PINAR ÖĞÜNÇ

The last destructive blow of the holding that gets sturdy as it leans on the political power. Preparations for the ‘Halilağa Copper Quarry Capacity Increase, Ore Enrichment Plant and Waste Storage Facility’ to be built in Hacıbekirler village of Çanakkale Bayramiç have begun by cutting down trees on 5200 decares of land. On 9 November, minibuses, buses and vehicles departing from different parts of the Aegean, Thrace and Anatolia park on both sides of the road. When a person cries with choking breath for a tree, it brings to mind the mythic past of this geography, the Homeric texts. As in the tragedies where pain rises from human bodies to the clouds of Zeus, where vows of revenge and anger do not fit in the mountains, women cry out “do not cut down our trees”, doubled over from shouting.

Words get mixed up with words. Railway porterage which ended when wheels were invented for suitcases... Trains and porters carrying the gold coming from Europe while the Central Bank was opening... The killing of public spaces and the concept of public interest... Tugay Bey always reads the industrial heritage and the plans of capital through labour. If the skyscrapers rent project, which was put forward at the time, could not be realised, those who resisted by looking at the railway stations from this perspective, those who forced both the judicial path and the streets, are of great importance in this. What 668 weeks means! Haydarpaşa Solidarity will come together for the 668th time this Sunday and raise their voices against this new project for Haydarpaşa Station.

It is important for those who do not want to waste the slightest chance of a permanent solution and an honorable peace to calmly make sense of this ebb and flow of politics. The report titled “Looking at the Kurdish Problem with its Changing Dynamics after 2015 in Terms of Authoritarian Conflict Management” puts some of the pieces in place and offers a perspective that can serve as a source. The report is based on the basic idea that authoritarian regimes consider keeping conflict processes at the ‘unresolved’ stage as a kind of solution for themselves, and that they realise this not only with military force but also by supporting it with a series of political, spatial and economic policies. The underlying structural causes of the conflict are not specifically addressed, any democratic space for a solution is seen as a threat, and the involvement of international actors is not recognised. It can be coordinated with neoliberal policies and corruption can be used as a tool.

The rising right, not only in Turkey but all over the world, together with the strengthening "fascist international", has gone beyond the timid tone that begins with "I am not a racist, but..." and comes to a point where "certain race" exclamations are flying in the air and they are rebelling against the "taking away of the right to racism". A dose that has become a part of everyday language, mixed with humour, demanding not invisibility but extinction from the target audience is becoming normalised. The conference on ‘Racism in Turkey’, organised by Istos Publishing with the support of the London School of Economics on 19-20 October, aimed to bring all these issues to the visible side of the table and discuss them.

Until November 11, one of the venues of the Çanakkale Biennial is the Korfmann Library, one of Turkey's most important libraries focused on archaeology. Before this building became a library dedicated to Manfred Osman Korfmann, who headed the Troy excavations, it was a tobacco warehouse, but it was originally built as the Infant School of the adjacent Surp Kevork Church, founded in 1669. David Blandy and Larry Achiampong, who came to Çanakkale for the opening, work on shared political concerns. Experimental videos and performances that touch on the colonialism embedded in the root fringes of scientific knowledge and technological progress, and the racism that permeates the the visual symbols of popular culture...

Women feel gender-based discrimination in the labor market at every stage, from job search to working conditions, from office life to unemployment. The victimizations that diversify with advancing age are completely invisible despite affecting millions of women. Kadın İşçi (Woman Worker, www.kadinisci.org) provides valuable journalism that focuses its editorial line on women's labor. The Women Workers' Solidarity Association, which created the website, recently announced a report titled “Gender-Based Discrimination Faced by Women Over 50 in the Field of Paid Labor and Solution Suggestions” and addressed the invisibility of this field. So what do women over 50 do?

Prisons described as Type S and Type Y Penitentiary Institutions or High Security Penal Institutions, which became operational after 2021, mostly consist of single-person cells, where isolation prevails due to both their architectural structures and practices. The sky is not even visible in the prison yard, all communication is provided by megaphones and buttons, which is completely dehumanizing, and open visits are even more isolating as they are separate for each prisoner. This is why they are referred to as “wells”. The Human Rights Association's report on the issue warns of the psychiatric disorders that these conditions may cause, as well as the physical illnesses they may cause in the short, medium and long term.

An old house built with traditional architecture in Karacaköy, Çatalca, 100 km away from Istanbul, looking with a tired face from the past centuries. While the residents of the house, who want to renew the flooring, are working downstairs, they suddenly take a break in amazement, and a tombstone written in the Greek alphabet appears from the ground. When the meaning is deciphered, the following is revealed: “Here lies Chrysoula Rodaki, servant of God, March 1887”. What follows is director Kerem Soyyılmaz's journey in search of the former owners of his grandparents' house. His aunt and cousins, who spent the most time in that house, accompany him on this journey. Searching for Rodakis, won the Best Documentary Film Award at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival last year, among many other awards. The movie is also available on BluTV.

In the light of what we know so far, this book can be described as "the first prison memoir written by a woman in the Ottoman Empire". In her foreword, Lerna Ekmekçioğlu also states that it is generally the first prison memoir written by a woman in the Middle East. So who was Vartuhi Kalantar? What caused her to be tried in the Martial Court and imprisoned in the General Prison?

She is among those who stand in front of, among those who resist, in the midst of an attack that forces children and 80-year-old people to work, leaves young people alone towards a pitch-black future, pushes women either to their homes or to unregistered jobs, and in short, workers' rights are being scythed day by day. Neslihan Acar, 38, is the cahirperson of DGD-SEN, the independent union representing warehouse, port, shipyard and maritime workers. When we add the other strikes, vigils and protests that have sprouted under the umbrella of other unions affiliated to UMUT-SEN, 24 hours of her life are filled with this struggle.