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100 Days and Counting: The Battle for Democracy in Venezuela ... - NBCNews.com
Protestors gather outside the hotel where Republican Representative John Faso was scheduled to speak in Schoharie, New York. Credit: YES! Magazine/Reggie Harris.
Im leafing through a stack of protest signs in the corner of the mudroom, reading the markered letters, looking to see what can be recycled for tonight. The subjects weve collected thus far are about human rights and the environment. It looks like well need to draft something fresh and new for tonight, because the topic is health care.
Our Republican congressman, John Faso, has an 89.7 percent track record for voting Yes on Trump initiatives. He hasnt been holding town meetings with constituents, he and his staff have stopped responding to letters, Ive never had a phone call even answered, and his recent vote to repeal ObamaCare in the House has sparked this last minute protest down in the village of Schoharie, New York, where hes the keynote speaker at a countywide Republican fundraiser.
Im not a big fan of crowds. I dont even like meetings. But the elections last November showed me that even introverts need to emerge from their shells and make their voices heard.
As much as I dislike and distrust our current national administration, I also deeply value community harmony. Where national politics and economics fail, I have a deep belief that local community can survive. But Trump won Schoharie County by a margin of 3-1. And the past few months, for me, have been tough.
I dont like to disagree with my neighbors. Im one of those people who waves at every person driving down our rural roads. I like to talk about the weather, about local issues, about whos having surgery, about whose daughter is coming for a visit, about whos cleaning out their garage, whos having a baby. I can remember those things and carry on intelligent conversations. When it comes to national politics, however, Im completely rattled. In the face of someone who disagrees with me, Im so flustered by the lack of harmony, so worried that our friendship could be fractured, I lose my ability to be articulate about issues.
But national politics, in my estimation, are now dire. Too much is at stake for me to spend all my time in my comfort zone. Saoirse and Ula are following the issues now, too, and it would be irresponsible for Bob and me to encourage political discussion at home, but then fail to empower them with the democratic tools available to them to influence change.
So Ive chosen among my discomforts: rather than talking one-on-one with my neighbors about my feelings and opinions, Ive been pushing through my anxiety about being around lots of people. Part of me wonders whether my choice to stand among like-minded souls is more cowardly than talking one-on-one, but I cut myself some slack. Its better than doing nothing.
On this spring evening, Bob, the girls and I write catchy phrases on the backs of some of the other protest signs weve amassed, load into the car, stop at the bank, stop at the grocery store, then make our way to the protest.
One hundred eighty-five of us have gathered outside the hotel where Congressman Faso is scheduled to speak. Thats a big crowd for a rural Republican county, especially since this all came together at the last minute. Bob, the girls and I walk toward them, and were greeted with hugs. We stand among friends, comforted by each others presence. The sky is blue, and the sun is warm on our backs.
Attendees for the fundraising dinner begin to drive by. We hold up our signs. The drivers dont make eye contact. A few flip us the bird. Bob Neid, our organizer and local agitator extraordinaire, holds a megaphone to his lips.
Tell me what democracy looks like! He shouts.
And we all know how to respond, no coaching necessary.
This is what democracy looks like!
For a little while, no one drives past headed for the dinner. Being a great lover of the written word, Ive found in the past few months that protest signs are their own literary form, and Ive come to enjoy reading them. While its quiet, Saoirse and I take off down the line to appreciate the creativity of our fellow protesters.
As we walk, I meet up with farm customers, former teachers, and a lot people Ive not seen in years. We laugh, we share design tips for reusable posters. Some people turn their signs around and show on the back the list of every protest theyve attended this year, the way others might collect spoons from tourist destinations.
A flush of cars arrive. We turn our attention to them and hold up our signs. We sing out different chants:
Hey HeyHo Ho, John Faso has to go!
Healthcare for all, big and small!
And then some fellow farmers drive by, their big pick-ups shiny and clean for the evening.
Tell me what democracy looks like, Bob Neid chants.
I know a lot of them. In one truck, I see a couple Ive known my whole life. They helped me do my master's research. They helped me do my dissertation research. They recognize me. We lock eyes.
