The morning is rising over Kadikoy, a neighborhood of Istanbul that sits on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. In this photograph you can see the “iskelesi,” the ferry terminal that allows commuters to cross to all points on the European side.
At about 1 pm today Istanbul time, demonstrators will line up along both sides of the Bosphorus, holding hands in a demonstration favoring peaceful solutions to world and regional conflicts.
Later in the afternoon activists will gather around the Kadikoy terminal to for another rally titled “From Gezi to Lice,” referring to the two sites where activists were killed by police while demonstrating against the authoritarianism of the Turkish state.
The government is warning that demonstrators are “terrorists” interested in sparking a “hot autumn.” But the announcement of these demonstrations strikes a different tone, declaring that “Sept. 1 is the day to tell the world that it is time to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East, where hundreds are being killed every day because of the bloody calculations of some.” Today’s demonstration shows an interest by activists in shining a cool light against obvious and more insidious forms of violence.