turkish polis
Last night we had a drink with our Turkish host Baris, an intelligent young man who studied history at university with a special interest in the Armenian “relocation” during WW1. Baris has now turned his hand to business and had the savvy idea of renting out a set of apartments in Beyoglu and then subletting to people like us. We are sitting on his balcony taking in the night air just a few hundred metres down from Gezi Park – the inner city green sanctuary which sparked a huge social upheaval in the past few months. When I ask him what it was like here during the “riots” he is quick to correct me. “You use the word riot but there was no rioting here”. He goes on to tell me the people protesting the demolition of Gezi Park to make way for a shopping mall were wholly peaceful. They did not use violence or cause any damage but nevertheless were treated by the police like criminals, copping tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and beatings. At the time the air was thick with the bitter smell of tear gas and the cloud extended many kilometres from the epicentre in Taksim square.
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Baris was one of those on the streets and identifies himself as being fairly typical of the demographic of protestor - young, well educated and by no means extremist. He had never even participated in a protest before. He recalled watching in horror as police teamed up with pro-government civilians to single out and beat up peaceful protesters for no other reason than their political views. “These people are the ones who are supposed to be protecting us from crime, not committing crimes upon us”. It is little wonder then that this local discontent about a park evolved into nationwide protests fighting for democracy, freedom of speech and against heavy-handed government suppression of this freedom. The police force responsible for the brutality is apparently closely aligned with conservative government views. Baris tells us that only people with the right political agenda are taken into the force and that there recently was a purging of all police officers with opposing views. He thinks this is the main reason they acted with such violence against their own people.
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The air had cleared of tear gas by the time we arrived and the streets were bustling with business as usual, but we could always feel the tension in the air. There were always subtle little signs to indicate that the cops were not going to take no shit from no one, and that if you so much as held up a placard you might be liable to get a canister of gas launched at your face. Subtle little signs like the buses of riot police lurking around the streets complete with body armour, assault rifles and riot shields. Then one day there were some protesters on Istiklal street sitting around a spraypainted banner on the ground. There would have been no more than thirty of them, so to make sure things didn’t get too rowdy three vans pulled up behind an even bigger truck with a cowcatcher on the front and a water cannon mounted up top. Out trooped the riot police ready to go with gas tank backpacks and little grenade launcher looking things. We snapped a few photos as they advanced menacingly on the quiet protesters but everyone dispersed before they fired up the water cannon.
The following day things heated up a bit more. We could hear some chanting in the late morning and when we walked out of our apartment onto Galatasaray square there was a mass of people aligned geometrically – there was a line of riot police on one side, a line of photographers on the other side and in between there were a small group of demonstrators sitting on the ground (we couldn’t really see what they were doing there). Everyone around was getting involved in the chanting until eventually the police walked away to the applause of the crowd. Shortly afterwards in the same area a larger group of men came marching up Istiklal street towards Taksim square (where demonstrations are banned). The police formed a line blocking them from going any further towards the square and both groups came together right where we happened to be standing! They faced up to each other but luckily neither party was aggressive at all. I’m not sure what they were protesting about today but things were pretty calm and there was no violence - we snapped a few quick photos and then got out of there.