Hello, I'm from Turkey. This isn't a rant thread or anything like that. There is something big going down here and the Turkish media isn't saying anything about it. We have to rely on social media to find out what's going on. Our prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, doesn't care about it's own citizens anymore. Maybe he will start caring when countries who are sensitive about human-rights understands what's going on. We have to get the attention of the world and the international media.
An occupy-like protest took place at the Gezi Park at 28 May. The aim of this protest was to stop the government from demolishing the park for a new mall. This peaceful intention turned into a country-wide protest after Erdoğan stated that this mall was going to be built "no matter what they do." The brutal police intervention sparked a bigger protest. People started walking towards Taksim, heart of İstanbul, to join the protest. Police tried to stop them from protesting and their intervention only made things worse.
This isn't about protecting some trees anymore. People were getting oppressed for years. We couldn't celebrate our national holidays like 23 April and 19 May. Government also outlawed the celebrations that was going to take place in Taksim at 1 May, worker's day. Turkey has the most imprisoned journalists to date. Ass-lickers are being rewarded and independent journalists are getting punished. There is also the incident with harsh alcohol laws. Selling of alcohol is going to be outlawed if you are 100 meters closer to a mosque or a school. This law change didn't take place yet. Some people are saying AKP is trying to change the subject with this alcohol law to divert the attention from a bombing that took place in Reyhanlı (which killed around 150 people but the government says death toll is around 50). It's illegal to write news about that incident anyway.
All this reached a boiling point with this Gezi Park incident. People are now wanting the government to resign.
This man lost his life at the hospital after getting literally headshotted with water by an armored police truck.
A woman aged 25 lost her life after getting ran over by an armored police truck. This was confirmed by the friends of this woman. A journalist also said this from social media.
Translated from Turkish, words of a journalist:
Just a moment ago our last reporter returned to the office and the first question I asked was about the girl who was rumored to be ran over by an armored police truck. I asked him if it was true or not. This is what he said:
"She was right behind me. I saw her getting run down from 2-3 meters away. We heard the news of her death. Police behind the armored truck were shouting "Run her over! Run her over!" to the driver of the truck.
There have been another death but I don't know the specifics. I heard something about his eyes bleeding.
There are also ten or more unconfirmed deaths. You know how easy it is to lie on social media so I'm staying skeptic.
I also heard something interesting. Around the street where police has taken control, cops are breaking the shop windows and vandalizing the shops around. The eye witnesses said they were doing this to get an opportunity to blame the protestors later. I don't know if it's true or not but I heard around 10 people saying this. I did witness protestors trying to help the shopkeepers.
There are hundreds of wounded and the most common reason for getting wounded is getting shot by gas canisters. The police is directly aiming at the head of citizens. One of them is Leyla Okay, a prominent actress and director who took a gas canister to head. She has bleeding in her brain and her situation is critical. Last time I heard about her she was going under surgery.
Cops also tried to enter a military hospital. They wanted the soldiers to move the barricades so the police can get the police trucks out of there more easily. Soldiers said it was a restricted area and they couldn't enter. A police officer said "Move the barricades or we will throw gas canisters inside." a soldier responded by saying "Go ahead and throw them, we will throw something else." Police is threatening everyone here, not just citizens.
You can see some photos about what's going on here:
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/ (there are a few bloody pics a bit further, not for the fainthearted)
You can watch a
live stream channel thanks to Norwegian media. Turkish media is useless when it comes to information at the moment.
A Turkish citizen is broadcasting live at Taksim here:
http://www.livestream.com/revoltistanbul. He tends to run out of batteries a lot though.
There are some more streams I have managed to found but they all are down right now.
The solidarity here is incredible. People who have opposing ideologies are standing together. There are doctors down there working for free to help the wounded. Lawyers are also volunteering to defend the protestors for free. I heard about a brothel in Taksim opening it's doors to help the wounded and starving protestors. People are handing out home-made gas masks which were built from plastic bottles.
I have to cut this short. I have tons of things to say but I only slept for 2 hours last night. My eyes hurt like hell. I'll edit this later. I spent all night trying to figure out what was going on and I translated the information I found. I'll try to answer any questions after I wake up but since Turkish media is busy with licking the ass of government, I don't have much confirmed information myself. I'm getting lots of 504 errors. Internet is kinda slow right now. Spread the word, thanks for reading.
I'll keep posting when I get new information. Spread the news from the social media, I'm not really good at using it.
2. post: Status of protestors, Turkish media
3. post: Situation in Taksim, closer look to how people are surviving there and how they are protesting
4. post: AKP is using loyalists as a militia, two examples of gas bombs police is using
5. post: Humorous Anti-AKP grafitti across the country
6. post: Protestors attacking TOMA armored police trucks with power shovels, a short summary of pre-revolution Turkey and how protecting a park turned into a rebellion, evidence of a cop firing gas canisters into apartments
7. post: People getting attacked even inside their houses, probability of a full-scale mass strike, more police brutality
8. post: Memorials for the martyrs, Kalashnikov found inside a wrecked police vehicle
9. post: The commune-like lifestyle of Gezi Park occupiers, interesting graffiti, ideological views of the protestors
10. post: A small post about how AKP politicians beg people to welcome the PM, protestors boycotting several companies.
THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT EVERYONE!
TL;DR:
Just look at these pics reallyThe least you can do is spreading the photos here:
http://delilimvar.tumblr.com/archive
Author
Topic: Arab Spring springs to Turkey (Read 43677 times)