Some portraits I did recently

Hopa case: the young leftists are released

A few thousand supporters gathered outside Ankara's courthouse during the first trial of 28 leftist young men and women, most of whom are university students. 22 of them were jailed after they protested a police crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in the Black Sea town of Hopa in June. The death of Metin Lokumcu, a retired teacher and an environmental activist, under a police tear-gas attack in Hopa, triggered the clash between the protesters and the police on the same day in downtown Ankara. The court decided today to release the 22 defendants who had been under arrest for about 6 months.

Here are some photographs I took today (Dec. 9) outside the courthouse:


TKP is the abbreviation for the Turkish Communist Party. "Ankara Adalet Sarayi" literally means Ankara Justice Palace. TKP's main committee made a statement referring to that: "AKP [the governing party] built Europe's largest justice palaces [courthouses]; justice coming from a palace shall sink into the ground. We want the justice of the people."





Various vehicles of the police were parked in the streets surrounding the courthouse. This armored vehicle was right in front of a mosque. During the busy Friday prayer, part of the congregation had to pray outside. [Please note that the congregation had nothing to do with the leftist demonstration.]


*Turkish leftists often define the governing AKP's policies as fascist. [The visual in the picture has nothing to do with neo-nazism or white supremacy.]


The demonstrators put on a play which narrated the incidents in Hopa and Ankara.


The portraits in the background belong to some of the leftist activists under arrest.


The supporters spent the whole day outside the courthouse until the trial adjourned. As the sun went down, they built bonfires to stay warm.