Riots in Turkey.

They should apologise to the state of Armenia before anything. It's comfortable how the world forgets what these Turks tried to do.

I've been to Istanbul a few times (Wife is from there) and Taksim is a great part of the city. I can understand them wanting to protect any square inch of greenery in Istanbul, it's a serious concrete jungle.

The case of the park being turned into the shopping centre is the preverbial backbreaking straw, as the government/PM are rubbish. I have no first hand knowledge of what's going on myself, but had a long chat with a Turkish friend yesterday, he said the only updates he's getting are from facebook/twitter, as there's nothing about it on the Turkish news TV stations or websites.Corruption in this Government is ripe (incumbent government apparently got 50% of the national vote), and it's known that they hate Ataturk. Ataturk is regarded as a demigod over there.

It's definitely a step backwards culturally for them, and won't help their attempts to join the EU.

AFAIK the public are currently hoping for a military revolution, where the army essentially boot the government out of office and take over until a new bunch are voted in. Happened 3 or 4 times in Turkey since it became a republic, most recently in the 80s.

Supporting march in Berlin yesterday:

www.demotix.com/news/2109683/thousands-join-berlin-march-gezi-park-and-against-turkish-leader

According to Wifey there's a meeting of Turkish people in Dublin at the GPO today. Might be on the news this evening.

Peanut wrote: »

Update today. It's colder and overcast here but that hasn't stopped tens of thousands of people coming out to the main Taksim/Istiklal street area.

Fair play to them - I was little anxious after I found weather reports and this news on RTE: "Clashes subside in Turkey as rain dampens protests". I hope they will follow protests and the pressure will generate some positive changes to this half-democratic country.

Just back from Taksim there now. The crowds have dispersed a little but the protesters remaining are more serious and determined.

There are now organised groups of people creating makeshift roadblocks from any debris they can find. They've used bits of rubble, metal and even managed to move some of the destroyed cars and buses to block the connecting roads.

http://i.imgur.com/eBkGSbH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q1N6e78.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/bZBHvEA.jpg

(I tried to take photos of the other barriers but was told something in Turkish so decided to quietly back off..!)


The atmosphere is fairly ominous since the police, currently engaged in nearby Besiktas, are thought to arrive at some point during the night.

I listened to an educated Turkish guy in his 20s explain to a Jordanian tourist why he was there helping out tonight.

The tourist seemed a bit put out that his visit to Istanbul had been marred by tear-gas and destruction, and suggested that it was counter-productive to destroy ATM machines and demonstrate in such a central area.

The Turk replied that the only way of getting media attention was to protest in a symbolic place such as Taksim. Also, there are more cameras present and the risk of the police badly beating people might be less.

He described how he had been planning to go to different parties this weekend, but ended up bringing people to hospital. He thought at first that he should just get on with his studies, but then the excesses of the police response had changed his mind.

He said that at first they were using normal teargas, but now he had seen a situation where someone exposed to possibly a new type of gas had started bleeding from their nostrils.

When the Jordanian asked what he should do now, the reply was - "Go back to your hotel. They (the police) are coming."

Thank you Peanut for your informations. Take care of yourself and hopefully let us know how situation is..

Thanks zom and Míshásta

Seems like the police didn't dare try to re-take control of the square overnight, perhaps the powers that be finally realised that provoking the situation again would just further count against them. Either that or they haven't a clue what to do next..

Taksim square and the Gezi park area are jam-packed with crowds right now. There seems to be a lot more people out this evening that perhaps wouldn't have come out during the weekend. Many people are wearing face-masks now due to some enterprising street-vendors selling them at 2 for a (Turkish) fiver. There is the constant whirr of a helicopter with spotlight overhead.

There is still no sign of the Police here, at least in uniform. I walked past a police station in the center where at first it looked like it was just some guys hanging around but it turned out to be the police in plain clothes, without any of their gear visible.

The gov. seem to have been well and truly caught out this time and I can't see how they can do much except to hope that the whole thing blows over given time. But even if that is the case, people who might have given their assurances and justifications the benefit of the doubt in the past will surely not do so now.

The problem for them now is that the longer the protesters hold out, the more the gov. lose face, and being sporting losers is an entirely new concept for them. This might force a confrontation again at some stage.

Thanks

Yeah tear gas is being used again this evening, however this time it seems like no-one is exactly sure where it's coming from. Previously they were just firing it from hand-held launchers, the stuff being used tonight seems like it's designed to be used over a wider area - there was no visible smoke that I could see, but it was just as strong an effect as the earlier gas. Having said that, they are also using the standard tear-gas guns in hotspots.

