Commemoration under police blockade: ‘Gezi is not our past, it is our future’
* Photo: Tayfun Kahraman / Twitter
Click to read the article in Turkish
Ahead of the press statement to be held to mark the 8th anniversary of Gezi resistance, the Governor's Office of İstanbul Beyoğlu imposed a demonstration ban earlier yesterday (May 31). The commemoration could be held under police blockade following the ban.
While the police closed all roads leading to İstiklal Avenue, people were also not allowed to enter İpek Street, where they would gather for the press statement upon the call of the Mechanical Engineers Chamber of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB).
As reported by Canan Coşkun from Diken, the police did not allow people to come together in front of the İstanbul Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) or the TMMOB Chamber of Mechanical Engineers. Statements were held at two different points due to police prevention.
#Gezi8Yaşında ! pic.twitter.com/0la7gXxuqf
— ÇHD İstanbul Şube (@CHDistanbul) May 31, 2021
Opening a banner that read, "Darkness passes, Gezi remains," the Taksim Solidarity chanted the slogan, "Barricades to the gangs, not to people." Their statement briefly read as follows:
'Only in this way can they remain in power'
"Eight years ago today, because this government hurt our human dignity, usurped our rights, destroyed our urban memory, sacrificed nature for the sake of unearned income and did not leave us a living space, we met in Gezi, we experienced the enthusiasm of being together, the pride of crying out the truth and the honor of resisting.
"We said it during Gezi: As the pandemic period has shown it once again, this government is a stranger to its people. The bans and fines are given to people, while all privileges are on the side of a handful of power holders. They care about neither the public health nor their poverty, hunger, unemployment or the despair of the young. All these statements scolding people, the threats, unfair trials and political arrests aim to spread fear, because only in this way can they remain in power.
"They have attempted to put Gezi on trial. One or two trials were not enough, they are now trying to defame it with an omnibus court case. No matter how many times you put Gezi on trial, not three, but five, ten, a thousand times, you will always be defeated in the face of its rightfulness and truth. Gezi is not like the mafia-state-capital-gang relations that are revealed time and time again. They are seeking after unearned income with gangs and mafia, while we are seeking after watering a sapling.
"We make efforts so that trees can remain in place, the brooks do not dry out, not a single more person loses one's life while earning daily bread, no one is discriminated against and the one-percent does not thrive even more while almost half of this country are starving.
"We are the name of resistance, they are the name of dark relations. While this government is struggling against the filth it has created because of its dark relations, we will be remembered as a spotlessly clean, crystal clear people's movement in the pages of history.
"They wanted us to lose hope; all these unfair trials, punishments, violence, detentions, plunders before all eyes...
'Gezi cannot be made forgotten'
"But they forget something: Gezi is, in itself, this people's hope for equality, freedom and justice. Gezi is the will of these people to determine their own fate; it is their determination. Whoever experienced Gezi once cannot forget it; Gezi cannot be made forgotten!
"The Gezi spirit lies with the young people at Boğaziçi; it lies with the academia turning their backs to the Rector's Office for 142 days, come rain or shine. Gezi resistance is with the women who take to the streets all across the country for the İstanbul Convention and who do not give up despite the violence of the law enforcement. It is with the villagers who cross the sheer slopes and steep roads and manage to stand up against the excavators in İkizdere and the villagers who keep on defending their rights despite coming under fire in Van's Gürpınar. Gezi is Hopa's laying claim to its labor, saying, 'We won't beg you, we will sell our tea' and refusing to step back.
"Gezi is in the eyes of the people who manage to smile to the cameras with their hands handcuffed behind their backs and their heads pushed against the sidewalk when you detain them on the 1st of May.
"Gezi is in the demands for justice pressed in Soma, Çorlu, Hendek, Aladağ and all femincide cases across the country.
'Gezi is not our past, it is our future'
"Gezi is the resistance of sharing against the ones recognizing money and unearned income as the sole value, it is the resistance of production against consumption, it is the resistance of decay against enlightenment. We are once again pressing the same demands here today:
"We want democracy urgently. These people deserve to live in a fair, free and equal country. We want our rights, we will resist until we acquire them. We have left our lives in Gezi. We will resist for Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, Abdullah Cömert, Ethem Sarısülük, Hasan Ferit Gedik, Medeni Yıldırım, Ahmet Atakan, Ali İsmail Korkmaz and Berkin Elvan. We will build the free world in their dreams. It is our word to them.
"Gezi is not our past, it is our future. It is our most concrete ground for the bright and clear future of democracy, which is seized by trustees and decrees. It is too great and vital to remain in the past.
"Gezi is here, we are Gezi! We have been at the squares for years. We are still together, we are everywhere. We said it in Gezi, we still say the same thing today: Palaces come down, gangs are split up, tyranny ends. Darkness passes, Gezi remains. Long live equality, long live freedom, long live justice. Long live the Gezi Resistance!"
Gülsüm Elvan: Fear of Berkin is enough for you
Speaking after the press statement, Gülsüm Elvan, the mother of late Berkin Elvan, addressed President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "They are afraid of Ali İsmail, they are afraid of Mehmet, they are afraid of Abdocan, they are afraid of Hasan Ferit. More importantly, they are afraid of my 14-year-old son. This is Berkin Elvan's fear for them. No matter what you do, the fear of Berkin will fall upon you; I will always be upon you."
13 people detained
On the other side, 13 people who wanted to hold a commemoration on the 8th anniversary of Gezi in Kocamustafapaşa were detained.
Kocamustafapaşa'da Gezi İsyanı'nın yıldönümünde anma yapmak isteyen 13 kişi gözaltına alındı.
— Öğrenci Kolektifleri (@kolektifler) May 31, 2021
Katiller, hırsızlar, çeteciler arkadaşlarımızın yüzüne iyi baksın, sesimizi aklına kazısın;
Yine Geleceğiz!
F/@ogrncifaaliyeti#GezideSöylemiştik pic.twitter.com/zsmtG20IPc
(KÖ/SD)