Anarchic Tendencies

The rapid escalation of anti-government protests in Turkey in recent days has exposed a number of long-dormant fault lines in the country’s complex political landscape. But even as the appeal of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (also known by its Turkish acronym, AKP) is beginning to erode, it will remain a powerful force in Turkish politics for some time to come, with its still-significant base of support throughout the country and the lack of a credible political alternative in the next elections.
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The protests so far do not indicate that Erdogan’s party is at serious or imminent risk of losing its grip on power, but they do reveal limits to the prime minister’s political ambitions. Erdogan is attempting to extract votes from a slow-moving and highly fragile peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party to help him get enough support for a constitutional referendum.

The referendum would transform Turkey from a parliamentary system to a presidential system and thus enable Erdogan, whose term as prime minister expires in 2015, to continue leading Turkey as president beyond 2014, when presidential elections are scheduled. The sight of protesters from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (known as the BDP) joining Republican People’s Party supporters for the June 1 protests does not bode well for Erdogan’s plan to rely on those votes in the constitutional referendum…

[In Full @ Stratfor, “Turkey’s Violent Protests in Context” ]

Tango down: Anonymous hits Turkey, takes government websites offline

In solidarity with the people of Turkey, Anonymous hacktivists take down numerous Turkish government websites, including the website of President Abdullah Gul and the website of the country’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The action, dubbed “Operation Turkey” (#OpTurkey), began Sunday, June 2, in response to the police brutality against activists protesting the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul.

Media reports indicate that the website of President Abdullah Gul has been taken offline, along with the website of the country’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the websites for the Istanbul Directorate of Security, the Istanbul Governor’s Office and other government websites.

In addition to disabling government websites, Anonymous is also tweeting passwords to free access to a VPN, a virtual private network that connects computers and devices in one network, allowing protesters in Turkey to communicate with the outside world.

[In Full with links @ The Examiner]

On Friday, May 17, the international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, joined by Code Pink and other political action groups from the U.S. and the U.K., launched Operation Guantanamo to mark the 100th day of a hunger strike within the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

The three day campaign of global action is intended to raise awareness of the human rights violations currently going on at Guantanamo Bay prison camp via social media and on the ground protests. Alleged violations at Guantanamo include the indefinite detention of prisoners, many (ed. Not ‘many’, ALL. There ARE NO POWs or ‘Terrorists’ there anymore -RR) of whom have been cleared for release years ago.

The following is an excerpt from a press release issued by Anonymous regarding Operation Guantanamo (#OpGTMO)…

[In Full with more linkage]

Someone needs to tell @BurgerKing that “Whopper123” IS NOT a secure password.

(and the dissing of BOTH pseudo-food corp’s ”food’ IS “Finger-Lickin’ #Subversive)