_-_Wheat_Field_with_Crows_(1890).jpg)
Note: This is a copy-paste compilation of whatever I could find on the Internet.
I am updating this all day long (June 4th).
Further news in English available in the followings:
- International solidarity events: Occupy Gezi Global
- Also, on Twitter: #resistaksim #occupygezi #direngeziparkı
- Your enemy knows you well. Know your enemy. Website on Turkish police terror, and collecting evidence here.
* (16h30) Turkish Medical Association: There are 1500 injured in Istanbul, and 3500 all around Turkey.
* Testimony:
- Is that road safe?
- No, there is police on that side.
* From Facebook:
Friends, you heard Arınç's speech. Police hasn't slept for 5 days. Please, everyone, bring your own teargas and apply it to your own eyes tonight.
* Repost from Occupy Gezi:
* Çağlayan Palace of Justice occupied in İstanbul, lawyers demanding justice.
* (R)evolution of a protester, day by day.
* (15h30) Police in Ankara totally insane. (They have lost all their hope of suppressing this.)
Police threw blast bomb to high school students.
* Our dear marginal grandma, Facebook video.
* More of Bülent Arınç (President of the Assembly):
"The press outside Turkey making non-objective broadcasts. They're not sensible like the Turkish Media. Same things happen in UK, Spain, Italy, Greece. Our government and state is strong, We won't be deterred by the street. We'll take care of it."
It's nice to hear they take us (we = those who cannot be on the streets of Turkey) seriously too.
* Kayseri:
* Testimony:
Journalist: Why did you destroy the AKP [government party] building?
Protester in İzmir: Oh well, we gonna build a shopping mall instead.
* Know your enemy reloaded:
Bülent Arınç (President of the Assembly) still doesn't get it. He stated:
- 244 Policeman, 60 civilian wounded [Ankara Chamber of Medicines announced 414 wounded in only in Ankara on Sunday]
- Not many people under custody [An MP declared 1500 only on Sunday at Ankara.]
- I want to thank everyone for their common sense and our Police for performing their duty.
- The police is ... taking action exactly according to our commands.
* Repost from Facebook:
The
last message of 22-year-old Abdullah Cömert, killed by the police
yesterday in Armutlu, was so impressive: "We will die in the streets for
the revolution."
Here’s the message:
I only got five hours of sleep in three days. I was exposed to gas bombs so many times. Three times I had a close brush with death. And do you know what people say: ‘Is it you to save the country?’ Yes. Even if we can’t save it, we will die for it. (I am so much tired. For three days, I am standing with seven energy drinks and nine pain pills. I have got a hoarse voice but I am still on the streets since six o’clock in the morning. Just for the revolution!
Here’s the message:
I only got five hours of sleep in three days. I was exposed to gas bombs so many times. Three times I had a close brush with death. And do you know what people say: ‘Is it you to save the country?’ Yes. Even if we can’t save it, we will die for it. (I am so much tired. For three days, I am standing with seven energy drinks and nine pain pills. I have got a hoarse voice but I am still on the streets since six o’clock in the morning. Just for the revolution!
From here upwards is June 4th
* Turkish Medical Association calls all medical doctors to abandon their routine work and rush to help the citizens who are subjected to brutal violence on the street.
* By 23h00 yesterday night (June 3rd) protesters in Taksim reached some one hundred thousand. In addition, in various neighbourhoods (could count 10 or so) the people were on the streets.
* Reported: Police brought water cannons from Diyarbakır (Amed) to Ankara.
* Protests (and police attacks) continued all night long in Ankara.
* Murderers! In Antakya, Abdullah Cömert was killed by the police
* Never thought I'd wish to be in Ankara: According to twitter posts, at least 5 barricades are formed by our comrades. Nonstop police attacks. Especially in front of the US Embassy.
* Reported: Police uses a "strange" gas in Ankara today, not familiar to the protesters.
* (20h30) İstanbul: Police launched a charge towards Taksim.
* Ankara: Helicopters spotting protesters.
Reported: Police pretends to retreat to lead the protesters into a trap.
* Ankara live streaming, several options here.
