On this day in 2013, Turkish protesters began occupying Gezi Park to oppose its demolition, an act with led to widespread protests and strikes with approximately 3,500,000 participants, 22 deaths, and more than 8,000 injuries.
The wave of civil unrest across Turkey began after the park occupation was violently evicted by police, who used to tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannons to try and break up the protests, injuring more than one hundred people and hospitalizing a journalist.
The protest quickly grew in size - by May 31st, 10,000 gathered in Istiklal Avenue. In June, the protests became national in scope and transcended any particular demographic or political ideology. Among the wide range of concerns brought by protesters were issues of freedom of the press, expression, and assembly, as well as the alleged political Islamist government’s erosion of Turkey’s secularism.
Millions of Turkish football fans, normally divided by intense sports rivalry, marched in unity against the government. Protesters displayed symbols the environmentalist movement, rainbow banners, depictions of Che Guevara, different trade unions, and the PKK and its leader Abdullah Öcalan.
On June 4th, Taksim Dayanışması (Taksim Solidarity) issued a set of demands that included the preservation of Gezi Park, an end to police violence, the right to freedom of assembly, and an end to the privatization of public spaces. Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç met the group on June 5th and rejected these demands.
Erdoğan blamed the protests on “internal traitors and external collaborators”, demonizing his political opposition as the former. Despite the popular mobilization, Erdoğan remained in power and no major concessions were won from the government.
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Ahh, gezi parkı brings back memories. Sad to see so much regression. At the time, even grey wolves were not happy with death by police brutality. Now, even some Erdoğan hating young people demand a brutal police that kills whoever they want just like what they have in usa, thinking this will bring them the prosperity of USA. There is so much normalisation of such reactionary mindset everywhere. Funnily enough, even our police was not this brutal this quickly to the encampments compared to pro Palestine protests in the West. Unfortunately I see fascist ideologies becoming more popular than leftist ones everywhere
This is not a form of reaction that I had ever imagined or anticipated and all I can come up with is flat wut?
Maybe I am exaggerating how popular their ideas are. They are, I hate to say this word, very authotarian. Praising a soldier who tortured prisoners in Diyarbakır prison. Support for deep state and extra judicial killings.