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Month: May 2023

“I wanted to say to Germany that there is a shared history here, but you’re not seeing it”

Interview with Palestinian Artists Rasha Al Jundi and Michael Jabareen about their project “Cacti: A Visual Protest Against the Silencing of (pro) Palestinian Voices in Germany”


19/05/2023

Hi Rasha, could you start just by introducing yourself?

Rasha (R-AJ): My name is Rasha Al-Jundi. I am Palestinian, who was born in Jordan but grew up in the UAE. I’m a second generation exile. My mother is from 1948 Palestine, my father is from a village outside Hebron.

I moved to Lebanon to study, and then worked in many different contexts as a humanitarian/development worker. But I recently decided to veer towards what I like to do, which is visual storytelling. I’m now appropriating multimedia stuff, including audio and archival images, in an attempt to find non-linear ways of telling stories.

I live in Nairobi, Kenya, but I shuttle between there and Germany because I have a German partner.

Today, we’re mainly talking about the multimedia project Cacti that combines photography with text and illustrations. What is the importance to you of the cactus?

R-AJ: Our relationship to the land goes far beyond the Israeli occupation which likes to greenwash and say that there were no trees and no people when Israel was formed – that it was a desert. The cacti and other trees in Palestine have always been there. We’ve traditionally used cacti to act as a natural fence around our houses.

Today they symbolize Palestine and its depopulated villages. If you google any current image of a depopulated village, you will find a lot of cacti growing there. They’re easy to grow, and they propagate very quickly. They can’t stop the tide.

And they’re the color of the Palestinian flag.

R-AJ: Of course, with their flowers. So the cactus is a very strong part of our culture. A lot of Palestinian artists also use cacti in their art, to symbolize Palestine or the forced expulsion.

There are a lot of walls in your photos, implying a comparison between the Berlin wall and the wall separating the West Bank from 1948 Palestine. What’s the significance of this?

R-AJ: The whole idea started when I met Michael. He told me that his family has been separated completely because of the wall. His father only found other family members when social media arrived. They didn’t know each other physically. Meeting someone in real life is also life-changing for me. Because I am a Palestinian but have never been there – I’m an exile.

Then we were talking about the Nakba ban last year, and reading about the silencing of Palestine, which is very systematic in Germany, especially over the last decade. It increased slowly and climaxed last year in Berlin.

I went away over Christmas and New Year last year, and contemplated what I’d read and heard, and decided to use the symbols that Berlin uses very well to commemorate its own history of separation, occupation, and colonialism on its own soil, to say that we are here.

I wanted to say to Germany that there is a shared history here, but you’re not seeing it. And I expect you to understand more than anybody else in Europe what is going on here, but you don’t. Instead, you use the Holocaust to explain your unlimited support to Israel. You don’t see that the wall represents occupation.

It is interesting that you’re talking about separation, because there is a very strong narrative in Germany that there was a terrible period of 40 years, where families were separated and people in the West and East were divided. This is rightly seen as something which was traumatic, and yet there is no comprehension that this has been going on for Palestinians for even longer.

R-AJ: Exactly. Let me tell a small anecdote. A friend’s parents visited her here in Berlin, and when they saw the wall they were laughing at its size. They said “this is a child of our wall”.

Michael told me how offended he felt when he went to one of the monuments just across from Checkpoint Charlie. There is a sign in three different languages saying “imagine a wall separating you”. But this is what Palestinians still experience every day. You don’t have to imagine it in history – it’s happening in Palestine. Yet Germany blindly supports Israel, not even recognizing the illegal settlements.

Berlin is a very interesting city. They do a very good job in commemorating historical events, whether it’s the wall, or the Holocaust, or other things that this city has witnessed and experienced. It was flattened in the Second World War. It’s very well documented, whether in museums or in outdoor spaces. I find that really good for visitors to understand where they are.

I just wanted to ask, when will we get the chance to commemorate our dead and our history?

Let’s talk about the Holocaust. There’s a photo in your exhibition of people going through the Holocaust Memorial wearing keffiyehs. When I saw the photo, I thought two things. Firstly, how moving it is. Secondly, that it will provoke a backlash.

R-AJ: It provoked a reaction – both positive and negative. The positive ones all came from people who oppose the instrumentalization of the Holocaust because they have family members who were killed in the Holocaust in different parts of Europe. They think that their history is being employed now to suppress Palestinian voices and to support oppression and colonization.

