political mania….
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I am also surprised about some of friends I follow on Twitter. Not that I label them as “AKP apologists” but I feel like a new wave of apologists is to emerge. Coup attempt triggered strong nationalist feelings and many Turkish citizens are ready to jump the emotional wagon.
My dear friend tweeted this today:
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I have been following news, too, and this is very unfair to international media. He later claimed that Western media did not give enough space for the rally news. He claims major media outlets only briefly mentioned the rally… Everything leads to an implication that Western media is in conspiracy to overthrow the government… Well, AKP’s Stalinist-level propaganda works well…
There is too much hope attributed Yenikapı Rally among some liberal Turks. Two Turkish opposition party leaders also attended the rally. It was of course an Erdoğan show but There is a feeling of unity. And I have admit, Erdoğan acts less polarizing than usual… These could be good signs. I want to believe these are good and maybe a more peaceful or least less tense period begins. However, this maudlin sense of patriotism comes with an exclusion: The third biggest party, HDP, was excluded from the rally. Whatever the reasons, this signifies not a unity of citizens but the formation of a nationalist front under the leadership of Erdoğan. Since November 1 elections, the Turkish opposition parties, CHP and MHP are virtually ineffective and the parliament does not work apart from serving what AKP wants. With the rally, it seems that a front is established. Turkey is not unfamiliar to nationalist fronts. She had one in 1970s against the left movement. Now they have new enemies and a stronger government and leader…
In the mean time, Conspiracy all around…
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A Spanish journalist who had been researching at Ankara University was deported by Turkish officials over the weekend
BirGün daily photojournalist Recep Yılmaz was not let into the meeting first, later he was accredited, but his accreditation was cancelled and he was taken out of the Yenikapı rally site.
Conscript Kurtulus Kaya died on Bosphorus Bridge – apparently beaten to death by a crowd – but his parents say he knew nothing about the coup plot
A response to an article in the Huffington Post appealing to Fethullah Gülen.
Chris Post/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.The recent failed coup attempt in Turkey by members of Fethullah Gülen’s Hizmet movement has spawned a great deal of writing, both analytical and opinion-based, on the future of Turkey at this critical moment and, more specifically, on the viability of the Hizmet movement.
Methods of state repression include tactics such as excessive fining of independent organisations on the basis of questionable audits, and attacking organisations in the state media. Then there is state co-option.
“Finally on a TV appearance on July 30, Erdogan declared his desire to bring the vigils to an end with a massive rally in Yenikapi, Istanbul on August 7.”
Turkish men in traditional costumes on stage at the Democracy and Martyrs’ Rally for over a million in Istanbul, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Emrah Gurel / Press Association. All rights reserved.Coup attempts – successful or not – are not rare in the history of the Turkish Republic. But the failed July 15 coup attempt stands out as in many ways, unprecedented. So do the developments in its aftermath, particularly the 3-month long state of emergency declared on July 20 and the changes brought about through state of emergency decrees. This included the substantial institutional restructuring of the military and the closing of hundreds of private media, health, education and charity orgazinzations linked to the Gulen movement (which is accused of being behind the coup plot), as well as massive purges and detentions from military and civilian public institutions.
Huge crowds gather in Istanbul to protest against last month’s attempted coup in Turkey.
Bethany Bell speaks to a student who has been on the streets of Istanbul almost every night since the coup attempt.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is racing to banish the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and establish himself — and Islam — as the most consequential factors in modern Turkish history.
Vía Erkan’s Field Diary http://ift.tt/2aHg5Gc
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