#GeziyiSavunuyoruz

OK: Not only is there no concrete basis to claim that Soros was active in these places, it also ignores the popular movements in those countries. These revolutions all took place by internal dynamics.

OK: Soros’ name appears [in the SETA report] as one of the external actors regarding the coup against Morsi. But while it examines the popular movements in Tunisia and Egypt, it pays no heed to the fact that there had not previously been free elections in those countries.

OK: Mass protests in countries where the institutions of democracy work and where free elections take place do not cause shifts in power. The Gezi events have been the topic of many national and international academic works.

OK: Gezi events have been characterized as the reaction of a people who thought they did not have the right to speak on topics affecting their daily lives, and who felt the deficit of their representation.

OK: This approach drew attention to the reactions to the projects that restricted public space and commodified city space, as well as the reaction to the neoliberal approaches that emerged at the same time.

OK: In one research project that examined the contents and usage of twitter messages, it was shown that these messages were used primarily for sharing information, and that there were very few messages intending to manipulate.

OK: The common point of these articles is that the Gezi events emerged spontaneously, without a plan, that the protests were not tied horizontally to a center and had no leader.

OK: None of the research done up until now has claimed that the Gezi events were a previously planned project intended to overthrow the government.

OK: Parks in city centers have great significance for the residents of the city, and in contemporary democracies, such parks are inviolable. Gezi Park, too, was a very valuable space.

OK: The definition of the Gezi events offered in the indictment is different from the one offered in previous evaluations, scientific research, and the report of the Human Rights Center of Turkey.

OK: The first protest in Gezi Park began when the tents where some young people were staying were torn down and the wall across from the Divan Hotel was set on fire.

OK: In the self-defense that the government sent to the European Court of Human Rights, they claimed that the Gezi Park protests were peaceful at first, but were later abused.

OK: The most important aspect mentioned in the Turkey Human Rights Report was the police intervention. Despite the fact that Ministry of the Interior declared that tear gas should not be fired directly at people, the canisters were fired directly at people and many were wounded.

OK: The means of using force, such as tear gas, were used disproportionately and affected the peaceable demonstrators participating in the protests as well as those who had no connection to the demonstration. (These are all claims from the report by Human Rights Center of Turkey)

OK: The fact that police intervention was such an important element in the growth of the protests is a sign that the Gezi events were not planned beforehand. On the contrary, it shows that the police must have played a role in the scheme.

OK: There can be different interpretations of the aims of the demonstrations regarding what played a role in all the different activities during the Gezi events. Defining Gezi as a planned attempt by a center, against the objective facts, ignores all of these differences.

OK: It is unacceptable that the counsel for the prosecution, while it makes accusations about a coup, is recognizing such an intangible evaluation as the basis for the accusations, just as in the Ergenekon cases.

OK: The conspicuously strange thing about the indictment is that it does not include George Soros among its suspects claimed to have organized against the government with me, nor does it include his statement.

OK: This situation shows that the indictment is trying to find an excuse for my incarceration-turned-punishment, and to delegitimization the movements of the people who participated in the Gezi events.

OK: I believe that our activities are legitimate civil society activities that strengthen democracy. Maintaining Gezi Park as a park up to the present is in keeping with the government’s policy of increasing the number of parks and gardens.