Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Earlier this month, students protesting the prime minister’s meeting with university rectors got into a major dust-up with the police. It was widely reported that one of the students miscarried as the result of the beating she received.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay claimed that the students weren't beaten--they had thrown themselves to the ground for the cameras:
“Some students who hit police threw themselves on the ground to make news on TV while police were attempting to detain them,” Minister Beşir Atalay told private channel Kanal 7 late Sunday night, according to daily Milliyet.
“Students sometimes do this. A certain group exists among the students. We have determined who they are, and I have a file [on them],” Atalay said.
I expect your first reaction to this--as mine would be, if I didn't live here--is something unprintable on Ricochet. I'm sure you're not inclined to give the police the benefit of the doubt.
I wasn't there, and I don't know what happened. But here's what gives me pause: I've seen protesters doing this in Istanbul. I've seen it with my own eyes and I know for sure that this is what they were doing. They had not been touched by the police, but they very deliberately dropped to the ground and began screaming that they'd been hurt. Hundreds of journalists and people with cameras rushed over to get photos of it, and the next day it was reported as police brutality. I saw that, and wrote about it at the time:
The police were painfully aware that no matter what they did, journalists were determined to photograph and report it to make them look brutal. “Then we’ll get in trouble,” a young police officer said to me, fretting nervously under his heavy riot gear and clearly envisioning a punitive reassignment to some dismal Eastern Anatolian village. Likewise, if the protesters broke a window and the police failed to prevent it, he said, “We’ll get in trouble”—as they would, he went on, if the protesters managed to stampede and injure themselves. The police couldn’t win. They nonetheless made no attempt to prevent journalists from getting right into the middle of the demonstrations or taking photographs. I very much doubt that French or German police would have been so indulgent and cooperative. “You see we’re not bad,” another officer said to me plaintively. “We trained a lot for this day. But whatever we do, the Europeans will laugh at us.”
A handful of obviously coached protesters did their best to antagonize the police, throwing stones at them and then feigning injury when apprehended, shrieking “police brutality” for the cameras. For the most part, though, the demonstrators, also to their credit, were no more interested in conflict than the police.
When I returned home and saw how the day had been reported, I wondered if we had all been at the same event. (Some of us hadn’t: one wire service story was datelined PARIS.) “Istanbul was virtually shut down,” read an Agence France-Press photograph caption—failing to mention that this was because the government had declared the day a holiday. It’s something to keep in mind when reading similar stories of violence elsewhere in the news, not to mention reports of our imminent collective demise from swine flu. From the headlines, you would think that Istanbul on May Day looked like Gaza. That’s far enough from the truth to make one doubt that even Gaza looks like Gaza.
So I simply don't know what to make of this story. The last thing I want is to defend police brutality: If the students' account of this is true, it's appalling.
But I'm obliged to say that the interior minister's comments are not as absurd, on the face of it, as they sound.
Here's the video of the event. I know, because I've seen it, that protesters whose goal is to make the police look brutal can very easily manipulate the press with the result that videos like this are all over YouTube the next day. But it does not necessarily mean that what happened is quite what it looks like:
On the other hand, it might be just what it looks like. I wasn't there, and where Turkey's concerned--and the media in general--at this point I pretty much only believe what I see with my own eyes.
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Jul '10
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
I may have been tempted to buy into some of this claim as it is possible for those apparently leftist students - with whom I normally would not sympathize - to want to appear to be victimized. However, the immediate use of pepper spray without much provocation by the students indicates that the police was more interested in intimidation tactics and sparking confrontation than handling the situation right. De-legitimization or even discouragement of possible future demonstrations via initiating such confrontation and then claiming the students were bogus appears likely as the media outlets close to the AKP automatically reported the incidents in a similar way to the approach demonstrated by the Interior Minister now. Because it is becoming apparent that the direction the nation is headed under the AKP policies renders future student activity inevitable.
