Anti-racist protest in Istanbul to be held in solidarity with Ferguson events

ISTANBUL

An anti-racist protest in solidarity with the Ferguson incidents in the United States will be held on Dec. 12 in Istanbul’s central Beyoğlu neighborhood.

The protest, organized by the DurDe! (Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism Initiative) on Istanbul’s central İstiklal Avenue, will be held in solidarity with another march against racism that will be held in New York on Dec. 13.

The DurDe! Initiative will make a public statement in front of the Galatasaray High School on İstiklal Avenue at 6.30 p.m., expressing its position against any form of anti-racism.

Michael Brown, a black teenager and U.S. citizen, was shot dead in August in the city of Ferguson of the St. Louis County of Missouri by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, who was not indicted over the incident. People later took to the streets to protest the killing and the non-indictment ruling against Wilson.

Protests grew further after a jury decided not to press any charges against a white police officer, Daniel Panteleo, who killed a black U.S. citizen Eric Garner in July by choking him to death. The last words of Garner, “I can’t breathe,” became symbolic after being recorded in a video that was widely watched around the world.