Erdogan’s dictatorship has pulled out all stops to criminalize, attack and lynch anybody who dares not to agree with the government. Calling attention to children dying in the civil war is considered to be “terrorist propaganda” in Turkey! When a woman teacher called a popular live TV show and simply mentioned that children were being […]
Erdogan’s dictatorship has pulled out all stops to criminalize, attack and lynch anybody who dares not to agree with the government.
Calling attention to children dying in the civil war is considered to be “terrorist propaganda” in Turkey!
When a woman teacher called a popular live TV show and simply mentioned that children were being killed in South East Turkey) she became the target of a social lynching campaign started by the mainstream media and the government. Teacher Ayse, in a shaking voice through the phone connection, only called attention to the fact that children were dying in the East while nobody paid any attention. The host thanked her for her thoughts and after the applause he moved on.
The caller, Teacher Ayse, did not accuse anybody, did not mention who had killed the children. She just voiced her concern about children dying.
In the last several months, Turkish forces killed more than 44 children in Turkish Kurdistan. The mainstream media refuses to publish the perpetrators since the government forces are behind these murders. As young as 3.5 month babies have been killed by Turkish army and police shelling of civilian neighborhoods in the Kurdish towns. Since exposing this painful truth is not allowed in Turkey, the news covers deaths in an ambiguous way, reporting, “several people died in the East.” That is, if they are honest. If not, every single death is blamed on the Kurds to stir up more Turkish nationalism against the Kurds or are presented as terrorists killed in a clash, even if the victim is as young as 3.5 month old baby. This, even when the police and the army members send tweets or post in their Facebook pages with the pictures of the killed Kurds and brag how they shot their victims and they will do it again gladly.
When the lynching campaign started against teacher Ayse the next day, the TV station officially apologized for allowing “terrorist propaganda” they had allowed to be aired on their channel. The channel made sure everybody knew that they were on the side of the state.
The host also had to apologize for the “terrorist propaganda” teacher had spread in his show and tried calming the howling nationalists by saying, “I am a child of a police officer.”
No matter how many apologies were extended, this unacceptable call to stop killing children on air was not enough for the pro-government media. Now they are demanding that all the guests in the show should apologize as well because they were guilty of the same crime for not confronting or shutting the caller down.
Immediately after this incident that rocked the country, the Ministry of Education started an investigation to identify and find the teacher with a memo to all offices to track down teachers who have negative thoughts against the government.
However, the left, progressive and the Kurdish supporters of teacher Ayse are now showing up everywhere with placards that read, “I am teacher Ayse.” However, the police show up immediately to harass and intimidate the protestors even when they are only displaying the placard and standing silently.
Sendika.Org News (Mehmet Bayram)
