Detour by Taksim Square

Istanbul University

It smells like the end of a journey in Turkey. But still have another warm day to visit the Beyazit mosque before getting on Istanbul University's campus.

There, we couldn't get too close because of security controls. We gave up and went around the building. What was surprising was the outside stand to sell school supplies...

We visited another mosque before going back down to our hostel, where we would meet our new friend. Together, we walked towards Taksim Square, where most protest against prime minister Erdogan took place. We were told it would be safer to go during the day.

We crossed Galata bridge and walked up slowly along a walking street. We then stopped at a restaurant. The closer Taksim Square was, the bigger the crowd was, even if there was no violent activity.

Everywhere around Taksim Square were police officers. Water canons were aligned so they wouldn't block the traffic. Already, it felt like walking on eggs. Not the time to be extravagant. We needed to blend in the crowd.

We got closer to Gezi park, where there was already some construction work being done. Police officers were watching the entrance, so it was intimidating to take pictures.

We walked on the square itself and took the time to chat with the protesters, most of them being silent, standing without moving.

There were abandoned shoes to symbolize the people who got hurt or killed in the protests. Others were blindfolded, holding a balance to illustrate justice.

We were told about the death of a protester, how friends and family we staying on Taksim Square to pay tribute to him. We pretended to agree with our translator, who said protesters were just people searching for a fight. Was better not to contradict anybody, to listen and avoid stating an opinion.

We suspected some policemen were going around dressed as tourists or civilians. They were always close to us and made two young girls leave the square.

After a long conversation, we determined it was time to leave. Around Taksim Square, my North American head wasn't pleasing the water vendors, who were trying to get more money out of me. It took me four or five attempts to get a reasonable price.

We went back down through new streets to end up in front of protesters going up to the square. They were done working. They were walking together, shouting some slogans. Intimidating.

After hesitating about following them or not, we decided to go back to our hostel... where other travelers were already talking about going out at night.

There again, we hesitated. Pressure was strong. In a group, we negotiated for two cabs so we could go in Beyoglu. In the dark, the landscape had changed. People were running, their mouth and eyes were covered. Others were selling diving masks...

We got to the bar, where we needed to climb six, seven or eight levels to reach the last floor. The view was very nice. Big windows were covering three of the walls. Strangely, there were not a lot of people partying.

We had just started drinking our bear when we passed our heads through the window to look outside. The crowd was running in the streets. Slowly, my eyes started to burn. The tear gaz was going up and up and up. Even if we closed the windows, it was too late. The few people inside rushed to the stairs.

Eyes, throat, lungs were burning. With a little water in the face, between two floors, we were getting better and decided to leave immediately.

We jumped in a taxi, between a line of police officers on one sidewalk, and a line of protesters on the other sidewalk. On the way back, we crossed a taxi with its doors wide open. Men were hitting on the passengers. No time to understand what was happening. We kept on going.

The night before we left Turkey, we had quite a dose of emotions.

In French, here is the article I wrote  for La Tribune and La Nouvelle newspapers as I was still in Turkey. I'm telling about the events I lived there.