100 pictures from the last two days in istanbul

Gabriel M.A. said:
Just so you know, it is being mentioned over here (in Frons), and at least this evening I saw a French correspondent reporting right from the middle of the mess, and has said pretty much what you stated earlier, that the police is shooting tear-gas, but no detail into anything else you've said (that they are deliberately aiming the way they're aiming, and are using stuff other than teargas).

I forgot if it was Canal+/iTele or France 2.

Anyway, if you see a girl telkin wis a French axont wis a microphone, and a cameraman, you may want to tell her to follow you. The footage was pretty generic in the sense that police are doing "routine" riot control, mixed with interview blurbs from young people explaining that they have nothing against the police, but the government as this is the culmination of many things piling up.

France 2 is pretty "liberal" when it comes to sticking it to censorship (at least compared to most other anglosaxon TV news outlets I've had the chance to experience) when it comes to international issues, so they may really want to get to "the bottom of it". They've been doing a lot of rather risky yet actual journalism covering the rebels in Syria --and also getting the establishment's take on it.

BTW, got a copy of the zip file. Just in case.
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even some of the people working for the international press here don't seem to know what's going on when they fly in. i was dragging out a young american photojournalist out of a cloud of gas yesterday. she was obviously not prepared for what was happening at all. she had all the gear, gasmask, helmet, etc. but panicked and, inexplicably, took her mask of right in the middle of it (i have a picture of her pulling it off!)

anyways, more pictures in a few minutes (they're already on flickr).
 
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barricades are the only way to keep the water cannon trucks at bay and protesters use anything they can find to build them.

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in the night of june 02/03, a large crowd of protesters managed to put an end to being chased back from beşiktaş in front of inönü stadium / dolmabahçe. a hijacked crane turned the tables for a little while, pushing water cannon trucks and policemen back up dolmabahçe boulevard. the night ended by the police hitting back with full force from several sides, dispersing the protesters but unable to further penetrate the taksim area.

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the taksim area has been "fortified" with several lines of barricades such as these.

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after several days and nights of protests and clashes with the police - especially the morning after the big and long clashes in beşiktaş and dolmabahçe, fatigue is visibly setting in among everybody involved.

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yesterday (june 03) afternoon, people were getting prepared for more confrontation on the taksim side of inönü stadium. the police hit with gas several times, apparently putting more effort into very powerful and sudden "first strikes", but did not manage to effectively move up the hill towards taksim, always retreating back to the stadium.

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by nightfall, rumours spread that the police would try and take over taksim, but apart from several severe gas strikes, they did not move up the hill very far.

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even though i've seen less eye-to-eye confrontation yesterday, there seemed to be more severely injured people. probably due to the mix of different gas types police are using (some of them very dubious), and the fact the crowd is generally a little "softer" and less experienced the closer you come to taksim square.
 
I think I once saw a documentary about an American freelance combat photog in Israel. I believe the locals handed him onions which helped tremendously against teargas. Maybe some other member can comment? Please take care.

xpanded
 
You are doing a great and important job Simon!

Here in Norway the media coverage are quite good, especially in the national media/NRK TV, and I´m following the situation in several medias - I wish I could be there documenting myself.

Take care, stay safe and keep up the good work!
 
Hi guys again....

First of all, I thank personally to Simon for the great work. Every effort on this quite important, because we need this to be documented.

Situation update: PM left the country to visit northern African countries as many of you know. His ministers are trying to cool the people down but still blaming the people. unbelievable...

Anyway. Taksim is safe for 2 days but clash is going on at several places as you can see from Simon's pictures. Crowd is increasing day by day throughout the country. People act Taksim is a rescued zone. Every night people demonstrates on the streets at almost every cities squares and streets.

Yesterday in Hatay one young man died with a teargas gun (short distance fire directly to the head). Today there was his funeral with a big protest.

Anyway, within a few hours we will be back on the streets. Wish us luck.

Thank you all for your support.
 
Made the Canadian News... FWIW

Made the Canadian News... FWIW

I seldom watch TV news but this is certainly a lead story on CBC Radio here in Canada.

Echo sentiments of others above... good work, please stay safe.
 
the drudge report is publishing several stories a day on the protests, from a variety of sources. coverage is there, if you dig for it ...
 
SimonSawSunlight said:
i have been using a gasmask since yesterday, no helmet though. if this goes on, i will see if i can find one.
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Are you using a mask, laddie? shame on you :p


Actually this problem was started at 1st of May 2007. It was 30th anniversary day of 1st of May 1977 Labor Day which was a clash again and 34 people were death in Taksim Square. After that day Labor day celebrations were banned by the governments. In 2007, people wanted to celebrate it and the result is below. This was first attack.

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smbilgin said:
Hi guys again....

First of all, I thank personally to Simon for the great work. Every effort on this quite important, because we need this to be documented.

Situation update: PM left the country to visit northern African countries as many of you know. His ministers are trying to cool the people down but still blaming the people. unbelievable...

Anyway. Taksim is safe for 2 days but clash is going on at several places as you can see from Simon's pictures. Crowd is increasing day by day throughout the country. People act Taksim is a rescued zone. Every night people demonstrates on the streets at almost every cities squares and streets.

Yesterday in Hatay one young man died with a teargas gun (short distance fire directly to the head). Today there was his funeral with a big protest.

Anyway, within a few hours we will be back on the streets. Wish us luck.

Thank you all for your support.
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Good luck!

And do you know the French expression, Bonne Courage?

Heartfelt thanks,

Cheers,

R.
 
Hi everybody,

I think every RFF members in Istanbul survived last night. Me, Taylan, Simon, Martin, luplup7... So we have another day ahead :)

Taksim is now a festival field but clashes still going on at different areas. Especially in the other cities...

Last night update: In Izmir, police arrested 26 people because of social media usage. They claimed that those people are provocating the public via Facebook and Twitter. Probably this will spread. We'll see.

Today the two major union declared one day strike. But it is expected to turn into a general strike if the government doesn't back down.

Tomorrow the PM is going to be back to the country and we will see what happens.

We thank all of you for your support. Also the demonstrations that take place all around the world are highly appreciated and will never be forgotten.
 
Only click this link if your nerves and your heart are well attached.

Some graphic content.

I hope I'm not violating any board rules, but this upsets me too much.

At 8:15 you can see the often talked about civil police grabbing a single individual. They are very active and have also been seen instigating clashes.

So very sorry for posting this.
 
Martin

thanks for posting this.
very upsetting. Very worrying.
I don't know if grabbing a single person feels legitimate or not, but hitting someone with no need (either just passing by or already under control) is definitely out of line in my book, and it feels like this is the "regular treatment" and not the inevitable black sheep policemen that loose control.
amongst all this violence, the lady in the park seems seriously injured, and I start to understand that this is not an isolated case...

I'm worried for Turkey...:(
 
Background information: It is not about trees but about oppression by the government and their political and economical allies.


Today several unions have gone on strike to protest the violence. Amongst them, Turkish airline cabin personnel:

http://webtv.hurriyet.com.tr/2/50372/23438530/1/thy-hosteslerinden-muthis-eylem.aspx

Thought I'd let you guys (and the people working in Turkey to report!) know this!



EDIT: another one, translated through google. Things maybe are changing a bit. NTV boss Cen Aydin apologizing for bad media coverage: http://translate.google.com/transla.../excuses-vanwege-slechte-berichtgeving/94365/


Seems the work and pressure might start to pay off, you Istanbul reporters! Be safe!
 
Does not Erdogan enjoy considerable popularity? I seem to recall he got quite a lot of votes.

But then, so did [insert name of least favourite politician here].

Cheers,

R.
 
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