Week 35 starts in Turkey, where there are troubling signs

 

Edited BY


G P Kennedy


Gul, Aegean Coast, Turkey



 The weather is very nice in the days; the evenings are quite cool. We have three electrical heaters.


I hope they’ll be enough when the weather actually gets cold. Like we made jam in the summer, now we are making some pickles and olives.


I’m doing these for the first time in my life. I wouldn’t believe it in a million years. 





 Pasha, the sweet dog, is 7/24 with us now. We’re trying to find out what he likes eating. We guess the people who looked after him went back to their winter home.


We go on long walks with her, play in the garden. But she doesn’t let the cats in the garden. We are unable to feed any cats.


 This place has gotten more crowded now. Those who returned to their homes in September came back here, as big cities are really bad in terms of coronavirus. Now, there are cases in our little town center, we’re extra careful. 







THE NUMBERS JUMPED FROM 6,000 TO 30,000


 The coronavirus situation is getting worse as it goes. Turkey has started reporting all positive coronavirus tests therefore the number of daily cases is now over 30,000.


With these real numbers, our country jumped from being one of the successful countries that dealt with pandemic to one of the worst-hit. 


 Of course, this is no surprise for us as we’ve been following the Turkish Medical Association’s warnings. The Association thinks the figures are still low compared to what they get from hospitals & doctors which is at least 50,000 new infections a day. Intensive care units in big cities are almost full, poor doctors desperately are trying to find beds for critically ill patients. We need a total lockdown at least for a couple of weeks. 


Besides, our government is planning to buy 50 million doses of the Chinese vaccine, SinoVac. I don’t think SinoVac has completed their phase three trials yet so I don’t trust it. I hope they’ll allow pharmacies to sell the other vaccines, Pfizer & Biontech, Moderna, or Oxford – AstraZeneca. I wouldn’t mind getting one of those. 


The political instability and the economic crisis made this country really unbearable. I feel nothing positive happens in this country. Young and well-educated generation migrate to other countries, no hope for those to stay. I know my stories are getting boring but this is the life we live now in Turkey.


JUSTICE FOR TAHIR ELCI

Yesterday, 28th Nov. marked the 5th year of the killing of human rights lawyer Tahir Elçi 43 international lawyers and human rights organizations joined voices to demand justice for Elçi and his family yesterday.


He was killed during a press conference in front of people and cameras, like a movie.


British Forensic Architecture conducted an independent investigation on behalf of the Bar Association. I watch their full video of investigation like I was watching a crime movie. So sad.



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