Highbrow Magazine - turkey https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/turkey en International Political Intrigue Spans Continents in ‘Treasure Seekers’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12304-international-political-intrigue-spans-continents-treasure-seekers <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 05/05/2021 - 14:07</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1istanbul_pedero_szekely-flickr.jpg?itok=u_4nhc6M"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1istanbul_pedero_szekely-flickr.jpg?itok=u_4nhc6M" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>New York City</strong></p> <p><strong>January 8, 2017</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Rubbing sleep from her dark eyes, Marina Johannes took the circular steps from the second floor of her bedroom suite to the first floor of her Fifth Avenue duplex penthouse. She was already calculating her day, considering how much time she needed with her team of researchers at the Soho lab. She estimated that it would take at least three hours to review which herbs and plants they could consider for the new, organic line.</p> <p> </p> <p>They were searching for a long-lasting, natural property that would hydrate the skin during sultry weather. After that, she would need two hours uptown at her Madison Avenue and 51st Street showroom to review the spring mail-order brochure with the art department.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marina was New York’s leading cosmetologist, having made her reputation on her expertise for making women’s skin more beautiful.</p> <p> </p> <p>She put the lights on in the kitchen and looked out onto the terrace to Central Park, which was a vision of snow. It reminded her of mornings in Romania when she was a girl, and the trees in Transylvania were covered in white frost. Her mother would prepare for her tea with honey and toast, thick with rose petal jam.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marina felt the same way now—happy, for she was already planning her trip in March to see her friends, Mica, Anca, and Cristina, in Paris for Cristina’s fashion show.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marina opened her computer on the marble counter to check the day’s news, and then switched on the espresso machine. She waited a minute until the beans ground automatically and a shot of espresso flowed into her cup.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2treasureseekers.jpg" style="height:500px; width:334px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>She sipped her coffee while she scanned the news and then stopped, startled, as she read the headline:</p> <p><strong>RAFSANJANI, IRAN’S MOST POWERFUL MAN, IS DEAD</strong></p> <p>She read on: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, died today in Tehran, January 8th, 2017, at the age of eighty-three. He was considered by many to be the richest man in Iran. He was president of his country from 1989-1997. 1989.</p> <p> </p> <p>It had been Christmas season in Romania. There were no holiday dinners that year, no good tidings, not even heat. It was a time of revolution, bloody uprisings and people dying for freedom. Ceausescu had been executed on Christmas day, his death, a gift to all Romanians. Yet, there was a mystery about the days before his execution. Why had he traveled to Tehran with dozens of trunks when there was a revolution going on in Romania?</p> <p> </p> <p>It was said that Ceausescu had deposited $1 billion dollars-worth of gold in Rafsanjani’s new private bank.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marina remembered that after Ceausescu’s death, the revolutionaries took inventory of the dictator’s wealth–his palaces, his art collection, his diamonds, even his hunting lodge walled with gold coins and bathrooms with 14-karat gold toilet seats. She wondered what had happened to Ceausescu’s gold in Iran. The Romanian government was never able to find it. No one from his family had ever claimed it. Had it remained in Tehran with the president?</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet Rafsanjani did not have enough time to spend Ceausescu’s billion dollars’ worth of gold. Under his administration, Iran had been sanctioned because of terrorism and its uranium enrichment programs. Iran’s economy was blocked. How could he get gold out of the country? Especially since, after his presidency, he was suspected by his political enemies of being such a rich businessman.</p> <p> </p> <p>She wondered who could have helped Rafsanjani with his gold from Ceausescu’s corrupt deals and terrorist partnerships with Gaddafi, Arafat, Ali Bhutto, and North Korea’s Kim Jung Il. A billion dollars of gold from Romania, such a poor country, while the people lived for twenty-four years under a ruthless dictatorship with little food, little heat, little light, no rights, no freedom, no life. Marina wished she knew what had happened to that gold, deposited in Tehran. No one had found the treasure in all these years. Yet questions surrounding its fate lingered in Marina’s thoughts, as they did in the thoughts of many alongside her, trying to find their way out of the legacy of deprivation the dictator had left them.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/ceaucescu_ion_chibzii-flickr.jpg" style="height:392px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Marina made herself another cup of espresso and continued:</p> <p><strong>Iran and Turkey, Partners in Gold</strong></p> <p>Speculation about gold laundering between Iran and Turkey has led American prosecutors to the world’s richest gold smuggler, Recep Sharatt, who was arrested last year in Miami on March 19, 2016. He had been on record for past crimes committed in the States. Sharatt is thirty-three years old, has quadruple citizenship from Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Macedonia, and has amassed a fortune. He was charged with being the one who had laundered the gold for Iran and Turkey. His holdings include twenty mansions, nine yachts, two private helicopters, a jet plane, a stable of Arabian horses, sports cars, Impressionist paintings, and a gold-plated pistol.</p> <p> </p> <p>There was a photo of Sharatt, looking calm and confident, answering questions from journalists, as he was being transferred from Miami to a Manhattan prison. The reporters wanted to learn more about him. Why had he come to the United States when he knew he’d be arrested? They called him an enigma; someone not to be trusted.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From the U.S. Department of Justice</strong></p> <p><strong>Office of Public Affairs</strong></p> <p><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</strong></p> <p>An indictment was unsealed in the Southern District of New York against Recep Sharatt, a resident of Turkey and citizen of Turkey and other countries, for engaging in hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and Iranian entities, which were barred by U.S. sanctions. He is accused of laundering the proceeds of illegal transactions and defrauding eight financial institutions that have their headquarters in New York City.