Another protestor murdered in Turkey

[Leo]

A protestor named Ahmet Atakan was murdered tonight in the city of Antakya by the Turkish police, having been hit in the head by a tear-gas cannister. He was in a solidarity demonstration with the recent demonstrations in Tuzlucayir in Ankara, METU in Ankara and Okmeydani in Istanbul.

[Sasha]

fuck, seems shit is heating up again.

i saw a mention that some of the protests in ankara are about the proposed building of a alevi prayer house in a sunni mosque? is this true? and how is this connected to the otherwise progressive demonstrations?

[Devrim]

i saw a mention that some of the protests in ankara are about the proposed building of a alevi prayer house in a sunni mosque? is this true? and how is this connected to the otherwise progressive demonstrations?

The protests in Mamak are about the construction of a joint Mosque and Cemevi (Alevi meeting house). The way you phrase it makes it sound like it is Sunni Muslims protesting against Alevis, but what is actually happening is Alevis are protesting against being assimilated. It is all wrapped up with islami, and secularism. The Alevis are one of the most secular parts of Turkish society.

Devrim

[Sasha]

thanx, i assumed it was something like that, the facebook post i read was probably just very poorly translated from turkish.

[Leo]

Yes, those are the demonstrations going on in Tuzlucayir, a neighborhood of Ankara. There's also been demonstrations and clashes in METU* and the 100. Yil neighborhood over the project to build some roads in that area and Dikmen, another neighborhood, also went out and clashed with the police in solidarity with these in Ankara. There's also been demonstrations and clashes in Okmeydani in Istanbul, a left-wing neighborhood, about Berkin Elvan, a sixteen year-old who is still in a coma after being shot in the head by the police with a gas canister and in other neighborhoods in solidarity with Ankara. Protests and clashes were also happening in cities like Izmir, Adana and Eskisehir. Things were heating up, and today there is a demonstration planned in the Taksim Square in itself as well as various cities.

* Middle Eastern Technical University

[Leo]

I've inhaled a lot of tear gas today and just came back home. There were demonstrations in several neighborhoods in Ankara as well as Kizilay, and in more than a dozen cities, and clashes in almost all of them apparently.