* Ankara testimony (20h00) :
Please be aware that there is an ongoing continuum in Ankara. It's hard to say it's a protest, it's more likely a war..Sakarya, Kızılay, Tunus, Bestekar, Tunalı..Police attacks to civils everywhere. One side have machines, riot control vehicles, tear gas guns..The other has even no stick..This is not an intervention for the good of the society, this is an attack to the society..The police shoot tear bombs inside the shops..Here is not like a festival, here is really rough.
* Roger Waters sent a solidarity message.
* A country on fire:
Adana: Thousands marched in solidarity. 250 detained.
Antalya: Municipality refused to provide water for the pressurized water tanks.
* Play Tayyip free fall, and go back to the street.
* Sorry to have missed this one: Syrian Information Minister invited Tayyip to resignation and to go to exile in Doha.
* When "people" rise, "economy" falls. This is a universal law of political economy.
* We are collecting evidence for police violence here. Your enemy knows you. Know your enemy.
* (19h30) Lawyers arrived to Taksim. "Lawyers are here, where is justice?"
* Ankara (19h30) Police attacked the Chamber of Architects, where the injured are treated. Protesters resisted. Police retreated. The march continues all around Ankara.
* Testimony of the first three days by Kıvanç Eliaçık, International Relations Director in DİSK.
* (19h00) Ankara update: Police attacking to kill in Ankara. Protesters holding the fronts.
* (19h00) AKP Ankara branch: website down. Nice job RedHack.
* RedHack announced they will publish documents of the Police Department in an hour's time, as a response to the last photo sent from Ankara.
* Flash news (19h00): Protesters marching to the parliament in Ankara !
* RedHack hacked the following websites: Presidency, İstanbul Police Department, İstanbul Governorship, Ankara Municipality.
* From twitter: "Man, when the guy [referring to Tayyip, the PM] said we were marginals, he had a point. It's 1 am and we are wandering around in Beşiktaş with underwater goggles. We are the kings of marginality."
* Correction: The call for general strike was done by KESK and DİSK (revolutionary workers' unions confederation), and not just by KESK.
* A complete list of media corporations that ignored / are ignoring ( / have been ignoring ) the uprisings are shared in social media.
* (19h00) Students united in Ankara. Police attacks continue.
* Mehmet Ayvalıtaş (SODAP, Socialist Solidarity Platform) murdered by the police.
* In different parts of Istanbul and in fact all Turkey, protesters are marching towards TV channel headquarters and to government party buildings.
* General strike call for June 4 and June 5 from KESK, the public workers' union.
* I had to change the title of this post from "Taksim riots update" to "Turkey uprising updates", for obvious reasons.
* Tayyip talks too much:
* Repost from Occupy Gezi:
Turkcell a private and biggest mobile network in Turkey states that they received orders and political pressure from the ruling party AKP and government to block the communications in Istanbul mainly Taksim square which they obeyed as well as the other 2 main networks!
Turkcell and other main mobile network operators disabled the service in many other cities as the protests grew.
* Interview with an independent blogger, here in English.
* İzmir: Ege University rectorate occupied.
* Trabzon: Karadeniz Technical University. 5000 students marching.
* (update 17h30)
İstanbul: Protesters are marching to Taksim from all directions, once again.
Ankara: Police attack to protesters reported.
* Conflicts in Beşiktaş, İstanbul continued all night long.
* Taksim Solidarity Platform disclaimer: These [see below] are not our demands. This is how it's going to be. These are not our demands, these are the terms of the people.
* Protesters were camping in Taksim, İstanbul all night long. (July 2nd) Almost constant fight against the police.
* Ankara (14h00): Tens of thousands marching and fighting against the police all around the city.
* Ankara: The detained are kept in a gym, as in military dictatorship times. More than 500 detentions reported.
* Some updates from Ankara (June 2nd):
- by 10h00, 416 people were reported to be injured.
- police left around noon, but attacked again at 15h00.
- fights continued all night long. number of injuries and detentions increased to an unknown number.
- here is one photo:
* (14h00) High school students in İzmir on the streets, demanding resignation.
* Out of the 400 detained in Adana, 100 were released.
* Police torture, reported from Eskişehir.
* Here are some live streaming options.
* Long live İzmir: Government party buildings (in Karşıyaka and in Karabağlar) burnt down at midnight.
