I just returned from İstiklal, Taksim. The most beautiful thing about this movement is, it didn't start with support from any organization. The main opposition party didn't even get involved. They actually had to cancel their rallies. There are lots of people walking around in Taksim. Some people are sitting on the street and drinking beer. The act of drinking beer is a way to protest the Islamist agenda of Erdoğan. I drank a beer too. Stores are out of beers. The beer was very warm and when I complained the shopkeeper, he said it's impossible to find beer anywhere else.
There aren't any police around. Police is at Beşiktaş. Beşiktaş is bloodier than Taksim right now. The photos from Taksim at the moment is nothing compared to that. In Taksim, there aren't any gas canisters being shot but it's effects are still staying strong. My nose is still burning and my friend said his eyes were burning.
People are chanting things like "Standing together against fascist AKP!" "Turkey is secular and it will stay secular!" "Go to hell AKP!" and so on. There are interesting chantings but they kinda lose their meaning when translated to English. I also heard "Eat my dick, AKP!" at one moment. The crowd isn't getting rowdy at the moment. I only saw a guy throwing empty beer bottles around and that's it. People are actually very helpful. While we were walking around, a woman who looked like around 50-60 years old offered us some cakes. She said her daughters made them and she is offering them to protestors for free. It was really delicious.
People are playing music too. It's mostly traditional Turkish music but I saw some people dancing with Gangnam Style on the street. Some crowds are making noise with hitting things like saucepans lids and frying pans together. I also saw the video of a guy doing MJ's moonwalking dance in front of the cops.
There are lots of women around and I noticed some women shouting louder than men. It's good to see them standing up for themselves. This is what happens when you oppress women and treat them as baby-making machines. All that pressure is finally showing it's effects.
I noticed a security cabin with "WC" graffitied (is that a word?) on it. And here I was wondering where these people are using as a toilet. I took two pics from the graffs around.
Translation: MURDERER COPS
Translation: MURDERER COPS WILL PAY FOR THIS
My phone has a crappy camera, I know. I have to take pics while moving because it's very crowded. I couldn't take pics of everything written because there are tons of graffs around. The ones I remember "You pissed on the mosque wall, Tayyip" "Tonight we are the law" "Fascist AKP" "[I heard] pepper spray makes the skin beautiful" "What's up Tayyip?" It's good that we still have our sense of humor. Some other graffiti photos I found from other sources.
Translation: Revolution will not be televised!
Eh, you know what it is. Replace the 'k' with a 'c'
Translation of some of the interesting ones: "15:50 high-pressure water hose at the square again" "Twitter is inaccessible (16:20)" "Police is pulling back, Halay (Turkish folk dance) at Gezi!" "We need people who can suture up wounds in Taksim, there are wounded..." "15:15 Cihangir, gas canisters to the head, there are wounded!" "Definitely take a lemon with you!" "TTNET (largest internet service provider in Turkey) is cutting the internet connection! 15:55" "To go to Taksim: From Kadıköy to Kabataş with a boat, then to the Taksim by walking." "Londra: 5000 people are at Hyde Park." "They are transporting pepper gas canisters to İstanbul!" "Ankara: Yüksel Street is under gas" "İstiklal, Tepebaşı, and the tunnel is still intense" "NTV (an ass-licking Turkish channel) workers are rebelling + people who are putting up ads are cancelling them" "Kurdish: BİJİ BERXWEDAN (Long live the revolution)"
You can guess what was going on from these.
Some other pics I took:
My friends took better pics. I'll post them here if I manage to get them.
I learned that police is using ambulances to carry gas canisters around. I also heard about someone who called an ambulance and after the ambulance came, a police squad jumped out of the ambulance's backdoors and started arresting the wounded. People are warning the others to not to call an ambulance and simply rely on protestor doctors who are helping the wounded for free. I saw a guy with "doctor" written with spray can on the back of his t-shirt.
I got the news of 1000 police officers and 15 police commissioners resigning from their jobs and joining the protestors. The number of resigned police officers was at 50 just a day ago. This isn't confirmed though. A police officer told that the best way to stop armored police trucks is sticking a wet towel into the exhaust. At least not all of them are monstrous.
I encountered a guy handing out vinegar and lemon to people who are passing-by. Mixing vinegar with water and rubbing your eye with it lessens the effects of pepper spray.
Beyazıt Öztürk, the most famous talk show host in Turkey, cancelled his program yesterday because (from his words) "While people are getting oppressed by the police in the Gezi Park, I'm not going to do an entertainment program."
He is now fired from the channel. (Disregard this, he wasn't fired but the channel wasn't happy either.) He was the host of this talk show since 1996.
