One more protest held for Emek Movie Theater project

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The group of protestors, carrying banners and shouting slogans, walked to the Emek Movie Theater in Yeşilçam Street. DHA photo

A group of some 500 people protested a project set to demolish historic Emek Movie Theater April 15 in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The protest was held by the Emek Bizim (Emek is Ours) Platform.

The group, shouting slogans and whistling until the street of the movie theater, tore movie tickets that had been designed for the protest.

The protest was supported by the Turkish Architects and Engineers Chambers as well as many artists, film critics and cinema lovers. The protest, called “We are not persuaded, sell your ticket!”
started at 4:30 p.m. at the Taksim streetcar station.

‘Emek is ours, Istanbul is ours’

The protestors carried banners that read “We will not let the Taksim project be realized,” “Emek and capital will not make a deal” for half an hour. They also shouted, “Emek is ours, Istanbul is ours.”

The protestors walked to Yeşilçam Street, where the theater is located, and organized a sit down strike there. One of the protestors hung a film poster that read “Conquest Beyoğlu Grand Pera 3D,” and featured photos of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay and Beyoğlu Mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan, on the wall of another movie theater.

In a press statement, the protestors said, “The year is 2012, Beyoğlu has turned into a graveyard. Commercial movie theaters have been replaced by ones the doors of which open to the street. We will not be persuaded by any project which will not renovate Emek Movie Theater in its own place.”