Commemorating Abdullah Comert Adnan Onur Acar / NarPhotos Used by permission

Check out my new blog on the anniversary of Gezi on our main Human Rights Now page.   I write, in part:

On the first anniversary of the Gezi Protests and their brutal suppression in Turkey, central Istanbul resembled nothing so much as a city under occupation. Public transportation into the city center was cancelled. Ferry service from the Asian to the European side of the metropolis was ended by the late afternoon. You could leave, but you couldn’t come back.

This is the image of the new Turkey, where dissent is stifled with overwhelming force and massive police presence.