Showing posts with label riots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label riots. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
calm in the wake
Today there was no sign of police. Taksim and Gezi Park were places of jubilation, chanting, singing, and picnicking. People had set up improvised snack shops, distributing water, crackers and other treats for free. Barricades were still up, the burnt carcasses of police vehicles and buses blocked roads, and protesters and their children patrolled the area with trash bags, cleaning up their city. Street vendors took the opportunity to sell everything from barbecued corn, to pilaf, to köfte sandwiches and beer. Later this evening, two large bonfires were built on the site of the new tunnel construction, where people tossed in the wooden walls that were used to block people from entering the area. It has been an exhausting three days, and I am relieved things have calmed down in Taksim, but I wonder what lies ahead. Will anything change? I hope.
I still have hundreds of photos on my camera to share, but they will have to wait until tomorrow and the days that follow— I really need a good night's rest. Stay tuned!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
scenes from taksim square
People waved flags, chanted and sang. The police, who were lined up on the steps to Gezi Parkı, put on their masks and helmets. There were streams of white smoke snaking through the blue sky, and landing with a cloud. Protesters began to run while someone shouted above the chaos to slow down and to take care not to knock others down. At some point, we were hit with a gas that burned more than the others— it tasted funny, a bit like oranges. Seven hours and a good shower later, my skin still burns. People collapsed on the ground unable to see, and coughing hard, yet in seconds, their eyes and face were soothed by an antacid mixture being sprayed by a compassionate stranger.
Behind the monument is Gezi Parkı, the place where this all began. People didn't want to see this patch of green razed to the ground, so they peacefully voiced their opposition to the plan for a new shopping mall, and police responded with brutality. This is no longer a fight against bulldozers razing a park to the ground. This is a fight against the government.
tear gas and lemons
I tell you, it's madness outside. These are photos I took in Talimhane, next to Taksim Square. A few hundred of us were squeezed into the little hotel-lined streets, which were littered with broken glass, teargas canisters, and pieces of plywood. Fires were set, barricades erected, and the police, silhouetted figures in the orange smoky air, shot gas every other minute at us. A smoking canister bounced off the pavement and hit my left knee, while my right foot received a direct hit. The pain was intense, but then I felt the burning.
It was in my eyes first— for a moment I couldn't see, then the stinging set in. I reached for Pedro, grabbed his arm, and we ran. People were chanting and dancing. More gas was fired, then the water cannon, then a canister flew by Pedro's eye, knocking his glasses off. We ran to another side street, where a guy offered us lemon slices for our eyes, wishing us a speedy recovery. Through blurry eyes, I could see someone being dragged into a clinic, others were doubled over, rubbing the lemon slices onto their eyelids. It's painful at first, but the lemons really do work— with the frequency of gassing that is occuring in Istanbul this year, I might resort to carrying lemons and a pocket knife in my bag.
Police were firing from every possible way out, making it impossible for us to get home, so we decided to find a place to sit down and have a çay. It seems silly, but what else were we going to do? The Eylül Cafe was serving diligently to protestors, trapped and frightened tourists, and curious residents. Seeing our raspberry-coloured swollen eyes, a young man ran up to us with a squirt bottle and kindly asked if we needed some relief. We showed him our lemons and thanked him, he gave us a quick smile, then dashed off to soothe others in need.
We eventually made it home safely, though many did not— people are seriously injured, and the Turkish media, who initially ignored the protests, is just now starting to cover the story. I was told by one protestor as he watched me sketch the scene, "Tell the world— you must tell the world what is happening here."
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