This is the third post of a day-by-day compilation of the uprising that is taking place in Turkey. The previous two posts cover the updates for May 31st - June 4th and June 5th - June 14th. They both start with a good number of links for further information, including analysis, visual material and testimonies. I strongly suggest you to have a look at them before reading this one.
June 15, Istanbul. Taksim square and Gezi Park attacked.
On June 15th, there were more popular assemblies in Gezi Park to talk about the
future. The author of this post was in the general assembly (to compile
the results of the 7 popular assemblies), which was cancelled due to
police attacks to Gezi Park and Taksim Square.
All public transport was cancelled, bridges were closed. All neighbourhoods were marching towards Taksim. (Conflicts were reported even 11 km. away from the square.)
The fights continued for two days in many neighbourhoods of Istanbul, resulting with the invasion of Gezi Park and Taksim square by the police forces. Many detentions and injuries were reported.
(By the way, on June 16th, Tayyip made a rally in Istanbul. They took the municipality buses to carry people to the area. AKP says more than 1 million 300 thousand participated. Scientists calculated at most 295 thousand can fit there anyway.
Mass media tried to make sense of AKP's lies, uses photoshop techniques
such as fish-eye lenses, colouring red and adding flags.)
June 17th was the day of general strike, called by the progressive labour unions and associations. Protesters wanted to march to Taksim square but were attacked by the police some 2.5 km away from it.
And then, something very interesting happened. No one was willing to go home.
The "standing people" action was launched by an artist in Taksim Square. The idea was to stand in silence, without any action. It spread around the country in a few hours, thousands were standing. 22 got detained the same day.
Standing people, June 17, Taksim square.
At the same time, in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, a popular assembly emerged spontaneously.
Assembly in Beşiktaş, İstanbul. June 17.
The idea of holding assemblies spread rapidly. The next few days witnessed many neighbourhood assemblies across the country. While writing this, the communication between the assemblies is being formed. So I am not sure about the exact number, my mild guess is some 70 assemblies (most of which are in the big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir).
Afterwards, there seemed to be a common impression that Turkey calmed down a little. My response is a clear NO, because government's attacks never stopped.
Here is a quick summary of how the state's declaration of war against the citizens has been going:
Adana:
June 18th. Police raids, 4 detentions (socialist activists). (released on June 21st)
June 21st. Police raids, around 10 detentions.
June 23rd. Police attacks to demo. 12 detentions.
June 25th. 6 of the detained got arrested. (socialists)
Ankara:
June 18th. Massive police raids, 25 detentions (many revolutionaries)
June 21st. 22 of them got arrested. June 25th. Massive police raids, 23 detentions (many revolutionaries). Also on the same day, police attacked brutally to protesters in Dikmen neighbourhood.
Erzincan: June 25th. Police raids, around 10 detentions.
Eskişehir: June 26th. 7 detentions due to attendance to solidarity protests for Gezi park. Police is collecting people from the street. (The rumour is that they have a list in their hand.)
Istanbul:
June 16th. Police raids to leaders of Çarşı (Beşiktaş Football Fan Club), 20 detentions.
June 18th. Massive police raids, 70 detentions (including leaders and members of revolutionary organizations)
June 20th. 2 Çarşı members got arrested. June 21st. 18 of the 70 detained got arrested.
June 23rd. 15 detention in Taksim march. (See below) June 26th. Warrant of arrest decreed for 7 protesters.
Izmir:
June 20th. Police attacked the camps in Gündoğdu Square early in the morning, 48 detentions. Police raids with unknown number of detentions.
June 22nd. 13 of them got arrested.
June 24th. Police raids. 13 detentions (mostly socialists). June 26th. 2 of the detained are reported to be tortured. (one got his finger dislocated, one got his arm broken)
Izmir, June 20th. Very early in the morning. Police attacks and destroys the tents.
Kocaeli:
June 20th. 2 people arrested. (socialists) June 25th. Police raids, many detentions. (many are released, numbers unknown)
Mersin:
June 21st. Police attacked marching protesters, 20 detentions.
I am listing a bunch of police raids and detentions. Perhaps it doesn't make sense to you. It shouldn't ! Here's why: Erdal
Kozan, under arrest in Ankara due to participation in the protests,
appears in court, says to the judge: "The search warrant lists 9
organizations. It is not specified to which we belong. Will you choose
for us, or will we have a chance to state our preferences?"
Assemblies seem to have settled themselves and reached a regularity, sending meeting minutes and establishing coordination among them.
