The Protests in Turkey - Message from a friend on the ground there

I rarely have any insight on international news, but the current situation in Turkey has been on my heart lately because we have friends who live in Istanbul.  As the government tries to clamp down on protesters in Istanbul's Gezi Park, hope is blooming in the hearts of many Turkish people.

I corresponded this week with our friends, checking in to see if they are OK and to get their perspective on the situation.  Here is what our Turkish friend "Isaac" wrote back:

"We're OK  here so far. Maybe you remember I was talking about the danger coming towards our country step by step. This danger had been building up since the previous fraud election  which let an evil politician occupied the whole country with Islamic dictatorship. 

The people of Turkey had been pressed and frightened by this evil diktator (10 times worse than Putin) by using the police forces and partisan judges. Thousands of University faculty members, writers, journalists, high level army generals, elected represantatives, scientists are  in prison for several years with fake charges and fake evidences which are created in digital environment. 

But after 11 years of evil administration the public of Turkey stood up, ripped the shadow of fear empire and started a holly war that aims to build up a free country again. This is an civilized independence war. These resisting young people have no guns, no violence (except very few marginal left wing groups) They demostrate a wonderful cooperation with love and peace, express their feelings with arts and very smart humour. 

We hadn't been so proud of our people for a long time. Me and (my wife) are attending to local demostrations that are organized all over the country and watching news with tears, although there're tousands of injured people and many sad stories, we started to get full of hope for our countries future again. We know that darkness will be defeated in the end."


I love the fact that rather than only expressing grief over the treatment of the the protesters, Isaac sees the possibility of positive change after a growing oppressive dictatorship.  Two years ago, Isaac expressed to us his concerns over the changes happening in Turkey, even to the point of telling us it was not a good time for an American to visit them.  Now they have a glimmer of hope that freedom will be restored.

I'll be praying for change, just as Isaac has requested.