On-the-ground: Turks rally before Erdogan announcement
On Saturday, Turkey witnessed one of its republican history’s largest rally. Hundreds of thousands of people — from children to elders, from farmers to artists, from socialists to nationalists — traveled from across the country to Ankara not only to protest a possible presidential run by Turkey’s pro-Islamic prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan but also to affirm their loyalty to the fundamentals of Kemalism.The crowd held flags, carried posters of Ataturk, and chanted anthems while first gathering around Tandogan square to listen to speeches and later marching to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. On the podium were academics, artists, and NGO representatives, but no politicians. “They say that we advocate a coup but we’re only revolutionists. Yet, there is no orange here but only red,” [the color of the national flag] said Birgul Ayman Guler, a professor at the Ankara University, emphasizing that this is a national movement without any external support. Some parts of the speeches also targeted the United States and European Union and aimed at the nationalist sentiments of Turkish people.
Some of the slogans that marked the protests were:
We respect belief but not radicalism
We hope for a president who is secular not just in words but in essence We are aware of not only the “threat” but also of our capabilities
We don’t want an imam as president
The roads to Cankaya (Presidency Office) is closed to Sharia
Turkey is secular and will remain secular.
Those who could not attend the rally showed their support by hanging flags out of their windows.
The thing that struck me most was, instead of anger and hostility, people were fueled with solidarity and serenity – everyone was gracious and showed respect to each other. Ten thousand police officers were deployed just for regular security checks but did not intervene with the protests at all.
The most controversial issue on the protests was the coverage by media. Unlike the international media, Turkish media has been cautious about reporting the rally. Except for a couple of opposition channels, the majority of the media outlets – including the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation – did not broadcast the rally live and showed minor interest in it. Some of the newspapers did not even mention it.