TAKSIM SOLIDARITY PRESS RELEASE

11 June 2013 Press Release

On the 14^th day of the resistance, the response to the Gezi Park protestors came from the police again in the shape of armoured police vehicle and tear gas.

There is only a time difference between today’s police raid and the Gezi Park attack of 10 days ago at 5 o’clock in the morning. Today, during the invasion of Taksim that took place at 7am for a change, we again witness dozens of wounded and the police blockade which create anxiety in the society.

One cannot speak of dialogue or democracy where there is a police blockade.

While there is no response to our demands which have become the common wish of our citizens, they hope to create a false discrimination between the park protestor and marginal groups who have stayed in solidarity, shoulder to shoulder, for the last two weeks.

No one should expect to dissolve those who claim their rights for their parks and lives. We will stay together and weave our rightful & legitimate demands with solidarity.

We as Taksim Solidarity have been reflecting the feelings and requests of millions or our citizens, who felt like the police violence against people defending the park and life spaces 24/7 across the nation starting with Taksim were against themselves, lying in front of construction equipment, taking ownership of our park and square, fighting to build a public conscience since the day Taksim Gezi Park urbanization project came up; we announce once again that we will never let our fight be undermined.

It is well-known that Taksim Solidarity group met with Deputy PM Bulent Arinc and communicated its requests to the government through him. Meeting a new delegation that nobody knows about when there had been no response to the communicated requests after the initial meeting, is towards deceiving the public and undermining the legal & democratic requests people all across the nation have screamed about, rather than a candid effort for a conversation. Today’s police invasion is the latest and clearest expression of the government’s intent & its attitude towards the public.
Requests are clear, the counterpart is clear and it is the Taksim Solidarity.

We are worried about the AKP government, which has refused the requests of millions of our citizens who have been very vocal about their requests in 77 cities & their streets starting with Kizilay and hundreds of thousands of women, youth, LBGT members, workers, believers, non-believers, people singing and dancing for 2 weeks, who expressed their democratic reaction in Taksim gezi parki and square, which now threatens its own citizens, trying to increase polarization by organizing alternative meetings.

We would like to share that those, who do not take concrete actions except for alternative meetings or police attacks against peace or concrete barracks instead of a park, will be held responsible. We would like to repeat one more time. Do not put the police and people who are taking ownership of their park and their lives against each other. Release the arrested, fire whoever is responsible for the police violence over the past 2 weeks and first and foremost, announce officially that Gezi Park will remain as a park and even 1 m2 of it won’t be turned into concrete.

We insist on following up on our demands whose legality cannot be questioned on the basis of basic human rights, democratic & universal legal criteria and the cases which have been adopted all around the world and the country and therefore their validity have become unquestionable.

We are here until steps are taken towards peace, rightful demands of people, who have been on duty night and day, supporting from their homes, the women who filled squares and the youth who took ownership of Taksim & Gezi Parki, are met. We continue to take ownership of our parks and squares with great solidarity with all of our citizens until our demands are acknowledged and concrete steps are taken.

We are waiting for those who take ownership of the demands after 19:00. We are here and not going anywhere else.