Erdogan accuses the protesters of being looters, filth, marginal groups and terrorists. To accuse the youth of your country, the sons and daughters of your nation, is not just appalling, it is not even close to the truth. It is the opposite. The people who have gathered there are the Goddamn flower of the nation! (Sorry God, for cursing). These are the bravest, most courageous, most creative and most kind-hearted people Turkey has brought forth. Instead of being embraced they are scapegoated by their prime minister! He sends the riot police the beat their non-violent and unarmed asses down! By spreading his lies through the media he controls his poorly informed and remotely living electorate probably even beliefs he has a point. So he blatantly lies to justify blatantly immoral violence against innocent people and blatantly deludes his own following into believing his lies.
We Are All Istanbulites
I am still in awe about the message I received from my Turkish friend Eda Bozköylü yesterday. She let me know she is fine, not in danger. She has been protesting together with her friends and thousands of other young Turks in Istanbul and – by now – in 70 other Turkish cities. I heard news about the riot police coming down hard on the youngsters and I felt concerned.
What I did not see coming was to receive a message filled with bliss and peace (read it if you haven’t yet!). Otherworldly almost and that was indeed the word Eda used as well. “Taksim doesn’t belong to earth anymore” she wrote. And: “Taksim is another planet, Atalwin. I wish you to experience it.”
About growing up without a father
I never had a heart to heart with my father. All encounters that I had with him were pretty awful and if I add up the hours we spend in the same room during my life it will be less than 24 since 1976 (during the first 5 years of my life he was more or less a normal dad, I guess). So there was no reconciliation or feel-good happy end, something that we as a family perhaps hoped for when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I did do a lot of work on reconciliation and forgiveness inside myself. For some reason I don’t feel so eloquent in this very moment (bit sleepy) and I find it hard to explain. It has everything to do with the awakening I experienced in 2004. It was actually not just one event but a major breakthrough followed by a whole string of events.