Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

21.40 Work on removing the barricade from Istiklal Street.

http://birgun.net/haber/yagmaya-soyguna ... -9125.html

[B25]

This could be the greatest Christmas gift ever, Turkey in Flames. May they burn her to the ground, there may just be karma afterall.
The silence this end is deafening.

[bill cobbett]

Zaman reports street protests against the corruption of AKP in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir met with TOMAs, tear gas and plastic bullets, in scenes reminiscent of last Summer's Gezi Part protests.

'... Turkish riot police blasted opposition protesters with water cannons, tear gas and plastic bullets in İstanbul on Friday in scenes reminiscent of the summer's mass anti-government demonstrations.
Some of the protesters threw rocks and firecrackers at police, shouting, "Catch the thief!" in reference to a widening corruption scandal gripping Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government.

Similar protests were held in the city of İzmir, and in Ankara where police also fired water cannons to disperse the crowds. ..."

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-335168- ... ators.html

[Get Real!]

They started a lot sooner than I expected! I thought the Turkish party was gonna commence end of January and climax mid year but they’re in an awful hurry.

Don’t be surprised to hear ErdoCunt announce…

“State of emergency… Elections canceled!”

[bill cobbett]

Yes, events have been very fast-moving.

NYT summarising the events of the past few days, with the corruption accusations getting closer and closer to Erdogan, under the headline

The Filth in Erdogan's Closet

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/opini ... d=fb-share

"... ISTANBUL — A wave of early morning police raids in Turkey on Dec. 17 gave the world a sudden glimpse into the murky inner workings of the country’s ruling elite, pulling back the curtain on astonishing scenes of bribery and graft.

The head of the state-controlled financial giant, Halkbank, had $4.5 million secreted in shoe boxes in his study. Istanbul’s best-known real-estate developer was interrogated over bribes to evade zoning restrictions.

The interior minister’s son’s home had so many strongboxes filled with cash, he needed a counting machine to keep the accounts straight. His father has now been forced to resign as part of major cabinet reshuffle.

Another minister, Erdogan Bayraktar, who oversees the mega-construction projects that are transforming Istanbul, didn’t leave quietly. He said he’d done nothing without Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s full blessing. “To make people more comfortable, the prime minister should also resign,” he told a private news channel... "

[Get Real!]

The Filth in Erdogan's Closet

That should read the filth in Turks not just ErdoTwit... the whole world has seen what they've done to Syria.

And may it come back to find these disgusting criminals 100-fold!

[Tim Drayton]

This is my summary of Cumhuriyet newspaper’s report on yesterday evening’s (27 December) nationwide protests:

ISTANBUL - The police began to intervene using pressurised water against those arriving even before the appointed starting time of 19:00 for the demonstration in Taksim. Various groups were blocked by the police from marching on Taksim Square. With friction between police and demonstrators continuing in neighbouring streets, the police managed to clear the square.
Hundreds of people attempting to make their way to Taksim by ferry from Kadıköy were blocked by a phalanx of riot police.

ANKARA - Protestors marching from Güvenpark were confronted by police riot control vehicles. A group that assembled in Kızılay Square attempted to march on the AKP provincial building but dispersed after the police intervened using tear gas and pressurised water.

ANTAKYA - A group of about 100 marched in protest against government corruption. Later some of the group set up a barricade and responded with stones and fireworks on being ordered to disperse by the police. The police intervened and dismantle the barricade, but sporadic clashes between the police and demonstrators lasted for four hours.

IZMIT - About 500 hundred people marched through the city centre in protest at the corruption exposed in the ongoing investigation. They later dispersed without incident. One group of dispersing protestors was attacked by another group of about 20 people. The police stood by as this attack took place, leading the hospitalisation of a youth named Ersin Davran.

IZMIR - A group assembled and shouted slogans such as “Ministers are not enough; government - resign,” “The father and son came and robbed the state,” “Everywhere bribery, everywhere corruption” and “There is a thief”. Later, 20 people separated from this group and went to the government offices where, after reading a press statement, they staged a sit-down protest. Following a brief confrontation with the police, they dispersed into side streets.

ADANA - A group of trade unionists, political party members and university students assembled and called on the government to resign. Some university students performed a sketch to the group of about 300 and, having danced a traditional dance together, they dispersed without incident.

