Category Archives: Texts

Interview with Mücella Yapıcı, Secretary of Taksim Solidarity

Two part interview with Mücella Yapıcı, Secretary of Taksim Solidarity and General Secretary of Chamber of Architects, Istanbul Branch. Subtitles and translation provided by translators’ platform Translate for Justice. PART I PART II 28 June 2013 Source: translateforjustice.com

Jadaliyya: Urban Utopias and How They Fell Apart

[

Taksim: A Political Ecology The uprising that started with Taksim Square’s Gezi Park in Istanbul on 28 May emerged as a unique movement of resistance in Turkey’s history and has continued without interruption in the last several weeks. The Gezi Park Movement will be remembered as a successful mass movement of youth activism whose main purpose has been to reclaim [...] → Read the full article…

Sendika.org: Korkut Boratav Evaluates the Gezi Resistance: “A Matured Class Based Contumacy…”

The class composition, appearance, causes and possible outcomes of Gezi Revolt; institutionalization of resistance; we talked with Prof.Dr Korkut Boratav about the lessons that the socialist left and Kurdish movement has to deduct from the resistance itself. The resistance erupted after the assault on Gezi Park seems like a middle-class rebellion instead of a total class counter-action. What could you [...] → Read the full article…

Scientific American: The Dance and the Dancer: At Taksim Square

used gas canister istiklal

Part 1: The Dancer. It’s called the Dancer. La Bailarina. Like some crazed Stravinsky diva, the Condor GL 310 gas grenade bobs and weaves when it lands, moving in random patterns, spewing noxious gas into the air. Its jittery swirls are specifically designed to cover large areas with gas, but also–critically–to prevent protestors from grabbing the thing and chucking it [...] → Read the full article…

Hürriyet: The driver that knocked over and fled registered a complaint against him

20625494

İsmail Aydoğdu (23), one of the 4 people injured by an automobile ploughing through the crowd of protesters gathered at Kızılay Square in Ankara, has successfully held on to life following 2 weeks of struggling for survival. At first, the driver that knocked Aydoğdu over, had fled from the crime scene. Later however, the driver registered a complaint at the [...] → Read the full article…

Hurriyet: that ‘French agent’ explained about what has happened in Turkey

elisa-couvert1

French student Elisa Couvert (24), who was taken into custody in Istanbul during the Gezi Park Resistance, spoke to the Hurriyet. She stated that she has to return back to finish her research project and added that she brought a lawsuit against “unjust” decision of deportation. How was your first contact with Turkey? I studied at Galatasaray University two years ago as [...] → Read the full article…

Journalist Musa Ağacık got attacked by Erdogan’s body guards!

1000809_322848724512851_798268520_n

After PM Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with the Wisdom Council in his office at Dolmabahçe Palace, journalist Musa Ağacık, who asked some questions to the members of the Wisdom Council, got attacked by Erdoğan’s body guards. He asked a question, got beaten up: After PM Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with the Wisdom Council in his office at Dolmabahçe Palace, journalist Musa Ağacık [...] → Read the full article…

MRZine: Whose Majority? Understanding the Foundations of the Political Conflict Over Gezi Park Protests in Turkey

Turkey has been witnessing one of the most vibrant and creative protests in its history since a group of protestors were subjected to brutal police violence a month ago in Gezi Park, Istanbul.  Primarily started as a reaction against the urban regeneration of Gezi Park, protests then proliferated in other parts of Istanbul and other cities, articulating diverse grievances of [...] → Read the full article…

The Hindu: At Gezi Park, a short walk from majority to majoritarian

UNJUSTIFIED RESPONSE: Teargas swirls around Taksim square in Istanbul on June 11. The indiscriminate use of violence against mostly peaceful protesters resulted in even bigger protests.

Premier Erdogan’s strong-arm tactics have created a previously unthinkable coalition of the opposition in Turkey What began on May 28 as a peaceful protest against government plans to turn Gezi Park, one of the few remaining green spaces in Istanbul, into a shopping mall metamorphosed into a widespread protest against the ruling Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish [...] → Read the full article…