Turkey is not only known by its captivating beauty and dynamic cultural richness spread all over each corner of the country, but also recently, its people's rapid movement and resistance toward the current government, and toward the handcuffs of their freedom.
I went to Istanbul last June, when the riot (I dislike to call it that way; for me it's not a riot which brings negative connotation, it is a form of true voices of people, people who fights for their country) is still on. Well it is until now.
I had never seen or been into something like that in my entire life. But also, I had never felt as alive as that time! The crowd, the people, the fight, the solidarity and the spirit are all over the air. I felt the sincerity and both the desperation of the country for their rights. When we listened to some people there, it's not only about saving the park (Gezi Park, reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_protests_in_Turkey) anymore, moreover it is about getting back their freedom and getting rid of the dictatorship of their current Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. People are detained because they speak of truth, they dare to say how they want their country to be governed rightly. And still, it does not stop them to keep fighting for what is right.
I saw several 'protests' here in Indonesia. And to be cynical, those protests are nothing but a joke. I'm sure even half of Indonesian protesters doesn't even know what they are protesting about, since everything can be monetized here in this country, including mass. They don't do it to fight, they don't even believe in the cause. They just do it out of absentminded anger and brainless so-called 'solidarity'. And worse, for money, of course.
This visit to Istanbul not only mesmerizing my hunger of wonders, but also feeding my heart with flaming new spirit of bravery, the one I never found in my entire 23 years living in this archipelago of fear called Indonesia. I witnessed something I had always dreamed of a utopian country. A country where it is built for the people. A country where the people fight when they know it is dying. A country which lives.
I had just finished 'Exile: Conversation with Pramoedya Ananta Toer' by Andre Vltchek and Rossie Indira. It is a book in which Pram before his death shared all of his feelings and silent anger toward this country, the country he had always loved and fought for yet betrayed him tremendously. One thing he said about young generation of Indonesia, "You have to be brave to fight for what you believe! If you don't, you will be just the same as cattle, all you do in your life is only eat and breed."
I met a young girl name Gokce Toksun in a bar at that night in Taksim Square. She is a university student, and I believe she is in her teenage age. When we asked about her perspective of her country and what it meant to her, she explained in a very detail and expressed bravely her state against her own government and how she could not believe in it anymore. She is one among many inspiring fighters I met that night.
Thousands of bravery
The anarchist police trying to dismiss the mass
In the spirit of Ataturk
Silivri Prison, where the government detain Turkish intellectuals and figures
Silivri Tent, a tent built to express the protest against the government's action of detaining people
One corner of Silivri Tent
Days in Istanbul made me realize something. That life is a fight. Only by then it is alive.
When people are stagnant, when we are too much lulled by comfort, we are dead.
I want to fight for something. Something I believe worth to fight for. But now I'm in doubt, is it Indonesia?
Not giving up, not letting go, not being afraid, not now. Never.
*All photos are personal collections, 2013
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