Tear gassed!

Wow!
how awesome/crazy/scary...today there were two protests on istiklal while i was there in a cafe enjoying some delicious borek, the usual IMF protest and then another anarchy protest. I was watching in enjoyment as they passed by banging on drums and dancing, it was very entertaining and they were seemingly peaceful i quite liked them. however not long after they passed by i see hordes of policemen, and the police tank come rolling by the same window...i could hear helicopters flying over the street repeatedly and the police have their gas masks on and batons out...i knew it couldnt' end well. I wasn't in the midst of the action as my friend Sara was, she has a much better story to tell i'm sure, but when Fatih and i left the cafe...the manager stopped us and told us not to leave because it was dangerous....many of the shops along the street were closing their doors and putting the metal doors down.
People were running down the street with scarves covering their faces and suddenly i got a huge wiff of tear gas and i start coughing and my eyes start watering...I get a text from Sara about the situation and how some people got arrested and the police broke up the protests using tear gas...i cannot choose sides of course because i have no idea what happened but being in that environment was kinda exhilirating...i think maybe i should be a journalist, because i wanted to go see what was happening, and run into the action where everyone else was running out. Thankfully Fatih was with me and wouldn't let me go, or i would have been in the middle of something i probably shouldn't have been in.
How neat it feels to be so close to all the action! now if i just knew what happened i would be complete! I'll be sure to blog later on the activist actions in Istanbul, becuase i feel like its a hub for activist activity which means many interesting blogs are still to come!
ciao
jessi