6 Kasım 2012 Salı

VARDİYA BİZDE-NOW IT'S OUR SHIFT


TÜRKÇE (For English please scroll down.)
The footnote links do not work; you will have to scroll down to to the footnotes for expanded information. Opening the blogsite on two seperate windows and keeping one on the footnotes will make it easier to go back and forth. Sorry for the inconvenience, I'm no expert!.
Other links should work. 

Ergenekon’du Balyoz’du türlü çeşitli suçlamalarla tutuklanmış, uzatmalı duruşma süreçlerine dolanmış ve bir kısmı tartışmalı hükümlerle uzun yıllara mahkûm edilmiş subaylarımızdan hepimizin haberi var. Hatta hüküm giyenleri kocalık ve babalık haklarından da mahrum edildiği haberlerini de duyuyoruz.  İşte bu subaylarımızın eşleri, kardeşleri ve yakınları “Vardiya Bizde Platformu” adı altında bir hareket başlattılar. (Bilgi için http://vardiyabizdeplatformu.com ) Yumuşak ve kibar bir protesto hareketi bu- zaten biraz diklenen bir subay eşi olursa kendisi hakim karşısına çıkmak zorunda kalıyor (Nilgül Doğan, İrem Kutluk, Emine Nevin Alan).

Bu hanımların faaliyetlerinden biri İstanbul’un Beşiktaş meydanında her Cumartesi öğleden sonra (13:00) toplanıp “sessiz çığlık” eylemini gerçekleştirmek. Pankart ve bayraklarıyla, sarı şallarıyla orada duruyorlar, kibar bir toplantı için biraraya gelmiş gibi birbirleriyle konuşuyorlar, dertleşiyorlar. Bu hafta biz de gittik, gördük (3 Kasım 2012). Beşiktaş’taki çirkin Atatürk heykelinin gölgesinde, yoğun Cumartesi kalabalığının pek de dikkatini çekmeden orada kibar kibar durdular. 
Vardiya Bizde Beşiktaş'ta
(Görüntülerin tümü kendi objektifimden.) 


Pankartlarda yazılı olanlar dışında bir slogan yoktu! Aşağıda örnekler veriyorum. 
(Görüntülerin tümü kendi objektifinden.)
Vardiya Bizde hanımları bir de kartondan balyoz madalyası hazırlamışlar. Mahkûm subaylarımızın Balyoz kararlarını "onur" sayan sözlerini hatırlatan bir jest. ("Pek çok madalyam var. Ancak bugün aldığım madalya en değerlisi!"- Em. Org. Çetin Doğan.)

Orada tanıştığım bir teyze- kayınvalideme benzediği için bana özellikle sempatik gelen bir teyze- objektifime hislerini aktardı. Aşağıda sunuyorum! 

Bazı bilgisayarlarda videokliplerin gözükmediğini farkettim, onun için teyzenin sözlerini yazılı olarak da veriyorum:

“Babam... ben Tokat’lıyım, babam 1315 doğumlu. Kurtuluş savaşında yedi sene savaşmış, çetelerle filan savaşmış. ‘Hey onbeşli onbeşli’ türküsü babamlara yakılmış, babam yaşta insanlara. Bu Cumhuriyet’e sahip çıkalım, karanlığın sonu aydınlık inşallah! Sonuna geldik karanlığın, önümüz aydınlık! Evet! Evet!”

videoklip
(Kendi kameramdan)
videoclip
(from my own camera)
ENGLISH
The footnote links do not work; you will have to scroll down to to the footnotes for expanded information. There are just two footnotes here so it won't be much trouble.
Other links should work.

Even if you are not familiar with present day Turkish politics, you need only browse through this blog to be aware of the harassment of Turkish officers by their own government, the arrests, the long, tangled court process, and the controversial verdicts that dealed out long jail sentences.[1] It is even reported that those convicted have been legally deprived of their rights as husbands and fathers. Well, the wives, sisters and relatives of these people have started a movement called the “Vardiya Bizde” platform.[2] (You can check it out at http://vardiyabizdeplatformu.com  ) It’s a genteel protest movement, by soft-spoken ladies who are not at all militant by nature. Indeed, if any of these ladies dare raise her voice in frustration, they too find themselves before the judge![3]

One of the activities of these ladies is the “silent scream” action: together with supporters and sympathisers they gather at the square of Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district. With their placards,flags and yellow shawls they stand unobtrusively under one of the couıntry’s ugliest Atatürk monuments, hardly noticed by the milling crowd. The protesters quietly socialize, share stories, console each other, as if atending a polite social get-together. 
Vardiya Bizde ("Now it's our shift") at Beşiktaş
(All images from my own camera.)

