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Thinking of you all with best wishes, stay safe!
Well, I am now save and not in Turkey anymore.
Yesterday I spend a nice day on the Asian side – and when I took the dolmus to Taksim the drive let us out before the place. Everything was pumped up with tear gas, but Taksim was nearly deserted. I had to walk through all the tear gas to reach my hotel.
The next morning I had some time to go to Istiklal – there a lot of shop windows were smashed and a bit later I saw some gas clouds and people running down the streets. (That was also when I took the pictures.) As I wasn’t sure how save I was I decided to better get out of the area again. And I had to go to the airport anyway.
So I am all safe now, I think.
Thank you very much for your concerns.
Greetings,
rabirius.
Glad you’re safe. Protest can take on so many shapes and forms. I hope the link above works, it’s to my husbands Flickr set on the subject. The photos were taken last June when our hockey team (Canucks) lost in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Full riot squads, tear gas, every window broken in the downtown core, and cars set on fire. Simply crazy when you think of countries struggling with political reform or oppression.:)
Great pictures. Thank you for sharing.
I already had a strange feeling when I came to Istanbul – something had changed and I was’t sure what it was. Though it was probably the tension that was already there, so that Gezi park was finally the trigger that lit the spark.
Thankyou for stopping by my blog. I look forward to seeing more of your photography. Tony
You’re welcome.
Protests can be a scary thing to be near…glad your okay! Hugs Paula xx
Thank you for your concern.
Yes, it definitely was scary – the police hitting on peaceful demonstrators with such force.
Though I wasn’t at the centre of the action, I still saw some of the side action and had to walk through a sea of tear gas. Really, the whole area around Taksim Sq was full of gas. It was unbelievable.
OMG! I’m glad your okay. hugs Paula xx
Except for the tear gas nothing really happened to me – but I stayed clear of the main action.
But thanks for your concern.
Excellent photos. I have been to Istanbul and it is a wonderful city. I can’t imagine why the government would want to replace one of the few parks, unless they want to eliminate a place that people use to gather and express views.
Most likely they want that.
And clearly the issue with the park was just the spark.
My Christadelphian brothers where this weekend under attack from two over drunk Turkish men and they broke their apartment door and they just could hold the door until Police came . Police came and blamed them to being in their country. They told them “if you have complaint from them come to Police office” but they suggested them to give up about this.
My brethren thought they could help them but when they went to the Police office they accused them to have stimulated them and released them before their eyes.
The bad news is that guys living in their apartment and they are not safe any more in Turkey. “This is the justice that we have here and our rights when we our refugees in Turkey .” they say. “I don’t blame any one and this world has so many suffering inside but i had so many of them in my life. This is just a beginning for us with this problem . Need your prayer and nothing more …” Mahan From Kayseri-Turkey
It is such a shame that the beautiful work Atta Turk had done is nearly all gone. The separation of state and religion would have been the best guaranty for building up a society where different people and different religions could live peacefully together.
The day before the protests started I met a friend and we discussed the situation and he was really worried how his country developed. And he clearly wasn’t the only one – otherwise the situation wound’t have gone that far…
Wow, what an experience. Glad that you are safe too.
Well, I wasn’t in the middle of the action – but walking through clouds of tear gas is something I wouldn’t like to do again…
Didn’t realize you were there at the start of it. Scary stuff. Glad it was just tear gas that you had to endure.
Well, it all happened so suddenly – and as Turkish media didn’t really report at the start I was quite surprised when I found myself in clouds of tear gas – and also when I saw what happened around Taksim the next day.
But I didn’t go to the center of what was happening – I only saw what was going on at the corners – which already was scary enough.
Excellent.
Well, you’re a good photo-journalist…
Taking photo in that kind of protest is the last thing that I want to do. Four years ago, we have such things in Tehran. Nothing good to say, just bad memories… However taking photo and recording movie are very effective for the movement and protesters.
Thank you.
Well, it just happened that I stepped in there with a camera.
Originally I wanted to fly back via Baku – but didn’t get a visa for Azerbaijan – and so I had to travel back via Istanbul…
…the day the protests started I spend on the Asian side and when I took the dolmus back to Taksim I found myself in a sea of tear gas. My hotel was still a bit in the tear gas zone and so I could catch a bit of the protests the next day. But I didn’t dare to go directly to the center of the protests.
I remember reading about the protests in Tehran in the papers over here – and I assumed that it must have been very bad. However, most things concerning Iran one has to read carefully, because it mostly isn’t very objective.
Greetings,
rabirius.
Wow, you’re so lucky.
I don’t know what’s going on here, in middle east. I just shocked by Egypt news…
And about Iran: now we live in era of rapid changes that caused many paradox/contrast in policy, economy, and society. Everyday we heard a news of country, surprising even for us…!!
…I think the main problem are social differences growing wider and in some countries the repression of personal freedoms. And once these factors drove people on the streets in one country, others followed.
In Europe there still is some stability – though especially in Southern Europe some protests already started – but most people still have enough stability so that people are not driven to overthrow established systems of power. But that also might change in the future…
Hi rabirius. Nice to meet you. Thank you for liking my poem ‘ Meant To Be’. Best Wishes, The Foureyed Poet.
Thank you very much as well.
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