Samsun Cumhuriyet Mitingi

The Samsun meeting was held on May 20, 2007, one day after the May 19th celebrations. Hundreds of thousands peacefully celebrated Turkey's secular system founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The Cumhuriyet Meetings were organized by hundreds of NGOs. Women's organizations were particularly active in the organizations since they suffer most under the heavy hands of religious zealots. Overall, the Turkish people are particularly sensitive on the secular nature of their country since the current Islamic AKP government is undermining the secular principles -- although the government appears on the surface as if it is all for secularism. However, the government has implemented new procedures and practices based on religious beliefs in every stage of life including education, municipality functions, treatment of women, employment practices, and so on since they took power. Their strategy is to impose religious rules on the society subtly - taking small steps not to scare people off, but five years were enough for people to figure out what has been going on. Frustration of the people is demonstrated in a series of massive but peaceful rallies in Ankara, Istanbul, Canakkale, Manisa, Marmaris, Izmir and Samsun. Each is literally attended by millions of people and broke all known attendance records. None of these protest meetings were organized or sponsored by political parties. They were initiated, sponsored and organized by civilian women's organizations, and hundreds of NGOs actively supported them. ADD Ataturkcu Dusunce Dernegi, CYDD Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi, and CKD Cumhuriyet Kadinlari Dernegi were particularly active in the organizations. KanalTurk was one of a few TV channels which covered all the meetings live - unlike most of the other media outlets - partly because of fear of retribution by the government. The AKP government has sued and threatened KanalTurk many times because of its anti-government stance. The music used in this clip is Samsunspor Marsi. Schedule of Turkish Cumhuriyet Meetings: Ankara (Tandoğan) - 14 April (Nisan) 2007 Istanbul (Çağlayan) - 29 April 2007 Canakkale - 5 May (Mayis) 2007 Manisa - 5 May 2007 Marmaris - 5 May 2007 Izmir (Alsancak) - 13 May 2007 Samsun - 20 May 2007 Denizli - 26 May 2007

Author: pepitopingu
Length: 04:28
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