Sit in Turkish. How Erdogan's regime is dealt with with journalists, activists and national minorities

Two years ago, Turkish President Recep Erdogan changed the constitution, “overtook” the deadlines and, under the guise of an “anti -terrorist law”, essentially took a constant effect of a state of emergency, which allows to seriously limit the freedom of assembly and detain citizens for several days without charging. The formation of rigid authoritarianism in Turkey occurred even earlier - in 2016, when after an unsuccessful attempt by the military coup, 90 thousand people were arrested (of which 30 thousand are still in prison), including soldiers, police, university professors, school teachers, journalists and human rights activists. Almost 200 media were closed, and Turkey took first place in the world in the number of journalists sitting in prison (only after last year China went around it). The national minorities (Kurds, Turkmens and others) feel worse, and the increased Islamization noticed the whole world when Erdogan turned the famous Cathedral of St. Sophia into a mosque. Nevertheless, activists, human rights activists and journalists continue the struggle, and in 2019 the opposition even managed to elect their representative by the mayor of Istanbul (the authorities falsified the results, but under the pressure of the rallies was forced to arrange new elections and lost them). The Insider talked with the activist, journalist, lawyer and Turkish Kurd about how they manage to survive and engage in their activities in conditions of hard repression.

Content

• Serkan Kara, Lawyer, lives in Turkey

• Deniz Anastasia Keskin, activist of the feminist movement

• Banu Gyuven, a Turkish journalist, lives and works in Germany

• Aram Tashtekin, Turkish Kurd

"It is enough to say something against the government to be declared a terrorist and give a deadline"

Serkan Kara, Lawyer, lives in Turkey

In Turkey, a huge number of political prisoners. It is very easy to become a terrorist or political prisoner in a second. But lawyers in our country still have weight, so we work. Political activists are often planted, but there were no such people among my customers. If human rights activists continue anti -political activity, as soon as they become too noticeable, they are awaiting a very bad future. It is very difficult to be a human rights activist, to hold protests. It is enough to say something against the government to be declared a terrorist and give a deadline. Since “terrorism” in our constitution now means “attack on state unity”. Previously, this concerned mainly Kurds or Communists. Now, any Turkish citizen can become objectionable and be declared a “terrorist”. Now it is easy to block the activities of any organization criticizing the government. In this regard, the number of protests for human rights has sharply decreased.

When the ruling party only came to power, they promoted democracy, promised to be a government of European standards, behaved very gently, with great respect for human rights. So it was before the protests of 2013 against the reconstruction of the Gezi Park in Istanbul, when the authorities became difficult to control the situation. Then they began to change the laws in order to give more power to the police and the government. Suppressing protests, the government made a gesture, as if showing the European Union "We no longer need you." In addition, terrorist youth went out into the streets and smashed everything around. In America at that period, Barack Obama was the president, and the protests there were also brutally suppressed. In this situation, when the European Union pulled back and Turkey itself had to suppress protests, the government began to act with its protests as cruelly as, in their opinion, the rest of the democratic world. From now on, the government began to take an example from the leaders of the post -Soviet autocratic countries and tightly suppress protests to control the situation in the country. The power was concentrated in the hands of one person - the president of Erdogan.

Once, a Turkish journalist with German citizenship, Denise Eugene arrived in Turkey and was instantly arrested. But Germany and Angel Merkel demanded his liberation, threatening Turkey with economic blockade and other consequences. The Turkish government in response promised by a “fair court”. The journalist was released after seven months only thanks to the personal participation of Angel Merkel. I heard about the detention of citizens of Turkmenistan, who at the end of July went to a rally in Istanbul. In the media, nothing was said about the protests and, even more than the arrest: the news in our country is done very carefully, often with great self -censorship. I myself try to take a neutral position, I do not oppose the government, because I do not want to be distracted from my work and I do not want unpleasant consequences.

"There have always been a lot of violence and murders of women in Turkey, with Erdogan there were even more"

Deniz Anastasia Keskin, activist of the feminist movement

The female movement in Turkey is very strong. We - women who are fighting for their rights - there are a lot of people in the country, and not everyone considers themselves feminists. The feminist movement in the country began with kemalists-followers of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk-in the early 1980s. They believed that the liberation of a woman lies in her liberation from religion, and tried to assimilate Kurdish women through education. Now the female movement is worried about the issues of immigration, sexual orientation, race. Thanks to the media and social networks, everyone became aware and noticeable how many women are subjected to family violence. And caused our huge rage, we understand that we can be as follows.

With the advent of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Islamization of Turkey, the situation of secular women worsened. According to statistics, there was more violence inside the family, because Erdogan’s rhetoric, in fact, supports violence. He says, for example, that a man and a woman cannot be equal, this contradicts our religion and our way. There have always been a lot of violence and murders of women in Turkey, and now even more.

