To my friends who live outside of Turkey:

I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because most of the media sources are shut down by the government and the word of mouth and the internet are the only ways left for us to explain ourselves and call for help and support.

Four days ago a group of people most of whom did not belong to any specific organization or ideology got together in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Among them there were many of my friends and students. Their reason was simple: To prevent and protest the upcoming demolishing of the park for the sake of building yet another shopping mall at very center of the city. There are numerous shopping malls in Istanbul, at least one in every neighborhood! The tearing down of the trees was supposed to begin early Thursday morning. People went to the park with their blankets, books and children. They put their tents down and spent the night under the trees. Early in the morning when the bulldozers started to pull the hundred-year-old trees out of the ground, they stood up against them to stop the operation.

They did nothing other than standing in front of the machines.

No newspaper, no television channel was there to report the protest. It was a complete media black out.

But the police arrived with water cannon vehicles and pepper spray. They chased the crowds out of the park.

In the evening the number of protesters multiplied. So did the number of police forces around the park. Meanwhile local government of Istanbul shut down all the ways leading up to Taksim square where the Gezi Park is located. The metro was shut down, ferries were cancelled, roads were blocked.

Yet more and more people made their way up to the center of the city by walking.

They came from all around Istanbul. They came from all different backgrounds, different ideologies, different religions. They all gathered to prevent the demolition of something bigger than the park:

The right to live as honorable citizens of this country.

They gathered and marched. Police chased them with pepper spray and tear gas and drove their tanks over people who offered the police food in return. Two young people were run over by the panzers and were killed. Another young woman, a friend of mine, was hit in the head by one of the incoming tear gas canisters. The police were shooting them straight into the crowd. After a three hour operation she is still in Intensive Care Unit and in very critical condition. As I write this we don’t know if she is going to make it. This blog is dedicated to her.

These people are my friends. They are my students, my relatives. They have no «hidden agenda» as the state likes to say. Their agenda is out there. It is very clear. The whole country is being sold to corporations by the government, for the construction of malls, luxury condominiums, freeways, dams and nuclear plants. The government is looking for (and creating when necessary) any excuse to attack Syria against its people’s will.

On top of all that, the government control over its people’s personal lives has become unbearable as of late. The state, under its conservative agenda passed many laws and regulations concerning abortion, cesarean birth, sale and use of alcohol and even the color of lipstick worn by the airline stewardesses.

People who are marching to the center of Istanbul are demanding their right to live freely and receive justice, protection and respect from the State. They demand to be involved in the decision-making processes about the city they live in.

What they have received instead is excessive force and enormous amounts of tear gas shot straight into their faces. Three people lost their eyes.

Yet they still march. Hundred of thousands join them. Couple of more thousand passed the Bosporus Bridge on foot to support the people of Taksim.

No newspaper or TV channel was there to report the events. They were busy with broadcasting news about Miss Turkey and “the strangest cat of the world”.

Police kept chasing people and spraying them with pepper spray to an extent that stray dogs and cats were poisoned and died by it.

Schools, hospitals and even 5 star hotels around Taksim Square opened their doors to the injured. Doctors filled the classrooms and hotel rooms to provide first aid. Some police officers refused to spray innocent people with tear gas and quit their jobs. Around the square they placed jammers to prevent internet connection and 3g networks were blocked. Residents and businesses in the area provided free wireless network for the people on the streets. Restaurants offered food and water for free.

People in Ankara and İzmir gathered on the streets to support the resistance in Istanbul.

Mainstream media kept showing Miss Turkey and “the strangest cat of the world”.

***

I am writing this letter so that you know what is going on in Istanbul. Mass media will not tell you any of this. Not in my country at least. Please post as many as articles as you see on the Internet and spread the word.

As I was posting articles that explained what is happening in Istanbul on my Facebook page last night someone asked me the following question:

«What are you hoping to gain by complaining about our country to foreigners?»

This blog is my answer to her.

By so called «complaining» about my country I am hoping to gain:

Freedom of expression and speech,

Respect for human rights,

Control over the decisions I make concerning my on my body,

The right to legally congregate in any part of the city without being considered a terrorist.

But most of all by spreading the word to you, my friends who live in other parts of the world, I am hoping to get your awareness, support and help!

Please spread the word and share this blog.

Thank you!

For futher info and things you can do for help please see Amnesty International’s Call for Urgent Help

To Two young people were run over by the panzers and were killed.

 Jihadin wrote:
I do not have a warm and fuzzy on this story........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International

 Jihadin wrote:
...like someone said.....the word "Panzer" was used.

Others held up cans of beer in defiance of a recent law by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that will restrict the sale and advertising of alcohol.