Is this confrontation? Is this the very thing Ive been trying to avoid?
He gets a little twinkle in his eye and gives me a nod. She smiles widely and waves at me.
Then I begin to laugh. I forgot! Hes a Republican. Shes a Democrat.
Now theyre both laughing, too.
This is what democracy looks like! The crowd cheers back.
And then I hear it up and down the line. Hey! Thats my neighbor! Another protester lifts his arm and waves to someone else driving down the line. Looks like hes feeling better after his surgery! Another little wave back from the car.
Hey! Those are my neighbors! I didnt know theyd be coming out to something like this! Another nod. Another wave of greeting between protester and Republican driver.
Tell me what democracy looks like!
This is what democracy looks like!
I discover a new comfort zone. I am who I am. I believe what I believe. And all of us in that line are facing the same thing: public dissent, when harmony is a matter of rural culture, survival, and quality of life. But with the support of fellow citizens who share our opinions, we find the courage to speak up about these issues that we find appalling.
And then, on the other side, we see our neighbors. And all those nods, all those little waves on the road, all those pleasantries at the grocery store, become hugely valuable. For the sake of preserving relationships, direct words may not be exchanged. But the communication is happening nonetheless.
Tell me what democracy looks like
Maybe its imperfect. Maybe its provincial. But Ill own it. In Schoharie County, this is what democracy looks like.
This article has been re-posted from YES! Magazine. It was originally published in The Radical Homemaker.
Read more:
What democracy looks like when you have to disagree with your neighbours - Open Democracy
Illustration by Curt Merlo.
In September 2010, the District of Columbia unveiled a pilot project to enable overseas residents and people serving in the military to vote over the Internet, and invited users to test the system. Within 36 hours, University of Michigan computer scientist J. Alex Halderman and his team were able to hack into it, flipping votes to candidates named after famous computers, like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and playing the Michigan fight song, The Victors, after every recorded vote. Amazingly, it took two days for election officials in DC to notice the hack and take the system down. The pilot project was eventually scrapped.
Though online voting remains a distant prospect in American politics, this wasnt the first election system that Halderman hacked. On June 21, 2017, he testified before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in a hearing on Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Elections. My conclusion, Halderman told the committee, is that our highly computerized election infrastructure is vulnerable to sabotage, and even to cyber-attacks that could change votes.
Dr. Halderman, youre pretty good at hacking voting machines, by your testimony, Senator Angus King of Maine observed. Do you think the Russians are as good as you?
The Russians have the resources of a nation-state, Halderman replied. I would say their capabilities would significantly exceed mine.
It is now clear that Russian interference in the 2016 elections went far beyond hacking Democratic National Committee e-mails; it struck at the heart of Americas democratic process. As of right now, we have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were tar-geted, Jeanette Manfra, the chief cyber-security official at the Department of Homeland Security, testified at the Senate hearing.
Only two of those states have been publicly named: Illinois, where hackers stole 90,000 voter-registration records, including drivers-license and Social Security numbers; and Arizona, where the voter-registration list was breached via a county-level infiltration. On June 13, Bloomberg reported that Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states. And The Intercept, citing a leaked National Security Agency report, stated that Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last Novembers presidential election.
This was a well-planned, well-coordinated, multi-faceted attack on our election process and democ-racy, said Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBIs counter-intelligence division, at the Senate hearing.
Any doubt it was the Russians? Senator King asked.
No, sir, Priestap answered.
Any doubt that theyll be back?
No, sir.
While theres still a lot we dont know about the extent of the hacking and why it occurred, its painfully clear that the US voting system is dangerously insecure. Even though voting machines arent connected to the Internet, hackers can inject malicious software into them by accessing the computers used to program the machines, which are sometimes online. Five states in their entirety, and some counties in nine others, vote using electronic machines with no paper trail, which could make such a hack almost impossible to detect. And even though 36 states use paper ballots or electronic machines with paper backups, that paper is rarely checked thoroughly enough to ensure the results are accurate (only a little more than half the states require even basic post-election audits). Moreover, 42 states are using machines that are at least a decade old and run primitive software like Windows 2000. This is an election meltdown waiting to happen.
