MILENE LARSSON: The biggest civil uprising in the history
of the Turkish republic kicked off in Istanbul at 5:00 AM on
Friday May 31.
The Turkish media downplayed the protests as the unrest
spread like wildfire across more than 60 cities.
The footage showing police brutality against protesters
shocked viewers around the world.
So far, more than 4,000 people have been injured and three
deaths have been confirmed.
It all started when Turkish riot police fired tear gas
pepper spray and water cannons into a peaceful protest to
save Gezi Park, one of the last green
areas in central Istanbul.
Instead of dispersing the protesters, the violent
crackdowns resulted in the social uprising growing in
strength and numbers as discontent with Prime Minister
Erdogan's autocratic style and Islamic
agenda hit boiling point.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: Upon landing in Istanbul, we jumped in a
cab to see what was going down in Taksim.
Traffic was stopped so we were dropped off in Cihangir, a 10
minute walk away from Taksim square.
The closer we got to the heart of the turmoil, the more
injured and traumatized people we met.
What's happened?
-They are targeting people with those tear capsules.
That's the problem.
-They use them as bullets.
-Young people dying, man.
They just be politicians.
But these people's our country's peoples.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: Lots of people are coming
now from the square.
There's been tear gas fired all day, water
canons, pepper spray.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[APPLAUSE]
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: There are helicopters
everywhere, police sirens.
And despite people running away from the square, being
injured, people seem to still be going.
God, I can smell the tear gas now.
OK, let's do this.
When we finally reached Istiklal Avenue, just off
Taksim Square, tens of thousands of protesters were
trying to break the police barricades to
take back the square.
We're being tear gassed.
Everyone's pushing.
We hid upstairs in a bar for hours.
Hide your camera.
Don't use your lights.
The chemical fumes were burning our eyes and lungs.
Are we safe here?
-Let's hope.
MILENE LARSSON: We had no idea what was happening outside.
We just ran into a bar.
There's tear gas everywhere.
We saw lots of people just passing, falling, crying.
The streets are empty now.
There were thousands and thousands of people just a few
minutes ago.
I can feel that something really bad is happening.
The following day, protesters were back out on the streets
in even stronger numbers.
The police continued to tear gas them, even in a
residential area where there were three hospitals.
In the afternoon the police withdrew and people went back
to the square.
We wanted to speak to the people who
first initiated a protest.
So we tracked down two very tired members of the Gezi Park
Protection and Beatification NGO who had been occupying the
park since Monday.
So you have actually been out protesting for almost an
entire week now?
KAREM AKALIN: Yeah.
Well, actually we had just finished our meeting.
On our way back home we saw the demolition.
And this is how we were able to stop it.
MILENE LARSSON: Well, how come you started
focusing on Gezi Park?
Why did you want to protect this green area?
FUNDA ORAL: Actually, we were all fighting against the
Taksim project.
But we couldn't stop the tunnels and things like that.
Then we said, OK, let's focus on the park because it unifies
people easily.
KAREM AKALIN: That represents the last gifts of Earth and
nature that we have to protect as a treasure for our children
and next generations.
MILENE LARSSON: At sunset, one of our camera guys was in
Besiktas, an area near Taksim where major clashes kicked off
between police and protesters near
Erdogan's Istanbul office.
We headed to Taksim square to see if the police were going
to storm it once again.
We're in Taksim Square, the heart of
the protests in Istanbul.
And people are partying despite having been tear
gassed for two days and brutally attacked by police.
And it's kind of amazing how many people are here despite
all the rumors that police from all over Turkey are here
to basically attack the square in God knows how soon.
Do you think it's going to get worse than yesterday?
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: Are you afraid of what's
going to happen tonight?
I mean, you've been tear gassed for two
days now and attacked.
MILENE LARSSON: So you're going to stay on this square
no matter what?
MILENE LARSSON: We just went and got gas masks.
There are lots of rumors floating around about all
sorts of things.
But right now we're going to go to a meeting with some
protesters, trying to figure out what exactly is going on
and, hopefully, figure out what the plan is tonight.
How did you find out that things were kicking off?
ASIYE: I, for myself, saw what was happening on
Facebook and Twitter.
I was at work.
And at 5:30, I left work and I went directly to Taksim.
Police came with tear gasses and sprayed sleeping people
and people who were reading books with tear gas.
And they burned their tents down, like, actual live fire.
