Spent most of the day indoors again, my cold is receding
though. When I went out to the park at around 20:30, it was even more crowded
than the previous days. people are celebrating, singing. There's a field
hospital, the kitchen is running, and now there's a small library as well.
Everyone is kind towards one another - apparently even on the subway. We went
to eat something at Kitchenette on the square, the service, which is usually
polite but slow, was kind, fast, and as odd as it sounds, gentle. They let
people (and there are tens of thousands on the square) use their bathrooms, let
them charge their phones and access free wifi.
The facade of Ataturk Cultural Center is now covered with
banners (see pic), which is a little worrying because this movement started
from no particular political position, and I think it's important to keep it
that way. With the PM out of the country, the media is now discussing the
events, but they are still not reporting the ongoing violence in other towns
such as Antakya and Dersim. A young man was killed in Antakya the other day,
and following his funeral today, the protestors were attacked again. More
recent and also very troubling news is that people have been detained for what
they have written on Twitter – for “inciting crowds to violence.”
Another important issue is that the parliament was supposed
to discuss the new Law on Nature, which was postponed. This law allows vast
forest areas to be opened to construction – if it passes, the damage will
grossly surpass the damage planned in the park. Granted, the park has a
symbolic position, but this would be a disaster. You may know of the existing
plans to destroy the environment in Turkey: 3rd bridge over
Bosphorus, 3rd airport (to be the largest in the world), a channel
parallel to Bosphorus, Hydro-electric centrals in ecologically sensitive areas,
a nuclear plant on a fault line… Needless to say, public opinion is being
absolutely disregarded in any of these projects.
That’s it for now, we’re hoping some kind of agreement can
be reached before the PM comes back, his speeches do not help the situation at
all…
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