If you want to sign petitions, you can find them here, here, and here.
Trigger Warning: Police Brutality
It begins with Turkish people gathering in a part, in front of bulldozers, to prevent it from being destroyed. They did not have a greater political ideology, they just wanted to protect their one big public park. They were going to camp out, they were singing. They were not violent.
The police came. The police were violent. It was a mess. Public transit was shut down, roads closed, in order to keep the protesters away (it grew, oh how it grew!) People kept coming in on foot. Some restaurants refused to take in protesters looking for shelter from the tear gas, the hoses, and the rubber bullets (Starbucks and Burger King among the ones I know about.) Later, the bullets stopped being rubber. People have died at these protests, without protesters starting any violence.
The park was cleaned up, quickly. Protesters did that, too. The city claimed credit, of course.
The protests continue, as far as I know. The violent crackdown continues. Agent Orange has been used. (Agent Orange is banned by the UN.)
Anonymous has called out the Turkish administration, and as far as I know, has already made progress on hacking things. The article about this is in Turkish, the video of them doing so in English.
That's the general overview. Twitter has the #occupygezi and ##DirenGeziPark, and there was an @OccupyGezi that seems to have been suspended. (The government is onto social media and arresting people. It's pretty dire.)
And people who actually live in Turkey are blogging about it. Listen to them. Here's one. Here's Amnesty, who I think is getting their updates and "what to do's" from Turkish people. They've got the info on what you can do beyond the petitions.
Trigger Warning: Police Brutality
It begins with Turkish people gathering in a part, in front of bulldozers, to prevent it from being destroyed. They did not have a greater political ideology, they just wanted to protect their one big public park. They were going to camp out, they were singing. They were not violent.
The police came. The police were violent. It was a mess. Public transit was shut down, roads closed, in order to keep the protesters away (it grew, oh how it grew!) People kept coming in on foot. Some restaurants refused to take in protesters looking for shelter from the tear gas, the hoses, and the rubber bullets (Starbucks and Burger King among the ones I know about.) Later, the bullets stopped being rubber. People have died at these protests, without protesters starting any violence.
The park was cleaned up, quickly. Protesters did that, too. The city claimed credit, of course.
The protests continue, as far as I know. The violent crackdown continues. Agent Orange has been used. (Agent Orange is banned by the UN.)
Anonymous has called out the Turkish administration, and as far as I know, has already made progress on hacking things. The article about this is in Turkish, the video of them doing so in English.
That's the general overview. Twitter has the #occupygezi and ##DirenGeziPark, and there was an @OccupyGezi that seems to have been suspended. (The government is onto social media and arresting people. It's pretty dire.)
And people who actually live in Turkey are blogging about it. Listen to them. Here's one. Here's Amnesty, who I think is getting their updates and "what to do's" from Turkish people. They've got the info on what you can do beyond the petitions.
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