Amanda Rivkin

Turkey in Transition

2010-2014 

  • ERZURUM, TURKEY. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan departs a political rally in support of the September 12 referendum which would change the nature of the country's constitutional court to solidify the hold of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) under the pretext that it would prevent future military coups, in Turkey's conservative far northeast on August 13, 2010. Erzurum is the first major city near the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Turkey, located just 10 kilometers from the pipeline which traverses numerous villages near the city's airport.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. A woman walks through Taksim Square just before the start of Ramadan at sundown on July 9, 2013. Since demonstrators occupied the adjacent Gezi Park for two and a half weeks last month, police have maintained a heavy presence in Taksim Square and periodic clashes have erupted as demonstrators have returned to the square in protest of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. A fragment of a poster of ataturk is seen in Gezi Park after 12 days of occupying the park after police retook the adjacent Taksim Square but left demonstrators in the park on June 13, 2013. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered a referendum on the park to residents of Istanbul, despite there being no law allowing for such practices, and telling demonstrators to evacuate the park as patience with the demonstration is over.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. People are seen exiting to join the protests in Taksim Square at the Taksim metro station after a week of protests led to police being barricaded out of and withdrawing from the square as it transforms increasingly into a free, carnival-like zone on June 6, 2013. The crisis which began over construction of a park and plans to reconstruct Ottoman barracks and a shopping mall has evolved into Turkey's biggest political crisis in decades as Turks express frustration with the current AK Party, Justice and Development Party, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
  • DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY. Men pray outside the Nebi mosque, an official Turkish mosque with an imam approved by the Turkish state, during Friday prayers on February 24, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. A nationalist demonstrator marces up Istiklal Caddesi from Tunel in support of Ataturk's principles of a secular republic and against the ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP in Turkish, on Republic Day on October 29, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. A woman prays as another checks her cell phone inside the Blue Mosque compound in the Sutanahment neighborhood on January 12, 2014.
  • ESKISEHIR, TURKEY. Members of the audience go wild during the Turkvision Song Contest semifinals at the Besyo Sport Stadium at Anadolu University on December 19, 2013. The Turkvision Song Contest is Turkey's pan-Turkic response to the Eurovision Song Contest and 2013 is its inaugural year; Turkey has a history of participating in Eurovision dating back to 1975 but withdrew from the competition in 2013 after not airing the contest and paying a fine in 2012 when the government cited an on-air lesbian kiss as being against Turkish values.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. The interior of the upstairs balcony of the Surp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Catholic Church in Beyoglu on November 30, 2012. The church makes money by renting out space it owns in the neighboring building to a series of night clubs, including one gay club.
  • DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY. Mothers and family members of the disappeared protest the lack of information about their relatives' whereabouts on February 25, 2012. The mothers and families gather every Saturday at one p.m. in an effort to keep the memory of those who have disappeared in Turkey's dirty war against the Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, guerrillas and their sympathizers alive.
  • FIS, TURKEY. Villagers eat lunch and drink tea in their home on February 24, 2012. Fis is known as one of the first meeting places of arrested Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan; Fis used to be home to 70 families but the Turkish military destroyed much of the town repeatedly in 1993-1994 in retalliatory strikes for the villagers show of sympathy to the PKK guerrillas who they provided food and shelter to ({quote}They are our sons,{quote} in the words of one villager), and now only seven homes have been rebuilt in Fis after a period of forced exile from the village and everyone is too scared to provide their name.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. People push their way to receive a free Iftar dinner sponsored by the Beyoglu municipality in Taksim Square at the start of Ramadan on July 9, 2013. Since demonstrators occupied Gezi Park for two and a half weeks last month, police have maintained a heavy presence in Taksim Square and periodic clashes have erupted as demonstrators have returned to the square in protest of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
  • GUVECCI, TURKEY. Syrians who fled from the year old rebellion against the rule of Bashar Al Assad in neighboring Syria sit in the home of a relative just across the border on February 27, 2012. Turkey has seen a continued influx of refugees from the Syrian conflict and border towns like Guvecci have watched as their populations have more than doubled.
  • KILIS, TURKEY. An outdoor cafe frequented by Syrians and others around the corner and down the street from the Otel Istanbul on April 4, 2013. At this moment, Kilis is crowded with Syrian refugees who have made temporary homes in available apartments, motel rooms, and wherever they can really.
  • DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY. A young man receives a haircut in a hair salon in the old city on February 22, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. Women are seen talking on their cell phones in the front row before the start of the Erol Albayrak Spring/Summer 2013 fashion show at Istanbul Fashion Week on October 11, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. Women are seen admiring different fashions showcased in the entrance at Antreppo 3 after the Erol Albayrak fashion show during Istanbul Fashion Week on October 11, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. A crowd gathers outside Antreppo 3, a warehouse-like facility on the Bosphorous in Tophane beside the Istanbul Modern art museum, after Simay Bulbul's Spring/Summer 2013 are seen at Istanbul Fashion Week on October 11, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. Two women are seen in the backseat of an SUV exiting Istanbul Fashion Week outside Antreppo 3, a warehouse-like venue on the Boshporous in Tophane, after the Soul by Ozgur Masur fashion show on October 12, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. People gather for Iftar dinner on newspapers on Istiklal Street in a show of solidarity with the demonstrators that had previously occupied Gezi Park at the start of Ramadan on July 9, 2013. Since demonstrators occupied Gezi Park for two and a half weeks last month, police have maintained a heavy presence in Taksim Square and periodic clashes have erupted as demonstrators have returned to the square in protest of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
  • ANKARA, TURKEY. People stage a sit-in against police brutality and the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the middle of Kennedy Street on July 11, 2013.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. Near Taksim Square another mall project less controversial than the one that lead to protesters to occupy Gezi Park which is also part of the controversial Taksim renovation project is seen the afternoon after riot police moved to retake Taksim Square the night before on June 12, 2013. After 11 days of protest and occupying Gezi Park adjacent to Taksim Square, riot police firmly took control of Taksim Square with street battles on back streets occurring until the early hours of the morning and a few hundred demonstrators continuing to camp out in the adjacent Gezi Park.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. Fisherman are seen on the Karakoy shore beside the Galata Bridge on January 11, 2014.
  • ERZURUM, TURKEY. A man enters the Lala Pasha Mosque before evening prayer on the first night of Ramadan on August 11, 2010. Erzurum is the first major city near the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Turkey, located just 10 kilometers from the pipeline which traverses numerous villages near the city's airport.
  • DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY. A young girl plays with a stick on the street beside a kiln for making bread just beyond the old city wall as seen from the old city wall on February 24, 2012. Diyarbakir is home to approximately one million people, the majority of whom are Kurds, Turkey's largest ethnic minority.
  • DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY. Children study Kurdish language and culture and are instructed on their rights by a teacher at the Astrid Lindgren Children's Literature and Culture Center on February 25, 2012. After nearly a century of forced assimilation policies in Turkey, many Kurds are standing up for their culture and language in a renewed bid for cultural, if not political, independence.
  • DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY. A Kurdish woman reads from the Koran in her living room after having recently returned from a pilgrimmage to Mecca on February 28, 2012.
  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY. Women are seen standing on the ferry from the Prince's Islands to Karaköy on October 14, 2012.
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