Riots in Turkey.

ardinn · 05-06-2013 05:40PM

Yeah - losing an eye for taking pictures - very western allright!

zom · 05-06-2013 11:26PM

This is what democracy looks like: This combination of photos shows how the unknown woman first faces off with the massed ranks of riot police before one steps forward to spray the gas right into her face:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335924/Turkey-Protests-Horrifying-image-woman-red-doused-pepper-spray-symbol-Turkish-protests.html

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/middle-east/turkey-protests-woman-in-red-being-pepper-sprayed-becomes-symbol-29322587.html

Peanut · 06-06-2013 02:07AM

Thankfully the gas has stopped tonight and it appears calm and actually quite pleasant.

On the surrounding streets there are fewer people, but inside the park the numbers seem to keep growing. There's now a dizzying amount of different groups and people setup in the relatively compact space. I would guess there are about 400 or so tents there now.

I walked down to where the most recent trouble was the last few nights in some of those pictures, near the stadium. The stand-off continues, but there were no clashes, just a line of police vans parked at the far end of a no-man's land, with groups of protesters sitting on the hill nearby. Will post some more pics later.

Peanut · 06-06-2013 02:29AM

This is kinda funny..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wwSPRpVJZE&feature=share

Found out today that the channel that showed the 3-hour penguin documentary at the height of the riots was CNN Türk. Not sure what the Atlanta CNN thinks about this but it doesn't exactly reflect well on them.

http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/6/1/tumblr_mnr8b4ntox1ste7qoo1_1280.png

Peanut · 06-06-2013 06:59AM

Pictures from Wednesday night

Gezi park

http://i.imgur.com/ZhPINY7.jpg - an Ataturk lookalike poses for photos
http://i.imgur.com/Kyno4Ox.jpg - Some of the motivations for the protests expressed in Turkish and English
http://i.imgur.com/Y3JuQiQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7GXrqks.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kK8FuUP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KtvG7IQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ruPPRFv.jpg - some of the buildings shut down for the redevelopment have been re-purposed. You could sit and watch news updates in this one.
http://i.imgur.com/ZOQsUv6.jpg - many stalls such as this one are distributing free food, breadsticks, cookies, drinks etc.
http://i.imgur.com/uWh69Re.jpg - there were also people helping out with rubbish collection
http://i.imgur.com/7qwWPZT.jpg - "Taksim halkiniz" - The people of Taksim
http://i.imgur.com/NitsI5W.jpg - more tents
http://i.imgur.com/0vH6RLT.jpg - these guys were setting up Turkish "nargile" or shisha water pipes. By the time I had come back a bit later they had about 3 or 4 of them setup and were offering people to try the pepper gas smoke or something like that (most likely will have been apple or some other fruit flavoured tobacco).
http://i.imgur.com/Z380aEN.jpg - there's even a tent offering a free veterinary clinic
http://i.imgur.com/xSD70gK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/N8GdPF8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5RrDbd6.jpg - not sure if this is just someone's tent but they have what looks like a pretty substantial tea machine in the background.
http://i.imgur.com/hutlfJ1.jpg - there was a larger area where people were queueing up for free hot meals
http://i.imgur.com/OuPNfAC.jpg - not sure if he's entirely happy that I'm using flash here! Apologies..
http://i.imgur.com/GdPF82i.jpg - there is enthusiastic chanting of various slogans and people using smartphones everywhere
http://i.imgur.com/GMGfQIS.jpg - some people had gone to greater lengths to find some space
http://i.imgur.com/TXdf63s.jpg - "Rules of Gezi park protest". "Chapuller" is a new Turklish word invented over the past few days that has started to spread rapidly. It comes from when the PM accused the protesters of being looters or "çapulcu". Someone decided to make it English sounding and use it as a badge of honour, meaning someone who supports/goes to the protest(s).
http://i.imgur.com/0QEqWfr.jpg - the busy library
http://i.imgur.com/Z3RQwMP.jpg - food preparation
http://i.imgur.com/lwHIak5.jpg - a longer exposure pic near the entrance

It's actually really impressive how everyone has managed to organise all of this at such a short notice. They've given notice of their stipulations today so we will see what happens.

