Çelik is one of the many people whose life took a decisive turn after Gezi Park’s protests. During that time he used to work as a manager of a 150 people division in a big electronic retail group. He spent his evenings and nights in the protests and went back to his work everyday.

He quickly realized that he was not going to be able to balance the values he wanted to promote and his work. So he sent a text message to his boss to let him know that he decided to quit the job he’d had for the last 13 years in order to spend his time fighting the social battles that mattered to him: “I decided to resign from this fucking capitalist system in Gezi. It was one of the most important decision in my life” he says with a smile.

Being gay and an activist of the LGBT movement since university, Çelik is part of several civil society organizations. He tries to fight hate speeches and hate crimes that are common towards the members of Istanbul’s LGBT community, which has made him one of their main spokesperson.

During a few months, he worked in an LGBT migrants shelter (mainly Syrians, Iranians and Afghans who have applied for asylum in Europe or North America) but his contract was terminated due to a lack of funding. He has been unemployed for the last 6 months and he spent his time being fully committed towards his activism even though this situation was financially difficult.

At the same time, Çelik was getting politically involved with the CHP - Republican party of the people - leaning at the center left. He then became the first gay candidate on a mainstream party to apply for Beyoğlu local elections. He was not elected but he thinks of running again for the next elections in march 2019.
Despite the complex situation he faces as a gay person being in the public eye (he receives threats on a regular basis and his house was burglarized several times), he chooses to stay in Istanbul because he considers that it is there that he can be part of a change. “I want to work in Beyoğlu for Beyoğlu“ he says. Nevertheless, he is getting very worried about the dwindling freedom of speech for the people who voice any antagonist message toward the government.

Ömer comes from the South of Turkey. He was born in Tarsus village and then grew up in Mersin where his father used to work. He started studying mine engineering but he chose another path two years later. “I figured out that I preferred building things than destroying them” he says with a smile.

He worked several part time jobs while studying urban planning. After working as a DJ and a waiter in bars, he moved to Tours, in France, for one year of his curriculum. When he came back to Istanbul, he started working with various NGOs dealing with urban planning but also supporting refugees.

Ömer is also one of the people whose life changed because of Gezi. He considers that the gap between the two halves of the country is wider than ever. It is not possible to listen to others opinions anymore since society became polarized for the last few years.

He is saddened by the violence worsening in Istanbul daily life. “The government uses violent speeches which are conveyed by media and they rub off the people which starts to become also aggressive”. Every way of thinking not being preached by the AKP is considered suspect. If you’re not 100% with them, then you could probably be an enemy. “In this context, you cannot be yourself anymore. You control what you say and what you do all the time. The state paternalism crushes individualities and push to self censorship” he analyses.

Now, Ömer is married to a French woman and they’ve been living together in Bordeaux for a few months. Since he is going to be a father this year, he wonders about his country’s future. He says that he might come back to live there one day but he knows that it is not going to happen for a while. “Even if the political situation changes at one point, it will take 15 or 20 years for the people’s minds to change accordingly. It is a long term process and I don’t imagine raising my child in the actual situation of the country”.

He says that living in France has given him other perspectives and he now thinks that Turkey is in a way more recklessly capitalist than France is. “Now, it is not the government that works for the people. The people are working for the government. There are no long term thinking in policies making. It is a culture of immediacy and profit”

“There, it is like living a suspended life, awaiting for something to happen” he says. “This is not the way I want to live”.

Irem has worked as a communication advisor for several years. She became aware of the failures of the Turkish social system since the birth of her autistic son, 16 years ago. At that moment, she started to be involved in groups advocating for discriminated people. She states that however different you are (whether being a woman, a handicapped person, an LGBT), you are systematically put aside and alienated in a more and more self-centered society

Irem is also one of the people whose life has taken a turn in Gezi Park. She witnessed the police brutality, the smear campaigns, the increase of social injustice. She decided to quit her work in communication and made an old dream come true by starting a job as a journalist in a news agency.