 Jihadin wrote:
LOL soon as they take out the Mayor's house they then can put in a new drainage ditch

 LordofHats wrote:
Turkey isn't in the developed world.

 Barksdale wrote:
You are joking right? Having you ever been to Turkey?

Turkey is a long time member of the OECD and deposited their instruments of ratification on 2 August 1961.

 Barksdale wrote:
Anyway, agree or not on the definition of "developed", it doesn't change the fact that a lot of what has happened is attributable to radicals taking advantage of the situation to push their own movements.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Barksdale wrote:
You are joking right? Having you ever been to Turkey?

Get away from Istanbul. You'll see what I mean.

Turkey is a long time member of the OECD and deposited their instruments of ratification on 2 August 1961.

So are Chile, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Mexico. Turkey's not even in the top 30 of OECD's income earners (there are only 34 members).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Barksdale wrote:
Anyway, agree or not on the definition of "developed", it doesn't change the fact that a lot of what has happened is attributable to radicals taking advantage of the situation to push their own movements.

I don't know if that can be said. It is kind of odd for a protest of this nature to escalate over a park though, but then I don't really follow Istanbul's local politics XD. Maybe people there really like that park for all know. I don't think we have enough solid info to know. EDIT: And Radical isn't really a bad thing, depending. The Abolitionists in the US back in the 1840's were radical but they were right.

Turkey's Deputy PM Bulent Arinc has apologised to protesters injured in demonstrations opposing the demolition of an Istanbul park.

The original protests over the redevelopment of Gezi Park were "just and legitimate", he said, offering to meet the organisers.

He called for the protests to end, saying they had been taken over by "terrorist elements".

The protests have escalated into five days of unrest in cities across Turkey.

"The use of excessive force shown against the people who initially started this protest with the motive of protecting the environment was wrong. And it was unfair. So I apologise to those citizens," Mr Arinc said at a news conference in Ankara.

However, he added: "I do not think we need to apologise to those who create destruction of public property in the streets and who try to prevent the freedom of the people in the streets."

Pinar Aksogan, from the environmental pressure group Greenpeace, said Mr Arinc struck a more conciliatory tone than Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

However, the speech lacked any answers about what will now happen to the park, she said.

Ms Aksogan also pointed to worries over "recent laws and regulations, which if approved will lead to massive environmental destruction".

"This movement is not only about the trees in the park, but the trees and environment all around Turkey and their future," she said.

Mr Erdogan has taken a tougher line with protesters in his public comments, saying they are undemocratic. He has gone ahead with a trip to Morocco and, speaking after his arrival there, insisted the situation was "calming down".

"On my return from this visit, the problems will be solved," he told reporters.

One union federation has begun a two-day strike in support of the protests.

The left-wing Kesk trade union confederation, representing some 240,000 workers, accused the government of committing "state terror".

A second death in the protests has been confirmed by officials the southern city of Antakya.

Abdullah Comert, 22, a member of the youth wing of the opposition Republican People's Party, was "seriously wounded... after gunfire from an unidentified person," the governor's office said, adding that he died later in hospital.

On Monday, the Turkish Doctors' Union said 20-year-old Mehmet Ayvalitas was hit by a car on Sunday which ignored warnings to stop and ploughed into a crowd of protesters in the Mayis district of Istanbul.

Hundreds of protesters were reported to have gathered in the early hours of Tuesday in Ankara where they were police used more tear gas and water cannon.

Share values in Turkey were hit badly by the unrest on Monday, with the main share index falling by 10.47%, although it did recover some of the losses in early trading on Tuesday.

In a sign of continuing concern in Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke of "excessive use of force" by the police.

"We obviously hope that there will be a full investigation of those incidents and full restraint from the police force," he said.

The protests began on 28 May over plans to redevelop Gezi Park near Taksim Square in Istanbul.

They soon mushroomed, engulfing several cities and including political demands.

Unrest was also reported on Sunday in the western coastal city of Izmir, Adana in the south and Gaziantep in the south-east.

The Turkish Human Rights Association, an NGO, said more than 2,800 protesters had been injured across the country, many of them seriously, and that 791 had been detained, of whom "around 500" have since been released.

Mr Arinc said that 244 police officers and 64 protesters had been injured.

Protesters accuse the Turkish government of becoming increasingly authoritarian.

They fear Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) is trying to impose conservative Islamic values on the officially secular country and infringe on their personal freedoms, correspondents say.

His opponents see moves such as recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol and legislation last year which allowed children to enter Islamic schools at a younger age as proof of this agenda.

An investigation into hundreds of coup plot suspects has also been seen as undermining the influence of the military, which has traditionally considered itself as guarantor of the country's secular constitution.

However, supporters of Mr Erdogan point to the fact that he has been elected with a convincing majority, and that many Turks still back him.