READ & WATCH! I was there yesterday!

[bigOz]

http://www.milliyet.tv/video-izle/Taksi ... uCqrK.html

On a day trip to Istanbul yesterday, I happened to be in a friends office right opposite Taksim Park. Noticing the acrid smell in the air and eyes feeling still sour, I walked by the famed park that has been occupied by peaceful domenstrators for the previous 3 days. I noticed I could not short cut across the park to the offices becose special forces police had fenced off the whole perimeter. I also noticed the park was empty. Little did I know that a political storm was on the wayhe park the night before.

As I waited outside for my friend to arrive, I found out there were at least 5000 people protesting at the park the night before. The protest has been going on for 3 days and was against uprooting of century old, a dozen trees from almost 3rd of the park (which usually means 2 dozen or more!) to clear the space for a planned construction of a shopping mall. The protesers number grew more and more over the previous 3 days and soon turned into a "mine is bigger than yours" argument with Prime Minister Erdoğan.

Apparently, in came the police on the early hours of the morning and moved out (using gas and water canons) the relatively less number of protestors who kept vigil at the park. Many resisted and got injured, but couple of hundred protestors across the road from me took sanctuary at the forecourt of Divan Hotel. Many tourists and others not actively participating lined the streets. Police special forces were on every corner in groups of 50, wearing masks & gas canister guns. Couple of huge armoured vehicles with water cannons stood in the middle of the street.

[bigOz]

Cont...

http://www.milliyet.tv/video-izle/Polis ... jt0qQ.html

When the protesters started chanting their slogans and protesting loudly the earlier heavy hand tactics of the police, the war started at around 11 am! The two armoured vehicles started using their water canons as well as spraying pepper gas from 3 nozzels along both sides. The police charged from all directions and started firing gas canisters at where ever there was a crowd. That included the tourists, the civilians and where I was standing also. People started running away from the effects of the gas. One cannot really know how much it hurts the eyes and the throat even 50-100 yard away from the blasts. The canisters came down all over the place even at those running away at a distance. The ambulances kept coming and taking away all those with breathing difficulties affected by the gas.
Luckily for me my friend had arrived just then and opened the apartment's door allowing us to go upstairs and watch the events from a birds eye view. The charging and the blast of canisters (like hand grenades) went on for an hour until a workers union called all protesters to meet 200 yards up the road at Taksim square.
That gave us a chance to sit and talk with my friend quitely for couple of hours. Around 4 pm I decided to go down the shopping area (Istiklal Caddesi) next to Taksim and do a bit of shopping before continuing to the airport early evening. BIG MISTAKE!
As I walked through the square, now heavily guarded by hundreds of masked and armed police and vehicles, my eyes and throat started to hurt terribly. I saw protesters in large groups dispersed through 5 main streets leading into Taksim square, clearly chased by the police and the armoured vehicles. As soon as I heard slogans starting I thought “here we go!”. The police started blasting off their gas grenades charging in all directions again.

[bigOz]

Cont.

http://www.milliyet.tv/video-izle/Istan ... ec3Uh.html

There was a great stampede, tourists were in a state of shock, people with crying children seeking sanctuary in the hotels surrounding the square and I foolishly made my way into Istiklal Caddesi where the shops are. By now my throat & eyes (just like everyone else’s) were hurting so much, tears were streaming down my eyes and I found breathing difficult. So many gas grenades went off that it was impossible to get away from it, no matter how fast and how far you walked.
When I saw masked cameramen, I realised just how different and scary such events are in real life than what you see on TV! Scared? I tell you these Turkish young and old protesting had some balls, I actually saw some charging the police just waving flags and chanting.
As I made my way about a kilometre down Istiklal Caddesi, where almost all shops had brought down their blinds, I saw another armoured vehicle facing the other way and a group of police firing away their canisters at a crowd at the other end of the avenue. Now we were sandwiched between the police blasting away at both ends, everyone including myself made haste (except some protesters bless them!) into the side streets, out of breath and fresh air. By now, I was not sure if the tears were because of the gas or the sadness I felt of how the young police could act this way against their own people for no good reason! The sheer cruelness and sadistic behaviour identified well with most of the police in the World tackling demonstrations. Now they have no sympathy from me!

[bigOz]

Cont.

http://www.milliyet.tv/video-izle/Istan ... jVDLh.html

You expect the police would alone those in the side streets? They started bombarding the side streets as well... That, apparently, was the start of a hide and seek with the protesters, who grew more and more in numbers as time went by. My blood boiling & exchanging few words with 4 young police officers at the other end of the side street, I thought it would be best I made my way to the airport ASAP, before I missed my flight because I ended up spending the night in a police cell.
Crossing over the Bosphorus Bridge I could see a huge crowd heading in the opposite direction from the Anatolian part of Istanbul towards Taksim square, blocking the incoming traffic on the bridge. Having already witnessed a huge crowd gathering at Beşiktaş earlier, I knew this was going to be a very long night.
This morning, I jumped on the internet and followed the news online. The demonstrations and clashes spread out as expected and people were out on the streets in their thousands. There were simultaneous demonstrations in many other cities and towns supporting the cause of the demonstrators in Istanbul. I bow to and respect the resilience and courage of the Turkish people after witnessing what has been going on in Istanbul. They still have the spirit of resistance and strength to fight for democracy, and oppose oppression. I applaud you (as I literally did yesterday everytime I passed by a crowd of protesters).

[sophie]

I've been following this dreadful business as close as I could via TV and it saddens me no end. I've always been of the opinion that the veneer covering the behaviour of the Turksih police force was wafer thin and at the slightest provocation their true behaviour would break through. The secular members of Turkish society must be wondering where the hell their country is going in the future and are becoming afraid of what they see. These TV pictures being shown worldwide can only be helping those members of Turkish society who are pressing for free speach and democracy with their country, as their President appears to be against both.

[Soner]

Thanks for sharing this with us BigOz. Saw some of this on the News this morning in the UK and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Shame on the police, makes one wonder how can they treat their own like this especially when it is the public that pays their wages. You'd think they would stop and think before taking drastic action. So sad!

[bigOz]

Indeed, Soner... If you were there you would know exactly how I felt - it brought back memories of war, but the saddest part now was "the enemy were our own people"! And they were such good willed nice people too! I saw old mothers and grandmothers saying "Allah belanızı versin!" to the police. Young girls and tourists running like headless chicken in the streets, grenades exploding everywhere, tears streaming from everyones faces and no air to breath işn the whole of Taksim square + surrounding streets!

Even more upsetting was the fact that none of these protesters had any offensive weapons, stones or anything. They were attacked senselesly! Perhaps this is a wake up call for worse things to come if we carry on supporting the Islamist regime of Erdoğan without questioning anything!