A week of revolution has taken place in Turkey. What started with 50 protesters defending Gezi Park, the last green space for peaceful assembly in Istanbul and “symbol of secular Turkey,” quickly swelled to more than 10,000 in the streets.
Citizens stood tall against the brutal crackdown, moving from a well-mannered protest against a shopping mall, through the hell of tear gas and water cannons, to solidarity, spirit and freedom. Hundreds of thousands of people came out into the streets, from every walk of life, in every city.
This peaceful protest was met with overwhelming force, and citizens became, in a moment, enemy combatants. They are our brothers and sisters under one family name: Occupy!
This Saturday, June 8th, Occupy Solidarity with #OccupyGeziNYC.
Turks and Greeks will stand side by side with Americans and Armenians, Arabs and Kurds, Jews, Christians and Muslims and all people who would unite for justice. Istanbul, Athens, New York.
Join us to Resist and support #OccupyGezi in Every City!
Take Part in the Protests Every Day by the Turkish-American Community.
12-3pm in front of the Turkish Consulate, 825 3rd Ave and 50th Street.
7pm onward in Union Square.
Also, contact ealpoge@gmail.com to link up with and organize solidarity events of any/all types, or if you are a person with local media expertise.
The people of Turkey have claimed their voice from the hands of Prime Minister Erdogan’s authoritarian regime and demand that they be heard. No to autocracy, to privatization and to religious extremism. They can’t be silenced by their government’s media blackout: their words, their images, their songs,their bravery, their tears, their blood streams out through the cracks. And ardent support has spread internationally for Turkey’s uprising.
Show solidarity however you can, and hope for the best for #OccupyGezi.
Another world is possible.
-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team
