Turkish protests will continue – interview

As new clashes between protesters and police take place in Turkish Istanbul the Voice of Russia talks to Arzu Geybulla, a freelance journalist and social media trainer, who claims that the police reaction to yesterday’s protests is not only inadequate but also absurd. Ms Geybulla also asserts that Erdogan’s government fails to take into account people’s demands which only exacerbates the tension.

Given that Prime Minister Erdogan is firm against the people`s demands, do you think that any compromise is possible in Turkey in the near future?

The only compromise that we are seeing now is how he is going to react further because yesterday’s reaction of the police was out of nowhere. Yes, there was a protest organized by Taksim Soliarity and the park was open but the way police reacted was out of this world. The only compromise right now is whether Erdogan backs off the police because now the religious months of Ramadan started today, so a lot of people are passing today. And Gezi park was supposed to be the place where at night people were going to come and have dinner. It is going to be really interesting whether he backs police over months of Ramadan and actually takes into the account the demands of the Taksim Solidarity Group and the rest of the protesters.

Ramadan is just starting which means there are less people that are protesting. What is your scenario of Turkish protest action?

I thought that most of the violent protests will be until yesterday when I was there in the park and I was tear-gassed as well and kicked out of the park for no reason even though the park reopened to the people. At this point even though it is the month of Ramadan I think there will still be protests if police continues to use violence against the protestors. At this point it is really about how the government reacts to the people and how it acts towards the people and if the governor says that the park is reopened and tells people that people can come there, but they can’t really wait there, they can only walk through and they can’t come in groups, and then shut it down again, it is as if they are joking with the people. So, people will continue .

Is Erdogan`s cabinet strong enough to endure public criticism?

It feels like the government refuses to take into account anything. None of the demands are being met because the government continues to say the same things for the past few weeks. Turkish people protesting and they are fed out with what their government is doing to them. It is a different kind of Turkey that is protesting at the moment.

Source: Voice of Russia

M.D