The protests against the leadership in Turkey are entering their 7th day today, and Flickr is flooded with thousands of images showing the violent clashes. The protests started when the government decided to destroy Taksim Square, one of Istanbul’s only public parks, and transform it into a development project - But the protests quickly became about much more than that. They escalated to those against the Islamisation of Turkey, the brutality of the police, and the autocratic behavior by PM Recep Erdogan. Check out this set of images showing the protests in Turkey (and around the world) as found on Flickr.
If you live in Turkey, please to share your own images of the protests in the comments below, or in our Facebook Group.
Photo: Simon Be.
Photo: Kevin Vanden.
Photo: Kevin Vanden.
Photo: Alan Hilditch.
Photo: Simon Be.
Photo: van sant2012.
Photo: Simon Be.
Photo: van sant2012.
Photo: stelih.
Photo: Leonardo March.
Photo: Rod.
Photo: 757Live.
Photo: mrttrkipk.
Photo: Simon Be.
Photo: stelih.
Photo: newsonline.
Photo: LeStudio1.
Photo: Murat Beran Erdoğan.
Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones.
Photo: Siahkal.
Photo: Thorsten Strasas.
Photo: Jamie Bowlby-Whiting.
Photo: Jamie Bowlby-Whiting.
Photo: Jamie Bowlby-Whiting.
Photo: theglobalmovement.
Photo: shawngreyling.
Photo: shawngreyling.
Photo: Greenpeace International.
Photo: Oren Ziv / Activestills.
Photo: bartusamur96.
Photo: Oren Ziv / Activestills.
Photo: Ertugrul Balikcioglu.
Photo: Serkan Çakmak.
Photo: ardac.
Photo: Ilker Goksen.
Turkey just returned a big loan to IMF and actually started to credit the IMF itself...GDP rising, unlike the rest of the world..hmmm, who would guess it's time for nation wide protests to overthrow the government? outside influence? noooo...
As a Turkish citizen and a protester who has been getting chased by riot police and teargassed for the last four days, all I can say to you is; Do some reading before you make such an ignorant comment! If you did some reading into the background of the issues, you would know that this is not just an incident that happened overnight with outside influence. Then you'd realize that loans to IMF and GDP doesn't equal to the happiness of Turkish people. We do not measure our happiness with money and loans but by civil liberties and personal freedoms that we are trying to protect here. Turkey is an officially secular country, and we are determined to keep it that way. We do not want conservative Islamic values to invade our private lives and we do not accept someone else telling us what to do, what to wear, what to think, what to drink, how to act and we are fed up with bans and restrictions and Turkey's becoming a police state. Moreover, if you did some reading, you'd realize that this is actually not a Turkish Spring and we are not trying to overthrow the government as democratically selected governments cannot be overthrown, that would undemocratic. But we are only demanding the recognition of personal freedoms that we had ten years ago.
So, before you comment next time, READ!
I am not saying your demands are wrong and your fight is not righteous. Erdogan is a fascist...I am just saying the timing is a bit suspicious...Do some research on protests in Serbia a few years back and the people who organized those and how they are connected to certain US organizations...the same people helped organize protests in Egypt, Tunisia...
You are in for the fight of your lives as you have one of the biggest armies in europe...I hope it doesn't get to that...
and yes, some striking images there :-)
My apologies, your comment made the wrong impression and I thought you were commenting just by looking at the pictures without any background info.
No prob, Henri...I just hope, for your people's sake, that there is no murky business going on behind the scene...unfortunately, the history has taught us otherwise...
I've been to your country and loved it. I wish you luck in keeping your country a secular state; to become an Islamic police state like Iran is a sure path to problems. I don't understand why any Turkish citizen would want that when the reason for success over so many centuries is not just their physical position in the world but their logical one - a gateway for many countries to pass through and meet. Isolationism while good for some countries will not benefit Turkey in the same way. Good luck.
I am a Turkish citizen living in the states for the past few years. I never talk about politics or religion in the online platforms but I commend you and your perspective to the issue. I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking about it outside the box...
Cheers!
Actually, this is false. Turkey returned their loan to IMF by taking out more loans from different sources, and in fact, the state has never owed a higher amount than it does so now. There may be economic growth, but this is only due to megacorporations, who make money literally off of people's backs. The people are suffering. Both economically and otherwise.
riveting images!
This could be an omen.
In certain Islamic eschatology, Russia is predicted to capture Constantinople for Christendom after an apocalyptic war begins in Syria.
But, yeah, that's not gonna happen :) No matter how things go bad in that country, The Citizens (the real owners of the country) won't let that happen. The history showed this so many times...
Even though I am a Turkish citizen, I'm posting this comment as a Photographer. I don't defend nor despise the resistance. I just want to say that there are a few photos here in this post that could be in very popular magazines. I'm not a photojournalist but I do appreciate some of these pictures! Great captures indeed!
Cheers!
Great post! I live in Taksim as well and posted some photos of Taksim Square from the last days
http://www.justonewayticket.com/2013/06/10/taksim-square-10-days-after-i...