Turkey has a dark history of state violence against dissidents.  This violence was in one of its peeks during the 1990’s when tens of thousands of dissidents and Kurds simply “disappeared.” The symbol of these disappearances was the white Reanult cars, used by the state forces. Usually when witnesses saw someone forcefully taken into a white Reanult by men having walkie-talkies and displaying badges, it meant the end of him/her.

The current government of the Islamist AKP party had come to power criticizing such illegal disappearances, assassinations, torture and kidnappings. As time went by and the AKP’s coalition with an open fascist, Nazi party started to crumble and AKP started to lose support and members, the old state violence seems to have been unrolled from the shelves.

Recently a state authority casually mentioned that the “white Renaults may stage a comeback.”

It certainly looks that way, although the car make and model seems to have changed to black transporter type vans.

In Ankara, a member of the Halkevleri, Peoples’ Houses, association was surrounded by people who identified themselves as the police and brandished badges as he walked home. The men tried forcefully to push the member into a black van. However, the Peoples’ Houses member resisted and refused to enter the van. He was detained on the street for more than two hours when the police tried to persuade him to enter the van or answer questions on other members.

Peoples’ Houses organization is a progressive activist network of local branches and central administration. Interestingly it was established soon after the republic was established and tasked to take music, art, crafts and culture to every corner of the land. The autonomous association is lead now by progressive leftists who actually execute this enormous task. However, what has changed is the ruling classes and their ideology. The task of organizing the people around music, culture, folklore has lost its value in modern Turkey as acceptable culture has moved either to a western pop culture or, with government force, to an Islamic top-down philosophy.

For years, the organizing done by the Peoples’ Houses have gone beyond folklore and teaching music or theater. In every peoples’ organized protest from defending the rights of shantytown dwellers facing eviction to demonstrating in front of privatized or government utilities against exuberant cost of water, gas or electrical power it has become standard to see the members of Peoples’ Houses members leading the struggle.

The police kept on repeating many lies about the organization and its members while asking questions to the member on the two-hour street ordeal. It also became evident during the incident that the police had a lot of personal information about the member, most probably collected through illegal, clandestine listening or spying methods.

When the member told the authorities that what they were doing was illegal, they mocked and replied, “Compared to other things we do, this would be considered the most legal.”

The men from the van insisted that their aim was to “win over” the member of the Peoples’ Houses and promised that he would get access to the whole wealth and services of the state if only he’d cooperate.   When the member insisted on ending the conversation the police drove away but called him couple of days later and invited him to call them anytime.

In an announcement, the Peoples’ Houses condemned the intimidation and illegal operation of the authorities.  The announcement said, “As the Peoples’ Houses organization, we will take legal action against the government-supported gangsters who think it is legal to stop and threaten people on the streets.”

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