The intelligence community has repeatedly said that no votes were changed by Russian hacking, but DHS officials admitted at the Senate hearing that they have not conducted a forensic analysis of any voting equipment used in the presidential election. I asked Lawrence Norden, a voting and democracy expert at New York Universitys Brennan Center for Justice, how confident he was that no votes were altered in 2016. He took a deep breath, sighed, and said, Its impossible to know.
Without changing a single vote, hackers could even more easily wreak havoc on US elections by accessing state voter-registration rolls, as they did in Illinois in 2016. The theft of 90,000 records there went undetected by officials for three weeks, until they finally took the system down for 10 days in response. Attackers could try to interfere with the ability of voters to cast ballots by deleting them from lists of registered voters, marking them as felons prohibited from voting, or changing party affiliation to keep them from voting in their partys primary, notes the Brennan Center in a new report. In states with strict voter-ID laws that require an exact match with voter rolls, changing even a few letters in a persons name could block thousands from casting a ballot.
The bigger point here is that what happened in 2016 could easily happen again and go much further, Halderman says. In fact, I think its only a matter of time before some attacker, be it Russia or another hostile country, really does either sabotage or manipulate the countrys election infrastructure. Eventually it will happen, unless we take steps to stop it. And so far, very little has changed since 2016.
Halderman says the solutions are obvious: Record all votes on paper, perform routine audits of ballots, and conduct regular threat assessments, as is done in many industries. But the White House and Congress are doing less than nothing: President Trump regularly refers to reports of Russian hacking as fake news, and House Republicans voted to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, the only federal agency that helps to protect states against hacking. Were doing way too little, Norden says. The intelligence community has their hair on fire saying the Russians are coming back, but theres almost zero discussion in Congress about taking steps to protect our elections ahead of 2018 and 2020. Things are hardly better at the state level, where in most cases theres no money for new voting machines or added security precautions.
The truth is that the same Republicans who benefited from Russian hacking of the DNC and Clinton campaign e-mails in the 2016 election have been trying for years to suppress Democratic-leaning votes. As civil-rights leader Rev. William Barber notes, Voter suppression hacked our democracy long before any Russian agents meddled in Americas elections. Since the 2010 election, 22 statesnearly all of them controlled by Republicanshave passed new laws making it harder to vote, which culminated in the 2016 election being the first in more than 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.
According to a new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 12 percent of the electorate in 201616 million Americansencountered a problem voting, including long lines at the polls, difficulty registering, or faulty voting machines. And last years election was decided by just 80,000 votes in three states.
Republicans have accelerated their voter-suppression efforts at the state and federal levels in 2017. According to the Brennan Center, 99 bills to limit access to the ballot have been introduced in 31 states this year, and more states have enacted new voting restrictions in 2017 than in 2016 and 2015 combined. Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, and Texas passed new voter-ID laws; Georgia made voter registration more difficult; and Montana is in the process of limiting the use of absentee ballots.
Meanwhile, the Trump administrations new presidential commission on election integrity is preparing to nationalize the GOPs restrictions on voting under the pretext of combating the virtually nonexistent problem of voter fraud. The commissions vice chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, has pioneered the voter-suppression efforts in his home state, including requiring proof of citizenship to register, which has blocked one in seven Kansans from registering to vote since 2013 (because most people dont carry around a copy of their birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers when they register). If such laws were adopted at the federal level, they would disenfranchise millions of voters.
On June 28, Kobach sent a letter to all 50 states asking for sweeping voter data, including Social Security numbers, party affiliation, felony convictions, and military status. The federal government has never made such a broad request before, and voting-rights advocates fear that such data, in the hands of the Trump administration, will be manipulated to spread lies about voter fraud and purge the rolls in inaccurate and discriminatory ways. [Vice President Mike] Pence and Kobach are laying the groundwork for voter suppression, plain & simple, tweeted Vanita Gupta, the former head of the Justice Departments civil-rights division under President Obama. That same day, the Justice Department also asked states how they plan to remove people from their rolls under the National Voter Registration Act, which seems like further proof of plans to limit voting access.
