The Gezi Park Movement

In late May 2013, a peaceful citizen protest against the destruction of Gyej Park, one of Istanbul's last green spaces to build a shopping mall, caused a wider protest when the police attacked the protesters violently It evolved into action. activity. Excessive use of pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets caused serious damage and encouraged more demonstrators to enter the plot park. After the violent repression of the riot police, Prime Minister Egypt, Taip Erdogan defended the police action and accused protesters as "terrorists" and "surrounding people".

Last summer I spent a while to protest at Gyeji Park in Istanbul, Turkey. As a Turkish social movement and scholar of social media - I was born several blocks from Gezi Park - I had the opportunity, I learned ubiquitous sports and used Twitter extensively. When cutting onions, "tear gas" may sound like tears, but it does not match - normal tears used burn your lungs and can relieve your breathing. Fatal gas may be generated under limited conditions or when used or used in excess for people with potential vulnerability to asthma. Worriedly, tear gas is increasingly used all over the world to collapse peaceful gatherings (its effect is much worse in established and prepared groups).

Recent history is full of new generations of enthusiastic examples with unnecessary and tragic results. Arab Spring, Spain's 15 meter move (Wall Street's ancestral occupation), Turkish Gozpark protest, Hong Kong umbrella move, Colombian peace camps and more. Recent Iranian regime change by social media protests is not just a baby-boomer generation. Certainly, most of these initiatives are bottoming out, but social changes never occurred overnight. It will take decades to abolish slavery in the 19th century and abolish the voting rights of women of the 20th century.

Tear gas even taught me a topic I have been studying for years as a scholar: social media. That was June 2013, I was protesting at Gezi Park in Istanbul. After each round of tear gas, protesters will pull out their mobile phones, turn to social media, learn what is going on, or report the case on their own. Twitter is a capillary structure of exercise without an obvious leader even without an institutional structure. There is no even a name. I was there to study the turmoil in this digital age. But my idea is wandering. Just a few days ago, Edward Snowden's leak was the first in the world. Accessing data such as Skype and Facebook, using submarine cables, avoiding industry-accepted encryption standards, cracking connections between huge data warehouses connecting Google and Yahoo! can.