Taksim Square looks like a state of emergency scene on the very early hours of this morning. Even though protestor barricades have been removed, the only traffic you have is a few cars passing by. Both on the left and right sides of the squares, TOMAs (police tanks) and other police vehicles are waiting. There is absolutely no soul at the very heart of the square - where Atatürk statute is located. You neither see the people who were camping there for 14 days, nor plenty of flags tucked into the arms of statute figures. Those policemen who were ordered to protect the statute yesterday have left the scene already.
Police vehicles are stationed in front of Atatürk Culture Center (AKM), a building that has been cleared from various “rugs”. Even the Turkish flag and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk portrait that police initially left after its takeover yesterday are not there anymore. Some of its windows are either open or missing.
The Gezi Park entrance of Taksim Square is, on the other hand, blocked with barricades. When you enter the park, you don’t have the same feeling as for the past 14 days. When you enter inside the park though, you get back to the old feeling of Gezi Park resistance - with morning dances.
Gezi Parkers woke up to a rainy day. They are distributing raincoats now. Despite the police intervention last night, the daily routine with breakfast and cleaning is still on full swing. On the top of those, they have new efforts to protect themselves from the rain.
Some people are still sleeping after an intense night. Even though the rain deserted the park a little, the remaining dwellers of the park are saying that they are going to keep up and work on to attract more people here. Gezi keeps up its resistance under the rain. (EA/BM)
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