On the other hand, Taksim Solidarity Platform made a call to march to Taksim Square with carnations. This protest took place on June 23rd, and police naturally attacked carnations too.
Taksim square, June 23rd. Istanbul city governor explained it: "The activity went beyond putting
carnations and started disturbing public order. The routine traffic in
Taksim was blocked for almost an hour. This is why this convenient
intervention took place."
Istiklal street next to Taksim, Istanbul. June 23rd. After the police attack to the carnations.
On the same day, there were protests all over Turkey. I have been stating that this has been a war one-sidedly declared by the state to its citizen. But I also titled the previous post as "A continuous battle", which needs further explanation. The reason was to emphasize on the systematic negligence towards Ankara, where not a single day passed (for almost a month now) without police attacks.
Here is a testimony of June 22nd in Ankara:Police attacks in Kennedy Avenue, 70 year
old Nurettin Aydın gets in front of the water cannon and shouts
“Don't!”. Police attacks to Aydin too. Aydin, who has problems with his
heart, is now in hospital. He had a letter in his hand, found by the
protesters carrying him to the hospital: "If I take my share of tear gas
and die, contact my family." together with a phone number.
On June 23rd, Tayyip (PM) clearly stated the following: "They ask who gave the orders to the police. I did." The next day, he further commented "Our police had a legendary and heroic performance.", and added: "First,
you shall know your place. You say “such-and-such platform”, whatever
platform you are. When have feet and head changed places?"
Following these declarations, on June 24th, the court sent Ahmet Ş. (the cop who murdered Ethem by
shooting him on the head) free. The court considered his act as self
defence and decided not to arrest him at all. Honest enough, the judge stated: "It is decreed that his arrest would cause irretrievable harms." I interpret this as: "It would serve as an example. We cannot start a tradition of arresting murderers." Just to remind, this is how they murdered Ethem Sarısülük:
There were demonstration everywhere on June 25th, protesting this decision of the court. Mass participation was observed in many cities. Strangely, police did not attack in Istanbul. But it did attack very brutally in Dikmen, Ankara, as it always does.
Ankara, Dikmen. June 25th.
On June 26th, 2 protesters who were eye witnesses of the murder of Ethem got detained. One got arrested later on the same day. It is also reported that there is an illegal construction work going on in Gezi Park, under the surveillance of the police. Non-police people are still not allowed to enter the park.
Note: This short text was written on June 17th, on ongoing discussions within the protesters of the uprising in Turkey. It seems to apply (at least partly) to the Brazilian case. (As it is an internal polemic of the movement in Turkey, the context should be abstracted to see the parallelism.)
Those who don't want political
organizations !
Do not talk to socialists and
communists, whose right to associate is heavily restricted, whose
many members are under detention. Tell to AKP not to organize. We are
not properly organized anyway, why do you bother with us? Go tell
them ! The police should dissolve, the cops shouldn't have an
organization. Tell people not to become members of AKP.
Those who want a passive struggle !
Do not tell it to those who construct
barricades that can stop the police for hours. Tell it to the police,
to the city governor. Tell them to let us go, and we will march
peacefully. Look, was anyone throwing stones to anyone else in Gezi
Park when we had our camping area? Advise pacifism not to those who
throw the stone they found on the pavement, but to those who use tons
of tear gas bombs against us.
Those who say we better return to our
homes now !
Do not tell it to hundreds of thousands
of protesters who want to march from one place to another. Tell this
to the police who is continuously attacking us for 20 days already.
Tell them to go home. Where are we supposed to go? Our home is Gezi
Park, we used to sleep there. The police is not letting us into our
home. Our homes are all the streets of Turkey, and the police is not
letting us alone. The police must return home, go tell them.
Go ahead and talk to the
privileged, instead of the depraved. And see how the privileged
respond to the depraved.
This is a day-by-day compilation of the updates of the uprising that is taking place in Turkey. For the first week's updates, background information and other links you may not encounter here, please have a look at the first post. In addition, I discovered the following websites:
Atatürk Cultural Center in Taksim square, to be destroyed and transformed into a shopping mall too. June 5th.
When the protesters managed to liberate the Gezi Park and Taksim Square, things mostly calmed down in Istanbul, but not in the other cities. In Antakya, Dersim, Ankara and Rize, police violence continued as usual. Here is a testimony from Istanbul:
Political parties, NGOs, LGBTs, organizations have stands all over.
Yesterday was the most crowded night I think. Yes, there is a library
constructed. Everywhere, it's full of free water and bread distributions.
There is a workshop program, we made a nonviolence training, they also
do yoga pilates or something.