The negative comments were that it’s insensitive to use the Holocaust memorial site. A very basic and shallow argument. My intention was to provoke a debate. I view a lot of flat and boring artworks out there all the time. I didn’t want to be part of that.

Given the level of industrial genocide involved in the Holocaust, do you think it’s legitimate to compare what’s happened to the Palestinians to the Holocaust?

R-AJ: I don’t know if I was comparing as much as I was drawing joint histories of forced dehumanization. Germans fail to link their history of colonization of Africa to the Holocaust. This dehumanization of people didn’t stop or start with the Holocaust, which is what they fail to see.

We Palestinians are being dehumanized by a colonial power, supported by other colonial powers. I  show the shared history rather than compare what is happening on the ground. On the other hand, Ilan Pappé recently said that Palestinians are facing an incremental genocide.

Fortunately, the world did not agree with the Holocaust. But unfortunately, they’re not seeing that the Palestinians are facing this on a daily basis. Just last night, we lost 13 people in Gaza. Every day there are two guys here, five people here in the West Bank. I feel like the world either needs a big bomb or a big concentration camp to draw its attention or it doesn’t see anything.

There is a call for action here. You cannot just say we don’t accept the Holocaust, because it was so industrial and huge – which it was – but we accept what’s still going on with the Palestinians.

As someone who has spent most of your time outside Germany, how visible have the German Nakba and demonstration bans been from the outside?

R-AJ: It’s very visible. Even before coming to Berlin last November, I already read about it. It was all over the international news and mainstream media. In one of the images in the project, we actually have two tourists posing with us. They’re from Greece, they live in the UK, and they wanted to join. They had read about the ban, and said they think it is very unjust.

My brother who lives in the UK, another brother and sister in Canada, they all heard about it. And they were all asking me what’s going on. People in Jordan asked me if I would be put in jail for wearing the keffiyeh.

Is the discussion of Palestine different in Germany?

R-AJ: Many Germans choose to keep their heads in the sand. We’re talking about educated urban people, not some village in Bavaria. A majority of people who I speak to, who say “it’s really not my fight”, or “I’m so sorry, this is happening”, as if I tripped and fell on my leg.

I don’t find a lot of people who are keen on learning and reading and asking “what can I do about this?” We do have a German photographer ally, who’s helping us print the images at a discounted rate, and there are a lot of German activists who are supporters of our struggle. But the majority just wants to put their heads in the sand and say: “look, it’s too complicated”. 

Even if you explain everything very slowly and give context, they still lack understanding (or choose not to understand perhaps). It’s the Holocaust education and the guilt. They see the Holocaust as an isolated case, and just a German thing. The guilt is either bottled up or comes out in completely different and really weird ways.

Have you sensed any change in the 12 years you’ve been in contact with Germany?

R-AJ: I estimate that it’s pretty much the same. From my side, the change has been in me because I’ve got more involved with Germany rather than just working as an activist in the Middle East within my comfort zone.

This apolitical thing about Germans really irks me. They choose issues like climate change or Ukraine which are “neutral”. They choose feminist issues around Iran – forcing women to wear the headscarf but not India where women face oppression and aggression every day because they’re Muslim. They’re picking and choosing the things which agree with their Western mindset.

Michael has just joined us. Could you say who you are?

Michael Jabareen (MJ): I am just a Palestinian. Someone who lived in Palestine for 27 years before coming to Germany. I’ve been involved in the field of art and design, starting with art activism in Palestine. I’ve become involved with intersectional struggles.

Our side is having some small victories. I’ve come to this interview from the court case of a Palestinian artist who was arrested on Nakba Day last year, but the judge ruled that she does not have to pay her fine. Resistance is having an effect.

MJ: From what I saw from the court cases, it was very clear from police testimonies that the police officers themselves had no clear idea of what exactly is banned. Whenever the judge or the lawyer asks the police witness about the exact order that they got, they simply say that we just had an order to check if there is any Palestinian gathering, and to stop it.

When they were asked about how they would identify people who are gathered for a Palestinian assembly, they say that just wearing a scarf or anything related to the Nakba is enough. And of course, there were a lot of people who got arrested without having these symbols. It was very clear that people were kettled and arrested based on racial profiling. 

It’s not a good look for a German policeman to say in court: “I didn’t know what was happening. I was just obeying orders.”

