SPAT UPON, THREATENED, WE FACED TURKISH FASCISM
By Nikolaos Taneris
Hellenic News of America, PA
7392&lang=US
Oct 3 2007
NEW YORK-"Turkey will smack you down" and "Next time we will finish
all of you" were some of the more polite slogans shouted at me and
STOP coalition ( STOP spells "Stop Terrorizing Orthodox Peoples!" )
activist Fotios Cheung, as we peacefully protested Turkish Prime
Minister Erdogan’s visit to New York for three days, last week. The
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) hosted a "Conversation with Recep
Tayyip Erdogan" last Thursday, September 27, 2007, CFR proudly claims
that it is "dedicated to increasing America’s understanding of the
world and contributing ideas to U.S. foreign policy." Despite this, a
portly Turkish agent thrust his hips at us in simulated fornication,
and more than a few Turkish agents gave us the finger shouting
"F**CKIN? GREEK" and "F**CKIN? CHINAMAN", when we first arrived, just
the two of us, across the street from CFR?s glass door, surrounded
by half a dozen Secret Service agents, on a pleasant sunny New York
afternoon on this corner of Park Avenue.
After a good twenty minutes of obscenities hurled at us , and our
mothers, by Erdogan’s entourage, while we silently stood there,
directly across the street from CFR’s E. 68th street main entrance,
due to some coaxing from American secret service agents, the Turks
moved their gang of gunmen to another entrance down the street,
where Erdogan?s appearance, it seems, would later be relocated to,
not without at least a dozen Turks left jeering us. I carried a sign
saying "Turkish troops out of Cyprus," and Fotios’s said "Turkey
Guilty of Genocide", the flip sides wrote "Turkey = Brutality."
At times, Fotios proudly held the Greek flag, and the racist Turkish
Government officials yelled at him "hey China, how much they pay
you?" and "Greek, you no respect your flag, you let China hold your
flag", apparently not being to grasp the concept that many Orthodox
Christians and philhellenes the world over, identify with, and love
Greece and Cyprus.
As we stood there, we got many thumbs ups and beeps of approval from
New York drivers, one truck driver shouted "the only thing Turkey
is good for is Thanksgiving", another yelled "Turkey mass murderer",
another actually stopped his car and asked for our leaflets and talked
to us about how shameful it is that New York would host the Turkish
government, almost all those walking by on the street behind us read
our signs.
Later, our friend, the Greek journalist and poet, Sevasti Boutos,
joined us, and she too was treated to a volley of anti-women invectives
by the representatives of Turkish government. Shortly thereafter,
Erdogan made his exit , not more than fifty feet from us, to hear
our chants of "Turkish troops out of Cyprus" and "Turkey runs, Turkey
hides, TURKEY GUILTY OF GENOCIDE".
The scene outside the CFR turned into chaos, as literally close to
a hundred men shouted obscenities and Turkish journalist , after
Turkish journalist, ran up to us to make repeated obscene hand
gestures. Erdogan was quickly packed into his official vehicle,
his security detachment sped by us, with open van door, giving us
the finger, and grabbing their crotches.
That very Thursday evening , we convened at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza,
outside the UN, to light candles in vigil for our dead, quite a few
of Erdogan’s entourage happened to drive by, giving us the finger.
One short Turkish agent, with a green star on his jacket lapel,
who we saw in front of CFR, said to us "how much are they paying you
for this?" The Plaza was quiet, except for some Bengali journalists,
demonstrating beside us for a free press, who were nice enough to
grant us an interview.
On Friday, September 28, 2007 Erdogan was scheduled to take the
floor of the UN General Assembly, so we spent the whole afternoon
at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, holding the Greek flag and our signs. A
Turkish diplomatic car drove by us, every thirty minutes or so,
to give us the finger. We got to meet a lot of nice people, despite
the harassment. Various nationalities– Burmese, Armenians, Italian,
French, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Canadians approached us, and we got
to be interviewed by a few random correspondents, including by UN
international television.
When five-thirty came, and after Erdogan’s UN speech ended, we headed
over to the Waldorf Astoria, where the "Turkish Cultural Center"
a lobby headed by a Turk who runs Coca-Cola worldwide, was holding
a now annual "friendship dinner" that featured Erdogan and Hillary
Clinton . So we set up across the street, prepared to wait it out
through the long night, the dinner was slated to end at 11 PM, we
were immediately greeted by Greek and Armenian supporters, dozens of
them who greeted us and even cheered us during a Manhattan rush hour.