There were no slogans other than what was written on the placards. I give a sampling below, with translations:
(All images from my own camera.)
 "18 years of prison in return for 38 years of service."

 "We have been wronged, my people, do not forget us!"

"The Balyoz ("Sledgehammer") case, the slander of the century."

 "18 years for 3 pennies worth of fake CD's."

"Even unto death, we are right, they are wrong."
"The Balyoz ("Sledgehammer") case is the disbanding of the armed forces through forged evidence."

 "Court- experts say the evidence was forged."

"The Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Verdicts are judicial murder."

"The Judiciary against Science!"

The Vardiya Bizde ("Now it's our shift") ladies had also prepared a "Sledgehammer" medal, echoing the words of some officers who have declared they consider it an honor to have been convicted in the Balyoz ("Sledgehammer") case.("I have many medals, but the one I was awarded today is the most precious!"- Ret. Full-General Çetin Doğan.)

A nice auntie, whom I found all the more likeable because she resembled my mother-in-law, un-selfconsciously shared her thoughts with me, speaking straight to my camera. I have put this clip above, between the Turkish and English texts. This is what she says:

“My father... I am from Tokat, and my father was born in 1315.[4] He fought seven years in the War of Independence, fighting bandits and such.[5]  The song 'Hey, fifteener, fifteener'[6] was composed for my father’s generation, people of his age. Let us defend this Republic, the end of darkness is light, God willing! We’ve come to the end of the darkness, it’s light up ahead. Yes! Yes!”

[1] See  “The Sledgehammer”,  6 September (Eylül) 2012,  “Sledgehammer Verdicts”, 22 September  (Eylül) 2012, “Reacting to the SledgehammerVerdicts”, 26 September (Eylül) 2012, also “Ramadan, August 30th, and Mr.Incredible”, 17 August(Ağustos) 2012.
[2] “Now it’s Our Shift”.
[3] For their action of “tying wishes to a rose tree”, across the street from the Silivri Courtroom where their husbands were being tried (May 5th, 2011), wishing naturally for justice for their husbands and allegedly obstructing traffiic in the process, Nilgül Doğan (wife of retired full-general Çetin Doğan) and İrem Kutluk (wife of retired vice-admiral Ali Deniz Kutluk) were indicted for “contravening law number 2911 concerning assemblies and demonstrations”.  Later, on Sept. 21st, 2012, at the conclusion of the Balyoz (“Sledgehammer”) trials, both husbands received heavy sentences: Çetin Doğan got 20 years, Ali Deniz Kutluk 18 years.
On December 6th, 2011, as spectator in the courtroom, Emine Nevin Alan, wife of retired lieutenant general Engin Alan, reportedly pointed in the direction of the judges and said “Those dogs will die in a car crash on their way home!”. For this outburst she herself was tried, the prosecution demanding three years in prison. She got 1 year, 2 months and 17 days. The sentence was commuted conditionally. Mrs Alan must “behave” for five years if she wants to escape the slammer. On September 21st, 2012, at the conclusion of the Balyoz (“Sledgehammer”)  trials, her husband Engin Alan received 18 years. Now, even while serving his sentence, he is being tried for his role in the “February 28th process”. See footnote 3, “The Sledgehammer”,  6 September (Eylül) 2012.
While under arrest Engin Alan was elected as member of parliament for Istanbul, which did not change his status as suspect held in prison. He is one of three MP’s elected in June 2011 while in custody, the other two being  Mustafa Balbay, MP for İzmir, and Mehmet Haberal, MP for Zonguldak. See “The Flag and the Ribbon”, 30 May (Mayıs) 2012. The trials of Haberal and Balbay, arrested within the  the Ergenekon conspiracy allegations, are still not concluded and both remain in prison. 
[4] “Rumi” calender, Ottoman time time reckoning, In the course of Atatürk’s reforms the Western (Gregorian) calendar was adopted in favor of the Rumi. This happened in 1925 (Rumi 1341). The lady’s father would have been born in 1899.
[5] The Turkish war of Independence was from 1919 to 1922. The lady’s father obviously fought all the way through the First World War, and she adds those years to her reckoning. At the star off the first world war, he would have been fifteen years old, and this is cofirmed by her next phrase. As for the reference to “bandits”: there were not just the occupying powers, but roaming bands of bandits of bandits to contend with. They would fight for this side or that, and sometimes switch.
[6] That is, fifteen year-old lad. Originally, “Hey onbeşli onbeşli”

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