Turkey - TPTB want a mall in the park

[Oscar]

True, you weren't ignoring it, but you decided that my bringing democracy into it had no substance.

There you go, you got it.
Very good - it wasn't that hard,was it?

BTW - Posting something consisting of nine words and then complaining that someone thinks you're a bit shallow, stupid, or thick just makes you look even sillier.

[blue rider]

i see Islamic Fundamentalism metntioned...

maybe a bit of History about Turkey


the Ottoman Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire

Turkey as we now it today was created by this Gentlemen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataturk

now to the current Prime Minister of Turkey,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdogan

Mr. Erdogan and religion

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...Tayyip-Erdogan

In high school Erdoğan became known as a fiery orator in the cause of political Islam. He later played on a professional football (soccer) team and attended Marmara University. During this time he met Necmettin Erbakan, a veteran Islamist politician, and Erdoğan became active in parties led by Erbakan, despite a ban in Turkey on religiously based political parties. In 1994 Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul on the ticket of the Welfare Party. The election of the first-ever Islamist to the mayoralty shook the secularist establishment, but Erdoğan proved to be a competent and canny manager. He yielded to protests against the building of a mosque in the city’s central square but banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in city-owned cafés. In 1998 he was convicted for inciting religious hatred after reciting a poem that compared mosques to barracks, minarets to bayonets, and the faithful to an army. Sentenced to 10 months in prison, Erdoğan resigned as mayor.

Turkey is a largely secular nation, young and rather vibrant. It is as much Europe as it is the Middle East. And while they have their own issues...with the Kurds, or the slaughter of the Armenian Population, to raise the scary boohman of fundamentalist Islam, it is premature. Erdogan has not yet achieved his goal of the clerics replacing his ministers.

[mashman]

There you go, you got it.
Very good - it wasn't that hard,was it?

BTW - Posting something consisting of nine words and then complaining that someone thinks you're a bit shallow, stupid, or thick just makes you look even sillier.

And you were wrong. You contradicted yourself in your first 2 posts and then backtracked from there on in, finally resulting in nothing of any consequence. Dickhead.

[Oscar]

And you were wrong. You contradicted yourself in your first 2 posts and then backtracked from there on in, finally resulting in nothing of any consequence. Dickhead.

More vibrant wit.

I stand by my comments - your comment "democracy at its very very best" is ill founded.
You are shallow, silly and prone to hyperbole.

[Big Dave]

Prone to only occasional connection with reality!


To me Mashy, what makes your utopias improbable is simply natural selection. That's what you have to beat.

[mashman]

More vibrant wit.

I stand by my comments - your comment "democracy at its very very best" is ill founded.
You are shallow, silly and prone to hyperbole.

Wit? Just fact dear boy.

Ill founded in what way?
Aha, you know me so well.

Prone to only occasional connection with reality!

To me Mashy, what makes your utopias improbable is simply natural selection. That's what you have to beat.

Occasional... you almost hurt my feeling.

It ain't utopia. Improbable? the mini survey has it down to about 50-50. For want of a better expression, individuals have to beat themselves off. I think the OP highlights this given that all races/religions/ideology's, reportedly stood side by side and told TPTB to fuck off. A similar thing happened in Chch for a while until folk had to get on with jobs/life etc... and looking after themselves. It's all there, it's just the environment that isn't.

[Big Dave]

OK. Nirvanas.

[mashman]

OK. Nirvanas.

... nope. I want Star Trek.

[Road kill]

It has everything to do with democracy - only democracies allow such freedom of expression as demonstrations ... (the riot occured when heavy handed police moved in on a peaceful demonstration - you only saw the violent end on your screen ...)

In a totalitarian contry as soon as 10 people got together they would be arrested ..

How about 14 people ?,,,,

[mashman]

A quick lesson in human nature

"Days of anti-government protest in Turkey have achieved one feat that has eluded the authorities for years: uniting the fiercely rival and sometimes violent supporters of Istanbul's "Big Three" football clubs.

Besiktas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce fans have come together in new-found solidarity during five days of demonstrations against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government."...

Like I said, change the circumstances and look at what is possible.

[Swoop]

The pleasing thing to note is that substantial amounts of protestors are 18-35 yr olds. They have grown up under this current regime and are now organising these protests via social-media.

For the past few years the population have had to whisper dissent, when out in public places. This has obviously just changed...

Very pleasing to see.

[oneofsix]

The pleasing thing to note is that substantial amounts of protestors are 18-35 yr olds. They have grown up under this current regime and are now organising these protests via social-media.

For the past few years the population have had to whisper dissent, when out in public places. This has obviously just changed...

Very pleasing to see.

Pleasing, yes, but surprising? There tends to be an assumption that those that grow-up under a system accept it when if you look back it is actually the ones that brought in the system or were beaten down by it that have adapted to accepting it and the next generation that changes it. This is why poor education is so important to TPTB, got to keep the next generation ignorant, preferably by pretending to "fix" the education system, more like fixing a race than repairing or improving.

[mashman]

The pleasing thing to note is that substantial amounts of protestors are 18-35 yr olds. They have grown up under this current regime and are now organising these protests via social-media.

For the past few years the population have had to whisper dissent, when out in public places. This has obviously just changed...

Very pleasing to see.

Absolutely. Although you can only hope that your "tweets" can't be used against you in a court of law... as they have in a couple of cases in the US.

[blue rider]

i quite liked these rioting stewardesses....lol

[Swoop]

Absolutely. Although you can only hope that your "tweets" can't be used against you in a court of law... as they have in a couple of cases in the US.

It looks like that is on the cards for the future.
Meantime, facebook is getting out some interesting footage. A group of riot police beating the crap out of a lone woman on the streets of Izmir...
Brave riot police.