Peace rally

I spent a few hours this afternoon at a pretty large pro-Kurd peace protest in the Kadıköy district. It was surprisingly open - I mean, there was security

and there was backup security

but for a protest openly criticizing the military and calling for a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish separatism problem, which the military has always been very sensitive about, it was very... peaceful. This isn't to say the military wasn't keeping an eye on things.

But it was still a far cry from every impression I've ever gotten of Turkey being essentially a police state that doesn't allow any public criticism of the government or the military. There was a lot of chanting, a lot of singing, a lot of generally pro-Kurd peacenikery, and the military just sat and watched. It was an exciting atmosphere, because you could see this general feeling of "Hey! Freedom of speech! This is fun!" (I've got a bunch of video of Turks leaping around wildly in support of peace. Unfortunately it would take me a year and a half to put it on the internet, but I'd love to show it to all of you in person at some point.) In the meantime, I went ahead and translated some of the signs people were waving around.

OK, so the one kid apparently calling for Abdullah Öcalan to be freed is less heartwarming than the others, but still. Things are clearly changing in Turkish public discourse. I'm sure the world will be happy.

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EDIT 8 June 2008

Ok, I guess the world won't be happy, because the world doesn't know anything about it. The Turkish press is calling this the biggest pro-Kurd peace rally ever held in western Turkey. The international press isn't calling it anything, because in the last week no one in the West has reported on it (that I've found, anyway - I'd love to be proved wrong). The only press it's gotten from the international community is the Al-Ahram Weekly out of Cairo, which isn't exactly the source every Westerner goes to for breaking news.

I understand the whole principle of "if it bleeds it leads" but this is still important news even if no one is bleeding. Actually it's important news particularly because no one is bleeding. Turkey's getting better, just like we wanted! But what's their incentive to improve if we only pay attention when they do something wrong?