Turkey Protest Violence All Too Familiar to Kurds
Media coverage of police brutality in the Istanbul protests presents an opportunity for the country to address the violence Kurds have faced for decades.
The brutalization of Turkish society by the Turkish security forces for most of modern Turkey's life, and particularly since the military coup of 1980, has inevitably resulted in an internal crisis of governance and the lack of a civic mentality. However, it is wrong to lay all the blame for the crisis that came to a head in Istanbul’s Gezi Park at Prime Ministers Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s doorstep.
The recent demonstrations offer an opportunity to address police brutality in Turkey, in particular the legacy of the country’s three-decade war in the southeast, where the same police force that fired tear and pepper gas at protesters in Gezi Park honed its ruthless response to dissent on the country’s Kurdish minority.
