Turkey's urban citizens are standing up against authoritarian governance, and for their right to the city, their right to difference, and their right to resist the top-down imposition of moral and spatial orders.
We are the resistance. We are not victims. We are citizens with a duty to defend our commons, and we will not bargain.
Another sleepless night in Istanbul as thousands of people take to the streets to oppose Erdogan's increasingly brutal regime.
A report from Istanbul on the historic explosion of opposition to Turkey's leader
“Respect” has become a new slogan tagged on walls all over the cities, and expressing the need for a return to civility and call for politeness in Turkish public life. Gezi occupation reveals to us all, how “public square” becomes literally vital for our democracies.
It is a sad state of affairs when an elected official is likened to a modern-day Ottoman sultan; however, the comparison is both startling and striking.
The crackdown on Turkish protesters and Prime Minister Erdogan's refusal to accept the demonstrations as legitimate represent another deviation from the country's fragile commitment to democracy. But this may also offer a new hope for the leftist opposition in Turkey - will they take it?
She had gone to the city hall and asked the authorities to tell her whether it was possible for her to protest too; she was told she could if she wanted to, and so she did.
Of course many people might think that ‘public’ refers to people but in Turkey it actually refers to the state. Therefore, the laws and Turkish Constitution protect and serve the interests of the state rather than being in the service of citizens.
Unless the EU revisits its strategies and values for good governance at home, it will always risk appearing as arrogant as Mr Erdogan when addressing audiences abroad.
In interview, Müştereklerimiz, “The Network for Our Commons” argues that the really invisible flag, here in Taksim Square, is that of “our resistance, and the power we can have when we get together on a common ground to reclaim a different way to live together.”
The public demonstrations in Turkey are a challenge to the social destruction and political regression being pushed through by an autocratic prime minister. This is a moment for change, says Kerem Oktem in Istanbul.
