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I spent a few months in Turkey last year. You could tell that there was a risk of mass unrest because there were heavily armed police with armored vehicles prom
by pydry 4y ago
I spent a few months in Turkey last year. You could tell that there was a risk of mass unrest because there were heavily armed police with armored vehicles prominently parading around.
I thought this was to be expected.
What I thought was interesting was that there was a major deployment with armored vehicles in a well to do neighborhood off the tourist trail. Literally outside the Carrefour Gourmet where I bought overpriced European ingredients, in fact.
IDK if they were extra sensitive coz expats were there, coz they were feeling extra protective of the upper middle classes or even coz they were afraid that the upper middle classes would be the ones to riot.
Ive not seen anything like it elsewhere except in altamira, caracas.
- beebeepka 4y agoEver been to Sicily? I counted 3 different types of police and heavily armed military units patrolling the streets on regular basis. That was well before the pandemic. Maybe that's how some places are run
- tetris11 4y agoHell, same with Brussels pre-pandemic
- pydry 4y agoIt wasnt heavily armed & riot police deployments that surprised me it was their deployment in what seemed like fairly quiet upper middle class neighborhoods. I only saw that once before - in altamira caracas. Ive seen plenty of armed police in Italy but they were focused in highly trafficked city centre/touristy areas. Italy seems pretty excessively militarized but the pattern of deployment is normal.
- orhmeh09 4y agoIt’s always like that, nothing to do with this wave of inflation.
- tyingq 4y ago> there were heavily armed police with armored vehicles prominently parading around That's not new, and probably isn't related to mass unrest. My guess is it was related to some intelligence about PKK activity.
- pydry 4y agoMy guess would be if that was to fend off PKK attacks then the police batons and riot shields wouldnt have been brought along. Theyre not much use against bomb planters.
- tyingq 4y agoThe Turkish police typically raid and mass arrest people after some PKK activity happens (or is suspected to happen soon), even if there's no actual bombs going off. They arrive in riot gear to do the raids/arrests.