In 11 parks of Istanbul, the experiences learnt from Park Gezi are being kept alive. The park forum in Abbasağa-Beşiktaş that was held yesterday (18th of June) was one of them. Despite thousands of people were in out there getting in and out, you could only hear the voice of the person who was having a speech in that moment. Because the park is in the middle of the Beşiktaş, people were doing the hand gestures instead of clapping their hands which are done when you hear the sound “sshhhh” in a football match. When people didn’t like the speech they were putting their arms as a cross. When the speaker talks too much people were doing a gesture describing the rolling of a tape.

The forum in Beşiktaş-Park Abbasağa started with a stand of respect and silence for the people who lost their lives in the resistance of Gezi and with March of istiklal following that. Hundreds joining, people took their turns telling their opinions, proposals and what they wanted to the public. Some of them told we shouldn’t discriminate the AKP supporters and some of them told if we start to understand them we could be like them. Experiences were shared and, warning and wishes are told.

People took the megaphone one by one. All of them had different ages, occupations, cities, and different reasons to join the resistance. Despite the forum was held in Beşiktaş even the teams they supported were different.

From hand to hand the megaphone went. A speaker was only interrupted when he/she wasn’t been able to heard. A voice told: “We are establishing a new world here.” Then it told this world is the world of friendship and brotherhood and no force could stand against it. Then it continued “But we can manage to stand too. After the “standing man” from Taksim yesterday, hundreds are standing everywhere. Another one expressed an opinion: “It makes me uncomfortable to stand behind a flag.” “The flags are all covered with blood. If we are establishing a new world, I think we should stand behind the banner of brotherhood in this world.”

There are lots of reasons to join the resistance

A young voice said: ” There is no party or organization leading this movement.”, then he said it was an advantage in the beginning but at this point there is a certain need of organizing, he didn’t think it was useful to form it as a party like the old times, but forming communities like that forum all around the Turkey and establishing a new platform based on them was enough. Another one confessed “I only joined the resistance because the election barrage was too high and the party he/she supported was never able to pass it.

A young woman voice told: “I will only tell one thing, we shouldn’t forget the things they are trying to make us forget. We shouldn’t forget Reyhanli, Uludere, Afyon Karahisar.” A middle aged voice: “I deny all of my identities. I’m neither a man, nor Turkish or democrat. I’m nothing. All of the identities are prisons. I invite everyone to think like this.” He/she said when we deny other identities we shouldn’t also place identities to other people and we shouldn’t discriminate at all.

We are fighting against the Neo-Liberalism

Another one started to speak after had a problem with the traditional politics:”The main problem is not AKP, the problem is the production type that has been used. We should all recognize that.” Later then a woman’s voice told that she came from Paris and she was watching all the resistance with pride. People told they couldn’t hear her, she repeated. People warned her again. Then she told she would shout then and she repeated. Then she told she had been observing the occupy protests all over the world and she had been asking the opinions of the friends who joined them. She said: ” We are actually fighting against the Neo-Liberalism and the destruction that was caused by it.” She mentioned about her experiences from Spain, expressing that the forum was very necessary but the resistance had to be reinforced by other organizations to prevent the consuming culture that capitalism had created. Then she gave an example of an exchange market. Later she ended her speech after the warnings telling that she should speak a bit shorter.

We are no provocateur

A young man introduced himself, telling that he was out there on the streets since from the start of the resistance, he was a socialist and he was in an organization. He told: “You are calling the people who throw rocks as provocateurs. I’m no provocateur, I’m a person who doesn’t have anything but rocks to defend myself against the people who are attacking as without any mercy.” He said it hurts him to be named as a provocateur. Later he finished saying: “They can take people out of Park Gezi, but they can’t take Park Gezi out of the people.” After him a young woman’s voice told:” They are talking about a goal. There is the goal of 2023. I’m very uncomfortable with it. I’m proposing the word ‘dream’ against the word ‘goal’. Against the ‘goal 2023’ let’s start ‘dream 2023’. A few friends and I have started a blog. Take a look at it.”

A middle aged voice told:”Let’s don’t feel uncomfortable with socialist organizations. If the resistance of Gezi is on this point, it’s because of their efforts.” supporting the young person before him. The voice after him was clearly from a man from 68’s generation. “I’ve witnessed the workers who resisted in Yeni Çeltek, the resistance of Fatsa created by Terzi Fikri. I was in ODTU OTK. However now I see that there has never been such a big experience of democracy around this geography. We should know what it worth. We should protect it.”

The rival team is playing harsh, the referee is with them but we will win this game.

Another one said:” We have one the first half of this game. Maybe we are not aware of it yet but the government knows.” He/she later ended the speech saying:” The rival team is playing harsh, the referee is with them but we will win this game. However we will win the second half too.”

After the fifth lost wallet case in Abbasağa, a warning was told from the megaphone:” Put your wallets in your pockets, not in your bags.” From one side people were saying “they are pickpocketeers like they are always called.” and from the other side “let’s call the disguised police amongst us to the duty.” They all laughed together. The papers, nylon bags, bottles and dead cigarettes were thrown into the garbage bags going from hand to hand. They put the recoverable wastes to one place to make it easier for the people who collect them.

The proposal saying: “It is too late now, people are sleeping around the neighborhood. We should continue without the megaphone.” was accepted by everyone. The volume was down.

No one interrupted the other one, no one booed over someone, and no one clapped their hands. No one talked for getting approved, hand-claps or to provoke the people. The people who have been resisting together, knowing that it was the time to understand each other, they could stood on the grounds of the resistance with all their differences,  expressing and listening each other’s opinions that were sometimes the same and completing theirs and sometimes the completely different . They proved that the forums are held in the 11 parks of Istanbul could accelerate the process of living together, helping each other as brotherhood, by spreading this forums all over the towns, all over the Turkey.

 Çeviri: Bahadır Yenici