pepper spray
Directions to Taksim Commune
Lots have been said about the Gezi park protests. What about the photos that freeze the moment until forever? What do the photos that are stuck in the moment, tell us?
It is important to decipher the language of the photos.
Day 1: May 28, 2013.
5 trees are being uprooted in Gezi Park to be planted elsewhere.
The next day, Istanbul Mayor Topbas explained that this tree transfer had nothing to do with the Gezi Park and they were just trying to expand the pedestrian walk in the area. However the spark had already turned into a flame. The environmentalist youngsters flocked to the area worried that Gezi Park would be destroyed to be replaced by a shopping mall. However their worry was exploited by some circles. So they started taking shifts to watch over the trees.
The next day the police arrived to disperse the protesters in the park, used pepper spray, burnt down their tents. Since the beginning, this unnecessary use of force by the police was widely debated. No one expected such a harsh response. Almost everyone felt disturbed.
This excessive use of force by the police only flared up the protests. The protests spread to many places in Istanbul, then in Izmir, Ankara and many cities of Turkey. As everyone was waiting for the Prime Minister to back down, the 6th Court of Istanbul declared it order. The court had decided to halt the construction process. Everyone hoped that after this order things would calm down and people would go back to their homes. But that didn’t happen. The ones who lit up this fire didn’t want it to be put out so quickly. To them, it was just beginning. They were supposed to throw stones at the police, there had to injuries and even casualties so that their long-sought revolution could come.
So first they started a symbolic commune in the Gezi Park.
Picture: Directions to Taksim Commune
The so-called ‘equality, collective life’ ideology of the communism was put on full display just like a play in a theatre.
Picture: Everything in this park is free of charge
However, shortly after the utopia came to an end. Price tags started appearing on things.
Things spiraled out of control so fast, modern, fun-loving young people couldn’t even realize that they were being played by the secret ideology-formulators behind the veil.
They were mesmerized by the false lure of the commune life and weren’t able to tell what was really going on. Actually it was loud and clear. The banners were shouting it out loud: ‘We want a communist revolution’.
Picture: It is as if Revolution is blinking an eye.
Picture: Revolution will not be broadcast on TVs
Picture: Hope is in revolution, in socialism. Bolshevik Party
Picture: Taksim is Tahrir now. Go forward for revolution.
Picture: Our word for them will be revolution. Revolutionary Youth
The banners reading ‘welcome to Red Square’ could mae you thing that they were getting ready for the October Revolution.
Picture: welcome to Red Square
Picture: welcome to Red Square
However the 90’s generation who thought that they were a part of an environmentalist protest, were unaware of the fact that the communist regimes were responsible for the killing of 120 million in the 20th century.
Right in the middle of Istanbul, anti-democratic, Marxist-Leninist, communist crowds chanted slogans of their leftist ideology. They held up banners, hang up their posters. Remember again, this ideology has led to the loss of 120 million lives in civil wars, hunger, torture and exile.
Picture: long live the highest ideology of Marxism-Leninism
Picture: No place is gained without waging war. Revolution Front
Picture: Long live Revolution and Socialism
Picture: Revolutionary Youth
They did everything a revolution required. The so-called Taksim Riot even had a manifest.
Here are their demands:
TAKSIM RIOT OF MAY 31
WE ARE HERE UNTIL WE GET WHAT WE WANT
a) The bourgeoisie government should resign immediately and the power should be transferred to people completely
b) Police force and army should be revoked to be replaced by the militia
c) The banks, the monopolies, big foreign trade companies should be seized for the benefit of the worker class
d) The Council of the People’s Representatives should convene
e) The prisoners should be released at once
f) The oppressed nations should be given right to determine their own future
Don’t all these sound a little too familiar? Yes it sure does. See what the bloody leader of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin says:
‘Killing the police, soldiers, government officials, setting government buildings on fire… taking money from treasure… the revolutionist powers should emerge as an invincible armed power. Killing people, bmbing, blowing up buildings and spreading terror by doing that is key to getting into power with the communist dictatorship.’ Vladimir Lenin, on Theoretical and Practical Terror, Moscow, 2005
Hard to believe, however these snapshots tell the whole truth. The communist wing of the Gezi protesters have the exact same thoughts and methods as Lenin. They had done everything illegal from throwing stones at the police and setting on fire buses and police cars.
This turned into such a paranoia, even the kids took whatever pots they could find home and poured on to the streets clinkering them together in their protest . No one out of these protestors could stand up and say ‘this is supposed to be an environmentalist protest. We don’t want illegal banners in Taksim, nor the public property to be damaged’. In fact, these scenes disturbed everyone even if not everyone spoke it out loud. The people who shopped at the same local market, who rode the same ships, who had the same culture, were suddenly thrust into a whirlpool of opposition and division: ‘us’ and the ‘pot clinkers’. Thank God, this hypnosis is now over. Turkey learned a lesson worth decades in the past 20 days. We lost 5 beloved people, we lost property but there is something we haven’t lost: it is our faith in our love and friendship.
Ayse Koc 