The beaches, expanded through small-scale investments provided by the UNDP and Global Ecological Fund, are free of charge and equipped with toilets, showers, emergency medical stations and lifeguards.
There will be a candlelight vigil today at 7pm at the Harsnakar restaurant to honor Vahe Avetyan, the military physician who was beaten to death one year ago at that same location.
Taksim Square, like Tahrir Square and Zuccotti Park before it, is just another space in a city: it could have been one more spot to meet friends, or to read a book under a tree. But Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, decided he’d like to replicate the Ottoman-era Taksim military barracks on the site, and build it into a shopping mall and a mosque.
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