On this day in 2013, Turkish protesters began occupying Gezi Park to oppose its demolition, an act with led to widespread protests and strikes with approximately 3,500,000 participants, 22 deaths, and more than 8,000 injuries.
The wave of civil unrest across Turkey began after the park occupation was violently evicted by police, who used to tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannons to try and break up the protests, injuring more than one hundred people and hospitalizing a journalist.
The protest quickly grew in size - by May 31st, 10,000 gathered in Istiklal Avenue. In June, the protests became national in scope and transcended any particular demographic or political ideology. Among the wide range of concerns brought by protesters were issues of freedom of the press, expression, and assembly, as well as the alleged political Islamist government's erosion of Turkey's secularism.
Millions of Turkish football fans, normally divided by intense sports rivalry, marched in unity against the government. Protesters displayed symbols the environmentalist movement, rainbow banners, depictions of Che Guevara, different trade unions, and the PKK and its leader Abdullah Öcalan.
On June 4th, Taksim Dayanışması (Taksim Solidarity) issued a set of demands that included the preservation of Gezi Park, an end to police violence, the right to freedom of assembly, and an end to the privatization of public spaces. Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç met the group on June 5th and rejected these demands.
Erdoğan blamed the protests on "internal traitors and external collaborators", demonizing his political opposition as the former. Despite the popular mobilization, Erdoğan remained in power and no major concessions were won from the government.
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I've been seeing too much actual anti semitism on social media. No the Jews do not control the banks and the media. No Mel Gibson doesn't have a point.
Goes without saying that Zionism and Israel can burn and that includes those who support it. I understand the anger, especially from Arabs but it's getting dangerous IMO
Simple sanity check that never fails: are you handing it to Mel Gibson? Something has gone terribly wrong, rethin your position.
Isreal (and Joe Biden but I repeat myself) calling every criticism of genocide anti-semitism including saying the college protests are anti Semitic deffinitly doesn't help anything. It's just making sure that people don't take claims of anti semitism seriously.
Repeatedly getting caught doing everything from trying to control every social media platform to admitting to having dozen of sock puppets to try to cheat the vote on euro vision (why exactly is isreal a part of eurovision agin) also doesn't really help with the average persons understanding. People should realize "the jews control the media" is bullshit but when that comment is under an article about isreali government officials bragging about influencing public opinion through manipulating votes to try to win a popularity contest, they're going to take that as evidence.
Mel doesn't have a point but we could fix that!
Earlier this year I was talking with my co-workers about the conflict and I went into a much more detailed history than I ever would have expected to. They even asked me follow up questions to learn more. Well... I thought that I had taught them something. It wasn't even two weeks later before they both were talking about the conflict again and bringing up the "Jews control the banks and the media" discussion and all I could do is sit there and cringe.
Just correct them as you go. "The problem is not 'the Jews' it is Zionists. It has nothing to do with race or religion but with politics and ideology. Don't hate or love people based on their race because they cannot change that. Hate or love people for their ideas and actions."