Las Vegas’ Turks fear how ‘revolution’ in their homeland will end

Several Turks who live in Las Vegas fear their country’s secular government is slowly unraveling, possibly on its way to becoming a dictatorship.

They point to violence and chaos unfolding daily in Istanbul’s town square sparked by what they see as excessive force by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

They and dozens of others like them have been holding weekly gatherings at Sunset Park since the feud between the government and its people started two weeks ago. They meet there each Thursday night to support their fellow countrymen.

Those interviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal said they still hold out hope that Erdogan will reach a compromise with the thousands of protesters who have risen up across the country, not only in Istanbul but in Ankara, the country’s capital, said Olgun Goksu, president of the local Turkish American Association.

“The government currently in power is starting to become more Islamic, and we’re just starting to see this sort of influence now,” said Goksu, 46, a commercial property investor who has lived in the United States for more than two decades.

“But on the other hand, there is this very modern Turkey that still exists, and it has existed for 80 years. And we all know it. It’s a secular country. But lately there’s been this push by the government to tell people how they should live their lives instead of just letting them live the way they want to.”

The recent chaos hasn’t just put the country of 73 million in the international spotlight; it also has served to shed a little light on Turks in Las Vegas, Goksu said.

The Turk population — about 700 in Las Vegas and about 2,000 in Nevada, according to the association — is relatively small compared with the tens of thousands of Latinos and Filipinos who live in the state.

But it is a noticeable one — with nearly all of them coming here for the same reasons as their fellow immigrants: to better their education, their lives and to get a job in a city driven by tourism.

And they hold back little criticism of what is going on in their home country, a predominantly Muslim nation that straddles Europe and Asia.

“You’d have to be blind not to see that this man, this prime minister, is a dictator, by definition,” said John Aydin, 53, who grew up in Ankara but has lived in the United States for three decades. “He’s slowly been turning the country into his own. He’s ignoring the constitution. It says that peaceful assemblies are OK. Instead, he’s doing exactly what he wants to do, and that’s what a dictator does.”

And yet the prime minister was democratically elected in 2002, which makes the scenario all the more intriguing, if not frustrating, Aydin said.

Aydin’s job since 1997 has been writing the names of loved ones of tourists on tiny grains of rice at Rice Jewelry, outside the Golden Nugget and underneath the Fremont Experience canopy.

“It’s just important that people know all this,” he said, looking up from his work. “It’s important that they know that there’s a revolution under way, and we’re actually witnessing it.”

Aydin isn’t alone. Other local Turkish immigrants have watched the prime minister change his ways since his election, urging the country’s citizenry, for example, to refrain from drinking alcohol and allowing religious garb to be worn in courthouses, he said.

Zeki Beyhan, a Turk who works in Las Vegas as an embryologist, has similar opinions.

He said he is in daily contact with his brothers and sisters in Turkey, and everyone in his family is worried. Some of them have taken to banging pots and pans at 9 p.m. and at midnight — in concert with the rest of the Turks who disagree with the government.

“It’s a scary situation,” said Beyhan, 46, who works at Sher Institute, a fertility clinic, and is vice president of the American Turkish Association in Las Vegas. “In a Democratic county like Turkey, you wouldn’t expect something like this to be going on, but it is. We’re hoping that the government will change its attitude, that it will allow them to exercise their opinion and their civil rights.

“This isn’t the Turkey I know.”

Whether that will ever happen remains to be seen.

On Thursday, Erdogan issued the protesters “a final warning” to get out of Gezi Park or suffer the consequences. The park has been occupied since May 31 after the government announced plans to destroy it and build a development where trees stand now — one of the last places in the downtown where there is green space.

But what started as an environmental protest has turned into a protest against the prime minister who, with the support of fringe Islamic groups, is beginning to strip citizens of their civil liberties, critics say.

Chris Carr, 40, a divorce lawyer, and his wife, Nazan, a Turk who deals blackjack at the MGM, are leading the charge. They say it’s important that all Turk voices be heard — with anybody else who believes in democracy.

Nazan Carr said she can’t believe what’s transpiring in her country. She has been posting some of her objections on Facebook while using social media to keep in touch with relatives in Istanbul.

Chris Carr, who married Nazan in August 2003, noted that many of the Turks who live in Las Vegas are “progressive types.”

“My wife’s family, for example, barely batted an eye when I showed up 10 years ago: a regular old American guy raised Catholic,” Carr said. “But in a matter of years, this prime minister has managed to change the country in many extreme ways. He seems to have positioned the people in the right places and has insulated himself.”

Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.