A Turkish student gives her account of what is happening in the country at the moment…
All my Turkish friends are up tonight. We are trying to get a glimpse of the news through a minority of TV channels which are not afraid of the government’s censorship policies. It started as a reaction to the destruction of a park. But then we finally remembered… and remembrance led to recovery… we recovered from our passivity and numbness: It’s been a steady process. At first the target was our founding leader, Atatürk, and his principles. Then came the universities; the youth was supposed to bend the knee to their policies. Then our morals were questioned; last week an announcement was made at the subway system in Ankara while a couple was kissing condemning it as an immoral act which led to a subsequent kissing protest a week later; and then it was alcohol; they banned its purchase and sale during certain hours. Lastly, it was a park filled with a bunch of trees… one of the few resisting the government’s capitalist policies… then we remembered… we are those trees; their policies aim to eradicate us, and we would not let that happen!!!
Erdogan carried out several bans and everything, you can find more on my status updates but then the triggering event was the possible destruction of a park which is situated at the heart of Istanbul and is the only greenery left anyway it started out as an innocent act
Peace pacifists went there and basically occupied the park and then they started to use tear gases on these people who were simply living there, minding their own business reading books, however they didn’t like that and wanted to take them out with excessive usage of tear gases which they have been using for the past couple of months in several universities where the youth protested their policies such as my own and most importantly Middle East Technical University which is renowned for its legendary past and then the real mass started everybody rebelled because it was unfair people suddenly awakened and helped them in all sorts of ways and then it spread to the capital where I live and the other cities all around the country it is as if a fire is lit the domino effect if I were to recall V and now they can’t stop it but trying real hard by carrying out thousands of arrests brutal police violence.
And now this gas called Agent Orange which was used by the US during the Vietnam War and is illegal it causes deathly results and believe me you there have been many the media is their tool so none of our channels are showing what’s going on
There is only one channel they haven’t bought yet and it is showing it live now every park is occupied all over turkey everyone is camping protesting and the police are running them over even as I type I am so far we protested and the moment we sensed tear gas we drew back but the crazy thing is we cant draw back any more it’s time to act it started out in order to protect a tree and now he’s massacring us it’s just I’m too angry sad and happy because I know that change is near
I don’t know what will happen they control everything but we cant stop now unless he resigns but he wont resign because he is not an honourable person but a puppet in the US’s hands people are continuously there bringing in food medication doctors go there after their shifts in order to attend the wounded it’s pure chaos plus they are using jammers and cut internet connection from time to time to keep us suppressed.
The student in question sent this account in Facebook messages to an Irish friend involved in the ISLO