The good news is that red and blue states alike unexpectedly rebelled against Kobachs request, with 48 states refusing to turn over sensitive, private voter data. Some of the sharpest criticism came from Republican secretaries of state, like Mississippis Delbert Hosemann, who told the Trump administration to go jump in the Gulf of Mexico. The opposition at times bordered on the surreal: At least two members of Trumps handpicked commission, the secretaries of state for Maine and Indiana, rejected Kobachs request, and even Kobach, as secretary of state for Kansas, couldnt hand over voters Social Security numbers to himself, because theyre not publicly available in his home state. One commission member, Maryland Deputy Secretary of State Luis Borunda, resigned.
The bad news is that under the guise of election integrity, Trumps commission marks the beginning of a nationwide voter-suppression campaign by the GOP. Its impossible to overstate the threat this poses, at the same time that the administration is practically inviting another hack from Moscow or elsewhere. Whether its enemies are foreign or domestic, American democracy is in grave danger.
Excerpt from:
American Democracy Is Now Under Siege by Both Cyber-Espionage and GOP Voter Suppression - The Nation.
By Pavin Chachavalpongpun By Pavin Chachavalpongpun July 10
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is an associate professor at Kyoto Universitys Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
As a Thai political dissident who lives in exile, Im accustomed to being attacked by the authoritarian leaders of my own country. Now I find myself adjusting to a new variation on the theme: confronting an allegedly democratic government that is willing to do Bangkoks dirty work for it.
Earlier this month, I was invited to attend the Delhi Dialogue, a discussion forum on a variety of issues between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The organizers wanted me to discuss Thai-Indian relations and how they fit into the larger context of South and Southeast Asian politics. I had attended the event once before, many years ago.
My situation today, however, is rather different. In 2014, the Thai military seized power in a coup and immediately targeted me for my outspoken criticism of the monarchy. The coup organizers summoned me to have my attitude adjusted their euphemism for interrogation. When I refused, the authorities issued a warrant for my arrest and revoked my passport. Luckily I was already living in Japan, so I decided to stay and apply for refugee status.
So when the Indians invited me to speak at the Delhi Dialogue again, I was convinced that they were aiming to highlight the importance of free speech, human rights and democracy. I was wrong.
I was supposed to speak at one of two events during the forum. Hours before the first one, the Thai Embassy in Delhi noticed my name on the schedule and expressed concerns to the Indian hosts. They were worried that I was going to speak critically of the junta. The Thai Foreign Ministry had assigned a deputy foreign minister, a junta appointee, to represent Thailand at the event. My attendance, it seems, would have embarrassed the Thai delegates.
Under pressure from the Thai Embassy, the organizers told me that my participation at the ministerial session was no longer welcome. In other words, having traveled to India, I was kicked out of the first days activities.
Stunned by the response from the Indian host, I decided to boycott the whole event and left Delhi abruptly (not least because I began to worry about my personal safety). I was used to being silenced by own government, but now I had been silenced by the same host that had invited me to the meeting in the first place.
To be honest, human rights, free speech and democracy have never held a prominent place in Thai-Indian relations. It is disappointing that India, which revels in its status as the worlds most populous democratic state, is now working closely with an illegitimate and un-elected government in Thailand.
Since the coup, India has said nothing about the militarys intervention in politics and the disruption of democracy. In fact, the Indian government has rolled out the red carpet to the coup-makers on several occasions. General Prayuth Chan-ocha, the Thai prime minister, paid his first visit to India in June 2016. The press release fromthe Indian government said, Thailand is a trusted and valued friend, and one of our closest partners in Southeast Asia.
India has been happy to lend its diplomatic support to Thai military leaders and is willing to turn a blind eye to the lack of democracy in Thailand in its pursuit of economic gain. Although India is not currently a major strategic partner, the Bangkok juntas growing recognition of Indias emergence as a new regional power has contributed to a rapid upgrade of the relationship.