We couldn't find a place for our tent, or even to sit and relax, last night.
The same day, Taksim Solidarity Platform had a meeting with the government where they delivered the following demands:
• Taksim Gezi Park will not be re-developed under the name of Artillery Barracks or any other project, • an official statement on the cancellation of the current project is made, • the attempts to demolish Ataturk Cultural Centre stop, • everybody responsible for the thousands of injured people and two
deaths, starting with the Governors and the Police Chiefs of Istanbul,
Ankara and Hatay and everyone who prevented the use of the most basic
democratic rights of the people; who gave orders for violent repression,
enforced or implemented these orders are dismissed from their posts, • the use of tear gas bombs and other similar materials is prohibited, • detained citizens who attended the resistance across the country
are immediately released and an official statement which declares that
there will not be any investigation about them, • starting with Taksim and Kizilay squares, all the meeting and
demonstration bans effecting all of our squares and public areas and all
the de facto blockings are abolished and stopped, • barriers to freedom of expression are removed.
In later days, Tayyip (PM) stated that these demands were unacceptable.
Chapulling became an English word on the same day, following Tayyip's discourse on calling us "looters". But Fethullah, a fundamentalist community leader, went further and said "We should
rehabilitate this rotten generation.", calling us
"depraved".
In Ankara, the general strike march was violently attacked by the police. Here is a testimony how June 5th went there:
Day of general strike. Marching towards Kızılay square. Police
barricades and water cannons and helicopters on the sides. Apparently, a
few people pushed the barricades. I'm guessing that police said “we'll
attack if this repeats”, guessing because due to helicopters nothing was
audible. Union said they stop the protest. Until we got what's
happening, police attacked brutally. We
later learned that unionist were forming a barricade “in order to avoid
anyone attacking the police”. Some people started an argument with the
unionists. And police attacked in the meanwhile, for no reasonable
reason. Protesters retreated until Beytepe and formed a barricade.
This is just Kızılay. But the resistance is all over Ankara:
Yüzüncüyıl, Dikmen, Mamak, Çiğdem, neighborhoods. Everyday there is a
neighborhood march, massive participation. Two days ago, we wanted to
join to Dikmen groups, but failed due to brutal police attacks.
It can be little tangential for a post dedicated to updates, but now that we mentioned the general strike, it is worth emphasizing that in İzmir the social democrat mayor
threatened workers, said if they go to strike then heavy discipline
measures will be applied. Ankara's Islamist mayor congratulated him via Twitter. I'm just making a point.
Tayyip, back in Turkey, started making rallies in every city, threatening the protesters. I tried reading his speeches but decided it's a waste of time and intellectual energy. I am sure the readers can find it in corporate media. Let me instead tell things you cannot find in corporate media, such as the report of Medical Association on June 7th: - total wounded: 4785 (in 13 cities) - 3 people died. - 48 seriously wounded
- 2 in Ankara, 1 in Eskişehir : 3 of the wounded are in critical situation
- 18 had head trauma. - 10 lost their eyes.
- 1 had his spleen taken. June 7th, June 8th and June 9th were weekend days and therefore we had massive demonstrations. Many cities started camps or else had open microphone events. I tried counting the number of towns but got bored after an hour, seeing that I cannot get a complete list anyway. It goes without saying that in Ankara, police attacked brutally on each of these days, deliberately aiming at journalists and especially alternative media workers.
Ankara, June 8th.
June 10th, Monday, was relatively calm too. It was a day full of fascist hatred from the government side: Tayyip (PM) declared that they do not accept our terms.Bülent Arınç from AKP threatened the protesters.
Abdullah Gül, the Islamist president from AKP, signed the bill that
strongly restricts alcohol consumption.
Following the hateful provocations of AKP, police attacked the Taksim square on June 11th, early in the morning. The fights continued all day and all night long. Taksim Square was invaded by the police, the protesters retreated to Gezi Park. Curious detail: The banners and flags in Atatürk Cultural Center (see photo above) were replaced by Turkish flags and an Atatürk flag.
Istanbul, police attack on June 11th
By June 12th morning, the author of this blog arrived to Istanbul. There was a huge recovery mobilization in Gezi Park. Everyone brought food and drinks to the campers. From early morning until very late at night, people carried medical equipment, gas masks, goggles, water bottles and many other things that were sent from all over the country.
Four
TV channels who had been broadcasting the uprising since the beginning
are fined the same day. Reason? Here: They made programs that could harm the
physical, mental or moral development of children and youth.
