Official Gezi Party founded after summer protests

ISTANBUL

A political party inspired by the summer’s Gezi Park protests across Turkey has been officially established.

The party, which is chaired by a Turkish neo-classical metal musician Reşit Cem Köksal, will be called the Gezi Party, will use “GZP” as acronym, and will be represented with a logo of a tree with a human shaped trunk.

Highlighting that they are aware of the “leaderless” nature of the movement, the founders of the new party say it will primarily aim to affect the Constitution-making process, in order to achieve the goals they have identified as freedom, democracy, human rights, independence and justice.

“We know that we can’t have a democratic Constitution without fighting. Nobody will say, ‘Here are human rights for you, here’s a fair Constitution that enables all of you to live together.’ Entering into Parliament is necessary to change the Constitution,” says the party’s Facebook page, currently the only available source to gauge its political stance.

The party’s leaders will only serve as “spokespersons” for the party, rather than there being a single individual dictating party issues, the Facebook page also notes.

The party has been organized through the popular means of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, mirroring how the Gezi protests spread across the country over the summer. An official website for the party is currently in the pipeline.

The party founders presented a petition for its establishment to the Interior Ministry on Oct. 1, and it was approved on Oct. 9, daily Hürriyet has reported.

Party chairman Köksal is a well-known Turkish guitar virtuoso who has shared the stage with Joe Lynn Turner, the former Deep Purple vocalist, on several tours since 2006.

The Gezi protests, which were sparked at the end of May by opposition to the cutting down of trees as part of a construction plan for Istanbul’s Gezi Park, flared up after brutal police force against protesters through the use of tear gas and water cannons.