On 1st of May, there was in fact little or no emergency. It was helped by closing İstanbul down and arresting as many people as possible.

Let's face the music and dance. Since writing the article this song has been dancing in my head when thinking about Turkey, especially the young people who are demonstrating.

The government and mainstream channels demonised the boycotters. Implying they were the devil incarnate, destroying the country. However, the channels would repeat how unsuccessful it had been. The wall-to-wall coverage would question such assumptions.

Whilst the images have caused much humour in the west, here there is more to it than that.

I turned to the screen and my heart sank; I was overwhelmed with sadness. First the barbed wire came into focus and then the watch towers like in some American state penitentiary. This was jail for an undetermined length of time.

Quickly, it became clear that İmamoğlu's arrest had merely been the spark, with deep seated grievances bubbling under the surface.

Everyone’s faces were bowed down, the children glanced over with tears in their eyes. “Where have they gone?”

America is turning back to the days of the wild west. Little or no state support or institutions, it’s every man or woman for themselves.

There is sense that disasters are befalling the country on an almost weekly basis, and nothing is happening to stop them. It is as if this is the new identity of the people, removing  any positive characteristic  from their personality.