India is keen to compensate for the regional rise of China, a desire that informs Delhis Look East strategy. India has a clear need to maintain close ties with Thailand. But this has never been done in a way that adequately respects Indias democratic principles. Thailand is under military rule, which has crushed the countrys democratic aspirations. The lack of Indias commitment to democratic principles in its foreign policy is making life easy for the juntas despotic regime.
Unfortunately, this is part of a broader global trend. India is not the only democratic state that openly helps authoritarian regimes to suppress their critics. The South Korean government has placed me on a blacklist. And the U.S. government accepted a request from the Thai junta to annul my passport.
The Trump administration is showing itself much less willing to accept political refugees, vividly demonstrating Washingtons dwindling commitment to humanitarian principles. India and South Korea are treating critical academics as outlaws. These supposedly democratic nations are turning a blind eye to authoritarianism to safeguard their own positions of power.
I know that my peculiar experience in India appears trivial when viewed against the background of the relations of two large countries. Yet what happened to me still says a great deal about some democracies waning commitment to the principles they claim to hold dear.
Read more here:
I thought India invited me to show its support for democracy. How ... - Washington Post
Turkey's Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar delivers a speech during the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul, Sunday, August 7, 2016. Depo Photos/Press Association. All rights reserved. It is quite common for a military regime to change the names associated with public spaces (e.g., squares, avenues, streets) and public institutions (e.g., schools, hospitals), particularly if these are associated with a previous regime or ideologies designated as subversive or simply as the arch-enemy. After the 12 September 1980 coup in Turkey, for instance, the military regime in Turkey cleansed public spaces and institutions of unsuitable names.
But it is not only the military who are interested in renaming schools. For as long as militarism is considered a viable ideology, civilian governments can also be intent on naming schools after military figures, events, or martyrs. That is exactly what has happened in Turkey. Turkey is now full of schools named after martyrs.
Under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has ruled Turkey since 2002, this militarist practice intensified:
In 2007, for instance, the Provincial Education Directorate of Kars changed the names of seven village schools with a single decision. The schools were named after the village they were located in. These schools now carry a name that has nothing to do with the village or the region. The schools have been turned into sites marking a never-ending conflict.[1]
Local governments controlled by AKP played their part diligently. Even parks for children were named after martyrs. Municipalities in Istanbul played a major role in promoting martyrdom in the context of the Battle of Gallipoli, known as the Victory of anakkale. But Sincan Municipality, which is part of metropolitan Ankara and long considered to be a bastion of political Islam, surpassed all others in 2012: the mayor announced that 36 parks would be named after martyrs. Many parks were previously named after key figures from the Ottoman dynasty, such as Gazi Osman and Orhan Gazi. It was quite clear that the local administration had an agenda: the public needed to be reminded of the magnificent heritage of the the Ottoman Empire and young people, in particular, indoctrinated into seeing the martyrs as examples to follow.
After the failed coup attempt on 15 July last year, the zeal for renaming public institutions reached an unprecedented high. This time mosques were targeted, too. Mosques, initially used to mobilize the public against the coup attempt, soon became tools for a political machine that wanted to keep the entire population on the verge of something.
The regime was eager to develop novel channels and strategies of political communication. The goal was to reinforce two notions. First, the regime was in control, and secondly, the regime and the nation were one entity. The regime was determined to use this god-sent opportunity to consolidate its control and public support.
One of the new channels was democracy vigils, initiated and staged by central government in AKP-controlled municipalities. Each vigil was highly publicised, totally safe to attend and orchestrated in a top-down fashion. And they had nothing to do with democracy. Rather, these provided stages for large numbers of extras to be summoned every night to deliver what they were expected to deliver night after night. The vigil in Istanbuls Taksim Square, for instance, was more like a major film set. It was on television, on social media, on YouTube, and politicians kept repeating the message, Democracy has been saved.
