Friday, 14 June 2013

"Police Gassed The Infirmary"

Claire Berlinski, who lives in Istanbul, writes about the ongoing protests against the Erdogan government and the ensuing assaults by the police on the protestors. Apparently, the police were not content to put people's eyes out with rubber bullets and tear gas, but have also fired tear gas into the accident and emergency wards of hospitals in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Meanwhile, Turkish television has apparently been "muzzled", with the "main source of news" being Twitter and other social media.

Read the whole thing.

Later...

Somebody going by the handle of "AIG" at Michael J.Totten's place writes in some criticism of Berlinski's article, including the following brief snippet:
"She claims this is about "authoritarianism". It is not. The people (or rather the forces which bring their sheep to protest) are far more authoritarian than Erdogan. This is the professional Left."
Yet the two points are not mutually exclusive: it is entirely possible for the people protesting to be protesting about the "authoritarian" tendencies of Erdogan's government, whilst also being in favour of another kind of authoritarianism themselves. Certainly it's a logical contradiction, but that doesn't mean it should be dismissed as an explanation.

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