One of the PM's of Turkish Parliament got shot in the
shoulder with a tear gas canister, and then he was
hospitalized.
At that point, it was no longer about trees.
It was just about tyranny.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
ASIYE: This an official threat from our prime minister.
I didn't vote for him.
Doesn't matter, the majority voted for him.
He's my prime minister too.
And it's his duty, unforgettable and obvious
duty, to protect me as well.
I, as a citizen of this country, do not feel safe to
live here anymore.
Like yesterday, around noon time when protests weren't so
bloody, we saw this canister twice the size
of a regular grenade.
And it says it should not be used on humans.
And, yeah, there was this doctor saying that they're
using nine different varieties, because they all
have different remedies.
One of them, if you, like, drink water with
it, it'll burn more.
But one of them you have to drink water because otherwise
there's no remedy to it.
And one of them you have to use vinegar.
And the other one you have to use an anti-acid.
It feels like you're drowning.
Like, it feels like somebody's actually holding their hands
on your throat, and they're trying to kill you.
This is a chemical war.
This is against, like, human rights.
We have grown up in a free country.
We have gone to schools that provide us education in our
own language.
We were free to practice our own religion.
We were free to be gays or
lesbians or Kurds or Armenians.
And we were free to respect each other.
But now we're being forced to take sides.
And this is the biggest, biggest damage that government
has done to us.
MILENE LARSSON: By midnight, clashes in Besiktas had gotten
extremely violent and didn't die out until 2:00 AM.
MILENE LARSSON: How many people are
injured in the mosque?
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
-We wrote our names and blood types on our arms, because we
don't know what will be going on for today.
So we want to be safe in a hospital, in a government
hospital and et cetera.
That's why we need that on.
MILENE LARSSON: We heard there were six civilian medical
points around Taksim.
So we went to visit one of them.
Are you a doctor?
MILENE LARSSON: Are there a lot of people coming into your
emergency clinic?
MILENE LARSSON: You hear lots of, apparently,
tear gas being shot.
And it sounds like things are really kicking off there.
Has it been like this all day?
-He's going for an emergency.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: What are you expecting tonight?
-We expect that things will get worse.
God knows what awaits us.
MILENE LARSSON: Yeah, we've heard that police from all
over Turkey has come to Istanbul now.
-Yeah.
Also tear gas from all over Turkey has come to Istanbul.
MILENE LARSSON: Oh, my God.
So we're at Taksim Square.
It's almost 2:00 AM.
People are building barricades to keep the police
out, or trying to.
You can see fire.
I think 150,000 people can fit on this square.
And it looks way more crowded than that.
I can't believe how brave they are after all the news of
what's happening in Besiktas.
-You will eat a mussel?
MILENE LARSSON: Yeah, I'll have a muscle.
We were so sketched out about coming to this square.
And now people are just feeding us muscles, which
feels a bit random.
But it's nice.
On the third day of riots shaking the country, the
people had taken back Taksim Square, which was now the
scene for a massive street party.
The park was still standing, and the bulldozers and diggers
that were sent to flatten it had been destroyed.
This area has been a really important monument of civil
society in Turkey ever since the '60s.
This is where people come to protest.
So, obviously, they don't want this place to get destroyed.
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: We left the celebrations to meet the MP
who had become a national hero.
We're on our way to meet Sirri Sureyya Onder, the MP who
stood in front of the bulldozers when they tried to
destroy Gezi Park the other day.
And he was reportedly hit by a tear gas cartridge and
hospitalized later on.
SIRRI SUREYYA ONDER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MILENE LARSSON: Celebrations continued throughout the
evening in Taksim.
Football fans were joy riding a digger in Besiktas.
By this time, 1,700 protesters across
Turkey had been arrested.
It was time for us to leave.
On our way out, we stopped by Taksim Square.
So it's 1:00 AM on Monday morning.
The police have, tonight, again, been brutally clamping
down on protesters in Besiktas.
There are a lot of people hurt.
People are building massive barricades to, basically,
prevent police coming back into Taksim Square.
It's been about a week since the first people stood over
there by the trees in Gezi Park trying to prevent them
from getting destroyed by bulldozers.
The square's the emptiest I've seen it so far.
It could very well be because it's Monday morning and people
need to go to work tomorrow.
MILENE LARSSON: Do you think they will come tonight?
[MUSIC PLAYING]