Turkish .... Incite ?

 

The polemic situation throughout Turkey continues. Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces his greatest challenge ever since he came to power as Prime Minister in 2003- 14. He has been President of Turkey since 2014.                                             

Since, on March 19^th, he jailed the Ekrem Imamoglu, opposition contender as presidential candidate, millions have taken to the streets in major Turkish cities.  Imamoglu is currently the elected Mayor of Istanbul, holding his position since 2019 and the main opposition party, The Republican People’s Party, has chosen him as its candidate for the next presidential elections in 2028. The municipal authorities have elected Nuri Aslam as Interim Mayor while Imamoglu remains incarcerated.                                                                                                    

 Erdogan, who has been described by his critics as authoritarian and running an elective dictatorship, is concerned about growing opposition support as indicated in recent local elections. Technically he is not allowed to stand once more as President, but it is assumed he will change the law that prohibits that!

He has been retaliating to the popular demonstrations with stiff measures: around 2,000 arrests have been made, a tv channel closed down and, several Turkish journalists have been imprisoned for …. telling it like it is.   A BBC reporter Mark Lowen, was detained and later deported for allegedly ‘being a threat to public order.’                                                   

The continued rallies indicate how popular Imamoglu and his party are.

Man challenging authoritarianism - this photo from Al Jazeera news agency says it all:

                                                 

A dervish - associated with the softer, spiritual, esoteric side of Islam - dances alone and gas-masked-up before a threatening police barricade.

Go Sufi!

Remembering with Reverence.

 Recently we observed the second anniversary of the Tempe rail disaster in which 57 people lost their lives and 81 were seriously injured. Many of the passengers on that fateful trip were university students returning to Thessaloniki after a break. Such a tragic loss of lives.  

                                                          

Many, particularly families and friends, remain angry and frustrated that no substantial progress in investigating causes has been made. They want to know why the train was travelling on the wrong line, thus causing a head-on collision with another oncoming train. There was also a huge explosion – as yet unexplained - which meant some met with a horrific death, being burned alive. Conspiracy theories abound and, sadly, the whole issue has become horribly politicised. There is, understandably, a great loss of trust in the official institutions.

                                                    

Hundreds of thousands, in Greece and globally, have congregated in major cities to express their solidarity with the victims’ families, honour the victims’ memory and to exert pressure on the authorities to deal with the issue, to come up with substantial findings  and to mete out the appropriate punishment to those responsible.

                                           

As our outgoing President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, said:

‘Two years later, the demand for truth, accountability and justice is universal and of fundamental importance for our state.’

 Above, The Tree of Souls – The Beginning, was erected in Athens to commemorate the victims – it was from there the train set out. Below the equivalent Tree of Memory in Thessaloniki, records the passengers’ names on the birds at its base.                                         

 

I marked the sad event and these emotions with the following poem:

                                           

 

Remembering with Reverence

The day dawned damp,

Mati memories mingled with Tembi tears.

A pall smothering the city

Expressing its compound sorrow.

Tragedies following inept operators,

Unaccountable decision-making, inadequate systems –

They should have returned

They should have returned.

May they be remembered with respect and dignity

Assemblies unsullied by polemic,

 Political point-scoring and syndicated agendas.

We march into the future

With hopes for a brighter, safer future.

In quiet contemplation for those who have gone

May their souls rest in peace!