May those who do this to their own people get punished; may the weapons they use turn around and hit them with all might. It is unbelievable that one only man can cause so much horror and pain for the sake of a tree; if there is a godly power among our religions may it strike him and send him to hell. Heidi

Dear friends,
It is midnight, 24 hours have passed since my city has been taken
over police brutality. Hundreds but hundreds severely wounded,
hundreds missing... Thousands literally thousands are wounded, each
street forming its own infirmary... And today they started arresting
the doctors who voluntarily help those with severe brain traumas and
burns with very little, makeshift equipment...
Taksim, Besiktas, Sisli, Nisantasi... huge districts,some as bis as a
medium sized European city, are covered by gas. The police is firing
as many as 30 gas bombs on little groups, from the rooftops and also
from helicopters, gas is spreading... Then hundreds of masked
policemen, with truncheons are entering each street, each shop, each
cafe, each doorway... beating, burning, torturing... A torture victim,
a teenager, was recently taken to hospital (by chance  there was a TV
camera nearby) in a state of coma. I do not know his present condition
as I do not know the present condition of hundreds of friends and my
own family members.(Telecommication is usually cut in an area before
the police operation starts)
  Yesterday, I was at home when the parc was attacked. Nobody, no
press, no foreign visitor was let into the vicinity. The official
channel showed the entrance to the parc covered with HUMAN BLOOD, and
a hospital reported 135 SEVERELY WOUNDED... Apart from that no news,
NO NEEWS from those who were in the parc at 20:55. Thousands must have
been there.
I left my house at 21 trying to reach to Taksim. I walked 20 minutes
in tear gas and among running crowds (5km away from the parc!) And
then the police threw three sound bombs, so I couldn't return home. I
strated walking towards Taksim in the darkness, among crowds,
literally 10, 20, 30 thousand people trying to reach TaKSiM. After an
hour or so, the police barricade started but people kept gathering. We
were maybe 50 thousand civilians, doing nothing, just trying to go to
the parc to see what happened there, when the police attacked us with:
SOUND BOMBS, TEAR GAS, ORANGE GAS, WATER with ACID... Slowly I
retreated, since I am a semicrippled woman wearing a neck brace (plus
I am asthmatic). But the police kept chasing. Entire streets,
districts and then the whole region was gassed. People were trying to
build baricades, I was trying to go home. I got lost among the empty,
tear gas covered streets. Walking for almost an hour, trying hard not
to faint... Both my arms have white scars from the gas, and left side
of my face is burnt! (I do not know what kind of a chemical caused
these burns, it can not be just tear gas!) Perhaps one day I shall
write the novel of my hour long walk in the empty streets, then
falling into the hands of hundreds of policemen, who let me go away
perhaps they pitied me, then running in the back gardens to find a way
home at 3 am, severely ill, wounded...
But now it is no time... There are thousands severely wounded, heads
cracked, as the police is routinely using gas capsules along with
plastic and real bullets. But the acid scares me more.
I AM NO LONGER the same human being after I watched a 16 year old
boy, head completely cracked by a gas capsule, being beaten by the
policemen. They  beat and beat a seriosly perhaps fatally wounded boy,
in such a way that I have never even witnessed in concentration camp
photos.
  Hundreds are arrested, tortured and missing... Dear friends, I do
not know if I shall survive tonight,  but as a writer, I BEG to you,
to the whole world, to do anything to stop  this violence.

Asli Erdogan