May '10
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
There are never clear good guys and bad guys in these situations. But I was far more disturbed by the statement that said, the government knows who does this and is maintaining "files" on them. I am alternatively disturbed and amused by this statement. Disturbed by the intimidation and threat of retribution for political expression; amused because it sounds so outdated -- like a line from a campy film noir.
Jul '10
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Can't disagree... with regard to all media outlets regardless of their orientation.
Edited on Dec 22, 2010 at 5:00amRe: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Okan Altiparmak: I may have been tempted to buy into some of this claim as it is possible for those apparently leftist students - with whom I normally would not sympathize - to want to appear to be victimized.
I don't sympathize with them at all, but that's of course irrelevant, they should be able to protest without getting the stuffing kicked out of them. I wish I'd gone and seen this for myself; I'm genuinely unable to say what happened. Do we know the use of pepper spray was immediate and unprovoked? It may well have been--I'm certainly not discounting the possibility. But I have little confidence in reports that it was.
Trace, yes, it is amazing how much of Turkish political discourse sounds absurd to Western ears. I predict he'll denounce the students as "sullying Turkey's image abroad" next. Watch for it.
Jul '10
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Okan Altiparmak: I may have been tempted to buy into some of this claim as it is possible for those apparently leftist students - with whom I normally would not sympathize - to want to appear to be victimized.
Do we know the use of pepper spray was immediate and unprovoked?
That is on video... However, the unprovoked use of pepper spray is not limited to this particular incident with the students The Turkish police use pepper spray way too easily. I witnessed it with soccer fans as well. It was used in front of my own eyes when the British guys whom I was helping out were shooting Goztepe fans in a third division match in Izmir, and the cop was laughing as he was doing it.
I personally believe in this particular incident with students, both sides engaged in theatrics. It is clear from the video footage showing fully the initiation of the confrontations (with the busload of students from Ankara who were stopped on the road at the entrance of the city, too), however, the only provocation by the students could have been verbal only. On the other hand, what ensued is not so clear.
Nov '10
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Maybe I am just jaded, cynical and hard-hearted. I watched that video carefully and I saw no evidence that the police were using excessive force. They were simply handling the situation in a brisk, no-nonsense manner. Pepper gas? So what? It beats rubber bullets (or real bullets). The guy being dragged around was obviously "going limp" — a tactic developed during the anti-war protests of the 60s. In any case, I have no sympathy for student protesters.
That got my attention. "Claire Berlinski, reporting from the scene..." That was great. You should do that more often — start channeling your "inner Fallaci," so to speak. If you tell me you saw something, I will believe you.
If you made it plain to the authorities that you were willing to give the police the benefit of the doubt (as opposed to the usual journalistic practice), you just might be given access to some hot stories. Your Jewish heritage becomes a plus, then. Or am I just getting carried away?
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Okan Altiparmak
That is on video... However, the unprovoked use of pepper spray is not limited to this particular incident with the students The Turkish police use pepper spray way too easily. I witnessed it with soccer fans as well. It was used in front of my own eyes when the British guys whom I was helping out were shooting Goztepe fans in a third division match in Izmir, and the cop was laughing as he was doing it.
Oh, that's for sure--they use pepper spray the way most cops use their traffic whistles. But pepper spray and water cannons are heavy-handed policing, to which the proper reaction is, "Was that really necessary? Let's review procedures." Beating a woman until she miscarries is disgusting brutality, to which the proper reaction is, "The entire world must condemn this in utter revulsion." And there's not a single paper here whose account of it is untainted by an obvious agenda--more's the pity for justice, as usual.
Re: Did Istanbul Students Fake Police Beatings?
Lady Kurobara
If you made it plain to the authorities that you were willing to give the police the benefit of the doubt (as opposed to the usual journalistic practice), you just might be given access to some hot stories. Dec 22 at 6:18am
Up until I start talking about the evidence in the Ergenekon case--which strongly points to forgery. And that could not be happening without the cooperation of someone, somewhere--probably many--in the police.