
What is happening in İstanbul? - ekurutepe
http://www.whatishappeninginistanbul.com/
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fatihdonmez
It started as a civilian resistance for excessive police force. Unique and
special part of this movement was political distribution of people in it.
Erdogan's party rule 3'rd times the government. At this point they changed
from independent, democrat, liberal party to totaliter one. So people in the
movement is consist of multiple former Akp (Erdogan's party) supporter, too.
That's why it should be important for Erdogan. But instead he's arguing that
most of them provoked by other forces so ignoring. But now, 3'rd day of
activity, it changed from civilian movement to anarchist, provokative anti-
governmental and mostly illegal movements. That's why now people should calm
down. Because initial point of movement succeed it's purpose. Park is safe
(court decision), police is off the Taksim Square.

ps: i'm talkin as person who was in activity actually and hurted by police
brutality. #direngeziparki

~~~
lifeguard
I read his son secretly owned the park and sold for a huge profit to an
extremely wealthy individual who fell in love with the location.

People have also written that the new rule banning alcohol at 10 pm is making
secular society nervous.

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eknkc
I've been there in Ankara protests last 2 days / nights.

I have several light burns around my body. Got hit by a gas canister. Seen
people shot down with plastic bullets and got sprayed with an orange liquid
that burns like hell.

The PM says social media is a damnation of god and we had several outages of
twitter and facebook.

Meanwhile, CNN Turk shows penguin documentaries.

~~~
lifeguard
Solidarity!

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier
than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

Peace and love to you all.

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mc-lovin
While I'm glad that people from Turkey are voicing there opinions here, I
think there is also danger in being too credulous. The people who use English
speaking social media are not necessarily representative of the whole
population and the fact that people are able to spread their message on social
media doesn't make them right.

I am still waiting to see confirmation of the existence of a media blackout in
Turkey by the mainstream media, and the more general claims about the current
regime are even harder to judge for an outsider.

~~~
muhuk
Perhaps you can watch these videos of police brutality while you are waiting
for the official statement from The Ministry of Censorship.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqQjPHtAZ6c>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPsPC4TPAMc>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XThjR-7F0io>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQHOo2rOmWc>

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y409ZrNLFqM>

Of course, just because the cops are assaulting unarmed civilians doesn't
necessarily mean they are wrong.

(edit: added one more video)

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DocG
Uh, I am moving there at the end of the summer. That is pretty much last thing
I want to see at the moment. I am hoping they manage to finish this thing
before.

Although, I would prefer Turkey to be peaceful, I do understand and agree with
these protest.

If there happens the worst case scenario and real revolution, does anyone have
info, how safe it is after that usually?

~~~
ekurutepe
sorry @DocG but I don't think revolutions happen that often to be able to say
how safe they are with any kind of statistical significance :)

But as far as I can tell, the government seems to be starting to accept the
blame and even Erdogan will probably fall in line in a few days. It probably
won't escalate anymore. I wouldn't worry if I were you.

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lifeguard
Turkey live feed from the protests:

[http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution?utm_source=lsplay...](http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks)

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rdmirza
Great idea, I was trying to figure out the story! I've read there's been an
internal blackout -- the turkish media isn't covering the event.

~~~
ZirconCode
Yes, I heard they also placed jammers inside the protest areas. I imagine this
didn't help very much. I was unable to find the source again though.

Technology seems to play a larger and larger role in providing freedom by
giving individuals a voice and the power to exercise it.

~~~
kwx
Hm, I saw the opposite. Mainly every time there was poor reception it was due
to overloaded cells.

TurkCell installed mobile repeaters in Taksim square yesterday. Even in the
most heated of confrontions I still had cell, data and voice reception.

------
zi
Might check out 57un's twitter feed. Lot of info on this.

<https://twitter.com/57un>

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alpb
Thanks for covering this @ekurutepe.

~~~
ekurutepe
This is not my blog. I came across it and seemed very accurate and unbiased.
Thought I'd share here.

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_nato_
Is Gezi Park a _public_ or _private_ park?

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saraid216
And what does such a distinction mean in Turkey?

~~~
muhuk
It's a public park.

There might be parks within the walls of a gated community. Or there might be
special parks, like a bird park or a japanese garden you might then need a
ticket to enter.

Gezi Park is a public area in the heart of Istanbul. The value of the land
must be astronomical. That's another reason why the government has no issues
attacking the civilians. And they get this brutal because the value of each
individual life (in their minds) is very very low.

(I used to live 500 meters away from Gezi Park, and I have spent a
considerable amount of time there)

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pixie_
Pretty sure if Turkey falls we'll end up with a new Islamic caliphate in the
next 10 years. Who doesn't see one sweeping over this shattered region. For
90% of its history (600 to 1900) the middle east has been under a single
empire or another. What we should really be afraid of is some kind of
galvanizing leader or force to come out of this.

~~~
cpleppert
>> For 90% of its history (600 to 1900) the middle east has been under a
single empire or another.

That is so totally wrong I don't even know where to begin. For starters the
caliphate was only a political force until the emergence of the seljuk turks.
The turkish empire was European focused and never controlled persia or arabia.

~~~
barry-cotter
Persia was never an Ottoman posession but Arabia was, or at least most of it
was. I'm too lazy to look it up on my phone. Caliph was among the titles
claimed by the Ottoman Sultan and his claim was taken seriously by almost all
Sunnis, particularly after the dethronement of the Mughals.

They didn't consider it among their more important titles until quite late,
preferrimg _Qaysar-i-Rum_ or Emperor of the Romans, but their claim to the
Caliphate was long standing.

