The initial Istanbul protests were led by about 50 environmentalists. This widened dramatically in response to the heavy-handed eviction by police of the environmentalist sit-in at Gezi Park. With no centralised leadership beyond the organisation organising the original environmental protest, the protests have been compared with the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement and May 1968.
The range of the protesters was noted as being broad, encompassing both right and left-wing individuals. The Atlantic described the participants as "the young and the old, the secular and the religious, the soccer hooligans and the blind, anarchists, communists, nationalists, Kurds, gays, feminists, and students." Der Spiegel said that protests were "drawing more than students and intellectuals. Families with children, women in headscarves, men in suits, hipsters in sneakers, pharmacists, tea-house proprietors – all are taking to the streets to register their displeasure."[178] It added that there was a notable absence of political party leadership: "There have been no party flags, no party slogans and no prominent party functionaries to be seen. Kemalists and communists have demonstrated side-by-side with liberals and secularists." Opposition parties told members not to participate, leaving those who joined in doing so as private individuals.
The Guardian observed that "Flags of the environmentalist movement, rainbow banners, flags of Atatürk, of Che Guevara, of different trade unions, all adorn the Gezi park." Flag of PKK and its leader Abdullah Öcalan's posters and were also seen. Hürriyet noted that even the football supporter clubs of the three major teams (not least Beşiktaş' Çarşı), normally greatly antagonistic towards each other, had agreed to join the protests together; a Turkish sports reporter suggested that the supporters clubs' experience in battling police played a significant role. A photo report from RT showed graffiti in Taksim Square in support of internationalism.The Economist noted that there were as many women as men, and said that "Scenes of tattooed youths helping women in headscarves stricken by tear gas have bust tired stereotypes about secularism versus Islam."Across political divides, protestors supported each other against the police.
Turkish critic and screenwriter Oktay Ege Kozak said "These protests are not just about a group of trees anymore. These protests are about millions of Turkish people doing whatever they can to protect our country's legacy of personal freedom and secularism. After ten years of their rights being taken away bit by bit, the country's young and old banding together to remind a deluded, self-imposed king that he does not rule over the land. That the land does not belong to him, it belongs to all of us ... the explosion was inevitable."
According to Erdoğan's 4 June speech from Morocco, the demonstrators are mostly looters, political losers and extremist fringe groups. He went on to say they went hand-in-hand with 'terrorists' and 'extremists'. He indicated that these protests were organized by the Republican Peoples Party (even though the CHP had initially supported construction on the Gezi-park). Turkey analysts however suggested the demonstrations arose from bottom-up processes, lacking leadership.
A Bilgi University survey asked protesters about events that influenced them to join in the protests. Most cited were the prime minister's "authoritarian attitude" (92%), the police's "disproportionate use of force" (91%), the "violation of democratic rights" (91%), and the "silence of the media" (84%). Half the protestors were under 30, and 70% had no political affiliation; another poll found 79% had no affiliation with any organization.
Types of protest
Gezi Park camp
With the police abandoning attempts to clear the Gezi Park encampment on 1 June, the area began to take on some of the characteristics associated with the Occupy movement. The number of tents swelled, to the point where a hand-drawn map was set up at the entrance. Access roads to the park and to Taksim Square have been blocked by protestors against the police with barricades of paving stones and corrugated iron.
By evening on 4 June there were again tens of thousands in Taksim Square; Al Jazeera reported that "there are many families with their children enjoying the demonstration that has developed the feeling of a festival."There were also signs of a developing infrastructure reminding some observers of Occupy Wall Street, with "a fully operational kitchen and first-aid clinic... carved out of an abandoned concession stand in the back of the park," complete with rotas and fundraising for people's travel expenses. Protestors brought food to donate, and dozens of volunteers organised themselves into four shifts.
A free veterinarian Clinic at Taksim Gezi Park, 7 June
A makeshift "protestor library" was also created (soon reaching 5000 books and Şebnem Ferah gave a concert.[204] A "makeshift outdoor movie screen" was set up,[190] together with a stage with microphones and speakers, and a generator. A symbolic "street" was named after Hrant Dink, the journalist murdered in 2007; the street connects the Peace Square with the children's playground.Sellers of watermelons mingle with sellers of swimming goggles and surgical masks (to protect against tear gas); a yoga teacher provides classes. The crowds swell in the evening as office workers join.
Graffiti showing the words "At least 3 beers", which parodies the government's regulation of sale of alcohol between 22:00 to 06:00 and Erdoğan's advice of 3 kids.
With 5 June being the Lailat al Miraj religious holiday, protestors distributed "kandil simidi" (a pastry specific to the holiday), and temporarily declared the park a no-alcohol zone. Celebration of the holiday included a Quran reading. Protestors had previously mocked Erdoğan's recommendation to have at least 3 children and policy of restricting alcohol with the slogan "at least 3 beers" even though this is criticized on social media for Erdoğan's recommendation of having 3 children is his personal view and not a government policy.
