A Story of Two Parks: Historical Roots of Environmentalism under Authoritarian Regimes in Twenty-First Century Europe

On the night of 27 May 2013, activists mobilized via social media to save the trees at Gezi Park, near Taksim Square, one of the last public green spaces left in the main center of Istanbul on the European side. This green patch was to be destroyed in order to make way for a shopping mall. Fewer than a dozen activists managed to halt the bulldozers and prevented the park from demolition. Following severe police intervention, citizens poured into the streets to support environmental activists, and events turned into the largest resistance movement Turkey had seen for decades. The Gezi Park uprising had bitter consequences: eleven people were killed and more than 8,000 were injured. But eventually, the protesters saved the trees.