Turkish Revolution report (June 14)

Protests and police repression continue in Turkey. 

The differential attitude of police with the more visible city of Istanbul and the capital city of Ankara is apparent in these images from tonight:

From Occupied Taksim.

However that does not mean that Istanbul protesters are free from fear of renewed police attacks. On the contrary, they are getting ready for the worst, raising barricades and defensively equipped with gas masks and helmets. 

Still the government issued a new offer of negotiation, which is perceived with distrust by the protesters. An improvised committee of artists went to the meeting, however for many protesters Erdogan is anything but trustworthy and the committee represents nobody. One said:

Erdogan must resign because he is giving away our resources.

So far the government has made only one concession, dropping a bill that would allow forests to be developed by constructors. 

(Source: Webguerrillero[es]).

The radicalization of the protests is quite apparent for example in an article published today at Occupied Taksim, titled In Praise of the 'Marginal Groups'. Excerpts:

It must be known that those dubbed as “marginal groups” by the government are all legal organisations. Most of them are left-wing, revolutionary organisations. In spite of their legal status, they have constantly been the target of state attacks, have constantly been obstructed, beaten, arrested and gassed. Naturally, they are well acquainted with state violence and the forms of resistance required in order to counter it. These “marginal groups” have banners and have always upheld their banners. For instance the Patriotic Youth carry flags bearing the image of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan and demand his freedom. The anarchists carry black flags and long for a stateless society. The revolutionary groups, for example, actually want to confiscate your property, as they aspire for a world without private property. Although they continue their existence within legal boundaries and are a part of the Taksim Solidarity, they have been confined to a legal “grey area” because of the illegal state violence they have been forced to face over the years. Because they strive to continue their existence in a sphere where the law and lawlessness have become one, they are regarded as “the marginals."

...

The Gezi Park protests symbolise defiance against the deceitful media, the imprisonment of more than 10,000 people for political reasons, and the dirty war in Kurdistan. This has become a war for honour, and if this area of struggle for dignity -cleared with the pioneering of the middle classes- has been filled by the marginalised sectors of society, it cannot be said that this is the product of pragmatic politics. For it is the fulfilment of a new existence. Those who have defended the square, have in fact, defended this very existence and will naturally resist all boundaries imposed on the field where they have flourished.

It is only natural for a twelve year old Kurdish child from Tarlabasi to throw rocks at the police. A revolutionary who has been gassed and imprisoned for many years will of course march relentlessly on the police bearing revolutionary banners in hand, and young men and women will quite naturally provoke the police by defying them with their folk dances. It is only normal that those young men and women who, after leaving their manual daytime jobs, find themselves on the barricades will not disperse as if they were cattle. It is essential that certain members of this resistance grasp that for the past 14 days, the Gezi Resistance is no longer an “innocent protest,” it is a popular uprising. 

 

Kasama Project publishes a dramatic manifesto by one of such marginal groups: the Maoist Communist Party of Turkey and North Kurdistan (MKP). Excerpt:

Erdogan, the leader of the AKP government and the “Turkish Republic”, underestimated the rising masses that he flagrantly and arrogantly referred to as “three to five marauders.” Taking his arrogance even further he threatened “As a party I could gather one million.” However, once “these delinquent marauders” have awoken they cannot be broken apart by empty threats, nor will they be frightened by the blood and stench of slaughter of vampire teeth, you cannot stop them! The one with warmongering and aggressive policies in Syria, the two-faced Erdogan that has hypocritically criticized the Assad dictatorship of bringing violence and slaughter to the masses has called those filling the squares “Marauders.” This is nothing more than his fear and panic of the masses’ uprising.