His gaze against the sweeping of the bars

has grown so weary, it can hold no more.

To him, there seem to be a thousand bars

and back behind those thousand bars no world.*

…..

Human zoos, for almost five centuries, displayed black and indigenous peoples in cages. These large-scale exhibitions of human beings were specific to the colonial powers and remained popular into the 20th century. Western promoters actively recruited troupes, families or performers from all over the world, mostly coercively and rarely by offering contracts. The humans who were kept in these zoos, died unknown and unremembered. Many of them froze to death in the cold, still wearing what was determined their ‘native dress,’ or died from diseases that did not exist in their native countries.

Many people console themselves with the belief that the horrid level of racism and discrimination in human zoos remains safely in the past. But this is far from the case. The discrimination of the past continues to bleed through into the present, albeit in a slightly different form.

Today, there are more than 10,000 zoos estimated worldwide, holding millions of wild animals in captivity. Most capitals and major cities across the world do have zoos, as well as a great many other captive wild animal facilities that have developed over the years. Having emerged in modern societies as an extension of the colonial project of dividing, categorising, and rationalising controlled groups, “zoos” are functional in their ability to maintain social inequality. Although framed as educational family-friendly spaces, zoos entail the non-consensual control of vulnerable beings for the pleasure and convenience of humans, in a mentality like that of the human zoos.

Animals trapped in the confines of even the most modern and conscientious “zoos” cannot -by any reasonable stretch of the imagination- be said to lead natural lives. Their movements are severely confined, their interactions with other animals are restricted, and their eating and sexual behaviours are entirely dependent upon the whims of human authority. Rather than challenging speciesism, “zoos” reinforce it by encouraging visitors to take on the role of privileged observers who may access inmates at their leisure and convenience for the purposes of entertainment. The clear, physical segregation built into zoo displays encourages further discrimination, resembling to that of prisons. It comes as no surprise that many animals at zoos may die prematurely from stress or illness.

Documenting zoos, which reaffirm an assumed hierarchy between species and robbing animals of their most basic rights, has been an engrossing journey for me. Regardless of the conditions of animals, power relations in a zoo provides the same basis of relationship witnessed in human-zoos. I believe however -seemingly- high the standards are, it is an absolutely cruel act to keep these animals under a lifetime captivity stripping them off their power and life force. I believe change is not only possible but also necessary. Hopefully oneday humankind will reevaluate their approach to zoos and be alienated from the idea of being entertained at the cost of the other.

* The Panther, In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, Rainer Maria Rilke 

Rehearsal day for Beethoven 2020 Project of Goethe Institue.

Every Saturday, Saturday Mothers/People gather in Galatasaray Sq at the same time to protest and ask authorities about the consequence of missing people. With 700th week police attacked on the crowd and Galatasaray Sq. is banned by the authorities.Since then Saturday Mothers gathered in front of Human Rights Association office in Istanbul.

Many political opponent was dismissed by a method of missing under custody in Guatemala and Brazil in 60’s, after military coup in Chili in 1973 and in Argentina in 1976. Missing under custody has started to seen in Turkey in 80’s. HR data informs that between 1991-98, families of 520 missing people applied for missing under custody.

The approximate number is 1200 in 2005. Very few of the families know consequence of their loved ones. Hasan Ocak is one of the exceptional case. Hasan Ocak was taken under custody by 21 March 1995 and 55 days later his tortured death body was found in Altinsehir K. Graveyard with his family’s efforts. After this case mising under custody come into question in the public agenda of Turkey. Authorities prefer to be silent instead of making a detailed investigation. In 27 May 1995 the first sit-in protest started in Galatasay Sq. Every Saturday, relatives of missing people gather in this square at 12 o’clock to ask the authorities “To be informed for consequence of missing people, authorities in charge of missing people and no more missing case”.

They were called Saturday Mothers that their name come from the meeting day like in the Plaza Mayo Mothers in Argentina. In 15 August 1998, with the start of 170th meeting they were tortured,arrested and treated very badly during their peaceful protests which lasted after 30 weeks. They had to stop the sit-in protest after 200 weeks because of the increase of police violence and number of the arrests by 13 March 1999.

Saturday Mothers/People struggle started again in 2009 with the progress at the Ergenekon case.

In the southeast of Turkey there were holes digged related to the Ergenekon case. Human bones and some stuff was found in these holes. Besides this, confess of the people who had worked for the state, made relatives of missing people to speak up loud for their justice requests. In 31 January 2009 Saturday Mothers/People started to gather in Galatasaray Sq. for their sit-in protest to ask authorities about the consequence of missing people and people who are in charge of missings to undergo trail.

Istanbul became a migration receiving metropolis with the rapid growth after 1980s. Population of the city is estimated approximately 18 millions in 2020 which was around 3 million in the beginning of the 80s.

The city started to spread out from the center to the borders with the increasing housing requirements and sheltering problems but actual governmental policies of urban transformation are primarily profit-oriented rather than humanistic. Residental districts located in the center of the city are being moved to the outskirts and people obliged to leave their home.

