By Nihan Aygun for Orta Blu [email protected]

I haven’t slept more than 4 hours the last three nights…What I am seeing is the beginning of something huge.  Incredibly scary but oddly exhilarating.  I am horrified at the brutality the police are showing but so proud to see the people not backing down and actually forcing police to retreat.

Why would civil unrest inspire such an emotion as hope  in us?  For the same reason that a small peaceful  sit-in has inspired a tidal wave of protests all over Turkey:  We have had enough!

Pressure has been building over the last few years but the dam broke rapidly over the last few months when they told us abortion would be restricted, they took away government supported arts, they demolished old and much-loved İstanbul sites like the historic Emek Theatre and the İnci Patisseri.    They have restricted and regulated alcohol sales and consumptions but to add insult to injury, the prime minister countered protests with a sneering “Anyone who drinks is an alcoholic” and his now infamous line: “I don’t understand why the laws of two drunks is more important than the laws of our religion.”  The two drunks he refers to are the beloved founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the first PM İsmet İnönü.  And TUrkey is a secular country Mr. Erdoğan, technically it doesn’t have a religion.

We have had enough.  The protestors were reading boks and playing guitar and sleeping in tents when they were gassed before dawn, tents burned, water cannoned.  For this reason, the people were infuriated.  For this reason people haveput aside many differences that have divided us over the years.  Turks and kurds, alevi and suni, young and old, rich and poor, blue collars white collars.  The people that the PM sneeringly dismisses as “Marginal Fringes” and plunderers are finally understanding that  “United we stand, divided we fall”  Too bad the PM is more into machiavellan divde and conquer tactics.

To see the old plump grandmother taking food out to the protestors amidst the hanging clouds of gas;  the so called violent protestors trying to wash the eyes of a stray dog crying in pain from the pepper spray   ; people walking into the tear gas rather than running away; doctors, med students working non-stop to help wounded in makeshift infirmaries makes you want to cry with sorrow and joy.  THe most beautiful thing I have seen in years is the sight of thousands of buildings opening and closing their lights in support of the protest, like the worlds biggest Christmas tree.

Other sights just want to make you scream: police indiscriminantly clubbing passersby, people who have lost their sight from pepper spray cannisters directly shot into their faces or the young woman run over by the tank… And yet thousands keep coming to bolster the protestors.

So now it’s 1 a.m. and all of our friends are either in the resistance at Beşiktaş right now trying to get information – though they keep closing internet Access – to the rest of us who are trying to keep the the world informed.  I’m so tired but I can’t put down my phone, I need to keep in touch, I need to share information, I need to be a part of this movement in whatever small way I can. The only national tv channel that will show what’s going on live is Halk TV, a channel I didn’t even know existed until 3 days ago.  The rest of the media is a joke.

THe last thing I’ve seen is a video from a family resident who have been tear gassed by police in their home because they were waving a Turkish flag to support protestors.  Oh, and a group of “undercover” cops beating the crap out of a young kid.  Red Hack has shut down AKP website. Anonymous is now supporting our movement (with a really creepy but highly effective video warning the government)

We have had enough.  So it isn’t just about saving the park anymore. It’s so much bigger. It’s all over Turkey. Ankara is like a war zone, İzmir has AKP sympathtizers roaming the streets with bats beating any resistance they run into, allegedly police dressed as civillians are vandalizing ATMs and burning cars to maket he movement look like a group of terrorists, therefore justifying the force used.  Adana, Eskişehir, Hatay, Kocaeli, Denizli, Bursa are all out in the streets. And we are terrified we might wake up to a red alert situation  but maybe we’ll wake up to a forever changed Turkey where the people understand the power of having their voices heard.  I have goosebumps.  I’m not tired anymore, I’m sad and hopeful, excited and angry, amazed at the humanity of our citizens and the brutality of the government…I’m not alone.

We’ve had enough.