Demonstrations and strikes
Demonstrations were held in many cities in Turkey. According to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey around 640,000 people had participated in the demonstrations as of 5 June. Protests took place in 78 of Turkey's 81 provinces. The biggest protests have been in Istanbul, with reports of more than 100,000 protesters. Inside of the city, protests have been concentrated in the central neighborhoods of Beyoğlu (around Taksim square and İstiklal Avenue), Beşiktaş (from Dolmabahçe to Ortaköy) and Üsküdar (From Maltepe to Kadıköy, Beylerbeyi to Çengelköy). Also in Zeytinburnu, traditionally seen as a conservative working-class neighborhood to the west of the old city, tens of thousands marched in protest. Among the suburbs that saw demonstrations were Beylikdüzü and Küçükçekmece on the far-western side of the city, Pendik and Kartal at the far east and Ümraniye, Beykoz and Esenler to the North.
A small district in Istanbul called "Gazi" (not to be confused with Gezi Park) is currently (10 June 2013) one of the major points of counter-protests.
The biggest protests outside Istanbul have been in Antakya and then in Ankara and Izmir. Other cities in Turkey with protests include (Between 31 May – 25 June):
Responses
Police Response
Protests intensified after (on the morning of 30 May) undercover police burnt the tents of protestors who had organised a sit-in at Gezi Park. Çevik Kuvvet riot police internal messages compared the events to the 1916 Gallipoli Campaign. Amnesty International said on 1 June that "It is clear that the use of force by police is being driven not by the need to respond to violence – of which there has been very little on the part of protesters – but by a desire to prevent and discourage protest of any kind." By 14 June 150,000 tear gas cartridges and 3000 tons of water had been used.In mid-June Amnesty International said that it had "received consistent and credible reports of demonstrators being beaten by police during arrest and transfer to custody and being denied access to food, water, and toilet facilities for up to 12 hours during the current protests in Istanbul which have taken place for almost three weeks."Hundreds of protestors were detained.
As protests continued in early June, tear gas was used so extensively that many residents of central Istanbul had to keep windows closed even in the heat of summer, or use respirators and then struggle to decontaminate homes of tear gas residue. Police even water cannoned a man in a wheelchair. The Turkish Doctors' Association said that by 15 June, over 11,000 people had been treated for tear gas exposure, and nearly 800 for injuries caused by tear gas cartridges. On the weekend of 15 June, police action escalated significantly. Police were seen adding Jenix Pepper Spray to their water cannons,and the Istanbul Doctors Association later said that there was "a high but an unknown number of first and second-degree burn injuries because of some substance mixed in pressurized water cannons". On the night of 15/16 June police repeatedly tear-gassed the lobby of the Divan Istanbul hotel, where protestors had taken refuge, causing a pregnant woman to miscarry. They also water-cannoned and tear gassed the Taksim German Hospital.
Doctors and medical students organised first aid stations. In some cases the stations and medical personnel were targeted by police with tear gas, and one medical student volunteer was left in intensive care after being beaten by police, despite telling them that he was a doctor trying to help. Medical volunteers were also arrested. "[Police] are now patrolling the streets at night and selectively breaking ground-floor windows of apartments and throwing tear gas into people's homes. They have been joined by groups of AKP sympathisers with baseball bats." One volunteer medic working at a tent in Taksim Square said that "They promised us that they would not attack our field hospital, but they did anyway, firing six rounds of teargas directly into our tent."
Lawyers were also targeted by police. On 11 June at least 20 lawyers gathering at the Istanbul Çağlayan Justice Palace to make a press statement about Gezi Park were detained by police, including riot police. The arrests of total 73–74 lawyers were described as "very brutal and anti-democratic" by one lawyer present, with many injured: "They even kicked their heads, the lawyers were on the ground. They were hitting us they were pushing. They built a circle around us and then they attacked."
Police action during Gezi park protests in Istanbul. 15 June 2013
There were also reports of journalists being targeted by police, and a Russian journalist "beaten and detained by suspected Turkish intelligence services, as he was taking pictures of empty police cars on Taksim Square". The New York Times reported on 16 June that "One foreign photographer documenting the clashes Saturday night said a police officer had torn his gas mask off him while in a cloud of tear gas, and forced him to clear his memory card of photographs." Reporters without Borders reported eight journalists arrested, some violently, and several forced to delete photographs from their digital cameras.
A spokesman for the police union Emniyet-Sen said poor treatment of officers by the police was partly to blame for the violence: "Fatigue and constant pressure lead to inattentiveness, aggression and a lack of empathy. It's irresponsible to keep riot police on duty for such long hours without any rest."
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