Despite protests on the streets of Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and other cities, which have meanwhile turned towards civil disobedience, there is still no end in sight to the demonstrations in Turkey.

And instead of dialogue, Erdoğan is still looking for a confrontation with the demonstrators, although he clearly accepts the further division of his own people. How else could it be that Erdoğan is calling on his supporters to "act" against demonstrators?

Every evening at 9:00 p.m., many protesters against the authoritarian style of government of the AKP and their plans "bang the lid of a pot" - which can be described as civil disobedience - without involving the citizens. These pot lid protests are a thorn in the side of Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyib Erdoğan. During a speech at the airport in the Black Sea city of Kastamonu, Erdoğan said that "the people shouldn't always remain in an attitude of expectation and hope that the police will intervene against the demonstrators." He thus calls on his supporters to take legal action against anti-government demonstrators themselves. Finally, the people who organize the nightly pot lid protests are to be accused of noise pollution, which amounts to a "crime".

Pot lid rattle - protest or criminal offence

“They stand on their balconies and bang on their pot lids in protest. Now it's up to you and you have to take legal action against it," the newspaper "Haberturk" quoted Prime Minister Erdoğan as saying. And further: "No one has the right to disturb their fellow citizens in this way". Erdoğan draws comparisons between throwing Molotov cocktails and the pot lid protests, which he sees as almost equivalent crimes.

In the meantime, however, voices of displeasure are also increasing from the ranks of the police, who no longer agree with the excessive actions of some of their colleagues. There have long been voices in the ranks of the police who regret the action taken against the demonstrators and say they suffer from pangs of conscience.

Another serious accusation has been getting louder and louder in recent days: Detained Gezi Park demonstrators are apparently being deliberately put in the prison cells with serious criminals, which is said to have led to repeated attacks by the convicted inmates. Most of the arrested demonstrators are young people and students, but there are also lawyers, doctors and artists.

25-year-old Umut Akgül said after his release from Istanbul's Metris prison after 9 days in prison that he had experienced terrible things there. He told the newspaper "Birgün" about sexual and physical assaults by the convicted serious criminals:

"When the inmates found out that I was being held for my participation in the Gezi Park protests, they attacked me. They have threatened to cut off the heads of all detained prisoners. I was forced to fast and had to do the dishes after breaking the fast. In addition, I was treated like a servant in other matters as well.”

The father, Ali Akgül, raises the most serious allegations against the public prosecutor's office and the police, because no criminal offenses have been proven against his son. Just in the last few days, more than 30 predominantly left-wing students have been arrested by the Turkish anti-terrorist units. The accusation is always the same: you are said to have been involved in "provocative actions" during the mass protests. Accordingly, everyone expects their charges on the basis of the anti-terror laws, which in Turkey alone can last five years. A legal impertinence that has been warned about several times by the EU and was actually supposed to be abolished last year

Luckily, the Turkish press, which is otherwise very reserved, has also issued its first statement. In an article, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Hürriyet, Ertuğrul Özkök, writes that he is shocked by these statements. He even draws parallels to the early phase of the Mussolini regime, which is illustrated in the Italian film "La

Villeggiatura". Here it is described how Italian communists of his time were put in the cells of murderers and rapists and none of them left the prison alive. The accusation alone should be enough to shake up the citizens of Turkey and their criticism of the adverse circumstances to express.

As in other countries, the anti-terrorist laws that were introduced have long since been misused to silence unwelcome protesters. Anti-terror laws in many countries have long led to the restriction of basic civil rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, to the massive tapping of data that is actually private and therefore legally protected information.

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