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Sharatt was arrested on March 19, 2016, in Miami’s international airport, and then transferred to a Manhattan prison on March 28, 2016. Recep Sharatt is charged with conspiracies to defraud the United States, to violate international embargo laws, to commit bank fraud, and to commit money laundering. His conspiracy to defraud the United States carries a maximum sentence of fifty-five years in prison. Any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge of the case. The charges contained in this indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marina put down the <em>Times</em>, took an apple from the counter, peeled it, and returned her attention to the map featured in the article. She saw the bold letters: ROMANIA. She remembered Ceausescu’s trial, a trial that had been aired on TV on Christmas day, just hours before he and his wife had been executed. The judge of the case had told Ceausescu, “You would have been betteroff to have stayed in Tehran with your gold.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Ceausescu went to Tehran on December 18, 1989, and stayed two days. He returned to Bucharest with a group of Iranian Revolutionary Guards to protect him, compliments of president Rafsanjani. It was the peak of Romania’s bloody Revolution. Marina’s thoughts went to Sharatt, the Iranian and Turkish citizen who was arrested in the United States. What was he doing in Miami?</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1tehran_mahdi_kalhor-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:450px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Then her cell phone rang and interrupted her thoughts. It was her assistant, Janet, saying she’d be twenty minutes late for their meeting–New York traffic. Marina told her not to rush, and eturned to finish the article:</p> <p>Sharatt was detained at Miami’s airport as he went through Customs. He entered the States with his wife, Deniz Akar, Turkey’s famous rock singer and music composer for cinema. Traveling with them was their five-year-old daughter. They were on their way to visit Disney World. But he was taken into custody because of a criminal record issued by the District Attorney’s Office of the Southern district of New York dating from 2013. Sharatt was subsequently flown to New York City, booked and imprisoned for conspiring to evade international sanctions.</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2013, he was accused by the District Attorney’s Office of the Southern district of New York in absentia, as an accomplice to eight international banks that have headquarters in Manhattan and are under investigation for facilitating the laundering of money for Iran. Sharatt was their conduit to the scheme. For this reason, he was taken from Miami to be booked and incarcerated in Manhattan. His wife and daughter were immediately released in Miami and allowed to return to Istanbul. Sharatt’s trial date is set for November 2017; that is, if there is no interference. Judge Robert Friedman, who is presiding over the case, has detained Sharatt in Manhattan’s Correction Center without bail because of his political connections.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Attorney General’s office of Manhattan explained why there would be no bail: “There are powerful political leaders involved in this case. Sharatt has a personal contact with the president of Turkey, Riza Tarik Ozogant, whose administration is directly involved in this case. Ozogant has already spoken several times about Sharatt’s detention to President Hommett who has contacted Attorney General Larissa Linde to discuss extradition for Sharatt. President Ozogant would do anything to get him back to Turkey.</p> <p> </p> <p>The court doesn’t trust that if Sharatt goes free on bail, that he’d remain in the States. There are also his relations with Iran. Marina studied the map. She hoped there’d be more news in the coming days, news about Turkey and Iran… and the final days of Romania’s dictator with all that gold.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Seekers-Transylvanian-Trilogy-Book/dp/1938757890/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&amp;keywords=roberta+seret&amp;qid=1620169686&amp;sr=8-3" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong>Treasure Seekers</strong></a><strong>, a new book by Roberta Seret. It’s published here with permission.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p><em>--Wayzgoose Press</em></p> <p><em>--Pedro Szekely (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43355249@N00/27331063152" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>; </em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43355249@N00/24854155744" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em> – Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Ion Chibzii (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ion_chibzii/6157690329" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Mahdi Kalhor (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D9%85%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%8C_%D9%85%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%B4%D9%87%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%8C_%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AC_%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%8C_%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AC_%D8%B4%D9%87%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%8C_%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86_Azadi_Tower,_Azadi_Square,_Meydea-e_Azadi,_Meydan-e_Shahyad,_Tehran_province,_Iran_Flag_colors_-_panoramio.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/treasure-seekers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Treasure Seekers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/roberta-seret" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Roberta Seret</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/political-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political books</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iran" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iran</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rafsanjani" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rafsanjani</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ceacescu" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ceacescu</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/romania" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">romania</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sharrat" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sharrat</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/turkey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">turkey</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-foreign-policy-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">us