She makes portraits and interviews in the streets of Istanbul because she considers that this is where the change has to come from.

She’s very active on social networks, because she considers them becoming more and more important as pressure and surveillance ramp up on traditional media. She refuses to back down by using the tools at her disposal to keep on with her involvement.

She says that she is scared to live in an environment where several of her relatives, activists and journalists have been incarcerated with no other motives than their political thinking. This situation is particularly critical since the establishment of the state of emergency after the coup attempt in July 2016. “Today, you can spend 6 months in jail for sending a tweet”, referring to a journalist she knows who has been sent to jail recently. Memories of recent terrorist attacks which took place in Istanbul during the last years contributes to this political fear climate and creates an anxiety ridden atmosphere

“They try to make us afraid but the resistance lives through hanging on to your dreams. By dancing, drinking, enjoying every good moment and not letting down. Obviously, this is not an easy thing when even the smallest opposition is repressed”.

She considers that only a major event would change the situation, but she doesn’t know whether it will come from the street or the polls. Recent polls for next year elections put the AKP and the opposition toe to toe.

Irem sees herself as a congresswoman in a different society where she would support the cause of discriminated minorities.

Tarkan is very involved in Beyoğlu district life where he’s been working since 2004 as a bar owner and recently as a cafe owner. He says that this district used to offer good opportunities for those wanting to start a business. Since 2011, he has witnessed the ongoing destruction of the entertainment and cultural life of this Istanbul central district under the government and municipality’s pressure.

The alcohol taxes are steadily rising for bars, so are the police controls. Theaters, movies and art galleries are slowly departing and Taksim district is emptying. ”Those changes started a bit before Gezi and they have gone worst since”.

These places are quickly replaced by new facilities, more in tune with the new tourism wave, coming from the Gulf countries, and its higher purchasing power. This phenomenon aggravated during the last few years due to the terrorist attacks against Turkey, which impacted the tourism industry. Indeed, they deeply transformed the average traveler profile: a lot less Westerners are willing to come to Istanbul nowadays.

“We are pushed outside and the government’s business supporters buy the properties in a backhanded way” says Tarkan. “The current policies regarding this district are aiming at transforming it in a sanitized place, emptied from its soul, dedicated to rich Muslim tourists from Gulf countries”.

Forced to sell his bar one year ago, he re-opened a smaller cafe 6 months ago. He chose not to get affected by those changes happening in his district. He is now a president of a solidarity network for cafe and bar owners. He is also committed in mutual aid groups with the districts inhabitants.

Former member of the communist party, he ran as a CHP candidate during the last municipal elections in Beyoğlu but he hasn’t been elected. According to him, a defensive attitude is mandatory in front of the economic and politic pressures faced daily.

Esra was born in Datça in the South West of Turkey. She studied in Ankara and then came to Istanbul six years ago after finding a job as heritage conservator.

She thinks that her living conditions have worsened in Istanbul in recent years. She believes that it is partly due to the public policies that are implemented. The municipality investments towards people well being is diminishing whereas there is a growth of big urban projects often at the expense of the environment. She says her comfort zone is getting shrunk in many aspects such as an escalation in police displays, rising living costs and an increase in population density in Istanbul

“We are the first generation to face those changes so violently” she says. “There is a government will to change the soul of the city itself and it goes through by the demolition of it’s iconic history places”.

She plans to leave Istanbul in the upcoming months in order to settle nearby Çanakkale, on the Aegean coast with her boyfriend. They got a piece of land recently and they want to start by getting involved into bee-keeping and maybe expand to a bigger agricultural production afterwards.

She says that this project has been growing in her mind for the last few years but that it became a necessity to her since last year. “We have an opportunity to escape that everybody doesn’t have” she says. “We are not naive and we know that it’s not going to be easy but it is the only way we found to go out of this oppressive environment and to get back to stimulating social links and meaning in what we do”.