Obliq · 06-06-2013 07:18AM

Great shots and updates Peanut - thank you very much. Take care.

zom · 06-06-2013 11:36PM

Thank you Peanut. Even if world interest is weakening and media getting less involved, I'm happy to see people in Turkey not to loose their spirit. And I'm happy to be part of the interest, even if it is just expressing my thoughts here. I hope you talk to these people and say them about our interest.

yara · 07-06-2013 02:21AM

global re-occupy callout from wall street set for this saturday

afaik to show solidarity with Turkey and if the people want it we can say enough is enough and start taking control of our loves again

or we can keep on suffering while elites live it up big style

the Turks are turning things around for themselves and we wouldn't have 1/10th of the grief they went through in the seven days. what's stopping us i'll never know

Peanut · 07-06-2013 02:39AM

That awkward moment when 1000s of Government supporters vow to crush the neighbourhood you're living in ... lol..

Thanks zom and Obliq, not much change since yesterday, here's some more slogans and other misc. photos from (mostly) last night.

http://i.imgur.com/uuB4Qc2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/06CBk9I.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oUCDnNG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/F7Ekuez.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/l7z8ngB.jpg - A small shrine to two of the people killed in the unrest
http://i.imgur.com/I8MLpte.jpg - Vodafone charge station in the square, attached to a mobile base station. Not sure exactly what was going on here since the vans with base station antenna did appear to be functional, but the people seemed a little nervous. I saw another working Vodafone van at the opposite side of the park, without the phone charging gear.
http://i.imgur.com/IbHaBxG.jpg - There seems to be volunteer medical teams in most of the hotels that have remained open near the hotspots. There wasn't much happening at that time so some of them were taking a break kicking a ball around.
http://i.imgur.com/u2h2MiY.jpg - Some of the barricades have been named. This one was named after one of the people who died.
http://i.imgur.com/Dh62Zt9.jpg - The scene near Besiktas Inonu stadium. The first Bosphorous bridge is in the background.
http://i.imgur.com/JWygUtl.jpg - This was the location of some of the heaviest clashes a few days ago.
http://i.imgur.com/lIDZ7kA.jpg - People were gathered on the hill nearby watching for any developments.
http://i.imgur.com/YP5oS74.jpg - This was as far as they would go. On the road at the top-left are a line of police vans. Further on this road leads to the PM's office.
http://i.imgur.com/OIO08I0.jpg - Back at Taksim square, one of the police vehicles has been covered with various notes.
http://i.imgur.com/NrGU1Ea.jpg - Bülent Arınç is the deputy PM.
http://i.imgur.com/g817tAV.jpg - The Divan hotel has been a lot less hectic tonight and last night.
http://i.imgur.com/hAAGbJ5.jpg - 'Tayyip resign'

Interestingly, Starbucks was again virtually empty, even though there were many ordinary people on the main street outside... It's the most striking suggestion of the demographics of the protesters (at the park), that is, primarily educated young people.

(edit: I don't mean to suggest that the protesters are limited to this group, however from being here and seeing events unfold over the past number of days (actually, being caught up in them while trying to get some lunch), they are the most visible and willing to take action, even if they have the moral support from a much wider segment of society, who may be unable to join the protests for various reasons.)

Peanut · 07-06-2013 06:35PM

zom wrote: »

..
And I'm happy to be part of the interest, even if it is just expressing my thoughts here. I hope you talk to these people and say them about our interest.

I hope to talk to some of them this evening, quite soon. If anyone has any questions they want me to ask, you can either post them here or PM me.

zom · 08-06-2013 10:03AM

I'm surprised you haven't talked to them yet - seems like mostly young people, so shouldn't be a problem talk in English and socialize with them a little? Been once in Turkey but it was very short trip to some rocky area in the mountains, and I had no time to talk with "locals" much. But this protest is all about communication - they must be interested if world knows how they doing?

Peanut · 09-06-2013 08:17AM

zom - simple answer is that I didn't think of talking to people about their motivations at the time - was more concerned at following how circumstances were rapidly changing.

I'm sure they are interested in how the outside world looks at it, but I'm just not certain how to translate that into a meaningful discussion (and in fact, the protesters seem to be well aware of what's happening since supportive tweets from international celebs. etc are re-tweeted in a matter of minutes to hundreds of others).