foreign policy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/thrillers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">thrillers</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Roberta Seret</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 05 May 2021 18:07:08 +0000 tara 10335 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12304-international-political-intrigue-spans-continents-treasure-seekers#comments Drone Strikes: An Ineffective Way to Fight Terrorism https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2798-drone-strikes-ineffective-way-fight-terrorism <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 09/13/2013 - 09:43</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1dronestrikes%20%28World%20Can%27t%20Wait%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=aBTrAGBu"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1dronestrikes%20%28World%20Can%27t%20Wait%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=aBTrAGBu" width="480" height="359" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> From our content partner, <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/09/the-front-burner-deadly-devices-are-futile-way-to-battle-terrorism.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Opinion:</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> It has been more than a decade since the first US drone strike in Pakistan, and can we say that we are safer for it? In recent years, the drone campaign has expanded from Yemen to Pakistan, Somalia, eastern Turkey and the southern Philippines. Has the violence in these regions lessened and hatred of America abated?</p> <p>  </p> <p> The answer is a resounding no. The near daily attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other areas where the war on terror is being played out, and countless lives lost — feeding into high-levels of anti-Americanism — are the clearest signals that the drone has failed.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Not only is it a fact that innocent people are killed in drone strikes — confirmed by no less an authority than President Obama himself in his recent speech at the National Defense University — but the drone is an ineffective weapon in the fight against terrorism. It creates more enemies than it eliminates and worsens the violence in the targeted regions.</p> <p>  </p> <p> US drones do not operate in a vacuum. They are being introduced into tribal societies, which are already in turmoil. Many of these societies have been locked in conflict with their central governments for decades. It was only after 9-11 that the US, in its newly minted war on terror, allied itself with central governments that were quick to ascribe the actions of the periphery to the evil machinations of al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists. The US quickly came swooping in with its drones, exacerbating the conflict between center and periphery, and arousing the anger of the nation at large.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For every "militant" killed, there is a long line of other misguided young men ready to take his place, seeking revenge for the trauma caused to their society. For every drone strike, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has vowed to take revenge with a suicide bombing. A tribesman from Waziristan told me that there are not enough bombs in the region to fill the demand from willing suicide bombers.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Beyond the Tribal Areas, the drone campaign has stoked bitter resentment from the Pakistani nation as a whole, souring relations with a key ally in the region needed more than ever during the impending US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Several major candidates in the recent Pakistani elections, including the new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif , made opposition to US drone strikes a central part of their campaigns.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Regardless of any of the perceived merits of the drones — with many supporters lauding the precision of the weapon or the ability to keep American boots off the ground — the use of the drone is a clear sign that the US is not understanding the source of the violence in these regions and therefore unable to target the underlying cause.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2dronestike%20%28Cajie%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 461px;" /></p> <p> As a former administrator of tribal societies in both the Tribal Areas and Baluchistan in Pakistan, I found it necessary to rely upon political measures working within existing tribal structures to check violent elements within society rather than relying on force alone. Stability in these regions has traditionally been maintained through the councils of elders and traditional religious leaders acting as mediators working with the representative of the central government.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Unfortunately, these pillars of authority have been damaged or demolished in recent years amid the broader turmoil in the region. Groups like the TTP have filled that vacuum. The traditional pillars need to be reconstructed and supported in order to effectively check the men of violence.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The only means to bring peace to the region is through long-term political solutions. For anyone who understands tribal society, the use of military force, including the drone, only escalates the problem rather than solving it and represents a failure of the political administration. Simply put, the drone is an ineffective method of fighting terrorism.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC and author of "The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam."</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: World Can't Wait (Flickr); Cajie (Flickr).