If these walls could talk*

Dear potential readers,

   when I was still at the university studying Journalism, I had an experience that made me challenge some of my qiute conservative beliefs. I was attending a course concerning "greek civilization and culture" and at this one specific lesson we tried to analyze the impact of the messages written on the walls on our lives and what these messages were trying to depict. I remember I raised my hand and argued about how angry I was with specific messages on the walls of our faculty, like the one which was saying "whoever wants to be a tv-star, haw to wear tin pants". I used to pass by this message every day thinking of how it infuriates me that someone made this mess on the wall, just to write something to stupid. I was shocked to realize that our professor had a completely opposite perception about it, since he believed it to be a masterpiece example of our culture. It was only then that I started thinking more politically of wall-written messages and respect the depicted reality of their. Since then I hesitate to underestimate this way of expressing and I try to analyze it every time in a deeper way than just thinking of how much dirt they cause to our cities. Soon, my eyes were opened and I realized that our cities were dirty anyway :P
    For this reason, I came up with this project of shooting us much photos I could from the messages written on the walls of Izmir, because I believe that on those walls a short history of Turkey and Izmir is written. I would even go further and say that because of Turkey being a quite conservative country, these ideas written on the walls are not really discussed in the public sphere freely and sometimes they can only exist through these walls. 
   So well, I didn't do that much, because I know that the walls can talk for themselves. I just took the camera and for two days I was just walking through the streets of Karsiyaka, Alsancak, Passaport  and Goztepe. And here is the outcome!


                                                        "Berkin Elvan is not dead"    

                                                              "Berkin lives"

 Berkin Elvan (January 5, 1999 – March 11, 2014) was a 15-year-old Turkish boy who was hit on the head by a tear-gas canister fired by a police officer in Istanbul while out to buy bread for his family during the June 2013 anti-government protests in Turkey. He died on March 11, 2014, following a 269-day coma. Lawyers representing the family said Elvan’s condition worsened over the last week of his life, with his weight dropping to 16 kg from 45 kg. Widespread demonstrations erupted following Berkin's. (source: wikipedia)                      


                                         "We were burning and You were thinking of coal"




                                                  "Long live the 1st of May" the International Labour Day                   
  


                                                       "the victim is the murderer"


"The killers of Soma, Capitalism,
 Freedom to the People"


Soma mining disaster: On 13 May 2014, an explosion at a coal mine in Soma, Manisa, Turkey caused an underground mine fire, which burned until 15 May. In total, 301 people were killed in what was the worst mine disaster in Turkey's history.  The fire occurred at the mine's shift change, and 787 workers were underground at the time of the explosion. Miners protested dangerous mining conditions in late 2013 and the demand by the main opposition party, the CHP, to investigate the mine's safety was rejected in the National Assembly of Turkey with votes from the ruling AKP only weeks before the disaster. 


 " Cemre, we are here now, but tomorrow?"




 " Peace is not a tree"

" This beautiful weather has destroyed me"




                                               "One thing we must do: Revolution"


                                             "The sky is ours!"


                                      "Grey wolves* will ask for the receipt from Erdogan"
                                         *Grey wolves are an extreme national party in Turkey







"Resistance"




                                               "You know the killer of our children"



"Tayyip how many women are coming?"



"Liberation"







"Killer Tayyip"


"GO VEGAN"





"Opposition in every place"








"Abortion is a right"



Emma Goldman (June 27 [O.S. June 15], 1869 – May 14, 1940) was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. (source: Wikipedia)
































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