AKP made a "friendly" meeting with some fake representatives they picked from here and there. Our demands were not in the agenda. The AKP spokesman said they could consider a referendum on the project. I don't get what they mean by "referendum on an urban transformation project". Referendums are for changes in law, not some ridiculous plundering projects. I suppose they mean a public survey which wouldn't be legally binding anyway. June 13th and June 14th were outrageously calm in Istanbul, while protests continued in other cities. Here is what I posted on June 14th (which still applies at this very moment on June 21st when I'm writing this post) :
VERY
IMPORTANT UPDATE: There is a continuous BATTLE in ANKARA for more than
two weeks. People and the police fight for 7 hours during the night, go
home by sunrise, heal the wounded, replace the inventories (teargas for
police, anti-acid liquid for protesters) and go back to the battlegrounds (i.e. public squares).
Thousands injured, thousands detained.
Police attacks never stop in Ankara. THIS IS NOT A GAME ! We need people, we need solidarity protests, we need everything.
Ethem Sarısülük died on June 14th, and Ankara municipality
put a huge banner to the park where he was murdered: "Dear Turkish
Police. Ankara is Proud of You." Here is how he was shot to death:
Also on June 13th, Taksim Solidarity Platform had a meeting with Tayyip. Their meeting was finished very late at night. They gave a briefing of the meeting and then on June 14th popular assemblies were formed in Gezi Park to consider our response. In short, Tayyip repeated the referendum ridicule and did not mention any of our other demands. The popular assemblies consensually stated to continue the resistance.
On June 15th, there were more popular assemblies to talk about the future. The author of this post was in the general assembly (to compile the results of the 7 popular assemblies), which was canceled due to police's invasion of Gezi Park. But this will be covered in the next post.
Örgütlenme özgürlüğü sınırlanmış, birçok üyesi gözaltında olan sosyalistlere ve komünistlere değil, AKP'ye gidip söyleyin örgütlenmesinler. Biz zaten doğru dürüst örgütlü falan değiliz, bizle ne uğraşıyorsunuz. Gidin söyleyin ! Polis dağılsın, bir arada durmasın. İnsanlar AKP'ye üye olmasın.
Pasif bir mücadele isteyenler !
Polisi saatlerce oyalayabilen barikatlere inşa edenlere değil, polise söyleyin, valiye söyleyin açsınlar yolu, barışçıl bir şekilde yürüyelim. Bak hepimiz Gezi Parkı'ndayken hiç kimse birbirine taş atıyor muydu? Sokakta bulduğu taşı atanlara değil, tonlarca biber gazını atanlara pasiflik öğütleyin.
Eve dönelim diyenler !
Sokağa çıkıp bir yerden bir yere yürümek isteyen yüzbinlerce eylemciye değil, neredeyse 20 gündür aralıksız saldıran polise söyleyin, onlar eve gitsinler. Polis gitsin eve. Biz nereye gidiyoruz? Niye eve gidiyoruz? Bizim evimiz Gezi Parkı, orada sabahlıyorduk, polis bizi evimize sokmuyor. Bizim evimiz tüm Türkiye'nin sokakları, polis bizi rahat bırakmıyor. Polis dönsün eve, gidin onlara söyleyin.
Açla değil, tokla konuşun. Bakın nasıl cevap veriyor toklar açlara.
* FLASH: (June 13, 1.15 am): Police attacked protesters in Ankara ! At the moment, protesters are tweeting on police manoeuvres.
* Murderers ! Ethem Sarısülük's brain death reported today. Here is how he was murdered:
* AKP
made a meeting with some people who are claimed to "represent" the Gezi
movement. Çelik, vise-president of AKP says the meeting was "very
friendly" and that they might consider to make a referendum on the Gezi
project. They seem to have forgotten about our 4 demands.
* Gezi Park was calm all day long. Tons of support, medical equipment, food, cleaning material. Chapullers carrying stuff from one place to another all day long.
* June 12, 13.30, Istanbul.
REPORTED:
The resistance in Gezi Park is continuing. Thousands are sending help.
One protester recently complained of the excessive amount of sandwiches
and pastries and cakes that are being brought.
* June 12, 13.30, Istanbul. Hundreds of lawyers making a mass demonstration inside the Palace of Justice.
* June 12: Four
TV channels who had been broadcasting the uprising since the beginning
are fined. Reason? Here: They made programs that could harm the
physical, mental or moral development of children and youth.
* First, some brief updates from June 11:
- Police attacked Taksim brutally, fights continued all day and night long. Hundreds are reported to be injured.
This is what police does to a library.
Afterwards, the policemen played football in the square. Shameless people are shameless.