MERSIN - A group of about 300 assembled, holding banners reading “There is a thief,” “Revolution will clean this filth,” and “Freedom is in the street,” and chanted slogans such as “From father to son, thief AKP,” “This is just the beginning, the struggle continues” and “Rebellion, Revolution, Freedom.” They then marched to a branch of Halk Bank (implicated in the corruption scandal). The police attempted to block them from marching further but, on failing to do so, permitted them to march as far as another bank branch. Here, Zeliha Doğan, speaking on behalf of the group, said, "Tayyip Erdoğan has shamelessly appeared before the people in Sakarya and said that they made donations to my son’s foundation, that his son had seven ships and was a businessman. Did this 20-year-old child leave his mother’s womb with the ships? Were your son’s ships also born of you, Emine Erdoğan? This is the people’s money. Did you stand up for Muammer Güler’s child? He carried off money by the casefull and you still appear in front of the people. You both help and say that you will get rid of this filth.” The protest ended without event.

ESKİŞEHİR - About 400 people marched past the AKP province building and threw rotten tomatoes at the Halk Bank branch. They carried banners reading “Ministers are not enough, government - resign” and “Only the people can clean up this filth,” shouted the slogans such us “Government - resign,” “Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance” and “Those who slaughtered Ali are those who rob the people.” As this group dispersed, about 100 people regrouped and marched on the AKP province building, and Can Ersoy read a press statement on their behalf: "The AKP-Gülenist pact, which caused young people to die and suffer permanent bodily harm as it applied enemy law to the millions in the streets in the Gezi resistance, are at one another’s throats over sharing power and booty. They have set off a fight from which there is no return. What can we say - let their fights be permanent. We are not party to their fights. We are on the side of humanity, labour, human rights and freedoms, equal citizenship rights and work and equal distribution.” They then dispersed.
Police authorities say that they have recorded on camera the roughly 100 people who congregated in front of the AKP building, and each of them will be fined 343 lira for blocking the traffic.

DENİZLİ - The Resist Denizli Platform staged a protest calling on the government to resign. About a thousand people congregated in a central square and then marched along a main thoroughfare without police intervention. They dispersed after about one and a half hours without incident.

EDİRNE - About 100 university students assembled in a park and marched about five kilometres to the AKP buildings. Here they shouted the slogan “The AKP to the grave, the people to power” and then dispersed without incident after the reading of a press statement. Plain-clothes policemen monitored the protestors from a distance.

KEŞAN - About 200 people assembled and marched to the sound of drums and whistles. The police took security precautions as they marched past the AKP building. Sebahattin Akçay, speaking on behalf of the group, said "The web of corruption and graft that the AKP, the scourge of this country for many years, has created is today more clearly visible. The resignations that have taken place are nothing more than a pretext for a cabinet reshuffle and a means for extending the life of the AKP’s shop window. Today is the beginning of the end of the road for the AKP, which for nearly twelve years has kept itself in power with bullying and slaughter. For the AKP to describe what is happening as a global plot points to the hopelessness they have fallen into.” After singing and dancing to the accompaniment of a guitar, the group dispersed.

UŞAK - About 1,200 people marched from Cumhuriyet Square to the Ataturk statue. They shouted slogans such as “There is a thief,” “Government - resign,” “Thief AKP,” “Not the republic, but the AKP will be toppled” and “You said religion and faith but pocketed the money.” People expressed their support by banging posts and pans from their homes. Ataturkist Thought Association Uşak Branch Chair Arif Güvenir said “Those who have spent years until today using religion as means for political graft, those who said ‘We will not pocket or let others do so’ have pocketed and pocketed and pocketed. But let them know that we will not permit the rights of baby Ayaz who froze to death in Konya to be pocketed.” Republican People’s Party Uşak deputy Dilek Akagün Yılmaz, claiming that the partnership between President Abdullah Gül, Fetullah Gülen and Prime-Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had ended, said "We have all together shown that this country has not surrendered to theocracy, and we will continue to do this from now on. The dictatorship of Abdullah Gül, Fetullah Gülen and Tayyip Erdoğan that has imposed itself on this country is ending, we will see this. We will then put in a government which is modern, democratic and has national unity. Our and your struggle against the Abdullah Gül, Fetullah Gülen and Tayyip Erdoğan partnership, which attempts to divide this country in America’s service and to bolster American imperialism, is coming to an end. We have and will show them that this country cannot be divided, that this country, the Republic, cannot be toppled. They are finally being toppled, Tayyip Erdoğan and Fetullah Gülen and Abdullah Gül are being toppled. This ugly partnership is ending. For as long as we remain in charge of this struggle they will be unable to come to power again. Henceforth, children of the Republic, Ataturk’s soldiers, will march to power." Following the making of a press statement, the group dispersed.