* Antalya, June 2nd:
* I am not able to count the number of demonstrations all around Turkey. A very mild estimate is 100 towns.
* Police: You have 1 minutes to leave the space.
Çarşı fan club protesters: You have 20 seconds left !
* İzmir: Fascists attacked protesters with clubs. (June 2nd)
* More photos from all around Turkey.
* Taksim solidarity platform released demands [very quick free translation]:
1) The Gezi Park will remain as it is. We will not allow the destruction of nature and environment.
2) The mayor of Istanbul, the Chief of Police Department, and all the responsible who blocked the right to protest, who ordered the suppression and who exercised it, and therefore led to the injury of hundreds, must immediately resign. The use of teargas should be prohibited.
3) All our friends around the country who are under detention should be released without any further investigation.
4) All bans against protests in public spaces, in particular the one in Taksim, should be abolished.
* What is not happening (Yiğit Günay, soL newspaper):
- there is no formal media blackout (the corporate media doesn't show things by choice)
- policemen are not joining the protesters
- number of deaths seems to be exaggerated
* Tell me about your revolutionary militancy only after you are capable of doing this. Amazingly courageous protesters in Ankara. Respect.
* Updates from June 1st. Photos and videos. Repost from this.
* Why Uprising? Repost from this.
A Brief Introduction to Turkey Protests:
-How it started?
Police fiercely cracked down a few dozen of peaceful tree huggers trying to prevent a park from being demolished without any legal basis for building a shopping mall instead. Photos of the violent crack down became symbolic and people started to join protests against the police. Government tried to disperse them with more violence, so more and more people started to join the protests. A few dozen protesters in a small park became hundreds of thousands just in 2 days in multiple cities.
-Why they are protesting?
It started as a small environmentalist protest. But police violence was the last straw. It became a mass protest against PM Erdogan's and AKP government's authoritarian rule.
Here is a very small and summarized list of what happened during the 12 year AKP government rule:
-How it started?
Police fiercely cracked down a few dozen of peaceful tree huggers trying to prevent a park from being demolished without any legal basis for building a shopping mall instead. Photos of the violent crack down became symbolic and people started to join protests against the police. Government tried to disperse them with more violence, so more and more people started to join the protests. A few dozen protesters in a small park became hundreds of thousands just in 2 days in multiple cities.
-Why they are protesting?
It started as a small environmentalist protest. But police violence was the last straw. It became a mass protest against PM Erdogan's and AKP government's authoritarian rule.
Here is a very small and summarized list of what happened during the 12 year AKP government rule:
- Educational system was changed with haste, without any popular consensus. Many highschools are converted to religious schools without notice. Religion classes proliferated. PM Erdogan stated clearly that he wants to raise a devout youth. AKP government tweaked university admission formulas privileging Islamist youth from religious high schools.
- Turkey became world's biggest prison for journalists. Widespread
arrests were made claiming that they were anti-state terrorists. Erdogan
also forced media to self-censor. Prominent journalists criticising his
politics were all fired by the mainstream media bosses because they did
not want their other big businesses to suffer.
- Hundreds of university and highschool students were arrested and
imprisoned just because they joined protests against high admission
fees.
- Violent crack downs were made in many public protests. They forbade people to gather in squares.
- PM Erdogan refused to lower election threshold after collecting votes by promising it. He gerrymandered against locals wishes.
- Displays of affection on public and on TV shows were restricted.
Announcements were made in public transport to behave "decent". AKP even
forced the producers to "marry" bachelor characters in popular TV
shows.
- Erdogan supported abortion ban. He relentlessly stated that he
wants every single Turkish woman to have at least three kids. Day after
pills are restricted.
- Government restricted alcohol. They forbade consumption of
alcohol in music and university festivals. PM Erdogan continuiously
scorned and insulted people who drink alcohol. AKP municipalities
removed outdoor tables and chairs of pubs from streets. They passed a
bill forbidding to drink alcohol where it can be seen from outside.
- Warmonger. PM Erdogan continiously tried to force the Western
countries to go to war in Syria. He gave support to Sunni Islamists.
Those Sunni Islamists harrased Shia minority in southeastern Turkey. He
ignored it.
