International reactions to the Gezi Park protests in Turkey included many expressions of concern about the excessive use of force against peaceful protestors. There were also supporting protests in a number of countries outside Turkey, particularly those with a large Turkish diaspora.
Supporting protests in cities of the Turkish diaspora and solidarity movements:
Taksim Square, situated in Beyoğlu in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a major tourist and leisure district famed for its restaurants, shops, and hotels. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, with the central station of the Istanbul Metro network. Taksim Square is also the location of the Republic Monument which was crafted by Pietro Canonica and inaugurated in 1928. The monument commemorates the 5th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, following the Turkish War of Independence.
Yeni Şafak is a conservative, Islamist Turkish daily newspaper. The newspaper is known for its hardline support of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AK Party and has a very close relationship with the Turkish government. Together with other media organizations in Turkey, it has been accused of using hate speech to target minorities and opposition groups.
The 2011–2012 Kurdish protests in Turkey were protests in Turkey, led by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), against restrictions of Kurdish rights by of the country's Kurdish minority's rights. Although they were the latest in a long series of protest actions by Kurds in Turkey, they were strongly influenced by the concurrent popular protests throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and the Turkish publication Hürriyet Daily News has suggested that the popularly dubbed "Arab Spring" that has seen revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia may lead to a "Kurdish Summer" in the northern reaches of the Middle East. Protesters have taken to the streets both in İstanbul and in southeast Turkey, with some demonstrations also reported as far west in Anatolia as İzmir.
The Taksim Military Barracks or Halil Pasha Artillery Barracks were located at the site of the present-day Taksim Gezi Park next to Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. It was built in 1806.
The Pangaltı Armenian Cemetery was located in the Pangaltı quarter of Istanbul near Taksim Square and originally belonged to the Surp Agop Armenian Hospital. In the 1930s, it was demolished and was replaced with the Taksim Gezi Park, Divan Hotel, Hilton Hotel, Hyatt Regency Hotel, and the TRT Radio Buildings.
A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting the plan. Subsequently, supporting protests and strikes took place across Turkey, protesting against a wide range of concerns at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, of expression and of assembly, as well as the AKP government's alleged erosion of Turkey's secularism. With no centralised leadership beyond the small assembly that organised the original environmental protest, the protests have been compared to the Occupy movement and the May 1968 events. Social media played a key part in the protests, not least because much of the Turkish media downplayed the protests, particularly in the early stages. Three and a half million people are estimated to have taken an active part in almost 5,000 demonstrations across Turkey connected with the original Gezi Park protest. Twenty-two people were killed and more than 8,000 were injured, many critically.
Taksim Gezi Park is an urban park next to Taksim Square, in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district. It is one of the last green spaces in Beyoğlu and one of the smallest parks of Istanbul. In May 2013, plans to replace the park with a reconstruction of the former Taksim Military Barracks, intended to house a shopping mall, sparked the nationwide 2013 protests in Turkey.
Chapulling is a neologism originating in the Gezi Park protests, coined from Prime Minister Erdoğan's use of the term çapulcu to describe the protesters. Çapulcu was rapidly reappropriated by the protesters, both in its original form and as the anglicized chapuller and additionally verbified chapulling, given the meaning of "fighting for your rights". Chapulling has been used in Turkish both in its anglicized form and in the hybrid word form çapuling.
The following is a timeline of the Gezi Park protests in Turkey of citizens and supporters against actions and plans of the government of Turkey. The timeline is segmented into days.
The Divan Istanbul is a five star hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. It is located next to Taksim Gezi Park in Elmadağ, Şişli, in walking distance from Taksim Square. Opened in 1956, it is the flagship of the Divan Group hotel chain.
The 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey saw massive amounts of censorship and disinformation by the mainstream media, especially by those supporting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). A poll done by Istanbul Bilgi University in the first week of the protests showed that 84% of the demonstrators cited the lack of media coverage as a reason to join the protests, higher than the 56% of protesters who referred to the destruction of Gezi Park.
During the Gezi Park protests in Turkey, police forces repeatedly used excessive force to prevent and disperse peaceful demonstrations. As a result, it is estimated that there were 22 fatalitiesand least at least 8,163 injuries, of which 63 in serious or critical condition.
The AKP government's handling of the 2013–14 protests in Turkey has been roundly criticized by other nations and international organizations, including the European Union, the United Nations, the United States, the UK, and Germany.
Erdem Gündüz is a Turkish dancer, actor, performance artist, choreographer, and teacher who, as a result of his actions during the 2013–14 protests in Turkey, has become "the face of the protest movement against the Turkish government." He became internationally known as "The Standing Man" in June 2013 when he stood quietly in Istanbul's Taksim Square as a protest against the conservative government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The following lists events in the year 2013 in Turkey.
The Istanbul Armenian Genocide memorial, also known as Huşartsan, was a marble monument that became the first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide. It was erected in 1919 at a site now partly located within today's Gezi Park, near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire. The monument was located on the premises of the former Pangaltı Armenian Cemetery. In 1922, during the Turkish National Movement, the monument was dismantled and subsequently lost under unknown circumstances.
The March for Justice was a 450 km (280-mile) march from Ankara to Istanbul to protest against arrests that were made as part of the government crackdown following the July 2016 coup d'état attempt. After the coup attempt, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government declared a state of emergency. Since then at least 50,000 people have been arrested and another 140,000 people have been removed from their positions. The protest was led by opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in response to a lengthy prison sentence that Enis Berberoğlu received for allegedly giving the press a video that shows Turkish intelligence smuggling weapons into Syria. The march concluded in Istanbul on 9 July with a rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people, during which Kılıçdaroğlu spoke at length about the effect that the government purge has had on the judiciary and rule of law in Turkey.
The 2021 Boğaziçi University protests were demonstrations held against the appointment of Melih Bulu by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as rector of Boğaziçi University, one of the top academic institutions in Turkey.
Taksim Mosque is a mosque complex in Taksim Square, Istanbul. It was designed by two Turkish architects in the Art Deco style, and can hold up to 3,000 worshippers at the same time. Construction began on February 17, 2017, and lasted for four years. The mosque was inaugurated with a Friday prayer attended by the President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on 28 May 2021.