[The following press release was issued by Taksim Dayanışması (Taksim Solidarity) on 12 June 2013. Taksim Solidarity is an coalition constitued by approximately eighty organziations including civil society groups, professional associations, politicla parties, and platforms. The statement has been lightly edited for stylistic purposes.]
To the Press and Citizens of Turkey
As Taksim Solidarity, we want to announce that none of our representatives have been invited to, and none will be participating in, the meetings that will be held with the Prime Minister. No result will come from a meeting, while police violence—so relentlessly disregarding the right to life—continues in and around the Gezi Park.
As the citizens of Turkey followed closely, a committee of representatives from Taksim Solidarity met Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, and conveyed the demands to the government through him on 5 June 2013. From this date on, there has been no statement regarding the demands that were articulated.
We once again, as we have stated before, announce our demands:
- Taksim Gezi Park will not be re-developed under the name of Artillery Barracks or any other project; an official statement on the cancellation of the current project must be made; and the attempts to demolish Ataturk Cultural Centre must stop.
- Dismissal (from their post) of every agent responsible for the thousands of injured people and three deaths—starting with the governors and the police chiefs of Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, and Hatay, as well as everyone who prevented the exercise of the most basic democratic rights of the people, including those who gave orders for violent repression, as well as enforced or implemented these orders. Furthermore, the use of tear gas bombs and other similar materials must be prohibited.
- Immediate released of detained citizens who participated in the resistance across the country, and an official statement which declares that there will be no investigation into them.
- The abolition of all bans on meetings and demonstrations in all of our squares and public areas, and all the removal of de facto blockades and barriers to freedom of expression—starting with Taksim and Kizilay squares,
Being supported from all corners of our country and the world, our demands are incontestably legitimate. We will insistently pursue our demands, which are irrefutable by any means in juridical terms. Our demands are beyond legal dispute in regards to the criteria of international, universal law, which are also the bases for the lawsuits we have filed thus far.
The resistance continues, not only in Gezi Park, but also in many places throughout Istanbul and Turkey. We call on the citizens of Turkey to gather in Gezi Park, Taksim Sqare at 7 p.m. in order to claim their demands with us.
We are waiting for you in Gezi Park.
We are here and we are not leaving.
Taksim Solidarity
12 June 2013