situation growing worse in Turkey

Not only do I love Turkey, but my wife is Turkish. So, we’re fairly absorbed in the household these days with the increasing maltreatment of protestors across Turkey. I’ve seen this happen in Egypt under different circumstances, and have the sense that the protestors will prevail in Turkey as well. But there is a lot of pain and suffering along the way in reaching the goal, as we saw in Egypt.

Here is another Turkish friend, Didem (who ran the poetry readings at Documenta last summer), posting on Facebook:

“Dear non-Turkish speaking friends: I apologize for my excessive posting in the last few days. I hope you have not already hidden my posts from your newsfeed. WE NEED YOUR HELP. In Turkey, people are protesting for their fundamental rights. There are thousands on streets in different cities of Turkey. These people are subject to continuous and brutal force by the Turkish police. The Turkish media is ridiculously silent. The police are trying to kill us and there are soap operas or documentary on penguins on Turkish TV channels. The Prime Minister spoke yesterday and said that the protesters are just a bunch of looters. PLEASE SHARE THE VIDEOS, SHARE THE PHOTOS, SHARE THESE POSTS. HELP US DISSEMINATE THE INFORMATION, HELP US RAISE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS. Sorry for occupying your newsfeed and thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

I’ve been so focused on internal discussions with family about the worsening situation that I haven’t posted as much about Turkey on this blog as I should have.