Some 520,000 people took part in a pro-Palestine rally at the heart of Istanbul on Thursday. Streaming into Galata Bridge from the courtyards of Istanbul’s major mosques in the early hours of New Year’s Day, people filled the venue as they changed slogans in solidarity with Palestine and against Israel.
Large Turkish and Palestinian flags were unfurled on the bridge, next to a giant banner reading “Justice for Gaza” while a huge drawing of Handala, the character which became a symbol of Palestinian identity, adorned the facade of a building next to the bridge.
The rally organized by Humanity Alliance and National Will Platform of hundreds of civil society groups, began around 08:30 a.m. local time and concluded around noon.
Before and between speeches, demonstrators chanted slogans and hanged banners reading, “Freedom will come at the price of people’s blood,” “For every thousand died, another thousand will rise,” on the walls of a mosque near the venue.
Several prominent names accompanied the crowd in their march to the Galata Bridge. Among them were Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloğlu, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı, Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Aşkın Bak, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, senior officials of Justice and Development Party (AK Party), lawmakers, Istanbul governor Davut Gül, representatives of NGOs, Beşiktaş football club chairman Serdal Adalı, Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk, representatives of sports clubs and mayors.
Asuman Kamile İlek, one of participants of the rally, told Demirören News Agency (DHA) that she joined others to show Palestinians were “not alone.”
“I left Kartal (on Istanbul’s Asian side) in the morning and arrived here in 2 hours. I wanted to have Allah’s blessing, to show my support for Palestine, for children, oppressed people there,” he said. Muhammed Reçber, a Turk living in Germany, joined the rally with his son. “I watched last year’s rally on TV. I was on vacation here when I heard they would hold another one and decided to join. It was a day we were looking forward to because we wanted to demonstrate our support for Palestinians,” he said. Osman Korkurdu joined the rally from southern city of Antalya. “For now, it is all we can do for our brothers and sisters in Palestine. I wish we would be able to travel there and join their fight. Today, we want to give the world a message, to be a voice against the oppression of our brothers and sisters,” he said.
Hanife Elif Yılmaz said she joined the rally “in the name of humanity.” “We are here as the weather gets colder and this may at least help us understand what our brothers and sisters in Palestine suffer in this winter. We don’t know how much we can support them but we are able to, at least, to show that the humanity is not dead yet. We want everyone to be aware of plight (of Palestinians),” she said.
