Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged young Turks to ignore calls to mark the first anniversary of Istanbul’s Taksim Square protests. He was speaking ahead of nationwide demonstrations planned for Saturday. Thousands of police officers and dozens of water cannon trucks are to be deployed to the square, reports say. Protests against plans to redevelop Istanbul’s Gezi Park last [...] → Read the full article…
In Istanbul, known as the city of seven hills, dozens of public stairways crisscross centuries-old neighborhoods, giving pedestrians a way to avoid heavy car traffic on the streets. Those walkways generally attract little notice, but that changed last week, when a retired forestry engineer decided to paint the Findikli stairs in the central district of Beyoglu in all the colors of [...] → Read the full article…
It has turned out that the police, whose use of excessive power in the Gezi protests has been debated repeatedly, have started to do the courts’ jobs. Though the German citizen of Turkish origin Ekim Deniz Doğan who was arrested on July 7 was released by the court, the Public Security Branch Office (a department of the İstanbul Police Department) [...] → Read the full article…
This is a letter from Selim Önder’s daughter, Ayşe Önder. Selim Önder, after being exposed to gas canister smoke in his own home in Taksim, had suffered from problems of respiratory distress and lost his life on Father’s Day. The Letter to the Turkish Medical Association Dear Turkish Medical Association, This letter is not political, not about politics, but about [...] → Read the full article…
Hello everybody, I would like to tell you about the incidents myself as the main protagonist of the videos showing the “Dolmabahçe Polis Violence” recorded on the 2nd of June 2013 at night in Dolmabahçe and broadcast on youtube. I am the person that the police tried to lynch in those images after the Billboard Resistance. Those of you who are [...] → Read the full article…
Today’s heroes were also the heroes of Gezi… Now, they are more reliable, more respectable.. Gezi; along with Çarşı, Redhack and Anticapitalist Muslims, has brought LGBT individuals under the spotlight. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans individuals will rejoice and walk together at 17:00 today. Their main slogan is “If you are not here we are one missing”. They are candid [...] → Read the full article…
My name is Başak. I am 21 years old. Who did this to me? Handful of dogs!!! I guess a bit further than this would be death… We are not those provocateurs who, with sticks in their hands, are breaking the windows of the banks, destroying the streets and starting fire, and stirring up people making them run around. It’s true; I participated [...] → Read the full article…