R-AJ: There’s also this movement since Documenta last year. There is this way of looking at the arts and trying to scrutinize how art is being used for political reasons. It’s very draconian. There are a lot of judgements and pre-judgements sometimes in Germany without even looking at the content.

Do you have any last words?

MJ: I had a conversation with one of the policemen who was taking people to the police cars. I was saying that people are being arrested for doing nothing wrong. You are arresting people just for being Palestinian and presenting themselves visually. And one of the policemen said: “I know that arresting people is wrong, but these are the orders”. It is not that different from the past, just putting it under the cover of so-called democracy.

Tomorrow’s demonstration by Nakba75 has been banned by the Berlin police. A full programme is still taking place near Köpenicker Straße 40. Full details here.. The rally of the Jüdische Stimme has not been banned (yet). Please come to Oranienplatz at 3pm on Saturday, 20th May to show that you will not accept such repression.

Gallery – Cacti: A Visual Protest Against the Silencing of Palestinian Voices in Germany

 

Letter from the Editors: 18th May 2023

Nakba demonstration and exhibition, Marx’s Berlin, and Neuköllner Mayday


18/05/2023

Hello everyone,

The Berlin police have banned this Saturday’s planned demonstration to commemorate the Nakba – the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their land and homes 75 years ago. This is the second year running that such a ban has been enforced, and is an attack on the freedom of assembly which has implications way beyond our solidarity with Palestinians. Nakba75, the organisers of the demonstration, are going to court to try to get the ban overturned.

Whatever happens, there will still be a full programme of Nakba-related events this Saturday. With the exception of the Jüdische Stimme rally, which will be at Oranienplatz, all events will be in a venue by the river, entrance via Köpenicker Straße 40, Kreuzberg.

  • 10am – 10pm Art exhibition – Kunstkollektiv M20, entrance via Köpenicker Str. 40
  • 12:00: Talk about the repression of (pro)Palestinian voices in Germany, entrance via Köpenicker Str. 40
  • 15:00: Rally organised by the Jüdische Stimme, Oranienplatz, Kreuzberg. This rally, in solidarity Palestinian victims of German state repression, has not been banned yet.
  • 17:00: Activist meeting to discuss the ban, entrance via Köpenicker Str. 40
  • 19:00: Concert, entrance via Köpenicker Str. 40

Things are still in flux, which means that the programme may still change. We therefore recommend that you follow the instagram accounts of Nakba75 and theleftbelin to stay informed of the latest development. We call on everyone who can to attend the events to show the Berlin police and politicians that such repression will not go unchallenged.

Apologies for a false link in last week’s Newsletter. If you are planning on going to the Berlin LINKE Internationals Summer Camp please use this link. This registers you for accommodation and lets the organisers know what food requirements attendants may need. Summer Camp is on 10th-11th June in the Naturfreundehaus Hermsdorf on the edge of Berlin.

Speaker news: Katalin Gennburg, who will be speaking about the crisis of die LINKE was elected deputy leader of die LINKE Berlin last weekend. Other speakers include Ramsis Kilani, Farah Maraqa, Ingar Solty and representatives of many international social movements in Berlin (full programme here). The venue is close enough to Berlin centre to commute, but 30 beds and camping facilities are available on site. Beds are allocated on a first come first served basis with priority for families.

This afternoon and evening (Thursday), Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen, 100% Tempelhofer Feld and DIDF are organising a Neukölln Mayday on Tempelhofer Feld. The motto is: lots of commotion around the Field and socialisation. At 1.45pm there will be a short demonstration for socialisation, for a free Tempelhofer Feld and for financing the social. This will be followed by different musical live acts and pefformances including the DWE Cheerleaders and bands Arte Bella & the Fellas, bowhouseduo, Manu Luis and Esels Alptraum. Stalls, political speeches and popcorn are also promised.

Sunday sees the world premiere of a new Walking Tour on Karl Marx’s Berlin. In 1836, a very young Karl Marx moved to Prussian capital to study philosophy. He stayed here for only four years, until he finished his PhD, and he hated the city for the rest of his life. Two decades later, he recalled the “sand” and the “ennui that reigns supreme at that place.” For Marx, Berlin remained a “metropolis of tschakos (i.e. police helmets) without heads.” The tour starts at 2pm at Luisenstraße 60, next to the Charité tower and end at the Marx-Engels-Forum, near Alexanderplatz. NOTE: this tour is limited to 40 places, so please book early.