The vigils ended on 10 August with major gatherings. In Pendik, on the Asian side, crowds were greeted with big banners at the National Will Gathering. They were provided with the opportunity of a photo shoot. In the background, it said Thank you Pendik, thank you Turkey, thanks for saving your will, meaning that it was the public who saved the regime. (They now saved the administration it was their will to elect.) Before the photo shoot everybody was given a flag. And it was left to the person to decide if they wanted to contribute a political message to this setup. Some contributed the four finger gesture, introduced into Turkeys political scene by President Erdoan. The gesture, imported from Egypt, came from a tradition of hardcore political Islam.
The vigils fulfilled a very important function. They raised the emotions, made people feel like they were part of a democracy that they had never really participated in. If the vigil and the festive activities were democracy, crowds were the living proof of it. But the vigils served a more subtle function, too: they legitimized the regimes militarism and belief in violence. The crowds were also celebrating the violence directed at anyone and everyone accused of being associated with the failed coup, with Glenists, and all the rest. Those who wanted to overthrow the regime were all to be regarded as subhuman, dehumanized.
One of the many videos broadcast on television shows an officer shouting insults at captive soldiers and officers in a military area in Etimesgut, in Ankara. He calls them dogs, traitor, traitor dogs and so on. The voiceover says he is teaching them a lesson. He accuses them of following someone who has not been circumcised meaning not even a Muslim. Associating non-Muslims, particularly the Armenians, with terrorists has been common practice for decades. Many AKP politicians have endorsed the practice and had no problem admitting that they did not have respect for non-Muslims. In 2014, President Erdoan apologized for uttering the word "Armenian" in public. After 15 July, dehumanisation became the norm in the way the regime framed its opponents. Opponents were simply subhuman enemies and were turned into outcasts.
Flag-waving during the speech of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally in Istanbul, Sunday, August 7, 2016. Depo Photos/Press Association. All rights reserved.
The Directorate of Religious Affairs, which is in charge of all mosques and religious affairs in Turkey, asked all preachers to call people to the streets in the hours following the coup attempt. But the preachers were ordered to continue sela calls on 16 July and the following day. The mosques were turned into political tools to repeatedly remind the population of the coup attempt.
The last two times that the ezan and the sela were incanted outside of ritual time occurred before the Republic of Turkeys boundaries were established in 1923. During World War I, as the British and French laid siege to Istanbul at the Battle of Gallipoli, Ottomans heard the ezan and the sela sounding across the Marmara Sea. In 1922, Greek soldiers retreating from Anatolia ostensibly left the port city of Izmir with recitations ringing in their ears. In both cases, the ezan and sela were used to marshal Ottoman Muslims to defend their communities.
Reciting the call to prayer outside of normalized Islamic ritual time rendered this July coup a kind of war against Turkey itself.[2]
The persistent use of mosques indicated, more than anything, that Turkey was indeed in extraordinary times, a time of war. For those against political Islam, each sela was a reminder of that infamous line, "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets..."
Turkey was indeed under a state of emergency and the government initiated a campaign to associate mosques with the resistance to the 15 July coup attempt. The coup attempt was over and the country was under the firm control of an authoritarian regime. So clearly, the campaign to associate mosques with the resistance was first and foremost a political move.
In August, the campaign started in zmir. Yamanlar Koleji, one of the first of the many private schools in Turkey founded or associated by the Glenists, was transformed into a religious school for girls. The new name of the school, ehit lhan Varank Kz Anadolu mam Hatip Lisesi, not only sounded long and awkward but was very much an amalgamation of several victory messages. First, the school was named after a democracy martyr, a professor from a university in Istanbul. Secondly, the renaming proved the fact that the regime was conquering and eradicating Glen schools and turning them into their kind of school, an imam hatip school. Third, this was going to be a girls-only school in a city where such schools and the regime were not welcome. The private school had a large structure built as a mosque but used as a library. The structure was also seized and turned into a mosque with the name 15 July Martyrs Mosque.
Pendik, a big municipality on Istanbuls Asian side, was next. A mosque commissioned by a businessman who had made a fortune in the construction business was renamed 15 July Martyrs Mosque. The businessman was linked to Glen. He was first arrested and then released with an electronic device attached to his leg. His business empire was under attack by the regime. Amidst these troubles, he asked the mosque to be renamed.