As the evening drew out, and the pedestrian traffic dwindled, we
still had drivers honking for justice, a cab driver yelled "Justice
For Armenian Genocide!" and a kind French woman visiting New York
joined us for a full hour. The Turks still could not leave us alone
at this late hour, intermittingly they would pass by us, shouting
"lies" and "F**CK YOU!" Fotios endured more and more anti-Chinese,
racist remarks from the dinner attendees. One man approached us from
the direction of the Waldorf Astoria, and in a Turkish accent , tried
to engage us in conversation, claiming to be "Romanian", he spat out
anti-Armenian ,racist remarks such as "why you fight for Armenians,
they all doctors and lawyers, you stupid…"
Erdogan?s last stop in New York, was a lunch, on Saturday, September
29, 2007 in the NY Marriott Marquis, Times Square. The lunch was
advertised in Turkish, at the hotel’s bulletin board of events, and
was slated to last from 11:30 AM to 2PM, we promptly showed at the
main entrance for vehicles at 46 th Street, swamped by cabs, ticket
scalpers, and tourists. Soon after hoisting up our Greek flag and
signs, four agents showed up, with red US State Department buttons
on their lapels, trying to stare us down, along with at least half
a dozen of Erdogan’s entourage never far away, snapping pictures.
Once again, the support on the New York street was overwhelming,
drivers honked for us, a cab driver took our flyer and pasted it up
on his partition window, tourists took pictures with us, and talked
to us, many thanking us for being out there, one woman staying at
that hotel even let us in on how early Erdogan arrived, beating us
there by a good fifteen minutes.
We soon realized that Erdogan would not be exiting on the 46th street
side, and at 2PM we relocated to the 45th Street hotel entrance, at
which point we encountered a massive security presence, and sneers
and more insults from Erdogan’s agents, parked all over the stretch
of 45th Street from Broadway to Eighth Avenue.
Strategically positioning ourselves across the street from the
driveway, next to the garage serving the historic Shubert Theatre, we
waited, alongside a German cameraman, in expectation of Erdogan’s exit.
Soon thereafter, a NYPD New York Police Department car parked directly
in front of us, the polite and courteous officers asked questions about
our flag, and we explained that the Greek flag symbolizes freedom,
and expressed that Greece has always been on the side of democracy and
has always been on America’s side, as well as that we are New Yorkers.
Again, passerbys asked questions, and one African American held up
our sign , took pictures with us, and hugged us, much to the chagrin
of the Turkish government, especially when we loudly explained that
its our duty to tell Americans the truth about the Turkish government.
The Turks were starting to get downright hostile, especially since
they could not stand the possibility that Erdogan would again hear
chants and see signs on a New York street, reminding all and sundry
of Turkey?s Fascist criminality. That Turkish agent with the green
star on his jacket came over to me and said "You wake up with Turkey
and sleep with Turkey, we have your name and number…"
Some more, now familiar, Turkish agents across the street, shouted
"Go Back To Your Country" A corpulent Turkish agent, came by me and
attempted to speak to me, in perfect Greek. We soon encountered a few
Turks on the street next to us, shouting "We Turks Are Your Fathers,
We F***KED Your Mothers" and "we will finish you all next time"
We started chanting "Turkish troops out of Cyprus" and randomly a car
passing by, apparently of some Cypriots who just happened to be driving
by, joined our chants, in Greek responding "Exo I Turki Apo Ti Kypros"
(trans: "Turks Out of Cyprus") .
That Turkish agent that threatened me, we saw had begun directing
groups of people, into the Junior’s coffee shop down 45th Street.
Minutes later, several of those people came out of Junior?s and lined
up on the wall behind us, two faced us, and a third teenage Turk in
a white shirt started screaming "I am Turk" flashing the Grey Wolf
(the Turkish version of the Ku Klux Klan) hand-signal, he approached
us and spat into the left side of my face.
Luckily, two New York City police officers immediately, intervened and
told them to back off. At which point, a man, said "I am president of
the Federation Of Turkish American Associations" and "I am leader of
the Turkish community in New York", he said to them "look, I have ID
to prove it "and started to take out his wallet, he told the police to
"arrest those two, or make them leave," and the police said they can?t
they (we) are peacefully protesting, its their freedom. And still
this person claiming to be "leader of Turkish community in New York"
insisted and said he would file a complaint and was asking for their
badge numbers.
Meanwhile, Erdogan did finally exit; we hope he got to see our signs
again. We promptly darted off, into a Broadway cab, finishing our
protest of Erdogan.
Who would have thought that two people armed with nothing but cardboard
signs and Greek flags could cause such distress and discomfort to
hundreds of Turkish government agents and Turkey supporters? Perhaps
it is a sign of panic that despite all their military bullying, and
their displays of self-confidence, they know that whether carried
by two people in New York or twenty thousand in Nicosia, the message
of justice and freedom for all people overwhelms the death rattle of
fascism and repression.
As we walked off, the Grey Wolf enthusiast shouted defiantly at us
"See you next year, we’ll be here." Yes, and so will we.
======================== Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) 2578
Broadway #132 New York, NY 10025 New York: Tel. 917-699-9935 Email:
[email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
