Gezi one year on

This week marks the first anniversary of the occupation of Istanbul’s Gezi Park. This was not a trivial event. The government, at the time, treated the demonstrations as nothing short of an attempted coup. By contrast, many of those who took to the streets saw themselves as part of a resistance to a state that ruled through demagoguery rather than democratic consent.
 
Whatever its causes, Gezi unquestionably became a test of how Turkey—a country with aspirations to leadership in a region with far greater troubles than its own—could deal with division and dissent.
 
The consensus, certainly among those watching the images from abroad of plumes of tear gas and water cannon spray, was that this was a test in which the Turkey’s leaders performed badly. A Reuters photograph of a young university lecturer in a red dress being sprayed with pepper gas by a policeman at close range became emblematic of a state which showed little remorse for brutalising its young people, its brightest and its best. It depicted a style of governance whose only answer was force to those who questioned authority or who demanded greater public accountability.
 
Gezi was a trial by fire of Turkish media as well. The consensus here, too, was  that mainstream television and newspapers failed in their most fundamental obligation to report accurately events of public concern. Rather than risk offending the government, many outlets preferred to remain silent.
 
The other symbol to emerge from the protests was the penguin, the subject of a wildlife documentary which CNNTürk—an independent 24 hour news station—showed in preference to coverage of Gezi Park. HaberTürk, a rival channel located a two minute stroll from Gezi Park, aired a discussion on schizophrenia, and in days that followed there were demonstrations in front of the headquarters of NTV television which had compounded its initial failure to report events by sitting on the government side of the fence.
 
If only the media had stuck to reporting penguins. State-owned and publicly financed TRT television failed to show anything but the official view of events. A nakedly partisan pro-government press went on the attack according to explicit instructions (we now believe from a series of leaked phone conversations) from on high. There was even a day when six newspapers gave exactly the same headline. This was not a media about to engage in a searching of its soul for the reason millions of people in cities throughout Turkey took to the streets. Its instincts were aggressive and those of a propaganda machine.
 
The hunt was on for scapegoats. These they handily located among members of the foreign press. Proof of their treachery was that they were immune to government spin. Geze, we were informed, was a conspiracy whipped up by those jealous of Turkey’s success.
 
One year on, few lessons have been learned. On 31 May, the day set to commemorate Gezi Park events, Takvim newspaper printed on its front page a strange graphic—a parade of reporters from organisations like the Guardian, Reuters and the BBC with the faces whited out. These nameless faces were, the article says, “laying a trap” to provoke fresh demonstrations. The title of the JPG as it loads on the internet translates as “Jewish media and parallel [i.e Gülen Community] media joint operation.”
 
Given this hostility to the foreign press, it was only natural that later that same day, plainclothes police felt empowered to detain CNN correspondent Ivan Watson as he was doing a stand-up in front of his Taksim Square office. They manhandled him (“kicked me in the butt”, he tweeted), demanding to see his passport even after he showed them his official yellow press card. As the day progressed, the images broadcast on social media became more and more disturbing­– of riot squads firing plastic bullets at protesters, of young people sitting on the sidewalk dripping blood, of a policeman grabbing an opposition MP by the throat.
 
Give a dog a bone and he is bound to gnaw it. Have plainclothes policemen bundle a CNN reporter away, live in front of his own camera and it is bound to go viral. Watson was “held momentarily” for a simple passport check, the pro-government newspapers reported the next day. But it was too late to repair the damage. Who, seeing that video, would blame CNN for provoking disturbances rather than the authorities for not allowing peaceful protest?
 
If the police fell into a trap, it was not one set by CNN but the Turkish media demanding belief in their own propaganda.