Esra has been involved in environmental movements since Gezi Park. She believes in non violent action and awareness raising campaigns. Beyond the global politics carried out by the government, she is especially apprehensive of the consequences the big projects will have on the environment. “Wherever you look, there is always a threat. it can be a real estate project, a mine project or even an electricity production project. No part of Turkey is safe from that”.

Naci was born in Istanbul and moved to Trabzon, in the North East of Turkey to attend a prestigious scientific high school. When he came back to Istanbul, he started studying computer science and programming. In addition to that he became interested in the way society works and developed a political thinking that he fed with authors such as Marx, Foucault, Machiavelli...

He then found a job as a web designer for a company in Istanbul which he quit after two years to go back to sociology studies. He is particularly interested in the links between technology and democracy and how social media tamper with our thinking process and render our logics simplistic.

Being a Muslim believer, he says that he is ashamed of the way religion is being instrumentalized in Turkey: Islam should be a synonym of justice and ethics and those are not the values carried out by those he calls “the Muslim capitalists” ruling the country. All personal or institutional ethics are vanishing. For him, the Turkish identity and its unity come from religion first but this one is currently being manipulated for political purposes. “I am ashamed to see how the values of Islam are violated in my country”. He had to walk away from more traditionalist friends and relatives due to an impossibility to talk and share opinions with them: “Everybody is getting uptight on its positions at the moment...”.

According to Naci, the situation of Turkey can be compared to many other western countries that have followed the capitalist way. “At the moment the system holds because the economic situation is still good but things can evolve and worsen quickly”.

He would like to become a university researcher even though he is aware that the situation is particularly difficult for academics at the moment. He doesn’t think about leaving Turkey and hopes to be able to make a change in his own way. He recalls: “We shouldn’t forget that Turkey is still a young country and that the idea of democracy itself is a concept that has been imported recently. It will take time before this concept can be assimilated and developed according to our society”.

Naci worked during several years in an NGO promoting non violent action. Nowadays, he is wondering about its relevance and doesn’t know if it will be enough to change the system deeply. He also regrets the lack of facilities, particularly cultural, for the youth. “We do not give to the people the means to think by themselves”.

Audrey is French - Turkish. She grew up in Izmir, in the West of Turkey, before going to study in France (in Toulouse then Bordeaux) during six years. She decided to come back to her native country a month after Gezi Park events. She felt that things were about to change and that it was time for her to join the movement and to take part in the new dynamics building up in the country.

But once Gezi enthusiasm dialed down, her illusions shattered. “I couldn’t find back the Turkey I left a few years ago”. She says that political issues and tensions between different groups have always existed in this young republic (which is less than one century old), but that conflicts escalated and that self-focusing and communautarism has worsened.

She reckons that social relationships are the first to be impacted. It is getting harder and harder to discuss with people who don’t share your opinions about topics like economy, education, urbanism, and relationships between women and men.
Audrey feels that every discussion has the potential to become an issue and that there is a global radicalization going on. “There are strong structural blockages that crystallise all the divisions”

She decided to quit her job as an architect at a foundation in the next 6 months in order to go back to work in Europe, even though she doesn’t know yet where she will go. She says that she loves her country but that she is not able to plan a future there anymore, even less as an architect. She doesn’t want to play a part in the destruction of Istanbul’s heritage by working for big projects that will wither away the city identity little by little.

Nevertheless, she remains optimistic. The country is heading to a crisis for sure, but she thinks that it is a structural cyclic process and that sometimes you have to reach the bottom before going up again. She considers that Turkey is still a very young country and that it will take time before deep changes could take place.

Batu is a pianist. He lives in Beyoğlu district, close to Istiklal street, the major pedestrian shopping street in Istanbul. He settled there
in 2010 after graduating from his music stud-
ies in Ankara.

He is a piano teacher in the music school he founded two years ago. He also plays with several artists and is part of several bands.

