Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Protests rock Turkey


The massive protests in Turkey against the repressive government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are extremely important especially because of that special military relationship Turkey has with the US since the end of WWII. The prominence of the Turkish military in politics (within Turkey & in the region) has been bankrolled by billions of dollars of US Pentagon largesse--first against the former Soviet Union, against the citizens of Turkey, against the Kurds, as support forces in Afghanistan & Iraq, for proximity to Syria, & supporting Israel. The Turkish army is the second largest army within NATO & one of the largest in the world because the US views the country as a military outpost more than a country of people with a very different vision of their destiny.

We don’t read much about this magnificent country because the White House & Pentagon want its importance kept a military secret. But dissidents in Turkey, those with a very different vision from Erdoğan, are making themselves heard in the hundreds of thousands in protests rocking the country.

Here an unidentified woman of the 1960s-1970s generation is letting loose not just a slingshot but decades of opposition to military collaboration between the Turkish & US oligarchs at the expense of human freedom. Our fullest respect & solidarity with the dissidents of Turkey.

No US aid to Turkey!

(Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

2 comments:

  1. NATO plans against Syria bite the dust.

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  2. Did Erdogan think he could keep trashing Syria with gangs of AL-CIAda forever? Now, there are millions of people who rose up but the mainstream media is acting like nothing happened. Ok, let the fire of revolt against the Turkish State grow further. Let the mother*%@! B F# Burn mother*@#!, BURN

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