The gathering started at around 3 pm.

* CHP 1st district bureau, Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) and the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) from Dolmabahçe.

* CHP 2nd district bureau, İstanbul Labor and Democracy Coordination, Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK), Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Halkevleri, EMEP, EHP, Kaldıraç, United June Movement (BHH) TÖPG, Northern Forest Defense (KOS), Istanbul Civic Defense (İKS) from Osmanbey

* CHP 3rd district bureau from Şişhane

**Also autonomous groups gathered and marched from Beşiktaş

Gezi Park was partially closed by police. Many people used the seaway to gather near Dolmabahçe.

Some banners from “Secularism and Democracy” gathering;

“We don’t want OHAL (State of Emergency) or a coup, neither against the country nor nature”

“Sovereignty belongs to the people, unconditionally”

“No to Military and Civilians Coup”

“Neither Coup, Nor OHAL, Peace and Democracy Now”

“Shoulder to Shoulder against Fascism”

“Neither Coup, Nor Dictatorship, we shall build secular and democratic country” Halkevleri

“Against racism and fundamentalism, We will bring in secularism”

“We as women who are against the coup and state of emergency insist on peace”

“The solution to coups is state of permanent and social peace, not a state of emergency.”

“We will bring secularism against the darkness”

“ÇARŞI also against coups”

Sendika.org interviewed two CHP deputies at the gathering:

CHP İstanbul Deputy Ali Şeker said:

“We are here to build a real democracy gathering and to unite people. We faced a real coup. We are here for the coup not to apply some other plan; we are here for democracy and secularism. People are here because they no longer want to face restrictions and a state of emergency; they are here for real democracy. We will show everyone our solidarity and democracy.”

CHP Tekirdağ Deputy Candan Yüceer said:

“We are in Taksim today. We are used to gathering in Taksim. We were here three years ago and we were saying the same things: equality, justice and democracy. We faced something that we never want and we are pleased to see that this coup attempt was unsuccessful. But not only that night, we have always defended democracy, justice and human rights. Whether military or civilian, we are against every kind of coup attempt. We will continue to repeat our demands.”

Sendika.org also interviewed people who are in Taksim and asked them, “Why are we in Taksim?”

“We are here to live all together in peace, democracy and against every kind of coup attempt. We are here for freedom, equality, human rights and to show solidarity and that we are against exploitation,” one said.

While people entering the square people who died in Gezi Movement were honored with a roll call of their names, the crowd applauded.

DİSK: “We are here as DİSK, which is the organization of the working class. We want to stop the coup, dictatorship and the state of emergency ruling.”

President of the Halkevleri: “Everyone in this country knows that democracy can never exist without the AKP leaving the parliament.”

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu read the Taksim Manifesto.
When he reminded the importance of Taksim for 1 May and the Gezi Movement, tens of thousands shouted together: “Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance!”

The İstanbul Medical Chamber’s secretary-general read out the joint text of the participants. Some phrases from the text included the following:

“We do not accept either military or civilian coups! We haven’t forgotten the coups. We haven’t forgotten Deniz Gezmiş.”

“We condemn the coup attempt on 15 July; this coup is not surprising given that the AKP has created this ground for 14 years.”

“OHAL supporters are no different from coup plotters. OHAL and one-man dictatorship must be ended immediately.”

“We want democracy; we will never allow fascism to take over the streets”

The rally ended with people shouting “This is the beginning, the struggle continues” – a common chant from the Gezi protests of 2013.

Sendika.Org