- In another neighbourhood of Istanbul, "Gazi", protesters blocked the main highway.
- Fights in Ankara continued as violently as before.
Reported: In Ankara, they now use what is
called "akrep" (scorpion). These are literally military vehicles, can
cross any kind of barricades, can shoot gasbombs, have cameras, and are
very fast.
[These
were used to oppress the demonstrations in Kurdistan. I am sharing it
now, just because it is only now that English-speaking people follow my
posts seriously. And I should add that the vehicles themselves come from
the Kurdish cities anyway.]
- Istanbul: Police entered the palace of justice, detains more than 40 lawyers.
This is a copy-paste compilation of whatever reliable I could find. For the first days, a summary and detailed information, see this one; where you can find several links as well as updates.
The author of this post is not available to update it regularly. The post was updated at 13:30 on June 11, Turkish time.
* Police attacked Taksim once again.
Reported: By 7 am, all TV channels are ready for live streaming. Some 10 infiltrated police provocateurs spotted. Gas bombs and water cannons attacked for hours.
* FLASH NEWS: Riot police attacks in Ankara with teargas and blast bombs. (1:10 am)
* In the meanwhile in fascistan: Abdullah Gül, the Islamist president from AKP, just signed the bill that strongly restricts alcohol consumption.
* FLASH NEWS: Ankara. 23:30. Police attacked once again. Barricades are being formed by the protesters.
* Ankara, June 10. Police made barricades to several spots, not allowing tens of thousands to march to Kızılay. The protesters marched to Tunalı. Tensions continue.
* June 10: Tayyip (PM) declared that they do not accept our terms. Bülent Arınç from AKP threatened the protesters.
* Reported, Ankara: Police deliberately aims at journalists, especially alternative media workers.
* RevoltAnkara (and not just ResistAnkara) (June 9th) : Police brutally attacked protesters all night long. Fights continue in several spots.
* Police attacks continue: Adana. Police forces attacked the protesters several times during the night.
* Demonstrations in many cities, most including open microphone.
* On the new twitter campaign "flamasızgezi", claiming Gezi should not have political party and/or organization flags. Deniz Sinan Tunaboylu, political testimony [my translation]
Gezi
without organization flags? Calm down. Okay, these are historical
days, we became a real “people” now, but there's no need to get
carried away.
Gezi
without organization flags is the discourse of liberals who are
uneasy with the presence of socialists and revolutionaries. Let us
not support this nonsense, please. These liberals were expecting
democracy and peace from AKP since 12 days ago, and now they're
trying to pacify our resistance.
Yet if
you insist on “flamasızgezi” (the hashtag for Gezi without
organization flags), my friend, who is unhappy with my presence, I
have to tell you a few things...
See,
this is me in the photo. Zaytung (Turkish The Onion) used it the
other day, but let me tell you something, this is a 7 years old
photo. Date: 3 May 2006. The privatization of Istanbul University
cafeteria, the day of the auction. We started our activities months
before the auction when we heard about the privatization. As “the
ones with flags” stood up for Gezi, we also stood up for the
cafeteria back then. Well, because “the ones with flags” stood up
for all the values of the country, everything that belongs to the
people: Tüpraş, Erdemir, Seka, Seydişehir and so on.
So my
friend, we made a protest that day. Academics, cafeteria workers,
revolutionary students were shoulder to shoulder, marching to Beyazıt
square. When we wanted to enter our university, police attacked. The
protesters resisted for a while, but then got dispersed. I lagged
behind, and then this scene... It was on newspapers the next day.
This is the books market but I actually had no chance to read a book
to the police officers: I couldn't have a photo-op, unfortunately. We
were not “without flags”, but we were without you. Perhaps, if we
weren't without you, the police couldn't disperse us, perhaps there
wouldn't be detentions. We called you several times for the action
but you turned up your nose and said “it's not worth it for this
people, it wouldn't work”, you left us alone. Do you know how many
times we confronted police violence like this? How many times,
defending the country, fighting oppression and violence.. You were
not there.
Now, one
says “Did I breathe the teargas for you to open your flag?”. My
brother, my sister. Watch the videos of May 31st, watch how
organizations resisted that day. In the end, we have a tradition, a
culture of struggle. It's your first time breathing it, but we had
been breathing it for years, every now and then. Don't show off,
please. Don't tell heroic stories to anyone. If you wanna have a race
on who was exposed to teargas the most, you'd lag so far behind. You
know about that orange gas thing, for instance? Years ago, they tried
it in our university for the first time. Did you hear about it back
then? You are telling me “Did I breathe the teargas for you to open
your flag?” but I say “I breathed all the teargas for years so
that the people rises up.” If you take a similar stand, that's how
we would win.
