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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  • Lerios [hy/hym]@hexbear.netEnglish
    29·
    1 month ago

    i was out in the town centre the other day and saw some anarchists staging some sort of protest. and i was like, fuck yeah! free palestine! until i got closer and saw that it wasn’t the ancom flag, it was a different half black half red flag that had some yellow symbol on it, and a bunch of people with ukraine shit. like bestie its been 2 years lmao, how do they not know its joever? genuinely, why the fuck are you wasting your weekend for a country being used as a nato pawn that we all knew never stood a chance in the first place?

    also, given that its a symbol being used for the ukraine i assumed it was some fash shit. i got home, googled it, and its the flag of the ukrainian insurgent army - and guess who they were shooting at during ww2? not the fucking germans agony-shivering