More mosques were renamed as the 15 July Martyrs Mosque. In Bahelievler, on the European side of Istanbul, a mosque that carried the name obaneme, the name of the neighborhood, was renamed. In Bafra, a city near Samsun in the north, a mosque named after Ismet Pasha (Ismet Inn) was renamed. Also in the North, a new mosque in a village called ykren was renamed.
In Antalya, in the south, Denizkenar Mosque was renamed. In erkezky, which is the west near Tekirda, Tepe Emlak Konutlar Mosque also became 15 July Martyrs Mosque. In elikhan, which is in the east about 90 km. from Adyaman, a groundbreaking ceremony for the 15 July Nation Martyrs Mosque took place. And in central Turkey, a new mosque was built in a village called Hilalli in orum Province, also with the same name.
What is particularly amazing is the geographical spread of the idea to name mosques after 15 July. One of the first mosques to be named as such was located in Bulgaria: It was named as 15 July Democracy Martyrs Mosque on 21 August. The opening ceremony was attended by the heads of the Muslim religious establishment in Bulgaria and also by three high-level representatives of the DOST party.
The idea reached as far as Kyrgyzstan, thanks to the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which is very closely associated with AKP, and said to be active in more than 100 countries. For years it commissioned mosques around the world, including the biggest mosque in Vietnam. Recently, the foundation named two of three mosques it commissioned in Kyrgyzstan after the 15 July Martrys.
The renaming campaign was led by the Directorate of Religious Affairs (or Diyanet), which is now an extension of the ruling party. It is provided with the budget of 5-6 ministries combined. It now has a television channel, a radio channel, many publications and vast powers. Now nobody in Turkey seems to be surprised when Diyanet backs each and every political move by the regime.
This week Diyanet is working over time. Diyanet is supposed to oversee religious activities but this week it is busy organizing many activities, including a new publication: a new book (15 July as Told by the Veterans), a documentary and short films about 15 July. Next, an special exhibition with 15 July as the theme. Diyanet publishes a monthly magazine: this July it has a special issue dedicated to 15 July. High-level Diyanet officers are going to visit the families of 15 July martyrs and also the 15 July veterans.
Friday is when Diyanet is always more active. On 14 July, special activities, all titled Commemoration of Our Martyrs, will be held across the country in Quran courses for children. Quran reading sessions will be held across the country before Friday prayers. One hundred thousand prayers will read in honor of martyrs. Friday prayers and the sermons will focus on 15 July.
And then there will be activities on 15 July. Diyanet will hold special activities with the slogan, From Coups that Silenced Prayers to Sala that Silenced Prayers. A web page devoted to 15 July will be published. And on Saturday night Diyanet will organize for sala calls from minarets at 00:13 across the country in 90 thousand mosques. The lights of the mosques and minarets will be on all night.
Diyanet was founded to oversee and manage religious affairs, and to serve the new secular republic. It is not part of any ministry. It is attached to the Prime Ministers Office, just like many other key agencies. In the 80s it turned into an umbrella for variants of political Islam to organize under. Under AKP, it turned into a political mechanism serving the regime.
After 15 July and under the state of emergency, Diyanet has no reason to be shy. The regime has no reason to be careful. Mosques, funerals, martyrs are all in the service of a one-man regime. If anyone has any doubts about the predominance of this strain of political Islam in Turkey, this week they should be watching the mosques in Turkey and aware of how mosques, as well as schools and parks have been renamed.
Last year the regime in Turkey organized an unprecedented campaign to make the world believe that last year democracy was saved on 15 July. It is true that the regime survived. And the regime has turned the coup attempt into a survival strategy because it has no other way to claim legitimacy. The frenzy around 15 July has a very good explanation. That infamous line, "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers," fits the strategy well.
[1] http://www.wri-irg.org/en/story/2011/militarism-all-over-schools-turkey
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Can mosques and minarets be tools for democracy? - Open Democracy