The Protests Continue at Night

When I returned to the scene at Levent in the evening, the event had grown tremendously in size and impact. As I climbed the stairs exiting the metro, I heard the chants. When I emerged above ground, I saw that Levent was an entirely different place.I had to push my way through packed crowds to even get a view of the chaos. People were gushing into the area by the metro-car-load, waving flags and yelling chants like "Kahrolsun İsrail" (Damn you, Israel). Flares were being lit, police were swarming. At one point everyone started yelling excitedly and when I saw the smoke I understood. A flag was being burned, but I could not tell what the flag depicted. Israel? Probably, but it didn't matter. Behind the crowds, a man was helplessly trying to keep the people out of the only remaining lane of the northbound Büyüdere Caddesi traffic. His effectiveness waned and 5 or 10 minutes later the cars and buses full of people were motionless. Their honking was mainly an attempt to encourage rioters to get out of the way, but I'm certain it was interpreted only as a show of support.


Bigger and bigger flags were moving in, followed by larger and larger signs. The ones which I could understand said straightforward and unoffensive things like "it's not alright to attack humanitarian aid ships". I can't speak for the others though.
To sum up, I will just say that the people here are very upset by what happened. I don't mean just at the protest. Killing a dozen or so Turks on a peaceful effort to deliver aid to a struggling people is just such a terrible and unnecessary thing. When you have the guns, you have the responsibility. With that, I hope that the fallout from this is policy change, not more violence. Time will tell.