What's up with Quad?

Does anyone how Quad is doing at the moment? I remember that he lives in Istanbul, and with the current protests going on, I would love to know if he is doing alright over there.
Maybe someone who has him on Facebook knows more? (Or he could post here, but iirc, he isn't active either anymore, and I suppose he has better things to do right now)

Well, it's pretty much hell and all-out civil war(sans fire-arms) over here.

Right now i am at work and there is no thret but i was out in the field in the last 3 days. Tear-gassed, sprayed from police vehicles water mixed with some unknown chemical that burns skin like hell. Police is pretty much going against every law about civil supression.

Normally i am apoilitic, but right now it's beyond anything politic. It's something Turkey has never seen before. People are united themselves not under any political party. People of all beliefs, Turks,Kurds,Leftists,Rightists people that were fighting like enemies months ago are united and they keep flowing to squares and police cannot keep up.

Friday evening tear gas firing rate(edit:link ) at Harbiye was pretty much at their reload speed. Countless tear gas shells were fired most past their expiration date, some other substances other than tear gas was also used but they are not 100% identified yet. They are using extreme power. We did not know Turkey had this much tear-gas, police should have run out days ago.

I am fine for the most part, but this is not over yet

Riots spread to pretty much every major city in Turkey.

police are running like pretty much mad-dogs with no one stopping them:

A house getting tear gassed(roughly about 1km from my place): http://s1.directupload.net/images/130603/ltoyuelt.swf

tear gassed and got caught? that's what happends before you are able to see again:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/8ef649a9c87ccdf3a73dbe015faeef45/tumblr_mntgp5IBL01ste7qoo1_500.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/18f18812d3d47a5d6fc668d5038e620d/tumblr_mnsgq2etuU1ste7qoo1_1280.jpg

A civil police car ran over people at ankara(explicipit/gore/blood):
http://25.media.tumblr.com/5282b445af7835d7cab6c500533dff0a/tumblr_mnsjysRh3s1ste7qoo1_1280.jpg

Anonymous is taking down all government sites:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/64c0153d03b4b22e8419431c7da087a5/tumblr_mnsa5vPwBa1ste7qoo1_500.png

One of the iconic photos of the events a protester waving flag over the road block they built against armored police vehicles:

Trucks helping with roadblock:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/74678cb772e72f55e022bfd37d5c07ac/tumblr_mns922M4Kj1ste7qoo1_1280.jpg

People are fighting back with all they got, no weapons no fighting only by the numbers police retreat from area to area but recover and come back.

Not a single politician said anything about this.But that's not the worst part. The WORST part is Turkish media is pretty much showing NOTHING. That's all we need right now, more international media attention, other than that they can dump all the tear gas they have on us, we are fine.

thats CNNTURK(penguin documentary) vs CNN INT(istanbul clashes LIVE):
http://cdn0.dailydot.com/originals/tumblr_mnr8b4ntox1ste7qoo1_1280.png


This is all in the hands of PEOPLE and social media now.


There is alot to add about police crime against humanity, but i am in the middle of a revolution right now so see you later?

more here:
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/

Thanks to social media we made our voice heard. There are countless live-streams direct from people's smartphones from everywere. They shut down 3d and cell communication in some places we created our own romaing network by naming all wi-fi routers with the same name and removing passwords(so the phones connect automatically)

btw: Police is beating people death in ankara right now.

Long story short, i am fine right now but something can happen anytime now.

I sure hope so! Glad to hear that you are okay! Keep your head down and watch out, and if you have a second and internet connection, keep us updated about your status!

You guys are getting a lot of coverage on the internet, and the New York Times also has you on the frontpage. German news outlets are currently busy with the flood here, but I would be very surprised if they aren't going to cover you soon as well.

Good to hear from you!

Wow! Quad, good to hear that you are fine! Hope the strength of the people succeeds over the state's machinery!

That really got lost in the flood news these days. I'm glad you're fine.

To be fair, we had our own police drama with Blockupy here, although on a way smaller scale (I really don't want to downplay the situation in Turkey here, just trying to say why it may not be that big in the news).

And it's not like there is no coverage here whatsoever, spiegel.de for example has an extra category for Turkey at the moment (http://www.spiegel.de/thema/tuerkei/). It could be better, no doubt, but it's there and I'm sure that it's going to be bigger in the next few days.

Looking at the pictures I think that a policeman of a democratic state needs to get the responsibility to decide on its own whether an order is within his duties against his people or not.
The common forms of democracy are in a crisis, the proclaimed sovereignty didn't work out, so in Spain for instance they developed their assambleas, and they suggest even new concepts of participation on the govermental level.
I only got a german translation here:
http://uhupardo.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/partido-x-hier-ist-das-programm-der-neuen-partei/

Can we please not turn this into a political debate? I know that you love to preach against the evil Government, but I don't think it has anything to do with this topic. Especially since the protests are about going back to the founding principles of the Turkish government, not against the evil democracy.

I would not like see a political debate here too, but what a jewel of the pacific you drop here, sid. Great example of free disqualifications by simplistic and heeled.

Sorry, I'm not preaching anything. I'm thinking.
The happenings are deeply political - so what?

@ txesmi: I don't understand the meaning of 'pacific' and 'by simplistic and heeled' within the context of your sentences. Can you explain it?

The jewel of the pacific ocean is a immeasurable treasure; probably a local ironic expression, sorry.



Those phrases are voluntary contructed with biased insulting adjectives, not explanatory.

I called it heeled (over) because using a vexatious adjetive in any description is a clear proof of marked partiality and it suggests that there is no reality in any speech on that line so they can be obviated without any contemplation. Same as my intervention :-D

txesmi: Uh-huh. That are nuances that I would understood only in my native language, if at all.
Thanks for your explanations.

