Silent Islamist repression in Erdogan’s Turkey
By Tavleen Singh on June 9, 2013
When you write a column that is called ‘on the spot’ it can be very annoying when you sometimes just miss being on the spot. This is what happened to me in Istambul. I was there, as you know if you read this column, a couple of weeks ago and staying in a hotel overlooking Thaksin Square. On my first day in the city I explored the square and the winding streets and narrow alleys that led downwards from it towards the Bosporus. In the square I stopped at pavement stalls selling posters and knickknacks. In a little jewelry shop I bought myself an evil eye bracelet and in a small café I ate delicious kebabs and drank cold, dry Turkish wine. And, then with others attending the conference I had come to attend I wandered down a street filled with restaurants, bars and shops selling Turkish sweets to an old building where in a room with large windows there was a reception. We drank more Turkish wine and ate mezze. So it was that I spent two peaceful and lovely days in Thaksin Square without realising for a moment that days after I left it would erupt in protests and violence that political commentators all over the world are already beginning to call a Turkish spring.
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