Demonstration!!!

So I haven't blogged for a while, will update soon. But today is Labour Day, or the Turkish equivalent thereof. This doesn't mean a day off and a barbecue on the beach, as it does in many places I've been. It actually means demonstrations of all the major political, and other groups. In Istanbul, there is only one area where such demonstrations are allowed - Kadikoy. Incidentally, the school I am working in is in Kadikoy. How convenient! There was a little nervousness among the teachers about the fact that the school would be open today and that we would be expected to come, in the middle of the demonstrations. However, the students assured us that they would be here, and yesterday my students promised me that there wouldn't be a problem. Just in case, though, I stayed at Nesim's house last night, and came up from the ferry instead of down from my flat. I figured if the place felt at all iffy when I got off the ferry, I could turn around and go back across.
So I disembarked, and as the ferry was pulling in, the cheers and singing and speeches over the loudspeakers greeted us. Of course all the streets are closed. They were anticipating 100 000 demonstrators, but I won't be surprised if that number turns out to be a huge underestimate. They were walking peacefully with their banners and stuff. There were spaces between the groups, and it was vaguely reminiscent of the 24th of May parade in Bermuda, gombeys and
majorettes and a mack truck of speakers wouldn't have been out of place.
So, since the crowd was peaceful and the general air was not horde-like or rowdy, and I felt quite confortable, I crossed the street and headed up to the school. part way up (it's only a 5 minute walk) there was a gang (team? pack? oh wait I remember the collective noun...
Posse!) of riot police on the left.

They had the body armour, shields, machine guns, and whatever else one needs to quell an angry mob. They were just chilling there, though, while the Turkish Communist Party
had its rally across the street. It was kinda surreal actually. On the left the riot police, numbering about 150 or 200, with a couple of busloads more parked nearby, 3 tanks with the metal guards in the front and instead of a gun some kind of hose, ready to spray water or
tear gas (or whatever one sprays in these situations) parked on the road to the right, 2 rows of metal barricades forming a street in the street, for easy access to trouble spots if the need arises.... But it was all peaceful. The crowd was pretty calm, some of the police were
drinking tea....
So I got to school, thinking, hmmm, if I could take a picture, that would be cool.
So I recruited Alex, after asking some of the local staff if they thought it would be alright. I decided that I would ask someone first before whipping out my camera. And we headed off.

As you can see, our quest was successful. They were quite happy to have their pictures taken, and one of the policemen gave me his email address so that he can have copies of the pictures. He's the one on the left below, in the pic on the left. The one in the picture on the right asked me for my number, however, I didn't have my cellphone with me and I couldn't remember it.

They were all very nice and friendly and thought it was great that we wanted pics. As we
were taking them, one of the TKP (Turkish Communist Party) supporters walked by and suggested that we would both want to be in the picture, and so took one for us... he was a bit shaky though, so the pic is blurred. Nervous maybe?
Anyway, as you know, the news tends to overreact to things so if you happen to hear anything about demonstrations in Istanbul, no need to worry about me! :o)
More later....