That is why I never philosophize on english, conscious that I don't know the proper words. Google translate ony messes up the things xP

By now it's equivalent to preaching, sorry. I normally don't mind your ranting, and I honestly think that you are right when it comes to a lot of things, but thinking doesn't involve ranting in every thread which topic slightly touches the surface of politics in some way.


This thread isn't. I made this thread to know how Quad is doing over there, not to discuss the Turkish, or any other countries, politics with someone who only follows the events on his chair in a country far away. If you want to discuss the current Turkish politics, you are free to do so, but I would like to ask you to not use this thread as your platform, because quite frankly, I'm more interested in how Quad is doing and his well being than the internets opinion on the crisis.

Edit: Removed off-topic discussion to not come of as the hypocrit I actually am

I hope Quad is(and remains) safe.
I had no idea of the weight of the situation. Our normal news is giving it only a 30 second spot. There is tons of coverage of the events but they just aren't presenting it to us.

Guess 30 seconds are better than not showing anything at all.
People are trying to get all media attention they can get, like a successfull indiegogo campaign for a full-page nytimes ad.

We still have a large media black-out for the events and as you might have heard our prime minister said social media(spesifically twitter) is a malice to the society 2 days ago before leaving the country for his north-africa visits. Yeah north-africa visits, in the middle of such situation. Rumors say King Muhammed VI of Morocco did not recieve him, but this is not confirmed yet. It's really ironic-if it's true-, a king not accepting a pm of a republic, accusing him of dictatorship.

Things have calmed down in Istanbul a bit, but it's still going on in other cities.

There a lot of injured people and 2 confirmed many unconfirmed deaths. Some stocks seen 5 year low, TL/USD rate crumbled, BUT people are not retarded they are not trying to destroy the country, they know what they are doing, stocks and rates turned normal quickly.

Some ill-intended groups are trying to use the situation but people are preventing them.

Sorry for long political post, but as i said i am normally apolitic but this is a PEOPLE movement.

Don't worry, keep us updated about you and the situation! I just hate that the Internet suddenly becomes an expert in whatever current crisis we have, but obviously you aren't a self proclaimed Turkish politics expert.

Glad to hear that you are okay and that you guys aren't trying to ruin your own country and keep things ordered instead of going full blown retard and destroying everything along the way.
Quick question if you don't mind: I've read that people withdrew their money and closed their bank accounts at the state owned bank, is that true?

It's not a state owned bank, it is a bank owned by a large corporation that has several tv news channels and newspapers. People withrew their money as a way of protest, because they did not cover anything and took part in media-blackout.

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

The situation is getting very alarming:
The police arrested lawyers:
http://erkansaka.net/archives/23464

I hope things go better now in Turkey...
I wanted but forgot to mention that - sadly but not surprisingly - our loved great leader (prime minister) is beside the actual Turkish government and wishes them success for restoring order and continuing the work as before. basically the concept of the 2 governments is identical, and I would not be surpsired if something similar break out here in the future (but fortunately the situation is much softer here, I mean only rubber bullets can be used).

I hate to be that guy, but non-lethal force doesn't mean anything... Here is what happened in Germany not so long ago:


Just a "harmless" water gun. Non lethal force used against peaceful protesters... Anyways, that guy lost his eyesight. And I can't imagine rubber bullets being much better.
Not saying that it is as bad as lethal force, but yeah, if shit goes down, I think it's safe to say to watch out for yourself.

from a close distance or when hitting soft parts of human body (e.g. eyes), rubber bullet can be very dangerous. a few years ago, when it was used here, caused numerous serious injuries, but of course only among the protesters standing calm out of the crazy hard core, who did not expected such an attack... that was the time of the previous (also loved and wise) government.

Six people got killed(by the police) with that so-called non-lethal force. But situation here calmed down, i guess for good this time. But of course Gezi Park will be remembered and brought up in future similar situations.

Everyone saw just how full of BS all media agencies and all political parties are. People just hope their message is heard by all political and governmental bodies and hope that they will act accordingly in the future. At least they will keep in mind what happened when they are going to do something.

But of course things grown beyond sending a message, i just hope what was accomplished there will not be lost. What accomplished was that people from all ages, and very different world views stood together, side by side. People there stopped prejudging the others and probably for the first time saw that even with all their differences they are in fact in the same boat and they have to work together(Not just in Gezi Park but in every day of their life). And they did. They learned to accept people even if they do not approve their views or ways of life. Of course there are a lot of people who are not and won't be a part of that accomplishment or understand it,the people who were not there or the ones who believe every bs mass-media spoon feeds them.

And for the world media, they played their part for the most of it. But some of them, as you would expect, were BS again. It was completely unrelated to Arab Spring thing. We were not armed, we were not trying to destroy our country by splitting in to two large groups fighting each other. We did not even want to overthrow/replace government. As we seen during the period of the protests, current government is just as bad as any that can be put there. All political parties are full of BS. So what's going to change if you replace it. In a sense this is also valid for places having that "Arab Spring". Go through all that struggle to remove one tyrant king just put another one on the throne.

It was police against people - only police armed with their non-lethal force. As you might have seen government's police did not prevent anything. They just made things worse. And people did not want to fight with police, police brought fight and violence. When there was no police, protests were always begun and ended peacefully. It went on for so long even police started to question what they are doing. People just wanted to be heard. Nothing more.

good to hear that no more danger, bad to hear that political parties are the same crap as here.
a bit offtopic, but the arab spring is also a strange phenomenon. a friend is posting about what is happening in Syria: no relation to liberty, just mercenaries paid by USA and probably Israel to overcome unfriendly regimes similarly to Lybia an Egypt, killing hundreds of civils without care who are rather beside their current government.