You were
not with me for years, when I was exposed to teargas. But that's
alright, my friend. I will not rake up the past, I am quite fine with
the situation today, people rose up. I focus on today and tomorrow.
Yet, I will be in this struggle the same way I was since years. I was
with flags, I had a political identity, I was organized. You didn't
listen to me for years, but don't shut your ears to me now. I am not
handing you my flag by force. I am not pressuring you. We reduced the
amount of flags, we emphasize more on common slogans. But what's in
front of us is an organized power, and we must be organized too. In
associations, in labor unions, in parties...
This
resistance is political, don't get deluded. Being political is not
necessarily carrying a party flag. Demanding the resignation of
government is a clear political discourse. Hence, hostility towards
politics is useful only for AKP mentality. Apoliticism is defeated by
this resistance, let us not give it a hand now.
Now, get
yourself out of Gezi for a moment and look around the country.
Ankara, Adana, Gazi... The resistance continues. Do not shut yourself
to Gezi to enjoy your time, my friend... The ones we lost in this
resistance were also “with flags”, let's not disrespect their
memory. And so: Long live our organized struggle.
Note:
Here the “you” is not a singular person. The “you” is
apoliticism, the praise of unorganizedness.
* Update (June 9th, Taksim march, 15:30).
* June 9th: Tayyip at Mersin (south of Turkey), in the inauguration of a shopping mall. (seriously) Thousands protesting. * June 8th. Protests continued all around the country. * June 8th, Ankara: Police attacked tens of thousands of people with no reason. Fights continue in all streets. Here is a video.
* Update: Tomorrow morning (June 8th) in Gezi Park women organize a nonsexist-nonhomofobic-nontransfobic SWEARWORD workshop. * Medical Association, latest report (June 7): - total wounded: 4785 (in 13 cities) - 3 people died. - 48 seriously wounded
- 2 in Ankara, 1 in Eskişehir : 3 of the wounded are in critical situation
- 18 had head trauma. - 10 lost their eyes.
- 1 had his spleen taken.
* June 7th (13:00): Ankara: Protesters wanted to camp in Kuğulu Park, police didn't allow, threatened to attack. Tents were taken away by the protesters. No detentions. * Tayyip's speech on June 6th (full text, not my translation, but the emphases are mine) RT: Dear brothers, people of
Istanbul, friends, citizens attaching us from their TVs. I salute you
with all my heart. I thank you for giving us this Istanbul night filled
with amazing joy and excitement. Tonight I don't only salute you but I
also salute every one of my brothers in every village, every city of
Turkey.
Crowd: Ya Allah, Bismillah, Allah Akbar...
RT:
I salute my grandmothers, my sisters. I salute my worker brothers,
farmers, laborers, villagers who work hard is to put bread on the table.
I salute my young brothers who are as grand, as dignified and as poised
as Turkey is.
Crowd: Istanbul is right here, where are the chapulcus?
RT:
I salute my brothers who are here in Istanbul, in Istanbul's brother
city Sarajevo, Baku, Beirut, Skopje, Damascus, Gaza, Mecca, Medina. I
salute Istanbul again and again with all my heart, every Istanbul
neighborhood, every street, every district.
Crowd: Istanbul is right here, where are the drums!
RT:
I bring greetings from far away lands. I bring you my Moroccan,
Algerian and Tunisian brothers greetings. May Allah make our brotherhood
last forever. May Allah make our unity and solidarity last forever. Our
brothers and governors there all said that this shall pass. They said
they believe in us. My dear brothers, Yunus (poet) said: "I don't come
to fight, my job is for love. The friend's home is in hearts, I come to
build hearts." We never want to break hearts, we always want to win
hearts. We stood straight but we never steepened. Fight is not for us.
Collisions are not for us. We don't vandalize, break, fight, destroy.
Crowd: May the hands who harm the police be broken!
RT:
Brothers, we know how to build and we came until today by building,
producing, making Turkey bigger. I want to underline: We came until this
point in spite of the interest lobby. Now, this interest lobby thinks
they can threaten us. They should know this very well: We won't allow
them to feed on our nation's hard work. If a bank's general manager goes
ahead and claims that he sides with these vandals, he will find us
against him. We came until today by making Turkey's economy bigger and
bigger. The ones that came to us and told us they got 5 times richer
during our time, now change sides. Today the world is talking about
Turkey and its people. Where did all this come from? We came until today
with patience, knowing that patience would lead to victory. Everybody
must know this: We came until today by building Turkey on the basis of
brotherhood, by making Turkey bigger, by honoring brotherhood.
