Does anyone how Quad is doing at the moment? I remember that he lives in Istanbul, and with the current protests going on, I would love to know if he is doing alright over there.
Maybe someone who has him on Facebook knows more? (Or he could post here, but iirc, he isn't active either anymore, and I suppose he has better things to do right now)

Well, it's pretty much hell and all-out civil war(sans fire-arms) over here.

Right now i am at work and there is no thret but i was out in the field in the last 3 days. Tear-gassed, sprayed from police vehicles water mixed with some unknown chemical that burns skin like hell. Police is pretty much going against every law about civil supression.

Normally i am apoilitic, but right now it's beyond anything politic. It's something Turkey has never seen before. People are united themselves not under any political party. People of all beliefs, Turks,Kurds,Leftists,Rightists people that were fighting like enemies months ago are united and they keep flowing to squares and police cannot keep up.

Friday evening tear gas firing rate(edit:link ) at Harbiye was pretty much at their reload speed. Countless tear gas shells were fired most past their expiration date, some other substances other than tear gas was also used but they are not 100% identified yet. They are using extreme power. We did not know Turkey had this much tear-gas, police should have run out days ago.

I am fine for the most part, but this is not over yet

Riots spread to pretty much every major city in Turkey.

police are running like pretty much mad-dogs with no one stopping them:

A house getting tear gassed(roughly about 1km from my place): http://s1.directupload.net/images/130603/ltoyuelt.swf

tear gassed and got caught? that's what happends before you are able to see again:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/8ef649a9c87ccdf3a73dbe015faeef45/tumblr_mntgp5IBL01ste7qoo1_500.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/18f18812d3d47a5d6fc668d5038e620d/tumblr_mnsgq2etuU1ste7qoo1_1280.jpg

A civil police car ran over people at ankara(explicipit/gore/blood):
http://25.media.tumblr.com/5282b445af7835d7cab6c500533dff0a/tumblr_mnsjysRh3s1ste7qoo1_1280.jpg

Anonymous is taking down all government sites:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/64c0153d03b4b22e8419431c7da087a5/tumblr_mnsa5vPwBa1ste7qoo1_500.png

One of the iconic photos of the events a protester waving flag over the road block they built against armored police vehicles:

Trucks helping with roadblock:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/74678cb772e72f55e022bfd37d5c07ac/tumblr_mns922M4Kj1ste7qoo1_1280.jpg

People are fighting back with all they got, no weapons no fighting only by the numbers police retreat from area to area but recover and come back.

Not a single politician said anything about this.But that's not the worst part. The WORST part is Turkish media is pretty much showing NOTHING. That's all we need right now, more international media attention, other than that they can dump all the tear gas they have on us, we are fine.

thats CNNTURK(penguin documentary) vs CNN INT(istanbul clashes LIVE):
http://cdn0.dailydot.com/originals/tumblr_mnr8b4ntox1ste7qoo1_1280.png


This is all in the hands of PEOPLE and social media now.


There is alot to add about police crime against humanity, but i am in the middle of a revolution right now so see you later?

more here:
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/

Thanks to social media we made our voice heard. There are countless live-streams direct from people's smartphones from everywere. They shut down 3d and cell communication in some places we created our own romaing network by naming all wi-fi routers with the same name and removing passwords(so the phones connect automatically)

btw: Police is beating people death in ankara right now.

Long story short, i am fine right now but something can happen anytime now.

I sure hope so! Glad to hear that you are okay! Keep your head down and watch out, and if you have a second and internet connection, keep us updated about your status!

You guys are getting a lot of coverage on the internet, and the New York Times also has you on the frontpage. German news outlets are currently busy with the flood here, but I would be very surprised if they aren't going to cover you soon as well.

Good to hear from you!

Wow! Quad, good to hear that you are fine! Hope the strength of the people succeeds over the state's machinery!

That really got lost in the flood news these days. I'm glad you're fine.

To be fair, we had our own police drama with Blockupy here, although on a way smaller scale (I really don't want to downplay the situation in Turkey here, just trying to say why it may not be that big in the news).

And it's not like there is no coverage here whatsoever, spiegel.de for example has an extra category for Turkey at the moment (http://www.spiegel.de/thema/tuerkei/). It could be better, no doubt, but it's there and I'm sure that it's going to be bigger in the next few days.

Looking at the pictures I think that a policeman of a democratic state needs to get the responsibility to decide on its own whether an order is within his duties against his people or not.
The common forms of democracy are in a crisis, the proclaimed sovereignty didn't work out, so in Spain for instance they developed their assambleas, and they suggest even new concepts of participation on the govermental level.
I only got a german translation here:
http://uhupardo.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/partido-x-hier-ist-das-programm-der-neuen-partei/

Can we please not turn this into a political debate? I know that you love to preach against the evil Government, but I don't think it has anything to do with this topic. Especially since the protests are about going back to the founding principles of the Turkish government, not against the evil democracy.