On Monday, there will be a meeting about QueerYiddish. This is a 90-minute presentation in English with original and translated Yiddish examples. You can expect: a son with two moms, cruising in 1930s Vilnius, transitioning in the shtetl, a gay bullfighter from Brooklyn, a Yiddish remix of Marlene Dietrich, sapphic bagels, AIDS activism, a ritual spanking, and much more. It starts at 8pm in B-Lage (Mareschstraße 1).

This week, the European Trade Union Congress will be meeting in Berlin. As part of the conference, there will be a fringe event: Building Solidarity with Palestinian Workers. Representatives of various European trade unions and Palestinian speakers will present the current situation of Palestinian workers under occupation, their ongoing struggle and the role of European trade unions in building support for Palestinian freedom and rights, and discuss what trade unionists can do in solidarity with Palestinian workers. The meeting is on Wednesday at 12:30pm at the Holiday Inn East Side Meeting Room I and II, Wanda-Kallenbach-Straße 2. It is organised by the European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine, who are our Campaign of the Week.

There are many more activities this week in Berlin, which are listed on our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed, list of Events which we are directly involved in here.

In News from Berlin, Berlin police ban demonstrations for Palestine, court rules that police are allowed to inflict pain on protestors, Queer Berliners need housing support, and policeman accused of kissing man in the face.

In News from Germany, rail strike called off, EU promises Zelenskyy €2.7 Billion’s worth of weapons, Green environment minister resigns to take corporate post, and cannabis clubs will be restricted.

Read all about this week’s News from Berlin and Germany here.

New on theleftberlin this week, John Mullen asks who is winning in Macron’s fight with French workers, the Bloque Latinoamericano Berlin look at the Sisyphean task of Anmeldung for non-Germans in Berlin, Nour Al-Abed says what the Nakba means for Palestinians, and Turkish socialist Memet Uludağ gives his first impressions of the results of the recent election.

In this week’s Podcast of the Week, Delivery Charge peels back the layers of the case filed by Duygu, Ronnie, and Fernando against their firing from Gorillas. The workers in these platform delivery companies are part of the 46% of employees in Germany who are not covered by collective bargaining agreements. We hear from Duygu about her campaign for a strike right that is unconnected with mainstream unions and collective bargaining processes.

The Video of the Week remembers Nakba Day by showing extracts from Rasha Al-Jundi’s project “when the grapes were sour“. This is a collaboration with the National BDS Committee (IG: @bdsnationalcommittee, TW: @BDSmovement, FB: BDSNationalCommittee)

You can follow us on the following social media:

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

News from Berlin and Germany, 17th May 2023

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany


NEWS IN BERLIN

Banning of Nakba demonstrations

This Monday was Nakba Day, Arabic for catastrophe. Always on May 15, Palestinians around the world memorialise the expulsion in the wake of the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. In the past, there have been clashes with the police in Berlin, when anti-Semitic statements are made – or if statements are interpreted in this way. One thing is certain: gatherings with a Palestinian connection are under increased public scrutiny. For instance, in 2022, the police banned all gatherings for the Nakba anniversary. Last Friday it happened again: two demonstrations, supposed to take place last weekend were banned. Source: taz

Court dismisses climate demonstrator’s claim on ‘pain grip’

After a police intervention during a road blockade in Berlin, a climate demonstrator took legal action against the use of the so-called pain grip – and initially has failed. According to the Administrative Court of Berlin, activists are regularly carried away during street blockades. Occasionally, the “hand-bending transport technique” was threatened or used. This technique can cause pain to the person concerned. The footage presented by the climate demonstrator did not show that “painful enforcement practices were regularly used”. According to that court, a general review of this practice is not possible in such a proceedings. Source: rbb

Queer people in housing need: no home after coming out

At Queerhome*, homeless queer people find support – the first counselling centre of its kind in Berlin is met with great demand. It has been around for six months. The project belongs to the supporting association Sonntags-Club, a traditional queer institution in Prenzlauer Berg. “We were overrun,” says Christian Weitzel (Sonntags-Club). “In the first eight weeks, we received 120 enquiries from individual people seeking advice.” In total, they have counted around 250 people looking for support since they started. Some of them need help finding a flat or advice when they are threatened with losing their flat. “But the big issue is housing emergencies,” says Schultz. Source: nd-aktuell

