At 15.30 another group came running into our street. This time people were running in panic and dashing into any building they could enter. Immediately after they scattered out of sight two gas bombs were thrown to one entrance of the street, while on the other side police started to mill about. Then they built a barricade. Seda took their picture, looking very intimidating with their gas masks.
Archive for May 1st, 2008
OK so the events have come literally to our doorstep.
First we started to hear the slogans around 13.00. Then at 13.30 we learned that nine of our friends among which are Gencay, Aykan and Inanc (all of whom I have already mentioned at this blog on various occasions) were taken into custody. They are now inside some police buses on an entirely different part of the city. They say there is something like 10 busloads of people like them and believe the police will let them go come nightfall. They haven’t taken away their cell phones and we can talk with them.
Then at 14.15 the sounds became deafening and as we went to look we saw people in groups running into our street; running away from the police by the looks of it, though we saw none. As we were looking out of the window two of our friends, Gozde and Nadir (both have been mentioned before on various occasions) passed underneath our window and waved to us as they did. (How weird is that?) We asked if they would like to come up but they were determined to go on. Then the smoke came and before I could even say, “beware pepper gas”, both Seda and me inhaled it. We closed the windows immediately as our nostrils began to burn. There is also a red spot on my hand that itches and all this from minimal exposure.
The crowd has passed our street now. But by the looks of it, people are all over the place in groups of 50 or so, scattering and remerging where they can. It is far from over.
So it’s the first of May and the weather outside is beautiful, a perfect spring morning. I am sitting in my study with the windows open and listening to the birds chirping as I write. The peaceful quite is shattered every now and then with the sound of a helicopter overhead or the sound of police sirens in the distance.
I live very near Taksim Square: 10 minutes rapid walk, 15 minutes maximum if you really take it slow. Taksim Square is closed down and the entire police force of the city, plus some from the neighbouring cities, is there en masse. They are “defending” the Square from the workers who want to reach it. To the best of my knowledge pepper gas and water have prevented them from doing so until now. However my knowledge is very limited since I do not have a television. I check the internet for news updates every now and then. A lot of my friends intended to join the demonstration attempt and I am worried.
It is weird to be so close and so far away but it would have felt even weirder to sit so close and watch the events from television. Despite everything, this is exactly the kind of time when I am happy that I don’t have access to TV. Officially today is not a holiday however the entire city is closed down, no ferries, no schools, no one going to work. Seda is watching “Desperate Housewives” on DVD and I am reading Patrick Califia’s book: “Speaking Sex to Power”. I am aware that this seems a form of escapism and I also know friends who would consider our activities of this morning a scandal.
I am not going to go into detail about the reasons behind my determination not be caught up in what is obviously a deliberate attempt to build tension to the point of catastrophe. Or how I regard being glued to the TV, learning what’s going on around the corner from the dubious news, as the worst form of escapism, a flight into paralysing anxiety, a form of vampirism. Nor do I feel the need to elaborate on why I think there is no point in joining the demonstrators unless you are part of an organisation and my belief that only organised forms of resistance has any meaning. These are prickly subjects that create never-ending arguments, which in the end are futile. Suffice to say that this is the first time I have let a news item become the subject of my blog, although I was tempted a while ago, when Pippa Bacca was raped and murdered. I have a strong urge to think and express my thoughts on things when they are not the pressing news item and when there is not too much emotion involved. So I hope to come back to elaborate on such points when people will seem to have forgotten all about them and 38 years of life has given me ample evidence that forget they will and sooner rather than later.
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