BODRUM - İskender Doğer, speaking on behalf of the protestors here, said "For this government to remain in office for a single day longer is an affront to humanity. It is a trampling of our honour. The government should go, not because the USA or foreign powers have called for this, but because the people have called for this. The AKP government has reached a state in which it is unusable and cannot create policies or govern. It is the people’s right to send governments packing. The people must make the final ultimatum; the people will send them packing.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/2325 ... madi_.html

This morning’s news bulletin on BBC’s Today programme said that hundreds (!) of people demonstrated in Taksim for the government to resign.

[repulsewarrior]

while on the other end of town...

He arrived at the Ataturk airport in Istanbul last night and was met by thousands of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
He remarked that what the country was going through had been provoked from the interior and at an international level. He said that the recent events were a product of the status of the private public reading-rooms being preserved.
He urged the party supporters to state that they were content with the state schools and they were sufficient for them.

http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n322349

...more here:http://www.trust.org/item/20131227193929-3qf48/?

"You, with your votes, will foil this evil plot," he told the cheering crowd. "Are you committed to establishing a new Turkey? Are you ready for Turkey's new independence war?"

...nothing about the corruption (whether Gulen's or his own) itself, of course.

[Tim Drayton]

In Akhisar, a women named Nurhan Gül, whose flat happens to be situated at the venue where Prime-Minister Erdoğan was making a speech, simply stood on her balcony holding a shoe box (a symbol of protests against government corruption after one of the first people to be arrested in the corruption investigation was found to have large amounts of money stashed away in shoe boxes in his home). This woman was immediately arrested and taken to the police station, where she was obliged to make a statement as a suspect.

The main body of this suspect statement reads:

“The above identification particulars are correct and pertain to me. I still live at the above-mentioned address. On 29/12/2013 in Egemenlik Square situated in Akhisar sub-province, the esteemed Prime-Minister Tayyip ERDOĞAN was making a speech. While I was sitting on the terrace of my own residence, I picked up an empty shoe box beside me and waved it and then put it down; I did not speak any word or sentence. Some on-duty policemen came to the door of my flat while I was sitting on the balcony in my residence and asked me who the person who waved the shoe box was. And I told them that it was me. The reason that I was shaking the shoe box was because I was protesting that the 690 Turkish lira pension that I receive is low and that the reason for this is that the public prosecutor and police go after me rather than going after crooks and thieves. She said that this was all she had to say.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/2402 ... adim_.html

[Tim Drayton]

In Akhisar, a women named Nurhan Gül, whose flat happens to be situated at the venue where Prime-Minister Erdoğan was making a speech, simply stood on her balcony holding a shoe box (a symbol of protests against government corruption after one of the first people to be arrested in the corruption investigation was found to have large amounts of money stashed away in shoe boxes in his home). This woman was immediately arrested and taken to the police station, where she was obliged to make a statement as a suspect.

The main body of this suspect statement reads:

“The above identification particulars are correct and pertain to me. I still live at the above-mentioned address. On 29/12/2013 in Egemenlik Square situated in Akhisar sub-province, the esteemed Prime-Minister Tayyip ERDOĞAN was making a speech. While I was sitting on the terrace of my own residence, I picked up an empty shoe box beside me and waved it and then put it down; I did not speak any word or sentence. Some on-duty policemen came to the door of my flat while I was sitting on the balcony in my residence and asked me who the person who waved the shoe box was. And I told them that it was me. The reason that I was shaking the shoe box was because I was protesting that the 690 Turkish lira pension that I receive is low and that the reason for this is that the public prosecutor and police go after me rather than going after crooks and thieves. She said that this was all she had to say.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/2402 ... adim_.html

The Union of Turkish Bar Associations has made a complaint to the Ankara Public Prosecution against the policemen involved in the above event, and their superiors, on the grounds that waving a shoe box does not give grounds for a house search (and it seems the policemen also did a search of the poor woman's house) and arrest.

http://birgun.net/haber/o-gozaltiya-suc ... -9289.html