“I try not to live in the fear but it is not easy” he says. He keeps in mind two terror attacks that occurred in the past years. The first one was a human bomb that blew up in the street near the one where he lives. The second one was near Besiktas stadium, on a road that he travels at the same time every day. He was lucky enough to be stuck in traffic somewhere else when the bomb exploded. “I try not think about it everyday but it necessarily leaves traces”.

As a gay person, he notices a surge in homophobic behaviours and also a political pressure towards the LGBT community. He says that a few years ago Istanbul’s Gay Pride could go on without any trouble but since then, it has been violently repressed by the police every time. Batu says that he is often the target of homophobic speeches. That’s why he carefully chooses the places he goes to and only shows up in bars, restaurants, cafes or supermarkets that he already knows. “There is a lack of open-mindedness and a raise of conservatism in Turkish society. I don”t hide myself and I stand for who I am but I am a target to verbal abuses. I reply to it every time”.

He says that he loves living in Istanbul in spite of this even if he would rather go to live in Izmir where his family come from but his economic situation regarding the school he opened is such that it is not possible for him to go away now.

Alp grew up in Istanbul and never thought about living abroad before. He studied in Norway and in Italy but always with the goal to come back to live and work in Turkey. Since three years, he feels that the atmosphere has really changed. He says that Turkey has never been doing great regarding democracy and human rights but that things declined and reached a critical point never seen before. “A few years ago, there was a will to create, to exchange ideas, to be part of the change. But after Gezi the social pressure increases day by day and annihilates all hopes”. Hopes to change the country deeply and to join the European Union almost seem to come out of a dream now. Facing the massive propaganda used by the government in media, Alp decided to stop consulting them. Not because he is not interested in what happens but because of the gap between what he reads and the daily reality. “The situation has became surreal, nothing makes sense anymore”. He regrets the fact that he is getting socially isolated. He mainly sees a small group of people who have the same opinions as him. “The division is so important that I don’t even have the strength to speak with the people who have opposite opinions. We are so far away ideologically that is almost as if we didn’t spoke the same language”. He remembers last year referendum and especially a motto which was “Vote for not losing hope”. “That is the central point” he says. “We try not to lose hope but how do you do that when you are facing a tyrant that you cannot defeat ?”. According to him, Gezi protests have been “orgasmic in a cultural way”. He says that it was the best thing that could have happened at that precise moment but that since then, the silence that followed had been deafening. “I am producing ideas but those ideas are not taken into account in the politics realities. They are useless because they will never be enforced”. He would like to finally go back to something more meaningful in his activities either by growing or producing something tangible. “I’ve never wanted to build my life out of Turkey” he says. “But today it is too hard to try to see a future here”.

Ibrahim was born in a big family in Gaziantep. His father was the only one to work and he grew up in a modest household.

Very committed in a theater company during his studies, he believes in the transformation power that this art can have on society and how it could impact its viewers. He fondly recalls the representation of a play about anarchism, adapted to the Turkish political context, in which he performed. He would have liked to make a career out of it but he was aware of the economic hardships of this choice.

He worked for several years at different companies in the real estate business. “It is a sector that can be highly manipulated. It is a political tool for the government. You can shape the housing towards the way of life you want to promote”. This is also a very competitive and violent market especially in Turkey where hierarchy is very strong in business relationships.

He just resigned from the job he had in order to spend all his time trading after he discovered the blockchain and related crypto-currencies in which he started to invest around 6 months ago. According to him, the decentralization allowed by this system is a way to get out of the banking system control over the economy, but also to gain a good amount of money. He says that he had to get out of his comfort zone but that it is a choice he has been happy with so far.

Today, Ibrahim is putting his social life aside and spends all his free time checking the Bit- coin market prices day and night. He barely goes out and he’s aware that he is getting isolated. “I already started to be isolated in my previous work but the discovery of the Bitcoin brought me to a halt”.

