“Atatürk” Won’t Be Streamed & more– 8th Aug 2023

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 8th of August twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

Last week, Disney+ received a lot of backlash from Turkish citizens after the platform reportedly decided not to stream Atatürk, a series about the founder of the Turkish Republic. A journalist wrote that Disney+ decided not to stream the series after the Armenian National Committee of America (or ANCA) started a campaign against Atatürk. Following the reports that Disney+ dropped the series, the ANCA tweeted a thank you note to all those who participated in the campaign for “preventing the normalization of mass murder and glorifying of genocide,” referring to the Armenian genocide, often referred to as the ‘so-called genocide’ in Turkey.

Armenians say that Turkish authorities systematically killed millions of Armenians during World War l. While Turkey accepts that many Ottoman Armenians died in clashes, it rejects the allegations that it was a systematic killing.

Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council, best known as RTÜK, launched an investigation into Disney+ following the reports.

Some good news…

Recall that last Monday the 31st of July, the subway and tram workers union in İzmir went on strike after the city municipality failed to meet their salary expectations. The municipality had offered a 100% increase to the workers' monthly salaries, amounting to twenty-five thousand liras, around a thousand US Dollars. However, the workers requested almost forty thousand liras, almost one thousand five hundred US Dollars.

Well, the strike only went on for one day and the railroads are back in service since the workers agreed to the Municipality's offer. In exchange, the municipality increased the social allowances of the workers, like transportation and food money by 7%.

Speaking of unionized workers…

Back in July, a group of journalists from Sputnik Turkey, the Turkish branch of the Russian news agency, went on strike under the Turkish Journalists Union because the company refused to provide a livable wage to its workers. Since then, reportedly, Sputnik dismissed a bunch of its workers who supported or participated in the strike. The news agency cited downsizing for their dismissal, but workers are convinced it’s just a means to scare journalists from unionizing.

Moving on to politics…

On Friday the 4th, the Eyüpsultan district governor banned the traveling exhibition on the rising cost of living the main opposition Republican People’s Party (or CHP) set up in the district square. The governor said that the exhibition could turn into a rally, saying that the vehicle the party used for the mobile stand could be turned into a stage that would make it possible for the CHP to hold a rally.

The party plans to take the traveling exhibition to every district in the city ahead of the local elections next year and has already visited some districts without any problems. The head of the CHP’s İstanbul branch says that the party will set up the exhibition despite the ban.

On Monday the 7th, a grain silo exploded at the Derince port in the city of Kocaeli. Locals reported that the blast shook the Derince district like an earthquake in the city. Authorities reported that there were twelve injured, but luckily there were no casualties. The district mayor and governor said that, according to initial reports, the blast probably happened due to grain dust compression. The governorate added that there was no one under the debris.

Let’s talk about human rights in the country…

Recently, the Constitutional Court, where people go to appeal court rulings, has released a statistical report of the cases it concluded from twenty twelve to July twenty twenty-three. The report stated that the Court found at least one violation of human rights in half of the cases it examined in twenty twenty-two.

While on the topic of human rights, let’s discuss a very basic one: housing.

Recall that housing prices have been on the rise for the last year, and with every minimum-wage increase, the prices hike up even more. Buying a house was already next to impossible, but renting has become a privilege for most households as well. An average apartment rents for almost double the minimum wage in big cities, and besides the rent, homeowners are picky with their tenants. Real estate agents say that homeowners now choose to rent their houses to students because they will most likely move out in a couple of years and the homeowner can change tenants and increase rent without a fuss.

Currently, homeowners aren’t allowed to increase the rent by more than 25% while renewing the lease. Because of this, they choose to change tenants every year and increase the rent by 60-70%.

Now, what’s President Erdoğan up to lately?

Well, as always, he’s insulting the citizens. On Monday the 7th, he commented on the Akbelen protests and called the protesters a group of “marginals” and added that he didn’t mind them. He also said that the protests were not to prevent the cutting of trees but to create chaos. He used the same rhetoric about the Gezi protests as well. Now, prominent participants of the Gezi protests are in prison for attempting to topple the government. It’s likely that he’s trying to make an example of Gezi protesters for those at the Akbelen forest.

On the same day, President Erdoğan announced the selling price of hazelnuts for the producers this year. Last year, it was fifty liras, around two US Dollars, per kilogram. Now, it’s eighty-four liras, over three dollars. It might seem like a great increase, but producers say that it cost them eighty-five liras (three dollars and fifteen cents) to produce the hazelnut in the first place. If they sold them for the price Erdoğan set, they’d lose money.

On a different note…

Recall that Turkish Airlines was working on a regulation that will allow a place for pilots to pray in the cockpit. Apparently, the airline fired one of its pilots who believed that the regulation would risk flight safety. The fired pilot said that he told his co-pilot that the regulation was unsafe but the co-pilot reported him to the management, who fired the pilot a few days later. When he asked the management the reason for his dismissal, the CEO reportedly said that he could simply fire anyone without giving any explanation.

Speaking of air travel…

On Saturday the 5th, the Sabah newspaper reported that a woman by the name of Çiğdem İlgün defrauded many people by claiming that she invented a chip that detected turbulence in flights and showed the safest route the plane should take. She asked many people to invest in her invention and said that she’d repay everyone 30% of what they invested. İlgün reportedly paid back the investors a few times to build trust, but once the investors started giving more money, she stopped paying back, and people started suing her for fraud.

However, İlgün said that she was the one defrauded. She said that she sold the chip to a Canadian company for twenty-seven million dollars, but they didn’t pay her.

And to wrap up this edition…

The Kandıra district governorate of Kocaeli, a northwestern city on the coast of the Black Sea, banned people from swimming in the sea till Wednesday the 9th due to bad weather.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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