Since 31 May 2013, Turkey has been witnessing popular insurrections that resemble revolts seen in the 2000s in Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia, as well as after December 2010 in Tunisia and Egypt. The people “suddenly” rose up for a “simple” problem like “one or two trees.” The accumulation of years of progressive opposition organizations’ experiences […]
The people “suddenly” rose up for a “simple” problem like “one or two trees.” The accumulation of years of progressive opposition organizations’ experiences in the practicalities of resistance during the government’s 11-year reign exploded in the last week in the form of a people’s rebellion whose force far surpassed the capabilities of all organizations.
In all, the anti-war struggle that successfully prevented the AKP from passing a 1 March 2003 bill allowing the USA to transit the country on the way to Iraq…
The acts of resistance on May Day that have demonstrated the ability to upend police power every year since 2004, force it to lick up what is spit at Tayyip, and ensure that Taksim was opened to labourers and that May Day was declared a national holiday…
The egg-throwers who refused to surrender their universities to the AKP, as well as the students that lit their campuses alight and forced the AKP to hide behind their police army…
The people who said that residences, trees, metrobuses, parks, water and air belong to the people amid struggles for rights that halted hikes in prices and land speculation deals…
The local revolutionary youth whose anger against fascism was never exhausted in poor neighbourhoods even if the police’s gas bomb stocks were…
The workers who, like the 10,000 Tekel workers who set up a camp in the middle of Ankara one winter or the subcontracted energy and health workers who are made to do everything, are forced into pitched street battles after exhausting all legal avenues in the search for their rights…
The Alevis who have lost all hopes in the state…
The Kurds who have no option but to resist against death in the hopes of living a life of dignity…
The women who say, “I will decide about my life choices”…
All “spontaneously” ignited a people’s revolt amid the state repression of their attempts to resist.
The masses poured onto the streets saying “Enough!” and that they had no more patience for the “dictator,” even as the latter who, like all his brothers-in-arms, said “I’m not a dictator” and “But I got a lot of votes,” is attempting to protect his seat with blood while using his police forces against the people.
But it will all be to be no avail… Even if the masses banging on the doors of the Prime Minister’s Office aren’t able to enter, and even if the revolution might not occur today, this event will not save Tayyip Erdoğan from the trash into which his dictatorship has been cast.
As the people are fighting off Tayyip Erdoğan, those in positions of power in either the government or the opposition who refuse to see the truth will pay the price for their dereliction of duty.
May this be an official announcement of the revolt to all our friends in the east and west, as well as our enemies.
2 June 2013
