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| The Grand Turk |
| Authoritarian state rebounds on the street as street gangs |
| 2015-10-04 |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] Our offices have been attacked by a mob twice and most recently writer Ahmet Hakan has been attacked, he and his bodyguard beaten earlier this week. I have loads of knowledge about terrorist attacks, separate attacks and what precautions an individual can take but that does not stop me from being afraid. I am trying to be careful but I am afraid. I am very afraid. I am not a famous journalist like Ahmet Hakan; nobody is going to follow me home and beat me up. By the way, creating a fake minor car accident and making a row is one of the simplest tactics used in these streets for some time. I wonder if Hakan or his body guard or his driver ever knew about it. I mean a simple driver's maneuver would have avoided the awful encounter. Why did they not lock their doors and just move? Maybe it all adds up to one second of negligence or carelessness, one moment of eclipse of reason. Anyway, here is an interview with Dean of Political Sciences Department of Ankara University Professor Serpil Sancar. She was interviewed by Nurcan Gökdemir at daily Birgun. She spoke about the lynching mobs that attacked Kurdish citizens and workers a while ago, explaining who made up the mobs. She said the authoritarian state was reflected on the streets as lynching groups. Here are some extracts from the interview: "Those who we call 'lumpen' are on the streets. While the police are shutting their eyes, these lynch groups and gangs are formed.... The issue is not a debate or fight. The issue is the supervising of a mass who only believes in beating up, killing and lynching... At the root of this is the culture of violence, polarization and inciting to hostility... There are agitated masses..." "These young people have parents who grew up on the village. Their parents migrated to big cities... They are the first or second generation in urban life...They have not benefited from the modern opportunities of the city; they have gone to middle school or high school the most; they do not have a dream of becoming a university student... All their narratives are based on family relationships; their entire life is based on violence. Even in their love affairs, they explain it as 'I was dating a girl; she did wrong to me; I struck her.' The ordinary talk is 'I hit. I beat. I drew the knife...' Violence is so ordinary in their lives it is unbelievable..." "This group of people is the grassroots of fascist regimes. They are able to build civilian but despotic control mechanisms on them. Unless we make this mass give up violence, professionalize them, humanize them and draw them into the rule of law, this will continue like this..." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Thugs? We have them here too pushing one party's agenda. Ferguson, Baltimore. BlackLiveMatter. Union buses full of thugs showing up at private homes and neighborhoods. Dr. King wanted integration. Where's the power in that? Just ask the 'new white' Asians. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-10-04 08:39 |