Brothers, some people say that the Prime Minister is the prime minister
of the 50 percent only. How can that be true? We always said until today
that we were the servant of 76 million. We brought service from east to
west. Who would have believed 10 years ago that one day there would be
an airport in Hakkari, in Iğdır? When we came there were only 26
airports, we made that number 50. Those who are against us didn't ask
why this service was given but they asked who gave this service. AKP did
all this. AKP is doing all this. And they tried to do what they
couldn't do in the elections, outside the elections. Nobody's ethnicity,
origin, ideology is pushed aside in our eyes. Because we are not the
masters of this nation, of the 76 million. We are their servants.
United, we are Turkey. We are together, we are one. This is how we see
the events in Turkey.
We read, analyze and step forward. AKP's
success is not in colliding. But they must now this: We are the
generations of Akif (poet). This might not work for some.
"I
can't applaud cruelty, I can't love the cruel. I can't curse the past to
please the one who comes. I can't be some low-born's dog. And most of
all, I can't worship injustice. I am in love with independence since I
was born. The golden tulip can never be my collar. If I see a bleeding
heart, my heart breaks and I would be whipped or kicked to mend it. I
can't say "don't care and walk away." I care. I step and I get stepped
upon but I make the unjust just. I am the enemy of the wrong-doer but I
love the wronged." (poem)
Dear brothers, as we respect the
democracy, the elections and the national will, we ask for respect
towards us. As we started this path, we said one thing: The goal is
forward democracy and we will achieve it. Brothers, the nation gives
the responsibility. And it can only be the nation who takes it back.
Nobody other than the people can lay hands on this. Nobody can take it
outside the voting ballots. We placed this responsibility as sacred
since 10,5 years. We protected it with our lives and we will continue to
do so.
RT:
There seems to be a problem there, what's going on? Let's call the
security for help. Let's take our brother out. Let him breathe. (To
someone in the crowd who seems to be fainting)
We won't let
anyone break the law, threaten the democracy, vandalize, destroy and
harm public property or people. Now at Gezi Park… (Crowd boos) those
protest for not even 15 trees took three lives. Two youngster died and a
police man was killed in action.
Crowd: May the hands who harm the police be broken!
RT:
Now, I am saying one thing from here. As much as the death of these
young people are important, the death of my police is also important.
Whose police is this?
Crowd: Ours!
RT: The police
works to protect our lives, our safety. He stands against terrorism,
anarchy and vandalism. And what do they say? Pull the police back! What
now? This is not some random place, this is the Turkish republic. And
our police has done his work to protect the public places, public
equipment, civilians and their belongings from those who attack them.
Yes, they might have used some excessive force. My deputy prime minister
has expressed our apologies. My Minister of Internal Affairs is looking
into that. He is following up on the subject. But nobody has the right
to attack us based on these. Our police man's unborn baby is left an
orphan. Many shops are plundered, the store owners are harmed. And these
shameless people took the Turkish flag in their hands and did all that.
Crowd: Let us go and we'll crash Taksim!
RT:
They said they were journalists, artists, politicians and they acted
irresponsibly by provoking this discrimination, this lawless behavior.
These actions that turned into vandalism and lawlessness must stop
immediately. Our citizens that became the tools of terrorist
organizations must refrain from these anti-democratic, lawless actions.
My innocent citizens! Whatever we will do we will do with law. We will
see every other way lawless and stand against them.
Crowd: Let us go and we'll crash Taksim!
RT:
You acted with dignity and common sense these past 10 days. We won't
give up on those. You don't have pots and pans in your hands do you?
Crowd: No!
RT:
Now, that's important. We don't want you to become one of those with
pots and pans, you will be our youngsters with computers in their hands.
The grand youngsters of the grand Turkey, you will continue walking
forward. You are the hope of the wronged. You are the examples to the
Middle East, to Africa, to the Balcans. You will take big steps and
reach big places. You won't betray or betrayed.
Crowd: Ya Allah, Bismillah, Allah Akbar…
RT: Young people, I thank each and every one of you. I open my arms to all
the young people of Turkey through you. I salute all my friends and
brothers in Anotolia, in Thrace and in the whole world. Dear people of
Istanbul, rest assured: Nobody can stand in the way of Turkey's progress
other than Allah.
Crowd: Ya Allah, Bismillah, Allah Akbar…
RT:
I give my condolences to our martyr police and our two young people.
