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Academics, journalists, activists and public intellectuals issue a call for justice and respect. The initiative stresses the need for mutual understanding and dialogue as a way out of the political polarization that threatens the very fabric of Turkish society in the wake of Gezi protests. Unlike its predecessors, the inititative reaches out to various segments of the  society, from pious intellectuals to democratic left, the LGBT to Kurds and Alevis, and attemtps to propose a brief list of democratic measures that can be adopted quickly, to alleviate the ongoing tensions and make space for the discussion of more fundmental problems, notably the Kurdish peace process. The call will be made public in a meeting that will take place on  Thursday   11 July 2013 at 11.00, in Aynali Gecit (see below for details). You are all welcome! Address: Meşrutiyet Cad. Avrupa Pasajı No:8 K.2 Galatasaray / Beyoğlu/Istanbul Emine Tarhan Email: emitarhan@gmail.com

This is a second effort to comment on the recent protest in Turkey. This 'second take' is informed by having had the opportunity to talk  over the past couple of days  to a number of people  in Istanbul  with diverse opinions on the situation  . In an article  I wrote back in 2007 on the events of the summer of that year in Turkey, I had tried to develop a reasoning that countered the way in which the military-bureaucratic establishment in Turkey framed Islamism in general, and the AKP in particular, as the ‘Other’, as an outsider to the Turkish body politic that threatened to destroy the achievements of the secular, modernizing forces that had built the Republic. I was arguing then it is evident that, contrary to the attempted simplification of the current political situation into one characterized by the irreconcilable conflict between a monolithic and fundamentalist Islamist camp bent on introducing Şeriat (sharia law) and Turkey’s secular forces, the reality is m

The protests that spread from the relatively small and rather underused Gezi park in Istanbul to a host of cities and towns throughout Turkey are not likely to overthrow the AKP government. As I was pointing out in another note , the demonstrations had a dual effect. On the one hand they were an indictment of the the arrogance and contempt for dissenting opinion displayed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and an expression of increasing unease at the way the party has been introducing issues of public morality in the political agenda as new alcohol regulations and the Ankara Metro protests indicate. And, it is becoming increasingly clear that they constituted a condemnation of the alliance of the AKP with particular corporate elites that seem to benefit from the capitalist development model the party has promoted. On the other hand, they inadvertently exposed the irrelevance and lack of vision of the opposition parties. The protests are likely to fizzle out, the AKP will probably stay on