This post is about the recent events (May 31 – Jun 2, 2013) that started in a small recreational park in Taksim, İstanbul and expanded to entire Turkey.
A protestor reading a book to the police who is ordered to disperse them.
There is a small green park adjacent to Taksim Square. Taksim is one of the most touristic and social areas in İstanbul, Turkey. In addition to its historic texture, it is where the majority of the pubs, theaters, cafes, restaurants, concert halls are located. It is simply the heart of the city. And this small park (Gezi Parkı, literally Wander Park), which is engulfed by the city, is as old as Taksim. Recently, the government decided to demolish the park and build yet another shopping mall in its place. (İstanbul already has more than 90 malls.) A group of environmentalists went to the park and started a sitting protest. They simply sat down on the park. They built tents and slept there over night, for about 4 days. Meanwhile, every day the construction team (actually in this case the destruction team) came to the park but the protestors did not allow them to do their jobs. Then the police took over and tried to convince people to leave. They stayed.
Here I should make a brief pause and explain the evolution of the attitude of the police in Turkey. Honestly, the police has never been the most trusted organization in the country. Stories were always told about physical and psychological torture in police stations when people were under custody. In the recent years, as the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Development and Justice Party, from this point on will be referred as AKP) and his leader the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gained more political power, they reshaped the police force and started to direct them for their own agenda. This topic is much deeper than I can explain here, but you can find more about it in various blogs if you’re interested. In this process, the police developed a superiority complex just like the AKP prime ministers and the governors assigned by them. In public events, they used tear gas and batons against the public with no hesitation.
Police teargassing unarmed protestors.
This attitude triggered the situation in Istanbul. Early morning on May 31st, the police attacked the protesters sleeping in their tents. The purpose was to dissipate them. They stayed.
Turkish people are used to such events, especially when the protest is political and the protestors use violence. But this time, it was much different. These people only wanted to protect the park, the trees, the nature. They had no knives, no guns, no flammable or explosive substances. They also didn’t carry any sign or flag of a political party or an organization. They were just the people, putting aside all the differences in ideas and acts, representing the only common element of every single human being on the planet.
That was the breaking point. Anyone with conscience and humanity in their heart went to Taksim to support them. At first, the group was small. People were still reluctant. They waited to see how things would develop. In addition, the TV was acting as if this never happened. The only source of true information was the social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter.
My personal opinion is that, if the police retreated on the first day, they would have won. But they were ordered to stay and spray! Whoever gave this order should now understand that he changed the course of history.
A police officer shooting a pepper gas bomb onto the protestors.
As the police insisted, more and more people came to Taksim. The sprays were not enough, so the police switched to gas bombs. These are shot through special rifles and start releasing capsaicin in the gas form, the same substance in chilly pepper that burns your tongue and eyes.
After a couple of hours, the entire area was under the smoke of the pepper bombs. At that time, the police tanks (known as Panzer or TOMA in Turkish) reached the area. These are shielded heavy vehicles that can shoot pressured water on protestors, used to dissipate people. When targeted directly on a person, it can knock him down, wound him, cause head trauma and even death. The attack of the police continued the whole day and night with tanks, gas bombs and rubber bullets. There are unfortunately fatalities and severe injuries.
Overuse of pepper gas bomb in Taksim Square.
A woman shot by a police panzer with pressurized water.
Meanwhile, people watching the events on the social media felt more and more urged to join the protest. Not only the residents of Istanbul, but also people from many other cities in Turkey got into busses to drive to Istanbul. They knew they couldn’t be there until Saturday and the police could have succeeded by then, but they would make the journey anyways. Those who couldn’t come arranged similar protests in their hometowns. As of the second day, the protests spread to the country.
People crossing the bridge from the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus Strait to reach Taksim Square (click to enlarge).
I was born and raised in Istanbul. I’ve lived there for 25 years. The city nowadays has a population of around 13 million. There are many crowded areas in the city and I’ve seen them all. I thought I saw crowd, real crowd, until seeing this image. These people were coming for a support on the second day of the protest.
Medical students and doctors volunteering to help people.
Since the first day, many medical doctors volunteered to help the people in case of injuries. There were also many lawyers to support those who were taken under custody. They founded operation centers in wherever was safe and used the social media to drive the people in need to their location. They discovered a simple but effective method to neutralize the pepper spray using lemon juice and anti-acid solutions that many people keep at home.
