Please watch the video below for a quick summary

What is happening in Istanbul at the moment?

Currently, and for days, people have been fighting the police. Actually not just in Istanbul, but all over Turkey. Police uses excessive power on their people. The things they do are more than carrying out orders, they're cruel. On a corner you may see three policemen kicking the life out of a young man laying on the ground defenceless. All day long, the police throws tear bombs at us people. They do not even obey the 45 degrees rule. So many people get hurt because the police just shoots the tear bombs right in the middle of people. A few people already died, a friend lost his eye in front of us, not even mentioning the people who had to be taken to the hospital for open wounds.

Who are we? The people. Not left winged, not Islamic, not nationalists, not Kurdish or etc. We are the people, all together who cannot stand a dictator ruling our country anymore. Imagine a country where the prime minister's party is in power for 11 years and they occupied every single seat there is. All the ministers and the president himself is from the prime minister's party. All the generals who were a threat to them are in jail now. All the journalists who support us and write negative things about them are in jail now. The media is censored. 

How did it start?

The conservative government recently made some legal arrangements concerning alcohol restrictions which gathered negative response from the non-conservative, modern, liberal people. Not because they think it is a bad or good decision, but because they know the government does it only and only as a result of their ideology. Not long after, a project was announced regarding a shopping mall being built in the middle of Taksim (the Times Square of istanbul). But when the details of the plans were revealed, the reaction was not the way the government expected it to be. Because they wanted to build it in the place of a park, technically the only green area in Taksim. Obviously, the environmentalists did not like that. So they set up tents in the park, they sat there all day, they read books, there was no aggression.. Untill their tents were burned down by the police. Soon after on a speech he gave Erdoğan said, using the exact words, " We have decided. You can do whatever you want, we will do it." Is this something a prime minister would say, really? Having been chosen by the people; Is he there to make things the people want or is he there to create the Istanbul that he wants. I personally think he should be there for us and if he wants to create his own city, maybe he should go play SimCity.

Some think this is still an environmental movement. It is true that all started that way. However, after the prime minister's Hitler-like manner on TV -which he still keeps- people cannot take it anymore. On the hot areas what you see is people of this country with milk, lemon and water for their eyes and an army of policemen throwing tear bombs among thousands of people with no mercy. We hear that the people who have been arrested are behaved very badly and beaten up at the police stations. The more violence the police uses, the more united people get. I ensure you my friends, I am 21 years old, never ever have I seen this country this united.