On July 27, the ruling party announced that Türkiye will leave the Istanbul Convention, which helps to fight domestic violence. They believe that the Convention threatens the "family of the family in Turkey", destroys families, forces men to pay alimony, then they "go crazy and kill their wives", made men poor and desperate, so they became "more prone to violence." If the feminists of the slogan “Istanbul Convention gives us to live”, the opposite side - “Istanbul Convention kills”.

The Convention has a paragraph that every woman, transgender, among other things, needs protection. Therefore, the ruling party believes that the Convention promotes LGBT. We have an ostentatious pro -government feminist organization, at the head of which is the daughter of President Erdogan. And she spoke out for the Istanbul Convention. And her husband, the Minister of Economics, speaks out against. So we can say that in the ruling family there are now a perch.

63% of the population of people against Türkiye to leave the Convention. But Erdogan has some kind of anger at women. So, during protests against the exit from the Convention, women are detained and cruelly beaten, for example, they drag by the hair in a car zak. It is terrible to witness these uncontrolled atrocities. I see the faces of the police, they clearly enjoy beating.

Any movement that does not converge in the views with our government is doomed to violence and discrimination. We do not have a tradition of single pickets, we always protest everything together. The theme of the common enemy unites us. When we go to protests, we know in advance that we will be physically bad from gas and beatings. On July 20, we were attacked by a police with gas and batons. We arranged a protest in memory of the explosion in Syrian Koban. In 2015, ISIS staged an explosion there, 34 students died, it was a tragedy for all of us. On the shares we read out the names of the dead. We had a slogan “The state -killer” because everyone knew what ISIS was doing in Turkey, but the authorities closed his eyes because they were fixated on the Kurds. This led to the tragedy. It was then, in 2015, that the Erdogan party did not gain enough votes in the parliamentary elections. The opposition of the 2015 explosions considers as the tactics of terror by Erdogan: ISIS and their plans in Turkey were known to the police and the government, but they did nothing to prevent terrorist attacks. The government, as it were, allowed them to organize.

The media are controlled by the state, so the only place where we can still engage in activism and voice our opinion is social networks. A clear example of the power power is a story about a girl who was raped and thrown off from a skyscraper in Ankara. The case was recognized as suicide and closed. Thanks to social networks, we achieved the resumption of the case. The rapist was given lifelong, and his accomplice was convicted of 18 years.

But the other day, the parliament approved the law according to which all social networks with more than 1 million users in Turkey should open their official representative office in the country, and you will have to log in using passport data. If Twitter and Facebook refuse, then their traffic will be limited by 95%. And the publication of posts of a “dubious nature” will be considered the cause of fines from 120 thousand to 1 million 200 thousand euros. The Ministry of Religion claims that social networks do not correspond to our moral code and traditions, distribute pornography.

Netflix's work has already been limited: the platform must pay a fine per frame with a woman in the neckline or with bare legs. As a result, a lot of series for Turkish users were generally removed, in others they cut out entire scenes. We were all registered in Netflix because we wanted unjusted content, but they also cheated it. Recently, Netflix wanted to shoot a series in Turkey, whose main character was to be gay. Filming was banned.

The main problem of Turkey is now the economic crisis, which after quarantine has become even deeper. Unemployment has officially increased to 13%, but real numbers are much higher. It is forbidden to dismiss people due to pandemia, but 3 million people were sent on unpaid leave. People have nothing to eat. The highest unemployment is among young people 18–24 years old, 25% of them do not work. The minimum wage in Turkey is now $ 320, while 40% of people get so much. A lawyer in Turkey receives less than a fruit to a fruit in Germany. We are joking that we pay taxes to feed the family - Erdogan's family.

Your environment and political views greatly affect your career. If you are a relative of someone from the ruling party, then it is much easier for you to find work and build a career. My friend graduated from the university with a degree in a philosophy teacher. When she goes through an interview at school, she is asked about political affiliation: for whom you vote, what do you think about the government ... If you voiced your real opinion, it is very likely that you will not be taken to work.

Even at the interview for working at school, they ask - for whom you vote, what do you think about the government

Erdogan is important to preserve the visible democracy, he even had a slogan "The people will answer you in the elections." He is proud that it was he who chose him, he always positioned himself as a person from the people. Its voters are workers, people from the province. But recently, he lost a lot of supporters, not least in connection with the election of the mayor of Istanbul in March 2019. They were won by a representative of the People's Republican Party, which is also called the Ataturka party. For a long time, she built her rhetoric on humiliating the values ​​of the Erdogan party, which the population did not like. Erdogan was considered a person from the people, and the NRP is arrogant rich for whom the electorate is the sheep, which need to fall.

After the failure in the presidential election, at which Erdogan won, the Ataturk party changed the rhetoric. And even released a methodological manual - the book of “Radical Love”, which states that it is necessary to meet the demands of the people, and not to impose his ideology. If the people complain of something, you need to offer a solution to this problem, and not complain about Erdogan. In the election race for the post of mayor of Istanbul, the representative of the NRP Ekre Imamoglu only twice said the name Erdogan. Thanks to this rhetoric, he overtook his opponent 800 thousand votes.