I noticed stray dogs getting affected by the pepper gas.
People were helping the affected dogs and now we have the numbers of vets who are working for free. It's common for shopkeepers to put pet food and water outside of their shops and most stray dogs and cats stick to the places where they are well fed by shop owners.
Just outside of my apartment, people are shouting "Cheers, Tayyip!" and they are carrying a beer with them. That's sure to get Muslim fanatics angry.
BTW,
this is how a home-made gas mask looks like.The police have been so brutal. I've seen a few mentions of how much blood is in the streets and pictures of red puddles. This one is especially striking.
Yeah, I accidentally stepped into that puddle.
Will it be safe for me to visit some of the main attractions in Istanbul like the war museum, Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, as well as the old Byzantine/Constantinople-era parts? Or are they the focus of some protests? Also, judging by your photographs and what you've said the situation looks much wilder than our news outlets in the UK are reporting it to be.
Well there are some places you need to stay away from, like Taksim and Beşiktaş. Blue Mosque was very calm when I passed through there. I don't know about Hagia Sofia. The real focus is Taksim and the surrounding areas. Situation is calming down in Taksim but it's getting a lot wilder in Beşiktaş. Taksim just looks like an old battlefield now. Also the gas is still spreading around İstanbul and even if you are not close to Taksim you might get affected by it.
Isn't Turkey trying to get into the EU? What's this going to mean for that?
Not much at the moment, there are a lot of other issues with Turkey joining the EU. Erdogan and the AKP are generally seen with a bit of scepticism, and attacking protesters is not going to make that any better.
Turkey kinda doesn't care much about EU anymore really. News channels used to go on and on about how the progress of EU registration is going but nobody gives a shit anymore. Erdoğan once said he got fed up with slow EU progress and he is looking for a corporation with Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This is old news though.
There's some threads on this on 4chan too. According to one post, simply going on 4chan is illegal, so that's rather interesting if it's true. From what I've gathered, the situation is that Erdogan is a theocrat whereas most turks only remember they're muslims on ramadan? And I might as well post this link for Leatra and any other turk that might be reading: http://www.pcworld.com/article/218155/get_internet_access_when_your_government_shuts_it_down.html
Shopkeepers in Taksim are providing free internet. It's not a big problem to connect. Slowness of the internet is a problem though. 4chan was banned long time ago. Youtube, Google's blogger, and lots of other websites I can't think of right (especially the ones which are considered extremely leftist or anti-islam by AKP) are also banned. We know how to deal with DNS and proxies so it's not a problem. Dealing with signal jammers the cops are using is a pain in the ass though.
According to one post, simply going on 4chan is illegal, so that's rather interesting if it's true. From what I've gathered, the situation is that Erdogan is a theocrat whereas most turks only remember they're muslims on ramadan?
That's oversimplifying the issues too much. Many political movements, left and right, in Turkey are very secular, most notably the Kemalists, the party of the founder of modern Turkey. Erdogan's AKP is pushing a more religious agenda, like the current restrictions on alcohol. The population in rural areas is pretty religious, whereas big cities like Istanbul are relatively western and secular. The issue is more that Erdogan does have an authoritarian streak while the population wants more democracy. And yeah, they do block websites, I think youtube has been blocked a few times.
İstanbul is a lot more secular compared to rural areas but there is a big polarization among the population. Currently a secular group is heading towards Fatih from my neighborhood, and Fatih is like the HQ of fundamentalists. I don't know what happened yet, but I'm expecting blood.
There are lots of Turks who say they are Muslim but they don't go to mosques, they don't read Qur'an, and they don't do namaz (is there an English equivalent for that?). All my friends are Muslim in name only. It almost like they are deists. The "%99 of the population is Muslim" is bullshit. Nobody believe that. I know lots of people who are keeping their true faith (or lack of faith, for that matter) secret. I know 3 Tengriist masquerading as Muslims myself.
I'm currently zapping through Turkish TV channels, and let's see... hmm, a stupid tv series, a football match, a beauty contest, a dude talking about how life is in Beirut, some more stupid tv series, oh hey a channel is talking about Taksim. Erdoğan is saying "The opposition party is shouting "Government should resign and pull back the cops" Well, I say to them, cops were there yesterday, they are there today, and they will be there tomorrow. Taksim has turned into a haven for people with extreme ideologies." He is right about the fact that it's not about saving a few trees anymore but "extreme ideologies"... Well, some people might consider democracy a bit extreme I guess.
That's all for now. Thanks for the support everyone. I'm extremely depraved of sleep but I can't sleep because I don't want to miss what's going on. I'll try to get some sleep though. I have exams starting Monday.
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Topic: Arab Spring springs to Turkey (Read 43961 times)