Actually, there was one suggestion that emerged from speaking to Turkish friends - if people in Ireland or other countries wanted to show solidarity with the protests, or in fact any cause, the easiest way is to just make up some banners and take photos. It doesn't matter really whether it's outside the GPO or your back garden - if you want others to notice your message, there can be lots of mileage in a picture.

periodictable · 09-06-2013 05:59PM

Erdogan, just another political slime ball, if this CNBC report is anything to go by.
Apparently his son -in-law has the contract to develop the shopping mall in Gezi Park.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100792055

I wonder how much he's in for?

hatrickpatrick · 09-06-2013 06:15PM

This incident is absolutely textbook.
Authorities do something wrong, people demand some sort of apology or punishment for the authorities responsible, authorities respond with arrogance and indifference, anger escalates, riots ensue.

Let's not forget that the London Riots of two summers ago were initially sparked off not by the police shooting of Mark Duggan, but by their refusal to meet with his family or offer any kind of explanation into why they had killed him.

PR seems to be a skill which is sorely lacking in the establishment these days, and it's bad PR which almost always leads to eruptions of this magnitude of public resentment.

Peanut · 09-06-2013 10:12PM

The place has been absolutely mobbed here over the weekend. Hawkers are illegally selling beer on the street, and side-street bars and restaurants have defiantly put tables back outside that were restricted about a year ago (under the guise of "blocking access").

hatrickpatrick - PR would be a fine thing! This is a more fundamental problem, latest quotes from PM are along the lines of "Those [protesters] fear freedom of thought. Why? Because they have no thought. " etc..

zom · 09-06-2013 10:20PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

PR seems to be a skill which is sorely lacking in the establishment these days, and it's bad PR which almost always leads to eruptions of this magnitude of public resentment.

I wish it was only about PR (in Turkey). I tend to call it rather Turkish Spring than lack of PR. The same problems as Egypt or Lybia, just in a bit smaller scale.

periodictable · 09-06-2013 11:29PM

There's a huge divide in Turkey between religious and secular.
The current government has intensified its Islamisation of the country, and openly begun to blur Attaturk's strict separation between state and religion.
Curbs on alcohol sales- not because Turks drink excessively like the Irish, which they don't-but because of Islamic prohibition on alcohol consumption;the placing of religious Muslims in key positions in the judiciary, the police and all government departments, and a thinly disguised rhetoric against immodest behaviour and dress.
I visit frequently, and one friend and his wife have had enough and have just moved to Canada as they refuse to have their kids raised in what they fear will become a religious society. Others are thinking along the same lines. Concerns about the imprisonment of journalists and questions about the guilt of hundreds of military officers charged or convicted with planning to overthrow the government prey on peoples minds.
Erdogan has in fairness done a tremendous job of cleaning up Turkish politics and getting to grips with making the country work. However his electoral successes and increasing popularity seem to have brought out his innate Islamic conservatism and he believes he can force his personal beliefs and practices on the other 1/2 of the electorate who did not vote for him. In fact big business now takes note of him- remember the recent fiasco of Turkish Airlines banning the wearing of lipstick by flight attendants and the refusal to serve alcohol on internal flights?

Peanut · 11-06-2013 05:49AM

Seems like the police action to re-take the square at Taksim may have just started 5 mins ago, I'm hearing small explosions and smelling pepper gas from my flat window.

Peanut · 11-06-2013 05:59AM

Live streams -

http://www.livestream.com/revoltistanbul (amazing live stream from inside the park/square, some english commentary, may have
interruptions)
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/glassbeadian (one of the separate feeds from the above stream)

http://www.dha.com.tr/canli-yayin/
http://artibir.tv/canli-yayin (clearer more reliable stream, Turkish)
http://rt.com/on-air/istanbul-protest-tear-gas/
http://reuters.livestation.com/demo

A number of people are suggesting that the guys throwing the Molotov cocktails at the police is a setup to create a pretext for forcibly re-taking the park.