“How does urban renewal regenerate the city, what for? What kind of scenary does urban renewal bring us? What kind of a web of social relationship, class relations and social fabric could be shaped with it methaporically? Or what kind of landscape, geography and picture could be shaped with it in reality?

Edo Apresyan  lives and works in Istanbul with his family and every 3 month periods he comes to Yerevan not to become an illegal worker. President R.Tayyip Erdaoğan threaten to send them back to home when Turkey and Armenia have some tension.

There are more than 70.000 Armenian in Turkey and most of them are living in Istanbul.

That means they are the major non-Muslim minority of Turkey. The transition from Ottoman Empire that has different ethnicities to Modern Turkish Republic was the beginning of a painful period for Armenians as for other minorities in Anatolia.

Especially the forced emigration in 1915 that is called “Medz Yegern – Great Disaster” by Armenian people, even if the number is still discussed, caused death of many people. In 1942 the application of the Wealth Tax Law was an oppressive load for minorities and the attacks in 6-7 September 1955,

which are very embarrassing days of Turkish history, caused that minority population diminished by migrations and their lives get hard more and more.

Armenian Genocide Question still cannot be discussed without prejudices.

Going beyond the official discourse may result by death as can be seen from Hrant Dink’s assassination. The historical background of the question and its indisputable situation make difficult to confront them.

Tur Abdin is a hilly region of southeast of Turkey incorporating the eastern half of Mardin Province, and Sirnak Province west of the Tigris, on the border with Syria. The name ‘Tur Abdin comes from the Syriac language meaning mountain of the servants of God. Tur Abdin is of great importance to Syriac Orthodox Christians, for whom the region used to be a monastic and cultural heartland. The Syriac people of Tur Abdin call themselves Suroye and Suryoye something they share with their brethren Nestorian and Chaldean Assyrians and traditionally speak the Aramaic dialect recently called Turoyo It is not accurately known how, when and for what the name Suryoye (Syriac) is started to be used. The common assumption for the source of the name is it comes from a city or a king from mesopotamia region The Syriac people trace their origins to the population of the pre-Islamic Mesopotamia, since the time of the Akkadian Empire. They claim that Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) is their homeland for 5000 years. Being the first Christians and speaking the language of Jesus they occupy an important part of history. After the 1900s many Syriacs from Southeast Anatolia migrated into Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and into the Western world. The decrease in Syriac population to western countries started in1960s and accelarated after 1980s. In Tur Abdin, known as the homeland for Syriacs, there are only 4,000 people left and an estimated 15,000 in all of Turkey.

History of tea plantation in Turkey goes back to 1940’s. Rize located in East Black Sea coast, has been chosen for the first region to supply country need with the support of government in those years. East Black Sea,is also known as the most rainy area in Turkey, has a humid and rainy climate which is good for tea leaves. Today 220.000 ton dry tea is produced every year. Besides supply of country needs, it is being imported to 25 countries. Turkey is in the fifth rank in production for all the world. It is the fourth depletive country with 2.3 kg tea a head. Tea is known as a national drink and it is a part of the daily life culture. Tea plantation became family business at the region rather than an industrial agriculture. The total of big produce is made by single families. Most of the time women of the family work in tea gardens. Back in time farmers used to make their life on tea and they called it, green gold. After year 1986 Chernobyl disaster affected the region and the tea producers. It was a milestone in decrease of profit from tea. In addition to this with the new government policies on agriculture and low annual fees for kilogram, farmers started to look for new products for their land. State run factories are the big buyers and they control the main price for tea leaves. Most of the private companies are appear to be not reliable by producers because they make the payment in one year advance. There are 3 harvest during the season. Farmers have to cut the leaves when harvest time comes whether they sell it or not. After collecting the leaves if it has to be sold to factory right away. Most of the farmers has produce more than state quotas which they sell it to private companies without knowing to get paid for. People of East Black Sea region plan their life and social events by the harvest and tea payment time.

In southeastern Turkey, where blood feuds are still common, even the smallest incident can lead to a protracted or even fatal dispute. It is a part of  a traditional value system in rural and predominatly Kurdish south-eastern Anatolia that places the honour of a family above all else.

Blood feuds mediator Sait Sanli has helped more than 450 blood feuds ended since he gave up butchering a decade ago, by his estimate. Sanli  had a five-member “peace committee” in Diyarbakir that assists him, he is still very much a one-man peacekeeping force. He’s the ambassador of peace.

He shuttles between families in far-flung towns and villages to hammer out peace agreements. He cajoles, admonishes, and, occasionally threatens. When all else fails, he resorts to crying. The sight of tears rolling down a grown man’s face is apparently enough to soften even the most hardened heart.

Sanli experienced firsthand the effects of a blood feud when he was 14. After an argument with a neighbor turned violent, he and his family had to flee their home village near Diyarbakir, resettling in a town several hours away.

Sait Sanli passed away on 2009.

International Transport Workers Federation visits different freight ships at Marmara Sea for workers missing wages and bad work conditions.

After the eceonomic crisis in 2009 many workers were left in the ships without money and supply.