- They imprisoned generals and military officers without concrete
evidence. They detained them without evidence for years. Turkish people
respect their military.
- Erdogan undermined and disrespected Turkish soldiers killed in
action in his statements. He saw them as disposable persons. Did I say
that Turks respect their military?
- Erdogan threatened to abolish the constituitonal court when he
was denied after he tried to pass bills contradicting the constitution.
- A drone attack killed 34 kurdish people in eastern Turkey,
assuming they were PKK terrorists. Intelligence reports were wrong.
Erdogan burried the investigation because it was his orders.
- AKP government burried a lot of corruption cases.
- Erdogan continiously denied requests from the Alevite minority to
recognize their worship spaces as legal religious practice spaces just
like mosques, churches or synagogues. He recently instigated secterian
tensions, naming the third bridge which will be built on Bosphorus after
an Ottoman sultan renown as a Alevite massacrer.
- He privatized almost every single public asset ignoring opinions
and objections from the public. He allowed destruction of forests and
natural habitats to build hotels and residences despite objections.
- AKP government increased internet censorship. Web sites were arbitrarily banned.
- AKP appointed inadequate people as university deans conforming to
its political views despite heavy objections from academia and
students.
- Parliament members and a ex-minister of the AKP shunned LGBT problems in the country and explicitly called LGBT people sick, claiming homosexuality as a curable disease.
from here upwards, updates from July 1st, July 2nd and July 3rd
* Taksim liberated (18h30) :
* Ankara 18h30 June 1st
* News arriving from all across the country:
A popular assembly organized in Eskişehir.
Helicopters attacking by teargas in Ankara, continued.
Çanakkale, Bursa, Manisa, İzmir uprising.
* More photos and text in Resistaksim.
* At 19:00 (Turkish time, GMT+2), all social media will update as "Resign Turkish Government" (Hükümet İstifa!) . Spread the word.
* (18h) Photos from Ankara here.
* Solidarity meeting Kayseri attacked by the police. Many injuries reported.
* International solidarity events from all around the world:
http://occupygeziglobal.tumblr.com/
* Prime Minister on Twitter ( :
The leader of the main opposing party is telling that he is going to organize a public assembly at Kadikoy this evening. It’s his right, of course he can.
Yet, he should know that if he uses any impulsive statements, this nation will not forgive him and his party, CHP.
We can gather 1 million people where the opposition gathers 100 thousand, however we do not have a such purpose.
The timing of the decision of district courts on stopping the construction is very interesting.
We have never surrendered to gang, political body or mafia-like organization. We get our support first from God and then from the people.
The current incidents are obvious. It is said that the trees are going to be cut down at Taksim.
I don’t know who came up with it, it’s made up.
I don’t know what these people want. If you want trees, come over and we will give you trees. If you want trees planted on your yards, we can also provide that.
* İstanbul: more than 1 million protesters in Taksim.
Ankara: Kızılay square occupied.
Samsun: Thousands marching to government party's building.
İzmir: Tens of thousands marching, the beginning of the meeting.
* (17h) Conflicts increase in Ankara. Social-democrat MPs injured by the police attack.
* Resignation calls all around Turkey.
* 4000 students in Ankara blocked the highway connecting the city to Eskişehir.
* Private ferry owners are carrying protesters from Kadıköy (Asian side) to the other side for the meeting in Taksim.
* Some 300 000 people in Taksim Square.
* Repost from Occupy Gezi:
AKP General Vice President, the ex Min of Education, Min of culture Huseyin Celik tweeted congratulating the main stream media censorship: "By the way, our media is going thorugh a historic test. Greetings and love to all..."
* Protesters report that the police put fire to the park before retreating.
Occupy Gezi posted the following:
There is a new and more logical conspiracy theory on the fire: Right after the government withdrew the national broadcast ban on the protests, fire broke out at the rear entrance of Gezi Park, making it look like the protesters started it. The matter of the fact is that police has been the one with firearms through out the protests and the gas bombs they threw has also started fires before.
We keep hearing from friends at other parts of the city attacked with tear gas by the police in Istanbul. It is also the case at Kizilay square in Ankara.
* (16h30) Ankara: Conflict expanded to all downtown. Thousands fighting against the police, 15 detained.
