Turkey Uprising updates: June 15th - June 26th

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.

I would like to add the following links:

• Occupy Gezi Illustrations

• Everywhere Taksim, International Solidarity with Occupy Gezi

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.