Police officer alleged to have kicked man in the face

A Berlin police officer allegedly kicked an arrested man in the face. The police announced on Saturday proceedings had been initiated against the officer on suspicion of assault and battery. According to the authorities, the police were called to Brentanostraße in Steglitz by residents. They were awakened by loud shouting at around 2.30 am. A man and a woman supposedly hit several parked cars. The police then found the couple at Breitenbachplatz. After their arrest, a policeman, who had injured their nose, apparently kicked the handcuffed man in the face. Source: t-online

 

NEWS IN GERMANY

Warning strike at the railway cancelled

The announced 50-hour warning strike on the railways will not take place. Deutsche Bahn and the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) have reached an agreement on an important point of the wage dispute. Nevertheless, things are likely to be bumpy on the railways: the EVG stressed the strike call was still valid for some railway companies. EVG spokesperson Uwe Reitz said: “There will be no strike at Deutsche Bahn, but we are negotiating with a total of fifty companies and have also called for warning strikes at other companies, and the strike will continue there.” Source: rbb

Charlemagne Prize with bonus

There was a time when the winners of the Charlemagne Prize of Aachen (a prize awarded for “work in service of European unification”) were given 5,000 euros to take with them. One could ask oneself whether renowned politicians – and they often were – were in need of such a ‘small’ sum. And whether their politics deserved anything at all. It’s now been announced that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has received the Charlemagne Prize, and that he will go back to Ukraine with the prize of 2.7 billion euros: that is the value for which Germany wants to supply further war material. Among them more battle tanks. Source: nd-aktuell

For “personal reasons”

For “personal reasons”, as she put it, Thuringia’s Green Minister for the Environment Anja Siegesmund resigned from her office at the end of last year, for a “time-out”. But then the regional press found out such reasons had a professional touch after all. The Federal Association of the German Waste Management, Water and Environmental Service Industries had apparently already chosen Siegesmund as the next president. However, the green leader will not be able to take up this job as soon as planned. Perhaps it escaped Siegesmund’s attention that the red-red-green coalition to which she belonged had adopted a “grace period regulation.” Source: taz

New draft law reveals strict rules for Germans “cannabis clubs”

When Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) announced last month Germany would get the ball to legalisation rolling quickly, the then-dubbed “Cannabis Social Clubs” (CSC) were pitched as the heart of the government’s plan. Now, according to the new draft law, these clubs are to be strictly regulated. Cultivation, dispensing, club membership and the organisation of the clubs’ premises will be closely monitored, while cannabis consumption will be forbidden at the club itself and within a 250-metre radius of a club’s premises. Public marijuana consumption will also still be restricted. Source: iamexpat

European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine

Trade Unions fighting for Palestine


17/05/2023

The European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine (ETUN) was established at the end of 2016 to bring together unions across Europe to campaign for an end to European and corporate complicity with the occupation of Palestine. It has grown to become a network of approximately 35 unions.

The network has campaigned for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, worked to highlight European corporate complicity, published important research on the impact of European complicity on decent work and run webinars and conferences including focusing on the situation from a workers’ rights perspective.

ETUN Palestine has also worked to strengthen the policy positions of the European trade union federations on Palestine and respond to the situation.  For this year the network is preparing a campaign highlighting the impact of Israel’s demolitions of Palestinian homes, schools and agricultural strictures on workers and their families in occupied Palestine.

MORE INFO ON our website, facebook and twitter: @EtunPalestine

ETUC Congress Fringe Meeting in Berlin

At the European TUC Congress Berlin, the European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine is organising a fringe Event: Building Solidarity with Palestinian Workers. The meeting will be on Wednesday, May 24th from 12.30pm until 13.50pm. It is in the Holiday Inn Meeting Rooms I+II, Wanda-Kallenbach-Straße 2. Lunch will be provided.

Representatives of various European trade unions and Palestinian speakers will present the current situation of Palestinian workers under occupation, their ongoing struggle and the role of European trade unions in building support for Palestinian freedom and rights.

We will discuss what trade unionists can do in solidarity with Palestinian workers and present ongoing and new campaigns.

