May Day!

Today was a very interesting and new experience. Daria and I had heard and read up a little on the protests Taksim Square that were suppose to happen today, but clearly we did not understand the depth of the situation. May 1st in Turkey has a long history of protests and unfortunately lives having been taken on this day because of demonstrations gone wrong.

This year the protests started early in the morning from different directions and different towns all with the mission of reaching Taksim Square (about 1 block from my hotel). In anticipation of the rioting, 40,000 riot police were ready and waiting in Turkey, 20,000 of which were in the Taksim Square area and barricades where set up all over. Daria and I were trapped within a 3 block perimeter on all sides and couldn't leave the area all day. All public transport was shut down, no taxis in sight large metal cage like barricades stopped us from going anywhere at all.

We walked about our few free block that are all just cafes and small tiny supermarkets, as did the rest of the people from hotels within the two block area for a few hours. Basically just watching the millions of bus loads of riot police waiting in anticipation of possible demonstrators to come marching down the street.

The protestors started early in the day. After about 5 minutes after leaving out hotel and walking around the very calm isolated streets with the 20,000 cops all around, we started to feel a strong stinging feeling in our noses only to realize a moment later that is was tear gas that had gone off about 5km away from the protests going on in the next town. We ducked inside for a bit. After awhile, we walked around for a bit longer and eventually stopped for lunch about an hour later.

We were sitting outside in a nice courtyard with some other people at the restaurant when suddenly a few people ran past us holding scarves over their faces as they ran. Within an instant, everyone in the courtyard could feel the tear gas and ran inside.

I have never experienced tear gas before. As a practitioner in the field of Conflict Resolution, I have heard many many horror stories about it and know essentially the basics of what it is used for and how it works, but I had never personally felt the affects of it. Its really painful! The tear gas is legally allowed to be used in riot situations, but is considered a chemical weapon of course. It affects your mucous membrane in the eyes, nose, mouth and lungs, and causes crying, sneezing, coughing, difficulty breathing, pain in the eyes, and temporary blindness. Its horrible stuff.

We weren't in close enough range to really get an severe affects from it, but we were close enough to get the extreme pain in our eyes and noses. We were fine and just talking and then all of a sudden my eyes were burning and stinging like nothing I had ever felt before. It was awful. Luckily, because were we far enough away and immediately went inside it didn't last too long....but certainly didn't expect to experience tear gas while on vacation in Istanbul.

Overall the protests died down later in the day. In some area near by it got very rough. Water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, possible real bullets. 141 people detained and 90 injured in total. From my understanding, this is semi-good outcome in comparison to past years. After out tear gas lunch we went back to hotel and stayed there for the rest of the day. A few tear gas incidents were enough for us. Its almost midnight now and everything is calm. The police just left and I don't believe that any protests actually made it to Taksim Square. It was all forcefully stopped before it got here.

Its a sad outcome and after researching it a bit and seeing photos from today of children in pain from tear gas and water cannons, I feel even more thankful that I grew up in a country where this was not something that happened every year or even more. I'm very lucky to have not had to grow up in that kind of environment. Just feeling the tear gas today from a mile or so away was painful enough...I can't even imagine being really in it and right there. I have a new empathy and slightly clearer understanding of what this might feel like to be apart of it or have to deal with it cause its in your country and its just a reality. By no means, am I saying I now really KNOW what its like. I don't, but I new have a new and better comprehension as well as empathetic, political and compassionate view about how these political demonstrations can go terribly wrong even when the intentions are meant to be somewhat peaceful.