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drone-strikes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drone strikes</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/yemen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Yemen</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pakistan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pakistan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/turkey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">turkey</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-terror" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war on terror</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/terrorism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">terrorism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/al-qaeda" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">al qaeda</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anti-americanism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">anti americanism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama-administration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama administration</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/combatting-terrorism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">combatting terrorism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Akbar Ahmed</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">World Can&#039;t Wait (Flickr)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 13 Sep 2013 13:43:18 +0000 tara 3504 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2798-drone-strikes-ineffective-way-fight-terrorism#comments Despite Clashes With Police, Protestors Continue Their March in Turkey https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2535-despite-clashes-police-protestors-continue-their-march-turkey <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 06/18/2013 - 10:13</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1istanbul%20%28thehairychest%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=Ub-E_wuZ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1istanbul%20%28thehairychest%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=Ub-E_wuZ" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> <strong>From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/06/despite-police-clashes-turkish-protests-not-going-anywhere-soon.php">New America Media</a>: </strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Ed. Note:</strong> <em>Tens of thousands gathered in Instanbul Sunday in a show of support for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on Saturday appeared to run out of patience with ongoing protests. Saturday's pro-government rally followed a night of violent clashes with protestors in and around Gezi Park, the site of the near three-week long protests that have since spread nationwide. Police used tear gas to drive protestors from the area surrounding the park. Reports put the number of injured at 150, six of them seriously. Five casualties have so far been reported since the unrest began 18 days ago, with thousands injured. Reporter Sean David Hobbs is a long-time resident of Istanbul who has been following the protests since they first began. He says that while police managed to clear Gezi, thousands of protestors reconvened in downtown Istanbul, where they quickly clashed again with police. He adds the "resistance isn't going anywhere soon." Hobbs and Turkish photojournalist Sinan Targay reported the following during Sunday's unrest.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> The police moved as an army against the crowd of protestors using batons and shields and tear gas and water cannons. For the police it was the march of the victorious. They shot tear gas directly into the crowd, washing over eyes and faces. When one cannot breath and cannot see (stumbling and falling) one only wants to live. Some in the crowd collapsed from the tear gas canisters hitting them in their heads and all of the crowd ran, the fear lit in minds like a flame… “We want to live, we want to live, we want to live”… The protestors of Gezi Park crowded into the back streets of the city, falling over each other.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Many who had run hid in cafes, apartment flats and restaurants. The people of downtown Istanbul stayed in their hiding places under table tops, lights turned off, curtains pulled as the police marched by outside. The people gasped for breath in the chemicalized haze of super-powerful tear gas engineered in far away lands. Faces and eyes were doused with lemons and anti-tear gas liquid. Breathing came hard. Special chemicals in the water from the police tank cannons burned the skin for hours. From the first whiff the tear gas almost knocked one unconscious.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2istanbul%20%28newsonline%20wiki%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 450px;" /></p> <p> As the night went on people checked facebook and twitter, the only dependable sources of information in this Revolt of Turkey. They learned that Divan Hotel, which was the makeshift hospital for the Gezi Park Resistance, had been totally gassed. Volunteer doctors who were caring for the gravely injured were arrested. Supporters of the Gezi Park movement shared pictures of protestors shot with buckshot and of skin burns from the police water cannons.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3istanbul%20%28black%20dots%20wiki%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 450px;" /></p> <p> And yet other news arose. New groups of citizens were on the streets from Gezi Mahallesi, Kadıköy, Eyüp, Beşiktaş, Sarıyer.. huge numbers of new protestors made their way to downtown Istanbul and there in the late morning hours fought with the national Police and the Gendarme (military police) in Nişantaşı and Osmanbey neighborhoods. Settle in world, this Revolt and Resistance of Turkey is not going anywhere.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4istanbul.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>Watch Targay and Hobbs’ video of the protests here</em>: <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/06/despite-police-clashes-turkish-protests-not-going-anywhere-soon.php">http://newamericamedia.org/2013/06/despite-police-clashes-turkish-protests-not-going-anywhere-soon.php</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: Sinan Targay and Sean David Hobbs; Newsonline (Wikipedia Commons); thehairychest (Flickr, Creative Commons); blackdots (Wikipedia Commons).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/recep-tayyik-erdogan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">recep tayyik erdogan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/turkey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">turkey</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/turkey-riots" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">turkey riots</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/demonstrations-istanbul" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">demonstrations in istanbul</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/unrest-turkey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">unrest in turkey</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/revolt-and-resistance-turkey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">revolt and resistance of turkey</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-demonstrations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student demonstrations</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sean David Hobbs and Sinan Targay</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">thehairychest (Flickr, Creative Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:13:48 +0000 tara 3036 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2535-despite-clashes-police-protestors-continue-their-march-turkey#comments