Turkey
Gezi Park
June 2013 • Erdem and I met two summers ago when I was subletting a stifling-hot apartment near Altiyol and he was working as a simitci, selling buns and cold water from a cart (mostly he was giving directions to lost passersby). He barely knew how to speak English and was determined to get better at it, so we grew into a nice friendship over the summer. Erdem studied journalism at university and worked a long winter in the shipping department of a bookseller so he could buy himself a good digital camera. He joined in the recent protests at Gezi Park and Taksim Square and caught a tear-gas canister in the head. A haiku-like email assured he's okay.
![Ataturk Cultural Center, Taksim Square (photo by Erdem Evcil)](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 155.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/1927705835_n.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/677245108_n.jpg)
![Gezi Park (photo by Erdem Evcil)](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 052.jpg)
![Gezi Park (photo by Erdem Evcil)](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 092.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 090.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 130.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 141.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 034.jpg)
![Photo by Erdem Evcil](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 420.jpg)
![Taksim Square (photo by Erdem Evcil)](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 237.jpg)
![Tezevision (photo by Erdem Evcil)](https://www.johnmikulenka.com/assets/images/travel/gezi-taksim-2013/ocupy gezi 265.jpg)