Protesters in Taksim Square, share food and water
The protests in Turkey have pushed into the sixth day, with people from towns and cities across the country taking to the streets to protest against what they see as the country edging towards authoritarianism under prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A protest which grew from the brutal suppression of a peaceful demonstration against the development of a shopping mall in one of Istanbul’s last green spaces, Gezi Park, is now a fully fledged anti-Government movement. As the protests have continued and the government’s response continues to be heavy use of tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannons, the calls for change in the country’s political establishment have become deafening.
Erdogan may claim that he represents the “silent majority” and could mobilise “millions”, but those people continue to stay silent whatever their number, as the number of protesters grow and grow along with their demands. The protesters originally demanded a relaxation of Erdogan’s authoritarian style, a stop to the perceived Islamisation of Turkey, such as limiting alcohol sales, and the release of political and media opposition figures. Now, however, they are calling for the resignation of Erdogan along with his deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc, president Abdullah Gül, and the chiefs of police for Istanbul and Ankara.
United in their anger against Erdogan’s AKP government, otherwise disparate groups from across socio-economic and ethnic barriers have come together on the streets of Turkey. In Taksim Square, the focal point for the protests, people are demonstrating, sitting, and eating together. There are food stalls set up where people share food and water, and there are even groups of people doing yoga en masse, with the feel of the protests a celebration of democracy
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Istanbul is famed for having three football teams, with supporters notoriously aggressive towards each other. But now the supporters of Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, and Besiktas all find themselves working and living together with a common purpose, sharing hopes for the future of a secular Turkey. Gokhan Atamal, an English teacher involved in the protests in Istanbul, described a recent scene where a number of Galatasaray supporters were trapped by police with heavy use of tear gas, and “Besiktas and Fenerbahce fans gathered and rushed over and saved them”. Previous societal walls and rivalries are being broken down as the calls for reforms and an accountable secular democracy become ever louder.
Turkish protesters in Taksim Square have taken on board the ideas from Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution, as well as the Occupy movement in the US, and created their own style of mass protest formed in the city where the east meets the west. The protesters do not want revolution, but major reforms to the political process to defend a secular democracy with freedom of expression and freedom of dissent, and their hopes grow with each person joining them on the streets.
