Turkey Uprising updates: June 27th - July 7th

This is the fourth post of a day-by-day compilation of the uprising that is taking place in Turkey. Previous posts cover the updates for May 31st - June 4th, June 5th - June 14th and June 15th - June 26th. I strongly suggest you to have a look at them before reading this one. This post, on the other hand, has the complete list of the links published in these updates.

To begin with, police attacks in Ankara did not stop until very recently: On June 27th, police attacked the march in Dikmen neighbourhood, the water cannons used a foamy mixture, the composition of which is unknown to the protesters.

In the previous post, I tried making a list of detentions, police raids and arrest. The continued on a daily basis. Suffice it now to say that the total number of arrests (careful: not detentions, arrests by court order) exceeded 100 by June 28th.

You can show your support and solidarity to the political prisoners by sending them letters. Here is a regularly updated list of addresses.

On June 28th, in Lice, Diyarbakır, the locals organized a demonstration to protest the construction of an extension of a police station. Police opened fire to the protesters, killing 1 and injuring 6. This was followed by massive solidarity demonstration all around Turkey.

The end of June and the beginning of July witnessed huge neighbourhood assemblies. The protesters somehow preferred to call them Park Forums, and I will follow this tradition.

June 29th, Elvankent, Ankara. Park forum.

June 19th, Abbasağa Park, İstanbul. Park forum.

The Park Forums were mainly spontaneous. Therefore coordination, reporting and publicity took time to establish. According to this website, which tries to keep each forum aware of each other, there are 80 forums organized all around the country.

Park Forums in Istanbul by July 7th.

On July 3rd, the court overruled the project in Taksim square that would transform the area into a cement lake. (This is not the shopping mall project yet. Yes, AKP has more destruction projects for the same area.) Taksim Solidarity Platform made a call for July 6th, simply stating "We are going to our park.".

July 6th was like the good old days. Police attacked the protest before its announced time. Excessive use of gas bombs and rubber bullets were documented. Police entered several buildings, including party headquarters and cultural centres. Many journalists (around 15) were reported to be detained. Conflicts started at 18:30, and continued until 4:00.

July 6th, Istanbul.

What was new about July 6th was the presence of 4-5 fascists with cleavers in their hands. These people were escorted by the police and they attacked the protesters, injuring many.

July 6th, Istanbul. This guy was detained for a couple of hours and then released.

Here is a video documenting how police shoots rubber bullets from a distance of 50 centimetres !

On July 7th, Sunday, several alternative media organizations organized a huge gathering in Kadıköy, İstanbul. The event was promoted by 3 TV channels, 5 daily newspapers, 1 online news portal and 2 radio channels.

July 7th, Kadıköy, İstanbul. 300 thousand people attended the alternative media festival.