One-Person Protest in Gezi Park After 5 Years

Click to read the article in Turkish

In Taksim Square and Gezi Park in İstanbul, where no protest demonstrations could be held since the Gezi Park protests in 2013, a single-person protest was staged today (December 12).

Oruç Karacık, who also participated in the Gezi Park protests in 2013, protested the investigations that have been recently launched against Gezi Park protesters as well as the attempts to criminalize the protests.

Sitting on the stairs of Gezi Park five years later, Karacık held a banner in his hands, which read, "I am one of the millions of leaders in Gezi."

He protested the Gezi investigations

İn İstanbul and Ankara, a series of investigations have been launched into Gezi Park protests, which started on May 27, 2013 and spread to Turkey.

As part of the Gezi investigation conducted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Mücella Yapıcı, Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman, Haluk Ağabeyoğlu and Ahmet Saymadi from the Taksim Solidarity platform deposed at the İstanbul Security Directorate on November 29-30.

On December 5, an arrest warrant was issued from actor Mehmet Ali Alabora, against whom a series accusations were brought by the pro-government media outlets during Gezi Park protests.

Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office also launched an investigation against 600 people in relation with the protests in. The office issued an indictment against 120 people and sent it to court.

On December 10, attorney of businessperson and human rights advocate Osman Kavala announced that his client was charged with financing and organizing the Gezi Park protests. No indictment has been filed for Kavala, who was arrested after being detained on October 18, 2017.

"All hearts beat together in Gezi"

Stating that he voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2007 elections, Karacık made the following statement during his protest:

"When I saw the picture of woman in red in Gezi Park, I said to myself, 'I should be there'. I was in Taksim in the morning on May 31, 2013.

"All hearts beat together in Gezi. All creatures, who had not understood or loved one another until that point or had very different worldviews, were filled with love. And all minds became one there.

"As if they were a single organism, the knowledge of one person became the knowledge of everyone. When the heart and brain became one and the same thing, we also got extremely rich. The ones who did not come to Gezi in this way could not understand this richness." (HK/SD)