The majestic and warm Istanbul I visited last summer is a distant memory from what I see today. As I write this at 2:00 AM, I can still hear the horns and chants of thousands of protestors scattered throughout the city streets.

I was traveling to Istanbul to meet up with my fiance who was there for work. Before leaving, I had heard about the anti-government protests taking place here and, although I had never seen such mass protests before, it seemed commonplace, isolated and certainly not enough to deter my visit.

When my taxi driver could no longer dodge protestors in the streets and explained to me largely in hand signals that I needed get out of the car and walk the rest of the way to my hotel, I realized this was more than a few people trying to get a message across. After walking a half mile with luggage through a maze of people waving Turkish flags, I arrived at Hotel Suadiye.

Tired and confused, I blankly told the female hotel clerk checking me in what happened with my taxi driver, fishing for some comforting words.

This reserved and professional woman suddenly flashed me a grin and said, “Good, it’s working.” Feeling a little embarrassed now about not knowing more about the current events of a country I had planned on visiting, I gave a shy but solid nod in agreement.

She must have seen through to my confusion, because she began explaining. “It’s worth it for freedom. They, they want us to…”

Her words trailed off because she could not articulate herself the way she wanted to in English. Rather, with one hand, she made a gesture that went in a round shape from the base of the left side of her neck, above her forehead, to the same spot on the right side of her neck. She was trying to tell me that the government wanted her to wear the traditional Islamic head covering or Hijab.

My heart sank at the desperation and shock in her face at the thought of it.

She continued that the government recently imposed new laws controlling the time of day when alcohol could be consumed. A couple others working in the lobby joined her. They explained how water cannons and tear gas had been used on peaceful protestors.
The clerk told me how her throat still hurt from the gas.

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Being too consumed in the story and exhausted from traveling, I had no filter and asked incredulously, “You were there?” Next she told me that for the past two days she, like several others, worked during the day and spent the entirety of the night protesting, just to return back to work the next morning.

By the next day I would realized that she was no rarity. Most I encountered seemed to be involved in one way or another.

After entering my room and sorting out a few things, I decided to walk back toward the main boulevard where the taxi had left me. Because my hotel is tucked away in a largely residential block, I could hear the protestors before I could see them. The thunderous chants did not disappoint when they were translated into bodies and cars. The amount of people had grown since I was there last and seemed to be growing larger by the second.

After a few minutes I realized I had stopped walking and was scanning the crowd. For what? Unconsciously, I was attempting to group these people together somehow; to find some common demographic. I only realized I was doing this because I failed at finding one.

First, every age group was present, from infants and toddlers to the elderly. From what I could gather, there didn’t seem to be any particular socio-economic group present either. Had it not been for the chanting and signs, someone could easily mistake the scene for a town festival. Suddenly it made sense. The larger issue that these people are fighting for had to be something that all people fear. It had to be something that could affect the lives of anyone. 

After walking for quite some time, just taking in the atmosphere, I decided to head back to the hotel to decompress. It was shocking to me because I had just visited Istanbul a year earlier and had a completely different experience. After speaking with a few more people I was able to piece together why so many Turkish protestors were passionately flooding the streets. 

Since taking office in 2002, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been widely praised for making strides in strengthening the Turkish economy. However, in recent years, people feel as though he has begun to take a more authoritarian stance towards policy, especially those involving straying away from a secular government. 

One example of this is a law awaiting the president’s approval which plans to prohibit alcohol consumption between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM. This law would also place restrictions upon alcohol advertising and its proximity to schools as well as mosques.

With tensions already high, it seemed to be the destruction of a park in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square that began the protests.

Gezi Park was reportedly demolished for a general renovation of Taksim Square that also coincided with the construction of  a new shopping mall. Unhappy with such changes, several people started peaceful protests that were met with unnecessary police force. This treatment escalated matters throughout the weekend.

Everyone I spoke with had the same fear: that Ergodan would continue with the Islamization of Turkey through an authoritarian regime. Having seen Iran’s transition into an enforced Islamic government from the eyes of a neighbor, the Turkish people realize what’s at stake and want to protect their secular freedoms.

In the next few hours I’ll be going to the European side of Istanbul where Taksim Square has been the casualty between protestors and the police.

Reach guest contributor Tahsin Hyder here