Imamoglu chose the position "his man for all." He went to Iftars (this is a festive dinner during the Holy month of Ramadan) of ordinary people, prayed with them on Fridays in the mosque. In fact, he is not approved by the rest of the opposition, because he is engaged in political populism, flirting with the right. The main thing for him was to collect voices. But we still voted for him: Imamoglu gathered the voices of people from extral feminists and ending with the Kurds, even religious. The only problem is that the policy of “radical love” is untenable, it is a populism, it is impossible to build a political program on it.

Nevertheless, he introduced the practice of direct broadcasts from the municipality. Now for the first time in history in the city the maximum transparency - you can watch online how to make a decision on a tender for the purchase of sewer pipes for the city, for example. He also promised to open kindergartens so that women could go to work.

"In Turkey, there are all types of censorship instruments"

Banu Gyuven, a Turkish journalist, lives and works in Germany

We always had problems with the freedom of the press, but under Erdogan it became even worse: over 30 years of journalistic experience, I can compare the current situation only with the period after the 1980 coup. But even then, opposition newspapers continued to exist. And now the government has adopted a law aimed at restricting freedom of speech and on digital platforms too. There are all types of censorship tools in my country. Closing the media, a ban on broadcasting for several days, blocking websites, restriction of the movement of journalists, punishing journalists in all possible ways. The government threatened the owners of the media, so now there are only 2-3 opposition television channels.

I live and work in Germany, but I still encounter oppression on the network: any opposition article, a statement that you quote, or an incident that you write about, like any attempt to criticize the president can be used against you. Everything that the government may not like is fraught with persecution and prison. Many journalists are arrested for their work. The latest examples are the Barysh Poklivan, Khuli Kylynch, Murat Agirell, Muisser Yildiz. The first three investigated the death of an intelligence officer in Libya and his hidden funeral. Muyesser Yyldyz allegedly talked with a military official to receive confidential information about the operation in Libya (in fact, she never wrote about Libya). The true reason for the arrests is that all of them were critical of the government or reported the news of the opposition. Many were convicted of "careless" tweets. All journalists who do not obey the government are afraid of judicial persecution or imprisonment.

"We are considered terrorists already simply because we speak Kurdish"

Aram Tashtekin, Turkish Kurd

I am Kurd from Turkey, but I had to move to France, it became impossible to live in Turkey: my theater was closed, like all cultural centers in my Kurdish city of Dyyarbakyr. Moreover, I was accused of terrorism, I spent six months in prison. This, unfortunately, is normal for any of the 20 million Kurds in Turkey - we are considered terrorists there even simply because we speak Kurdish. I was detained during the filming of a documentary about armed protest in Kurdistan, the police came directly to the shooting. I was very rudely twisted and placed in jail. I was blamed for the fact that I put a performance in Kurdish and thus “promote Kurdish terrorism”, despite the fact that the performance was officially agreed with the prefecture of the city.

Aram Tastekin

I was arrested because of my work in the theater, because I had never been in any political party or in any movement. I just showed what I see. This is normal for an artist who sees injustice - to tell about it through his artistic work. So in any country, the artist always talks about the problems of his country. There were seven people in the prison in the same cell, all were the Kurds detained for the same reason - you speak the language incomprehensible to us, which means that you are engaged in the propaganda of terrorism. Even the play of Moliere, translated into Kurdish, is the propaganda of terrorism for them. This is a complete absurdity! Six months later, I was released, but the process continued. Already in France it became known that they gave me in absentia for 7.5 years.

I am just an artist and wanted to make plays in Kurdish, besides, I did not want to serve in the Turkish army, and in Turkey the service is required. I received a lot of threats from the police and gendarmerie. I couldn’t even go anywhere, they checked me and stopped me at every checkpoint. I could not stand it and left at the invitation of the French theater. I was very lucky. Because they stopped one of my friends in the same situation. By law, they cannot prohibit you with a departure. But they could interrogate me for a very long time so that my plane flew away, and I did not leave.

My whole family remained in Turkey, I am completely alone here. They receive a lot of threats from the state - my mother calls from personal cell numbers and say "call Aram here, we promise, he will not be anything." But I can’t return to Turkey: the police will wait for me right at the airport. They will welcome me and immediately send me to prison.

I easily found a job in France. He told himself that he should not forget everything that happened to me. And I created a performance that tells about my life - what is it like to be a Kurd in Turkey. This is a tragicomedy, somewhere sad, somewhere funny. Because, after everything that I experienced, I try to laugh and smile. The Kurds have an expression: "A smile is a piece of revolution." And yes, I am a revolutionary. Я всегда буду смеяться сам и заставлять смеяться других, вот моя цель.