At the moment (11th June 2013; 1pm) in Istanbul, the police is trying to clear out Taksim square with water canons and tear gas. Protesters are putting up a fight, setting up more and more barricades and lightning some points on fire. “30 lawyers protesting against handling of Gezi protests detained in front of courtroom in Istanbul” One of the lawyers tweeted (Ismail Demirci): “We’re kept under custody in a lawless way right now. Nothing written, no order, no written proceedings, not even water until our friends arrived.”
Police tried to enter the park but had to withdraw. It seems as if it’s going to be a day of strategic moves, back and forth. Erdoğan keeps telling protesters to leave the streets, or else…
Live streams from Tim Pool @ Vice (he has been live for 7 hours), RT and Reuters can keep you up to date.
Both because of the reality of the events as well as due to their symbolic significance at this moment in history, there is nothing more important today than what is happening in Turkey. It’s giving us insight into what comes next regarding urban movements and direct action. Francis McKee, writer, curator and photography passionate, director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow went to see for himself. Here are some of his photographs:
all photographs © Francis McKee, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2013
Francis is updating his Flickr today so you can see more of his photographers later on
N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 
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