What was really disappointing at that moment were the TV channels. Except for 2 minor but honorable channels, not a single network in Turkey broadcast the videos. The surveillance cameras in Taksim Square were already taken offline earlier on the first day. The only source of getting information were the video clips taken and uploaded by the people in the area. Some foreign agencies, on the other hand, cast live news from time to time all through the night. This is a perfect example of how enslaved the media in Turkey is.
The left one with the penguins is CNN Turk, the Turkish branch of the international news network CNN. The right one is the original CNN. I really like penguins, by the way, but I think their documentary could wait for a few more days.
A photo from Izmir. Do you see the civilian guy with a wooden stick standing by the police? What is his purpose?
Another disappointment came from within. Some people initiated provocations during the protests. They vandalized shop windows and ATMs, they burnt fires. These were recorded by cameras to be used afterwards by the government to prove their claims that the protestors were terrorists. Other than that, there were no violent acts except for the police terror.
After the police forces already stepped back from Taksim, people remained in the area to clean up the mess of the police.
Protestors cleaning up the area after the police forces were withdrawn.
Coming to the significance of this event once more, I should say that it is very distinctive from the Middle Eastern “spring” movements. First of all, there was no fight against the state, it was only a protest. Although it started with environmental concerns, soon it became an act against the suppression and bullying of the government and its police forces. Secondly, although people chanted all the time “Tayyip istifa!” (Tayyip resign!), their purpose was not to overthrow the government. He is the elected prime minister of Turkey and he will remain so until he resigns or someone else is elected in his place. Turkey is already a democratic state since its own “spring” in 1923, it does not require another one. Therefore, please do not misinterpret this event.
Being a Turk myself, I can clearly see the motivation and mentality behind it. Let me explain. We have a saying, “söz gümüşse, sükut altındır” (were speech silver, silence is gold). Unlike western cultures, here in the east, wisdom requires to speak up only when necessary. Turkish people were silent until now, because it wasn’t the right time to speak. The government defied the law many times, suppressed many pillars of the society (especially journalists and intellectuals) and intervened in so many ways with people’s personal lives (anti-abortion law, alcohol limitation, etc.). Every time, they were given another chance because wisdom required patience until they realized that they were wrong. But this time, they went just too far. The prime minister, in his unfortunate speech on the TV during the events, defined the protestors as marginal, terrorist groups and explicitly stated that “he made up his mind” about the shopping mall project. Moreover, he said he would dissipate the protestors for whatever it takes. These protests all over the country were just a message to him that his power is only virtual, as much as the people bestow it to him.
A rightist (nationalist) and leftists side by side
Another remarkable thing in these events was the unification of people from very different political views. These people who normally exclude each other put aside their political views and stood side by side in this “metapolitical”, humanitarian action. Turkey has a deep political symbolism as any other symbolism it has. In the pictures from the area, one could see various hand gestures such as the ones on the left (the V-sign and closed fists usually used by the leftists, the “gray wolf” sign exclusively by the nationalists), specific clothing (many muslim women choose to cover their heads), etc. For the first time since decades, I see Turkish people so unified despite all the efforts of the foreign forces to separate them based on religion, ethnicity and political orientation, etc.
As I’m writing this post, the protests and police violence is still going on in other cities. Nevertheless, nothing will be the same in Turkey when this is over. It is too soon to say where it goes to, but it will definitely go somewhere. We’ll see that together.
P.S. During all these events, I was unfortunately watching them from abroad. In this post, I tried to be as objective and peaceful as I could. If you think there’s something wrong, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.
P. P. S. For more images taken during the protests, see this tumblr page. Parental discretion advised. I also share the following images and try to explain what they are.
Home-made recipe to neutralize pepper gas.
“The revolution won’t be televised”, a reaction against the mainstream media that stood on the side of the government.
An unarmed protestor in surrendering position in front of a heavily shielded police troop.
International support from Turkish people and their foreign friends all around the world. Pictures show only some cities.
People cleaning up the park and its surrounding after the police withdrew.
“Dedicated to those who think it’s only about a tree”, a poster implying that the protest was actually to protect Atatürk’s principles such as secularism, republicanism, etc.
The picture clearly shows that it’s all about simple maths.
Celebrities joined the protest and encouraged the people.
CİHAN'S SKETCHBOOK 