* Brutal police violence in Ankara. Police barricades destroyed by protesters. Police attacked violently near Kızılay Square.
* Solidarity meeting in Hatay (Antioch) attacked by police.
* (16h) Corporate media started live streaming, as other means of communication are already blocked.
* (16h) Reported: TWITTER CANNOT BE ACCESSED !
* (16h) FACEBOOK BLOCKED !
* Here is the story in English. Read how Turkish protesters tell it (with photos).
* Youtube blocks search for "Taksim" for last hour filter, only shows the Führer's speech.
* News agencies: Special protection forces allocated for Prime Minister's house.
* Taksim square and park counter-occupied.
* Police attacking in Taksim again: War tactics, I suppose.
* FLASH NEWS (15h): Mayor retreating. The meeting of the social-democrats in Taksim square got authorization.
* FLASH NEWS (15h) : Police retreating from Taksim. Protesters about to reach the park.
* Police exhausted:
* Today 8am : Public bus barricades the street to protect the protesters from pressurized gas tanks.
* Socialist MP injured yesterday. Today he's back in Taksim.
* A hand-made post says: Protesters can shelter here. No:6
*
*
* Yesterday. Solidarity event in Eskişehir. Hundreds of detentions.
* Yesterday. May 31st. Solidarity meetings in at least 30 cities.
* Reported: Social media blackout expected. Keep vtunnel and ktunnel at hand.
* Reported: Police jamming the cellphones.
* Protesters twitting about how to produce your own gas mask.
* Reuters coverage here.
* Solidarity protest Ankara: Helicopters are shooting teargas bombs.
* Best video of yesterday (May 31st) Many important scenes, an essential compilation:
You can watch it on Facebook.
* Solidarity event Izmir. 2am:
* Protesters discovered a precaution: Write your blood type on your arms.
* 1 June 2013 13:26 video İstiklal street
* TV channels showed cooking classes yesterday night.
* Testimony (Aykut Gürlemez) [free, quick translation]. Dear prime minister. You made such a good thing for us, you have no idea. You ordered the police to kill us. But here's what I saw: I saw Galatasaray fans helping out injured Fenerbahçe fans. I saw students sharing their bread and water. I saw Kurdish and Turkish people walking shoulder to shoulder. I saw “whores” coming out of the brothels to give water and lemon to the protesters. I saw travesties opening up hotel rooms for shelter. I saw lawyers and doctors giving out their phone numbers. I saw medical students treating the wounded in the ER. I saw old ladies distributing clothes with vinegar. I saw shopkeepers sharing the wireless passwords, I saw hotel owners letting the injured to the lobby rooms. I saw pharmacies open all night long. And be sure, our eyes are full of tears, not because of your tear gas, but because of pride!
* Yesterday's catch: Football fan clubs discovered something interesting: They brought black spray and sprayed the masks of the police. The policemen had to take off their gas masks, therefore having some opportunity for "empathy".
* This is how one goes to a revolution:
* Solidarity meeting in Ankara: Police needed support from the army.
* Social democrats cancelled their meeting in Kadıköy (Asian side) because they decided to be in Taksim.
* Essential video of June 1st, morning. Boğaziçi Bridge.
- Note that pedestrians are actually not allowed on the bridge.
- Note that public transportation does not exist, by mayor's orders.
- Note that it is before sunrise !
* As for teargas, this is how streets look like:
* Doctors coming for support (May 31):
* Late at night. Public torture scene.
* It is reported that the teargas is not "pepper gas" but another weapon called "orange gas". Its use if forbidden anywhere in the world.
* Testimony: "It's extremely strong. You receive it and you faint. Then the ones on your back replace you."
* Istanbul 1:34 am: Video on Facebook
* Taksim at 3:40 am:
* From twitter: "We had our rest. If the police is ready too, shall we?"
* Around 30 enterprises around Taksim are announced to support (giving bread/water, or 24/7 shelter etc.) the protesters.
* Photos are updated almost regularly here:
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/
* What's happening in Turkey is much bigger than anything you could imagine. There is continuous tear gas charge for around 42 hours by the police. The protesters are fighting by substitution. The people in front resist as much as they can, and later replaced by the ones on the back.
