Since the first protests at Gezi park in Istanbul, filmmaker Eylem Kaftan has been close to ground zero at a historic protest movement in Turkey. Living and working for years just off Taksim square, Eylem has been following closely the clash over the future Gezi park and more broadly the clash of visions over the future of Istanbul.

Stefan Christoff : Over recent weeks you have joined the protests in Turkey, and have a strong link to Montreal, can you introduce yourself ?

Eylem Kaftan : I live in Istanbul, born and raised in Istanbul. In the years between 1998 and 2006 I lived in Canada and in Montreal where I made documentary films.

In 2006 I returned back to Turkey, and since I have continued my work on documentary films, I also write scripts and teach cinema, culture and communication here at two different universities. Also I work with Al Jazeera Türk as a filmmaker.

So you have been at ground zero of the protest movement in Turkey since day one, can you describe ?

I was in the middle of editing a film here, in Taksim square, so Gezi park is about 50 meters away from where I edit. Over the last six years this is where I have lived, I spent most of my time in this area, this is the center of Istanbul, the heart of Turkey.

So what sparked the actions, the demonstrations, the occupation of Gezi park, the whole movement?

The government was talking about implementing a controversial project, to build a shopping complex within restored military barracks, in the middle of Gezi park, in Taksim square.

As soon as Prime Minister Erdoğan first talked about this project, many urban planners, environmentalists and activists voiced opposition and have been campaigning against the project for over two years now.

At the beginning the governments plans for Gezi park weren’t clear, it wasn’t absolutely certain if the shopping centre would be built. But eventually, just before May Day 2013, the Prime Minister gave a speech outlining that the shopping centre was going to happen in Gezi park and this was stated as final. This announcement happened despite the fact there was very wide opposition among NGOs, environmental groups and within the community living around Taksim square to this plan.

As soon as this announcement was made by the Prime Minister we were all very depressed, especially because the people living in the city were never meaningfully consulted. So this situation at Gezi really pointed to a larger situation in Istanbul, where people are becoming more and more concerned about major, commercially-driven changes happening to the city without their input or involvement.

Can you give some context about how the Gezi park struggle became so key to political debate in Turkey today ?

Well on May 1st, world workers day, at the protests in Istanbul, the trade union groups and other organizations representing working class people all gather and hold events, speeches, meetings and demonstrations on that day. The issue of Gezi park was beginning to be on peoples minds in a serious way at this protest.

This year there is a major project by the government to change the entire face of Istanbul, especially Taksim square, the government is trying in different ways to transform the city, especially this area, into a Dubai inspired place, filled with high buildings and shopping centres. So cultural heritage in Turkey is being attacked, the government is showing no respect for these historical parts of the city.

So really what the government is trying to do is bring more ‘profit’ to the city, they are very economically driven without regard for other points and what they are doing is really destroying the cultural and historical identity of the city.

Before this issue, there was another protest movement in Istanbul against the closing of Emek cinema, a very old cinema, one of the oldest ones in the city. Many filmmakers, artists, activists were out protesting the demolition of this historic cinema in Istanbul. Almost every week people gathered and protested, but they were faced with police violence, tear gas and eventually we couldn’t succeed to block the demolition of that beautiful old cinema, it was destroyed.

This is one examples of government actions that pushes people now to take the streets across Turkey.

In Istanbul the conflict often seems to come down contested spaces, a major discord over a lack of democratic process around the development of the city ?

Absolutely. People want the government, the Prime Minister to include their opinions, to listen. The current AKP government, which is known to be moderately Islamist in ideology, has been acting in a more and more authoritarian since the last election.

After the last election Erdoğan promised, after winning around 50% of the vote, to not interfere with the lives of the parts of the population in Turkey that didn’t support the AKP conservative social vision. There is a growing clash between the AKP establishment and younger, secular, modern and non-conservative people in Turkish society.

So this promise by Erdoğan to have a more pluralistic approach on social issues happened, but actually Erdoğan has been doing quite the opposite over the past two years. Erdoğan is using a political discourse that hurts peoples dignity, identity, beliefs and lifestyle.

So something is happening that no one expected, a protest movement, one of the most important events in recent Turkish history.

Can you describe the first days at the Gezi park protest ?

In Gezi park on the first day, around 50-100 people gathered when work machines entered the park to start cutting up the trees. I was in my studio and immediately ran to the park, so I was there on the first day, people were there to try save the trees.

Its not a big park, like Central Park or Mount Royal, it has only around 600 trees and is one of the remaining important green spaces in the city. Istanbul has one of the highest number of shopping centres for a major city in the world, and the city is becoming polluted, its becoming more and more difficult to move around in the city. This important heritage of Istanbul is not being respected.

So these were the original motivations for the protests, to save the trees, the park, one of the last public green spaces in the centre of the city.

On the first day I had no idea what the Gezi movement would turn into, cause half the people at the protest were friends, artists, filmmakers, environmental activists, writers, so I knew that we weren’t able to protect Emek Movie Theater, so I felt that Gezi would be destroyed, my hopes were low.

But actually the violent reaction of the government and the municipality against the first small protests at Gezi helped the movement, that now is a revolutionary movement. The protests have been incredible, Taksim has been occupied, the main square of the city occupied by protesters. So people held the park with barricades, many very, very young people joined, high school students.

On the first day of the protest, people started staying in their tents at the park, determined to protect the park again the machines, against the police raids. At this point the police gassed people, so it became difficult to stay in the park, but people did and I think that the repression helped the movement, it sparked an incredible response.

How did the protest movement keep developing from these first few days when people at Gezi faced serious police repression ?

So I remember on the third day of protest there were thousands of people, from all over protesting, people from different parts of society. People are joking that Erdoğan achieved very quickly what we were trying to achieve for a long time, some sort of unity across the opposition in Turkey.

But the violence has been extreme, a young boy died from rubber bullets, others have died, there are many, many people who were injured seriously. So the violence by the government against the protests has been very serious.

Can you describe and explain which people in Turkey are now joining the ongoing protests ?

Turkey is a very young country, there are over tens-of-millions under 30-years-old and this generation really, really surprised people by strongly joining the movement. Often people make jokes about how non-political this generation has been, how non-engaged in political life people have been.

So very rapidly the young people were driving this protest movement, they have been so passionate, creative and brave to stand still against the power of the army, against the tear gas. I also want to add that the environmentalist NGOs and also groups fighting to preserve the cultural heritage of the city were key to starting this movement, they were the first to protest in very small numbers at Gezi park.

Environmentalists have been replanting trees in Gezi park and have also been cleaning the garbage in and around the park and within protest areas, they are really caring for the green space.

Also the protests have been very creative, people are singing together every night on the streets. In a way many parts of Turkish society, that never seriously exchanged, are now meeting each other and protesting together across the country.