Moderator: Patricia McKeown (Trade Union Friends of Palestine/Irish Congress of Trade Unions)

Speakers:

  • Samia Al Botmeh – Birzeit University (online)
  • Werner Van Heetvelde – president of La Centrale Générale-FGTB (Belgium)
  • Sharon Sukhram – Trade Unions Congress  (UK)
  • Liv Tørres – Director International Department LO Norway
  • Saif Abukeshek – European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine

Some first thoughts about the 2023 Turkish elections

Erdoğan did not win, but he did not lose either. Memet Uludag shares their thoughts on a disappointing night for the Left in Turkey’s 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.


16/05/2023

The election results at a glance

Erdoğan has been in power since 2002. During his time in power, his party won numerous local/national/presidential elections as well as multiple referenda. In the 2023 election however, he didn’t win the presidential race. There will be a second round on May 28 between him (49.35%) and the opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu (44.98%). Nevertheless, he didn’t lose either.

The unofficial parliamentary results suggest an unsatisfactory result for the opposition. Led by Erdoğan’s, the Peoples Alliance got 49.32% of the vote and 322 seats (Erdoğan’s AKP: 35.40% – 266 MPs; Far-Right MHP: 10.06% – 51 MPs; Other right-wing parties: 3.85% – 5 MPs) compare to the opposition Nation’s Alliance’s 35.21% of the vote and 212 seats (Kılıçdaroğlu’s CHP: 25.97% – 168 MPs; Far-Right İYİ: 9.84% – 44 MPs) and the Labour and Freedom Alliance who got 10.47% of the vote and 66 seats (Kurdish led HDP (or YSP): 8.77% – 62 MPs; Left-wing TİP: 1.70% – 4 MPs).

With nearly 50% AKP and their allies are well ahead of the rest and command majority in the parliament. The far right MHP have also increase their vote. The Kemalist/nationalist CHP are yet again stuck around 25%. For the past 20 years, it seems, they can’t go above this figure. The Kurdish HDP have performed below expectations.

So what happened and why?

How was there no defeat for AKP? With nearly 90% voter turnout it’s not voters apathy. There has been a serious economic crisis, rising cost of living and inflation. The sitting government has badly managed the earthquake disaster and floods and shown increasingly more authoritarian rule. Yet, they still perform above expectations at the polling booth.

There is huge disappointment even depression among Kılıçdaroğlu supporters. I am disappointed. Not because the opposition didn’t win but Erdoğan and his party didn’t lose. And the project of socialism has made little or no gain compared to rising far-right, nationalist, reactionary forces.

Some will say – as they did after many elections before – that people are stupid and vote like sheep. That would be a typical Kemalist (modernization philosophy of the transition era between Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey) response. As before, this will prove their snobbery towards the working class and their inability to admit their mistakes and the failures of their politics. Erdoğan and his party didn’t lose. Not because they were brilliant but because the politics of the opposition was/is not good.

It is clear. A big majority of the working class people don’t trust and have not forgotten or forgiven the Kemalist CHP and their past. Despite the efforts by Kılıçdaroğlu to present a reformed party (especially in relation to Muslim working classes) they are not winning support.

The opposition bloc promised social-political reforms but it is clear that people didn’t believe them. They did not run a left wing campaign. They ran a nationalist/populist one. They have targeted refugees. Their campaign included racism, nationalism and even militarism. The government has ‘better’ and stronger versions of these.

But the key message is clear. People don’t trust the Kemalists, even if they don’t like Erdogan’s rule and the AKP government, they don’t look up to the opposition.

What about the Left?

Were a serious, progressive, radical left that can relate to the working classes? Sorry, but nowhere really. The Communists didn’t even register with their tiny votes. Yet, again. No surprise here. Kemalist left and socialists are no different. The Turkish left continues to suffer from its historic co-option to and defence of Kemalism.

The Kurdish HDP have somewhat underperformed. Their claims to be a party of all-Turkey (not just party of Kurds and the Kurdish region) was always vague and never had political clarity about it. They have formed strange alliances with some of the marginal-sectarian-Stalinist and socialist groups which have gained them nothing. The HDP must clarify its political vision. There are lots of challenges and problems here.

Today, all seems very quiet

What happens now?

28 May is the second round for presidential race. The results are close enough. The race for the second round of the presidential election will be decided by a far right candidate eliminated with 5% vote. At a press conference he said he will support the candidate that will give him reassurances for tackling terrorism and deport refugees. Both candidates are engaging with him to win his support. He wants the Kurdish HDP to be criminalised. Guess what, he will get what he wants. And I will vote for whoever he doesn’t support.