But it is a sacrifice he is ready to make as he has a better future in mind. “Everybody tries to find a way to go through. For me, the crisis can be an opportunity” says Ibrahim. “There are no regulations yet and the Turkish mentalities are not ready to take this turn and invest massively in this sector. It’s a good moment for me to dive in” he says.

He is also thinking about creating a start up that would be a mix of his knowledge between real estate and blockchain.

He would like to leave Turkey for Europe but he is aware of living costs and knows he needs to get prepared. His goal is to earn enough money in the coming months to afford living there during one or two years while he gets settled in his new hosting country.

Halil was born and grew up in Ankara. He moved to Aydin to attend agricultural studies that he dropped on the way. He decided to move to Eshipehir in order to prepare the entrance exam for a theater school that he eventually followed in Istanbul. In 2005, he started to get interest in cinema and video and he attended classes in Kechilcham, Istanbul’s Hollywood, in a school created by Turkish former movies stars for the young generation. He learned the technical bases he needed and started directing short movies and acting. In 2002, he directed his first documentary movie questioning Ankara’s urban transformation. He is currently working on another documentary project inspired by the books of Tolstoy. At the same time, he works as a DJ and a waiter in a bar. “It is not possible to go through only by making documentary movies“ he says. “At least not in today’s Turkey. It is possible to get fundings for audiovisual productions but most of them depend on the Ministry of culture and education that only supports the projects which go on its way”. Facing those difficulties to produce and broadcast his work, Halil joined the Artikişler collective which gathers and broadcasts independent Turkish artists through a web platform. ”The social pressure makes it harder and harder to express a different opinion. A conservative and nationalist wave is at stake”. His father being Turkish - Kurdish, he is particularly sensitive to the way Kurdish are used as scapegoats by the government. He says that the only things which gathers the divided Turkish people is the hate they share against Kurdish. Even the religious people who usually focus more on the confessional differences point them out. Halil analyzes the current political moves of the Turkish government as populist and electoral lures. He also speaks about the interdependencies between the power and the business circles. According to him, the government supporters get all the public markets and parasite the economy without allowing any perspective of change. He foresees a dark future for his country and thinks that an intense crisis will arise and even maybe a civil war. According to him, the only thing which would be able to bring the AKP down would be a terrible economic crisis that would shake the whole system and eventually bring back peace and democracy in this troubled country after a while. Halil would like to move to France or Germany where he has relatives. A lot of his friends already left Turkey or are currently trying to do so. He says that he has to go because “There is no future for culture in Turkey. It doesn’t count at all and there is no hope as an artist there”.

Orçun comes from Ankara. When he finished high school in 2005, he moved to Istanbul to attend an aeronautic engineering course. After working several months in a maintenance unit in Atatürk airport, he trained to become a pilot. This training lead him to the United States, England and Sweden.

Since 2015, he has been a copilot for one of the biggest Turkish airlines. He mainly operates long haul flights to different continents and spends most of his time outside of Turkey.

He says that he is not staying in touch with the news and Turkish politics a lot but that he mostly saw changes towards social relationships in the last 15 years and especially during the last 5 years. “There is a loss of the sense of community. Individualism grows and people are loosing their links with their families and friends”. According to Orçun, there is a connection between this phenomenon and the city’s evolution. Meeting places where people used to share things are disappearing one after the other to make room for malls or hotels. “There is no space to breathe in the city anymore”. To these transformations, he also adds the divisions that are getting stronger and stronger between the two halves of the Turkish society. “The people support a party as they would do with a football club. There is “them and “us”. That creates anger and a hate on which people feed, that is a vicious circle”. According to him, the current situation creates a void in many people that they try to fill either by religion or by withdrawing within their communities.

Orçun loves his job that gives him freedom and good living conditions but nevertheless he feels inadequated with what he longs for in life. “Like a lot of people, I am part of a global consumption system. I do not produce anything”. He thinks about changing his lifestyle in the years to come in order to get closer to nature and to a healthier life. Nowadays he can’t find the balance he’s looking for in Istanbul.