Peanut · 11-06-2013 08:34AM

Just saw a large group of people with gas-masks appearing to retreat down a side-street with one guy wearing something with "police" written on the back.

http://i.imgur.com/9JJ0HSO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZiAxtRO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/28pkT9A.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/B1150v0.jpg

edit: more pics from this morning/afternoon

http://i.imgur.com/CfawK4O.jpg - police were attempting to break down a door
http://i.imgur.com/EiZJaAy.jpg - debris from the barricades is being removed
http://i.imgur.com/V8deJ2w.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cBt6tCA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RK6crNR.jpg - the banners from the Ataturk center were removed, but some found other buildings to use
http://i.imgur.com/IjQHIvF.jpg - a tear-gas volley causes panic
http://i.imgur.com/t7aIFqJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q7RePA5.jpg - there's a mixture of tourists, media people, retail staff, protesters, curious locals and others near the square
http://i.imgur.com/kFczCnx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yM3GD1X.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MEo0TJ8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GXyb70T.jpg - good to know someone has a sense of humour...
http://i.imgur.com/79tlOEt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vyHt7R4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IxXxKAk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lrBTIil.jpg - the police union head has claimed that some police are sleeping on benches and subject to 120-hour shifts and stale food

Nodin · 11-06-2013 12:10PM

It would appear the offer to meet some of the protesters was a bit of a ruse.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22851765

Peanut · 11-06-2013 12:51PM

Nodin wrote: »

It would appear the offer to meet some of the protesters was a bit of a ruse.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22851765

If the police do manage to clear the park and Erdogan subsequently refuses to meet them, it could blow up in his face again, over a longer timescale. It's sort of looking that way at the moment.

Seaneh · 11-06-2013 01:06PM

Twitter is awash with people talking about "new" people arriving early this morning in plain clothes as if they were joining the protesters and then these "new" people starting to throw rocks and petrol bombs at armoured police vehicles and the water cannon trucks.

Protestors believe they are undercover police or intelligence service officers put there to try and justify the governments attack on the park that is under way now. There are photos flying around twitter of the main "new" people who seemed to be calling the shots and started the throwing. They were all organised and making sure to cover their faces.
Sounds like the people suspect the police or intelligence services of infiltrating the protesters to try and incite violence so that the police could rush the park might have a point.

**** like this happens all the time.

Peanut · 11-06-2013 03:00PM

Lots happening on this feed right now, police attempting to flush them out - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/glassbeadian

Peanut · 11-06-2013 03:31PM

Uh-oh...?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22859959

"But for those who want to continue with the incidents I say: 'It's over.' As of now we have no tolerance for them.

"Not only will we end the actions, we will be at the necks of the provocateurs and terrorists and no-one will get away with it,"

People are being asked to come to Taksim at 5pm GMT, could get nasty(-er).

Jonny7 · 11-06-2013 04:32PM

Peanut wrote: »

Uh-oh...?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22859959

"But for those who want to continue with the incidents I say: 'It's over.' As of now we have no tolerance for them.

"Not only will we end the actions, we will be at the necks of the provocateurs and terrorists and no-one will get away with it,"

People are being asked to come to Taksim at 5pm GMT, could get nasty(-er).

There's the "terrorists" word... comes out like clockwork

Nodin · 11-06-2013 04:38PM

Jonny7 wrote: »

There's the "terrorists" word... comes out like clockwork

....it really has become a pointless bit of jargon.

Peanut · 11-06-2013 06:35PM

Situation is getting out of hand. The police have apparently just gassed the entire square where everyone was meeting up again.

Nodin · 11-06-2013 06:48PM

Peanut wrote: »

Situation is getting out of hand. The police have apparently just gassed the entire square where everyone was meeting up again.

Aye. Arrested a load of lawyers earlier.

zom · 11-06-2013 08:56PM

Nodin wrote: »

Aye. Arrested a load of lawyers earlier.

The number of lawyers arrested at the Çağlayan court appears to be rising with each report.
Hurriyet says more than 50 lawyers were detained, citing the Ankara Bar Association.
It quotes a statement from the association as saying: “The detention of the lawyers at the courthouse by force brings [into] question what kind of ‘democratic regime’ we are living in."[/QUOTE]

Very good question...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/turkey-police-move-into-taksim-square#block-51b72c80e4b0f749db72ad97

Riots in Turkey.

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