Pictures from tonight

Barricade in Talimhane (across the road from Gezi park)
http://i.imgur.com/SRGnGyx.jpg

Inside Gezi park itself
http://i.imgur.com/m4OBtzo.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/f2G2NGb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1rNReoh.jpg (stalls created from Police barriers)
http://i.imgur.com/zVjKw8F.jpg (this isn't rubbish - the entire wall was full of miscellaneous supplies and twitter hashtags etc. "sağlık ekibi" is health team)
http://i.imgur.com/NcB6LUx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KK3T102.jpg (street vendors didn't miss an opportunity either!)
http://i.imgur.com/hl642NL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6ULvSnr.jpg (I think these ones were for sale instead of free - Milk (for rinsing eyes), Grape and Apple vinegar (counteracts gas when used with mask), water and other alkaline solutions)


The crowds in the park and on the road towards Beşiktaş were huge, but I'm not sure if this has changed in the past hour and a half or so since I had to go back due to the gas covering a wide area. However, the people in the park are much better prepared this time and have setup stalls with cartons of milk, lemon juice/vinegar and other medical supplies. Also the facemasks were much more easily available today compared to over the weekend, although they don't really help that much when you have to breath in the gas over a long period of time - it starts to irritate your eyes too unless you have goggles or a full setup gas mask (which some people have).

Outside of the park, at Taksim square and towards Gümüşsuyu and Beşiktaş direction

http://i.imgur.com/Kmzaxs8.jpg (one of the blockades at Taksim)
http://i.imgur.com/2CeErDV.jpg (one of buses wrecked on Friday night. Pretty funny actually the "driver" sitting in and the passengers having the lulz! Lots of people were having their photo taken in front of these, I think more for the novelty/shock factor as opposed to anything else)
http://i.imgur.com/oibyJlH.jpg (this guy looks bored for some reason .. ..car won't start?)
http://i.imgur.com/srbZqof.jpg (First protester-made blockade at Gümüşsuyu)
http://i.imgur.com/mZC26zd.jpg (People streaming past)
http://i.imgur.com/oaGD4oJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Z25b9Hi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gpVAVMh.jpg (One of the next blockades)
http://i.imgur.com/f4KgWqS.jpg (Going down the hill near the German consulate)
http://i.imgur.com/WeAeI5L.jpg (a number of people have hard hats in addition to gas masks)

I walked down from Taksim square to the main road towards Beşiktaş İnönü stadium where the trouble was last night (someone had attempted to comandeer a JCB to drive to the PM's office in Beşiktaş but was stopped, the police also strongly gassed protesters situated in the stadium). I counted about 6 or 7 tiers of barricades that had been put up by the protesters, but it looked like it could be too dangerous to continue all the way towards the stadium. There were large crowds of people here, and the smell of gas got stronger further down the hill. It appeared that if there was a sudden push forward by the police at the bottom of the hill, it could get nasty. The latest report is that there is some sort of large fire down there now. (This is the area on Google maps if anyone is curious)

I turned back towards Taksim and the relatively calm Istiklal street.
http://i.imgur.com/BNLiWfh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/j3eLheZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ohKfO91.jpg (a number of people didn't miss an opportunity and were selling chilled cans of beer on the street. These guys were even making cocktails with Vodka and Tequila mixers!)
http://i.imgur.com/bHMtp10.jpg (various political groups got access to the top of the Ataturk Cultural centre to hang their banners)

Yep, I'm fine thanks

Yeah there is a bit of a lull today, but the stand-off continues. I'm at one of the larger Starbucks on Istiklal street at the opposite end of Taksim, and it's practically empty, which is very unusual since it's usually constantly busy.

http://i.imgur.com/sgRleLj.jpg

The main commercial street leading to Taksim is now 90% back to normal. Shop windows and ATM machines have been replaced and repaired with astonishing speed. A lot of the graffiti has been cleaned or painted over with grey. That's not to say that the protests have diminished - it's just that the damage which resulted from the confrontations over the weekend has been mostly fixed.

At Taksim square itself, it's a different story. All the barricades are still up and there are still crowds of protesters in the square and park.

The protesters are using Google maps to communicate flashpoints (cyan are police locations, although not sure about the metro station) -

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=207368859026831467268.0004de1f7b9f832178431&msa=0&ll=41.037348,28.988028&spn=0.030881,0.062141


Yeah some of the public workers joined the strike today, although I'm not exactly sure how large a proportion they make up. Unions here are a bit weird, they're more strongly tied to political groups instead of professions, so some people may not join a union if they don't want to be part of that particular group.

http://turkishpolicebrutality.tumblr.com/

Just for the person who said "dont care" earlier - Contains some distressing images - stay safe nut!

At least 3 fatalities in these pics alone!