Istanbul Melancholy

During the summer 2013, part of the Turkish society is mobilized to save “Gezi Park”, a highly historical and symbolical place of Istanbul : Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the prime minister then and his government had decided to destroy it in order to build a mall.

Environmental, social and ideological struggles converge against the islamo-conservative policy of the government and many hopes emerge among a part of the population. The fight is uneven and severely repressed. A dozen people are killed and thousands are wounded but this protest is remembered as a milestone of Turkish contemporary history and is still a vivid memory in many spirits.

Five years later, the enthusiasm generated by what some would refer to as “a grace filled moment”, has died down to the point that some might wonder whether it really took place. The conservative and authoritarian policies lead by Erdogan, now president, and the AKP has worsened since the failed coup that took place on July 15th 2016. Today purges in universities and media go on and the police control over the population is increasing in the name of fight against terrorism. A major economic crisis looms at the horizon.

Some many Turkish citizens face these phenomenons with fatalism. They don’t support them but on the other hand they don’t know how to oppose them and they see their perspectives and hopes shrink little by little.

Here are stories of a dozen of them and of the repercussions this system has on their daily lives,their individual freedoms and their professional life.