So you know the thing where you do something that everyone has told you not to do? Well, here is my story of doing that thing. Here is my story of (at least for one night) joining the Turkish protest movement.
Last night was our one night off at Global Power Shift. I have to say people were pretty excited about it (just to get away from the campus where we are staying) and plans were afoot. With some locals with us, we decided to go to a General Assembly in AbbaSaga Park and then after that head out to a bar.
Let me explain the general assemblies. As you may be aware, the spark for the recent Turkish protests were plans from the Government to tear down the central Gezi Park to build a shopping mall and a reconstruction army barracks from the Ottoman Empire era. Gezi is, from what I understand, the largest park in central Istanbul (and trust me, there aren’t many parks here) and has been a central meeting point for the community for a long time.
The protests therefore originally focused on Gezi Park and the adjacent Taksim Square. The demolition plan was a spark to create a national movement, and therefore Gezi was the focal point of the movement. They started off as protests and then moved to to an occupation. Then, as seen across the world, a couple of weeks ago the police cleared it out. Today the park is closed – there are police spread throughout Taksim Square and Gezi is blocked off – with police sitting inside make sure no one enters. Because of this, the movement have decided to spread themselves out. Unable to occupy Gezi they have decided to take over the other parks in the city – I think about 40 or so occupations. And as part of this, there are general assemblies in the parks every night – yes, that’s right – every night! The park we went to, AbbaSaga, in the suburb of Besiktas, about a 30 minute walk from Taksim, is the largest of these gatherings. If fact, it seems as though Besiktas is the new central point of the movement.
So, with a desire to see the movement in action, we decided we’d head to the general assembly, and then head out for a drink. It started at 9pm, and we’d been told they normally last for 1/2 hour to an hour. With some Turkish friends we had some good translators to help guide us through what was going on.
From the moment the assembly started however it became clear this wasn’t just going to last for 1/2 hour. I’ll quickly explain how it seemed to work. The assembly was in a park amphitheatre. There were a few designated facilitators with everyone sitting around listening. People were given hand signals – putting your hands up in the air if you agreed with something (twinkle fingers) and make a cross with your hands if you disagreed. People were also able to speak and provide counter-proposals. On key issues there was a vote.
As it started our translator informed us that the discussion was focused around when to head back to Taksim Square. From what I understand, originally the discussion was to go there on Saturday. Bring people together for one big push. Then someone proposed Friday. And then someone proposed they did it tonight. Votes were had and it seemed as though the decision was made to go tonight. Things suddenly got very real.
The next five or ten minutes or so I got lost, but as I got back into the conversation it became clear the plans had changed. Now, instead of going to Taksim, a plan had been hatched to march about 20 minutes away to a major media outlet that has been very favourable to the Government. They would protest outside their office, potentially do a sit-in and then march back. The plan was agreed.
For the next hour our group (of about 40) discussed whether we wanted to join and there was agreement amongst most of us that we would do so. In the meantime the general assembly continued – they discussed filling their legal working group, the actions of their women’s working group, supporting the upcoming Pride festival and other issues such as making demands around education and planning other potential actions. The plan was to leave for the protest at 10.
At about 10:15 we got ready to go. As everyone started gather we were informed by our Turkish friend that the police had been tipped off on the plans and had already stationed themselves at the media office with water cannons and trucks they called ‘Scorpions’ – the riot trucks used to separate crowds. My heart rate increased significantly, but I decided I wanted to continue. We would travel as a group, stay at the back of the march, stay away from the police, and disperse the moment we saw the police do anything.
I have to say I have never experienced a protest like this. It was truly inspiring. There were probably about 300 – 500 people marching, but the support was much stronger than that. Since the protests started it has become tradition that at 9pm supporters of the movement would bang pots and pans together in a show of support. It makes quite a noise. With the march now on the streets, this tradition continued, and supporters came out onto the street, poked their heads out of their windows, or stood on their balconies clapping and banging their pots and pans together.
The march walked up a residential/commercial street – bars on the ground floor and houses above, and then came out onto a major six-lane road. It was here were I started to get nervous. As we entered the highway we saw a scorpion drive past – making their way towards to the media office. My heart jumped a beat the moment I saw it.
But we continued on. After about ten more minutes we made it to the media office. Marching along the highway there were countless cars beeping their horns in support. The sound was stunning. As we got the media office the crowd coalesced around the office blocking off two lanes of traffic. At one end a large police van sat in the middle of the crowd – I could see the water canon on its roof. I could also see numerous riot police – with their dark clothing and shields ready in case something happened. The crowd chanted loudly for about 10 minutes or so – I don’t quite know what they were saying, but it was great to watch.
Then, the person with the megaphone made an announcement, and extremely quickly the protesters turned around and made their way back to the park. I don’t think the sit-in happened. I think they decided to pick their battles and it wasn’t worth it this time. As far as I could tell there was no violence and there were no arrests.
It’s hard to explain through writing how exciting and inspiring this was. Luckily I have some footage I took, which I intend to share once I have sorted through it (I am just about to fall asleep and have no energy to do that now). Otherwise, there are two things I think I can take from my experience.
1.) This is not just a bunch of rabble-rousers.
The biggest take away for me from this experience was how broad the support in Istanbul for the movement is. As I said, as we marched people were banging their pots and pans and honking their horns. But maybe I didn’t explain it well enough – this was not just a few people doing it. It was most people doing it. Almost every balcony had people standing and showing their support. Almost every car was tooting their horn in support. It was huge. And it’s not like it felt like this was a unique area – the road was a major highway, bringing people from all across the city. And they were all beeping their horns in support.
Therefore, unlike so much of the discussion around these movements – this is not in its own a movement of rabble-rousing youths. One of the most inspiring stories I have heard since being in Istanbul comes from a few weeks back. Apparently, in the peak of the occupation of Gezi Park, the Governor of Istanbul went onto the television and pleaded with the mothers of those occupying the park to come out onto the street and bring their children home. To remove them from harms way and to get them to stop causing trouble. Instead however, mothers from all around the city came to the park, joined hands, and formed a circle around their children to protect them from harms way. To protect them from the violence of the police. It is truly inspiring.
It is this spirit I saw last night. Everyone was out – from 18 year olds to 80 year olds. This is a broad movement.
2.) The movement here is extremely democratic and it is being sustained. Watching the General Assembly was extremely inspiring, and the discussions around the broad range of topics – from developing a lawyers group to supporting Pride week – show how broad, and how democratic the movement is. I can’t go into all the details, and I am sure there are issues. But it feels like the momentum is not being lost and that a large part of that is the open way it is being run. Watching it last night made me feel like it was the way movements should work.
I’ve got two more actions I am heading to this weekend – a climate action prepared with local groups as part of Global Power Shift and the Pride march on Sunday (which we have been told is expecting 50,000 people!). I will report back on both!