It is the 12th day of the protests. Life in Gezi Park goes on with a different event every day.
A typical day of a Turkish citizen has become: go to work in the day and then go to the park at night. If one cannot, for some reason, make it to the park, then at 9 pm each evening, people come out of their houses and make noise by beating pans with spoons by way of protest, to raise "a voice."
All over the country the evening tea time is now "playing pan and spoon time."
I listened to a 9-year-old girl on a TV channel the other day. She said that she had been to protests since she was 3 years old, but had never experienced solidarity like this; and this from a 9 year old!
She also said, "People invented something called 'money' and this raised the issue of discrimination between rich and poor but Gezi Park is an existence where there is no money, like a utopia."
So how long will this act last? Fear washed over us when the Prime Minister returned to the country several days ago. His partisans, "his 50%," seemed to be asking for his permission to destroy the park.
Is this a call for civil war?
What kind of prime minister instills such fear in his people's hearts?
A young protestor died in Hatay (a city on the Syrian border), as did one police officer in İstanbul. Many are injured and some -- we don't know how many -- are in a critical state.
How can all this be ignored? It is inconceivable.
Neither a headscarf, nor gender, skin color, beard, job, or ethnicity differentiates us now. It is intellect that is the discriminatory factor amongst us.
That thing we search for, that being, that essence, the spirit more than spirit and the intelligence more than intelligence... (inspired by Rumi)
If we can conquer one another with our intellect, then this will really pass beyond a 50% - 50% contention, a festive mood, a pan and spoon playing time.
Maybe then these events will become a real civilian revolutionary act.
Otherwise, I am so afraid, so, so afraid that it will fade away as our prime minister wishes.
But even if the events of the last several days are, for a time, forgotten, I am so sure that we have at least shaken his kingdom with our intellect and our spirit. Like one slogan proclaimed: "Disproportional intellect against disproportional power."
But in all this what are we searching for?
Will we ever find it?
And will the disrespect our prime minister has for democracy -- rule by the people -- ever come to an end?
If a 9-year-girl old can grasp the essence of the struggle, then I still have hope.
Hope that is endless -- hope in the spirit of this country.