“They’re either unionists, they’re bloggers, they’re journalists, I don’t know. They’re writers who are critical of certain things that the government has done. So the democracy is, that is the promised democracy, the occupy calls this the “advance democracy” and what we see as the people of Turkey, we get gas canisters and water canisters that’s how it gets returned back to us.”- Taylan Acar on Turkey’s current state.
On Thursday August 22nd, host Allen Ruff discussed recent mass protests and demonstrations in Turkey with UW grad student and Turkish national, Taylan Acar who just returned from Istanbul where he witnessed these events over the last months.
As a trade union activist with a critical Left perspective, Acar placed the mass protests in the context of wider sets of transformations and the resultant sets of grievances among Turkey’s popular classes. Acar and Ruff discussed the how the and this neo-liberal agenda and how it is affecting not only Turkey, but also the Middle East. The Capitol state still remains an authoritarian figure and according to Acar, the it is an authoritarian government who considers protestors in Gezi Park near Taksim Square terrorists. Acar and Ruff also discussed Turkey and Syria and how they are connected and how Turkey is being affected. Lastly, Acar and Ruff spoke about what gives them hope for Turkey for the future.
