I managed to sleep and woke up at 10 PM to this.
People are shouting "TAYYIP, RESIGN!" and "STANDING TOGETHER AGAINST FASCISM!" while clanking frying pans together.
Cars drivers are also honking are chanting.
My mom is waving a Turkish flag from the window.
There are no cops around. Most of them are at Beşiktaş.
Translation: Heartless people won't kneel if the oppressed doesn't stand up
Translation: You are picking fights with a generation who was beating cops in GTA!
Translation: You outlawed the alcohol, you sobered us up. Outlaw the brothels too, and we'll try something different
Translation: This is enough! I'm gonna call the police!
He is drawing Atatürk. I have seen this at Taksim when I was there.
Translation: Wanna share a cigarette Tayyip
?
"Dishonest Media" shooting itself
People are using this map to find the safest routes to protest areas and people who are requiring medical help. A similar map is being used by people in Ankara to relay intelligence to protestors.
Okan Bayülgen, a talk show host and an activist, asked the protestors to write their blood type on their arms for easier treatment later. He also recorded
this yesterday.
Some people said the cops were using Agent Orange but this "physicist" is saying this is what's actually being used.
It is very doubtful they are using Agent Orange. There's the matter of it being hard to obtain, but even if they had it the fact remains that Agent Orange is primarily a herbicide and defoliant. It is dangerously toxic but not in a manner that makes a useful weapon.
I found this "IMPORTANT: The orange/red liquid was confirmed by several sources to be CS mixed with orange or red paint(different in different areas of the city) to
tag protesters for later identification.It should be clarified that it WAS NOT agent orange, a rumour that spread a lot. agent orange is colourless, named after orange stripes on the barrels it was shipped in."
I posted some important pics and videos. Biggest news story? I guess all the hours I spent with collecting, translating, validating and relaying information is well spent. I still got a feeling of "I should do something!" all the time though. I can't sleep because of it.
Posting pics and videos is doing something. Not only do we get a very interesting account of the events (thanks for that!), more importantly international media is reporting on the events, using pics and videos from social media that provide a much clearer view of things than what "official" reports are admitting. Ideally media attention will translate into political pressure and force Erdogan to stop police brutality.
Yesterday there was a support rally for Occupy Gezi in Berlin, with some 3000 people attending. That doesn't sound much, but Erdogan used to be popular amongst the turkish community in Germany (many of whom are eligible to vote in Turkey), so it might change something.
Take care!
Thanks. But I really want to be there with protestors with a camera and streaming in English. I'm feeling tired even after sleeping though. I guess I'll just keep relaying information.
Also, he now want to build a mosque over Gezi park. What do you think, a way to brand protestors as anti-Islam?
More like an expression of his own Islamist desires. Also, moronic. It will only serve to harden the opposition against him, while the rabid chucklefucks who would support paving public parks to build mosques already support him.
I hope he keeps being stupid, though that's hardly a risky bet. The global situation will be improved considerably once Erdogan is out of the picture.
That's classic tactic of Erdoğan, using religion to brand people who oppose him as heretic deviants lacking any morality. We are talking about someone who once said "You can't be secular and Muslim at the same time." There is already a secular-fundamentalist polarization and Erdoğan keeps using it to keep the people fighting amongst themselves. I think this won't accomplish anything other than making the protestors more angry and more resolute. There are also religious people protesting too. Someone said he heard a group of protestors shouting "Allah-u Ekber!" and the people applauded them. This polarization isn't going to work. Of course there are strong anti-Islam and anti-Secularism feelings around too but it's rather rare.
People are sick of moral guardians. There was an interesting protest took place in Ankara at 25 May. People in the Ankara metro were warned with this warning: "Dear passengers, please act in accordance with code of ethics" Guess what people did?
They started kissing each other Protesting was never this fun.
Stay safe out there Leatra. You're doing a good thing, but don't get yourself dead.
How close have you gotten to all of this, and is this pretty much right outside your home, or do you have to walk a bit before you start seeing protestors? My assumption is that its all over the place, but you were talking about the areas in which most of the violence was happening.
Thank you. The protests that have been going on in front of my apartment have calmed down. This isn't the focus of protests, they were just regrouping at another place, I think. I went to Taksim yesterday. The cops were pulling back as I got there so there wasn't any danger. I didn't even see any cops around. Taksim was looking like the remains of a battlefield. People were still sitting and walking around. Beşiktaş is the MOST intense protest area right now. You can't see anything because of all that gas. People are tweeting and requesting assistance from people in Taksim.
So, I have 5 exams starting Monday. I didn't study even a little bit. I wonder what's going to happen once people have to go to work on Monday. Sunday and Saturday is the weekend here and people go back to work on Monday. Majority of protestors are people who are going to universities, so some violence may occur in universities between students with clashing ideologies. Leftist-Rightist fights were already common in universities before this.
Protestors are using police barricades as stretchers to carry the wounded
Even the dogs are helping the clean-up.
Situation at İzmir
Found on the window of a bakery which is closed when it would be open normally. Translation: Off to resist, will be back
Erdoğan just said "There is a menace called Twitter..." I hope AKP won't bring down the internet. It's our most powerful tool right now. He also said "I'm not going to ask for permission from some thugs to build a mall. The ones who voted for us already gave us the permission." He thinks democracy means punishing those who didn't vote for you.
Edit:
Left: Sign of nationalists
Middle: Sign of leftists
Right: Sign of BDP (pro-Kurd)
First time in Turkey, they are all standing together.
People are putting free food and everyone is free to take.
Rival football teams who were always fighting against each other are standing together
Writing T.C (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, Republic of Turkey) with gas canisters around
Translation: Protestors can take refuge in this apartment.
Visually impaired people protesting
There are talks about full-scale mass strike. Nothing is decided yet.