An occupy gezi protester tosses a tear gas canister back at police during street protests, part of the #OccupyGezi movement. PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM EASTMAN/TWITTER

A peaceful sit-in started on May 28 to protect Gezi Park near Taksim Square in Istanbul. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long planned to demolish the park and use the space to reconstruct an old Ottoman-era barracks (a place where very conservative movements took place) and build a shopping mall and a hotel. As he gained more political power, he decided to move forward.

Only a few dozen protesters — occupying the park in shifts — blocked his way. They were steeling themselves for the usual amount of police intervention to stop the protests. The fierce and brutal police crackdown that occurred, however, caught them off guard. On May 30, at 4:30 a.m., police marched in unison into the park; tents were set on fire and heads were injured. Instead of dispersing the protesters, the disproportionate police action caused outrage, and protesters dug in even deeper.

Eventually, the police crackdown on Gezi Park became a symbolic part of the larger uprising.

Hundreds of protesters became thousands and then millions all over Turkey. Protesters took to the streets, and those who could not take greater action flashed their lights and played loud music in their homes in support. Throughout the events, police brutality expanded with heavy use of tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

So far, more than 4,000 protesters have been injured and three have died. It turns out the police were deliberately targeting people with their “nonlethal” weapons in order to injure and hurt as many as they could — there was even one known case where real bullets were used and resulted in death. The police have become the predators of the people, not their protectors — bringing chaos instead of order.

People were not deterred by the police action. The cause of protests is beyond Gezi Park. It is bigger, much deeper and shared by millions across the country. It is a demand for the undoing of Erdogan’s centralized power grab, protection of basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly, and rejection of increasing intervention in ordinary people’s lives (from the number of children a family should have, to the alcohol people can drink and the TV shows they can watch).

The mainstream media did not cover the events in the first days of the protests and continue to be a primary voice of the government because they are either controlled by the government or have nepotistic business ties. Turkey is on the top of the list of the Committee to Protect Journalists as the world’s worst jailer of journalists — 49 were imprisoned as of December 2012.

Online media became the main source of information and communication. Erdogan went so far as to call social media (the “worst menace to society” for its role in helping protesters organize and disseminate information. New laws to regulate social media are already being drafted. At least 3,300 people have been arrested, at least 25 merely for spreading news (“inciting rebellion”) on Twitter, and 49 lawyers for providing legal support to protesters.

Erdogan stated on June 12 that the protests would be terminated in 24 hours. His recent speeches are full of misinformation. (The U.S. Embassy in Turkey had to publicly correct some of what he said.) He tried to weaken public support, divide the protesters and threaten them that he would mobilize his own supporters to act as thugs to disperse demonstrations.

Judging from the past two weeks, it is unlikely that any method used by the police will be in conformity with any normal rules of conduct. The repression of peaceful protest at this scale and the uncompromising stance of the government, in itself, suggest that we should question how democratic Turkey really is. After all, elections every four years do not guarantee respect for basic human rights.

For more information, articles and photos, please visit our student-run website, terps-support-occupygezi.tumblr.com.

The Turkish Graduate Students Supporting Gezi Park can be reached at yalcin@umd.edu.