Cihangir

In the leafy neighborhood of Cihangir on Sunday, a 10-minute walk from Gezi Park, small pockets of protesters were being hunted by police. Tear gas filled the air, and residents quietly propped open the front doors of their apartment buildings so that people could take refuge. One group of protesters stood on a set of stone stairs that descended down to the Bosporus. Suddenly a police officer appeared, firing off a lone canister of tear gas. The protesters fled, with the officer and his colleagues in close pursuit. Several escaped into an open apartment building, cowering in the stairwell as the cops tackled and arrested a man who’d been left behind.

Eventually they made their way into one of the apartments. “Please don’t be seen—there’s a baby here,” the apartment’s owner said, urging the newcomers away from the windows with a toddler in her arms. One of those who’d entered the apartment was a 28-year-old woman who was afraid to give her name. She said she’d never been very political before and had gone to the initial Gezi sit-ins on a whim. But the ensuing crackdowns seem to have launched her into a state of permanent protest. She said she was terrified as she and a friend fretted over whether they’d be targeted for their posts on Twitter, even though they had less than 200 followers between them. “I’m peeing my pants. I’ve never been gassed before,” the woman said. “But I’m not stopping.”

na newsweek.