May Day, oh May Day

May 1st was a total disappointment for anyone hoping for a sensible reaction from the government to requests by the Labour Unions to celebrate Labour Day. It was a day that ended in more anxiety than anyone could have imagined.

I also became a victim of this anger and pent up frustration over how the government handles things. Late in the evening after the traffic had finally begun to flow through Taksim square, I was sitting in my local neighbourhood bar with some friends glad that peace had finally been restored to Cihangir.

It had been a long day for anyone involved in reporting on it - like myself - or those who were trying to celebrate.

While sitting there feeling relieved that the day had finally come to an end without major casualties (a cameraman I know was hospitalised from tear gas, but survived), I saw a new aquaintance sitting a couple tables down from me and decided to do the neighbourly thing and say "Hi".

As soon as I approached the table I was immediately harassed by his dining companion. This was the following coversation as I remember it:

"I don't agree with what you said," the female diner said one minute after being introduced to me for the first time.
"What exactly don't you agree with?" I said, NOTE: I had never spoken to this woman before in my life.
"What you said about the government having made an offer to the unions," she said.

Not being prepared to encounter such a hostility, I immediately went on the defensive.

"Well the government did make an offer," I said. (which was to hold the rally in a different place in the city, somewhere "that would be more appropriate without disrupting business.")
"But what kind of offer," my acquaintance said.

I then told the hostile female diner that "as a reporter I have a responsibility to not have an opinion." It was a stupid thing to say, but I just wasn't expecting to be dressed down so publically by someone I don't even know.

Upon reflection, I have wondered just how she could have had an opinion on something I've said when we've never even met. I imagined that the only possible reason could be that I had talked to a colleague on the telephone, and asked him why in their report they hadn't mentioned the fact that the government had made an offer to the unions. And that I thought the report was slightly biased because of this omitted information - I thought she must have over heard me, perhaps I had been speaking quite loud.

The whole issue has bothered me ever since, so much so that I have actually had to sit here and write about it.

My response to this mystery diner is as follows:

Yes, the government made an offer. The problem with the offer, which I did actually say in my live televised report on May 1, is that the reasoning they gave was not the reality. The government said that they wouldn't allow Taksim Square to be used for the celebrations because it would disrupt a work day, and the economy was in no shape to handle that. As it was, the economy took a beating on May 1 anyway, why?

1 - All stores in and around the Taksim area were closed afraid of unrest.
2 - At least 60 schools were closed. Causing a cost to those children who lost a day of study.
3 - The cost of 30,000 police and few hundred village guard deployed to keep people out of the square all day long ironically may have totalled more than the so-called cost to the Turkish economy, which I also said in my live televised report.
4 - The damage that it has done to Turkey in terms of foreign investors perceptions of what type of country Turkey is, is immeasurable.
4 - AKP have lost, everyone has lost.

I stated that there had been an offer by the government in order to present the context of why there was so much frustration from those who simply wanted to hold a rally for one hour, and perhaps seek some closure for the terrible events of 1977. I don't agree with what the government's response was, but I am also realistic in the sense that public gatherings in Turkey do sometimes descend into a separate issue - that's because I actually attend many of them. This doesn't make me pro-government.

I have joined all the workers protests on the streets in Istanbul in the run up to the social security reform bill, and most of the people there I saw were 20 plus in age. Not 17 year old university students. This does leave the question: What exactly is labour day in Turkey really about? And how is the government going to deal with it in the future?

We will see next year I expect. But to the lady who quite rudely shot me down before asking me why I had thought it important to point out the government's offer - namely because it does more to present the real politics of AKP and indeed the current state of Turkish politics - then I ask you to read this and next time ask "why" before you jump to conclusions based on a sound bite that you overheard without knowing what that sound bite was really all about.

I empathise with your frustration, I feel it too, which is why I delivered a report that may actually have added more context to Turkey's image abroad.