Turkey: Police

On Istiklal, on my favorite street, the police presence was stark. Istiklal is an avenue that runs from Taksim Square, past shops and embassies and past what may be Turkey's most prestigious school, Galatasaray, on its way to the terminus of the funicular that takes you up the big hill from the bridge to the old town. It is a happening place, jammed with pedestrians seemingly at all hours of the day.

With so many people, obviously some security presence is warranted. What we found, however, was a police presence much larger than that required for routine security. There is a section of Taksim Square that is reserved as a staging area for riot control squads whose numbers at times must exceed 100.

The area is always cordoned off and guarded. In the morning there may be just a bus or two, empty and parked. In the evening there might be seven or eight busses and dozens of police milling about. That begs the question, what are they doing there?

Well, it seems that the gates and square in front of Galatasaray are a magnet for protesters. In our short stay in Istanbul (seven days) we must have walked up and down Istiklal a dozen times at various hours of the day and night. On three of those occasions, we encountered organized protests of one kind or another. Lots of less organized leafleting. Once, we saw the police force actually deployed.

As we strolled up Istiklal, approaching Galatasaray, the flow up the street started to slow. We soon saw why. Three to four dozen police were there with their equipment (protest tanks – a kind of APC – and water cannon) They were observing a demonstration and obviously preparing for conflict. They had their shields and body armor and were beginning to fit on the gas masks. As it was only 100 yards for us to sneak by the protest, I asked if it was safe to pass. The answer was no - we should go around. So we did. A couple of blocks up, a couple blocks over, a couple of blocks back and we were back on Istiklal, on the other side. There we found a similar cadre of police, boxing the protesters in. We waited, watched, ready to flee. Nothing happened. We waited, still nothing. Finally we moved on. I asked at the hotel the next day if there had been some excitement on Istiklal. No one had heard a thing. It seems nothing had happened.

We encountered the same scene in Ankara. Police suiting up. Nothing happened. It seems it is all part of a script. Protesters come out -because that's what protesters do. The police come out as if to say we are ready for trouble - if you want to make it. The protesters don't want trouble, so they don't make it. Everybody plays their role and goes home.

WiT? Clue:  The palm tree in the background says Cuba.  It seems they don't do statues of living people in Cuba.  (I saw none of Fidel, for ex)  It being Cuba, that means Castro likes him, must mean the US didn't.  And No, our government of the day really did not like this guy.  He got what we wanted for Fidel.

Blog Note:  I still have some posts for Turkey, but we will shift to Cuba for the next few, then come back in a week or so and finish up the Turkey posts.