Crowds denounce police crackdowns in ‘Man Made of Tear Gas’ Festival on Istanbul’s Asian shore

ISTANBUL

Leftist daily BirGün and an LGBT association withdrew their support at the last minute in protest at what they said was the 'chauvinist' attitude of some of the other sponsors. REUTERS photo

Thousands of protesters gathered today on the shores of the Kadıköy district on the Asian side of Istanbul for the “Man Made of Tear Gas” Festival, to satirically denounce the police’s intensive use of the eye-burning and throat-searing method of coercion during the Gezi Park protests.

Artists, including Bulutsuzluk Özlemi, Kurtalan Ekspres, Cem Adrian and the Boğaziçi University’s Jazz Choir, gave small concerts to the crowd that packed the Istanbul district’s seaside area.

A toy model of the infamous TOMAs, water cannon trucks widely used by police to shower protesters, was also displayed during the festival with some demonstrators spraying water with water guns from inside.

Fashion designer Barbaros Şansal organized a small “Chapuller show,” in reference to the name coined by the protesters who designated themselves after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called them marauders (çapulcu in Turkish) during a live interview.

'Man Made of Tear Gas' Festival held in Istanbul

The festival was organized by nongovernmental associations and opposition media, such as dailies Cumhuriyet and Aydınlık and private broadcaster Halk TV.

But two of the organizers, leftist daily BirGün and an LGBT association, withdrew their support at the last minute in protest at what they said was the “chauvinist” attitude of some of the other sponsors. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has been one of the most active groups during the Gezi protests.