"Be glad Mehmet (a common name for a soldier), our head is held high. Be
glad whether we die or come back home. Don't think this wheel will stay
on this bump. Tomorrow is ours. The sun has risen, the sun has set,
infinity is ours." (poem)
May Allah be with us on the way. May our path and luck be open. May Allah be with you.
* June 6th: The evening and the night were full of massive peaceful demonstrations all around the country. (June 7, 12:00) EDIT: In Gazi, İstanbul, police attacks heavily injured Turan Akbaş, who is in intensive care at the moment after the operation. Here are some photos:
Taksim, open microphone
Taksim, voluntary veterinary spot in action
Taksim. Liberating the park. Planting new trees.
Ankara, late at night.
* (20:00) Taksim Solidarity Platform published a press release, stating they see no sign of cooperation from government officials. "This is just the beginning. The struggle continues." * İzmir: Başak Özçelik shared her photos demonstrating police violence. This happened in the main square of İzmir.
* İrfan Tuna, a cleaning employee exposed to gas bombs for long hours last night in Ankara, died of heart attack. Prosecutors demanded autopsy to analyze the effect of teargas in his death.
* Kayseri's
catch: City governor says "We did not attack the protesters in Kayseri,
protesters went to the fountains in the parks and made themselves wet." * Yesterday's catch: İzmir: Social democrat mayor threatened workers, said if they go to strike then heavy discipline measures will be applied. Ankara's Islamist mayor congratulated him. * A very good photo-description-story of Gezi Park, Taksim. * (17:00) Tayyip says they will continue with the transformation of Gezi Park. * FLASH (16:00) Testimony:
Friends. World media focused on Taksim as the police does not attack as
in here. So the resistance seems to have stopped. However Ankara is
being exposed to several-folds attacks at the moment: gas bombs thrown
into buildings, public torture scenes, detentions, plastic bullets... I
request you to focus in Ankara and spread the word.
* Patti Smith sends support: We are all chapulling. * In this video, published on June 4, police officer gives orders: "Hit whomever you see. Let Allah help you, bro." * This website is called "You are so beautiful.", referring to Turkish female protesters.
* This seems comprehensive for the first 9 days. * Reported: Socialdemocrat municipality pacifies protests
in Antalya, shows years old slides together with national anthem and firework. (At the same moment, police attacks in Ankara were
continuing.) * İstanbul testimony (about June 5):
Political parties, NGOs, LGBTs, organizations have stands all over.
Yesterday was the most crowded night I think. Yes, there is a library
constructed. Everywhere is full of free water and bread distributions.
There is a workshop program, we made a nonviolence training, they also
do yoga pilates or something.
We couldn't find a place for our tent, or even to sit and relax, last night.
* Here is the evidence for the testimony below (Ankara):
* OUTRAGEOUS:
Fethullah [Fundamentalist community leader] says "We should
rehabilitate this rotten generation." and calls the protesters as
"depraved". * Reported: Erasmus students participating in the demos were threatened with deportation. * Ankara testimony: (June 5)
Day of general strike. Marching towards Kızılay square. Police
barricades and water cannons and helicopters on the sides. Apparently, a
few people pushed the barricades. I'm guessing that police said “we'll
attack if this repeats”, guessing because due to helicopters nothing was
audible. Union said they stop the protest. Until we got what's
happening, police attacked brutally. We
later learned that unionist were forming a barricade “in order to avoid
anyone attacking the police”. Some people started an argument with the
unionists. And police attacked in the meanwhile, for no reasonable
reason. Protesters retreated until Beytepe and formed a barricade.
This is just Kızılay. But the resistance is all over Ankara:
Yüzüncüyıl, Dikmen, Mamak, Çiğdem, neighborhoods. Everyday there is a
neighborhood march, massive participation. Two days ago, we wanted to
join to Dikmen groups, but failed due to brutal police attacks. * (June 5) Ankara: Police attacked the general strike march.
* (June 5, all day and night) Rize: Fascists attacked the protesters. Protesters got stuck in an association supporting the demonstrations.
* "Chapulling" becomes an English word of Turkish origin. * Taksim Solidarity Platform had a meeting with Bülent Arınç, President of the Assembly, AKP. Here is the statement they delivered. * (June 5) Police
attacks in Antakya is continuing brutally. In Dersim, barricades were
formed by the protesters to stop police attacks. In Ankara, police is
reported to act hostile, they do not let the protesters reach the
meeting area. (more on the last one later) * Taksim seems to have calmed down. People testify it is safer than ever before (now that we don't have the police around).
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