‘The Beginning‘, is a documentary about the uprising that began in June 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey. Thousands of people gathered to protest the plans for Gezi Park, one of the few green spaces, and a much-loved site in this area of the city.
But according to Canadian social activist, Sibel Kose, the government’s plan to develop a commercial centre in the park, was just one more in a series of punitive restrictions that have been imposed over the last 12 years.
Sibel Kose lives in Montreal now, but the Belgo-Turkish woman, the daugther of a Belgian mother and Turkish father, grew up in Belgium and lived and studied in Istanbul for 6 years.
She recently organized a screening of, ‘The Beginning’, in Montreal, to help inform Canadians about the brutality involved in ending the uprising, and the current evolution of what Sibel Kose sees, as Turkey moving from a secular republic to an increasingly Islamicized state.
Carmel Kilkenny spoke with Sibel Kose, in mid-December
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