Tears of Joy or of Tear Gas?

We were on a main road early this afternoon, and BC asked if my eyes were burning because his were. My eyes were not burning, but my nose was and I was sneezing. We continued walking and then came upon a group of protesters coming from a side street. It was then that we realized the reason our eyes and noses were burning was because tear gas was in the air. The oncoming protesters were getting ready to march so we quickly went down another street.

We walked down that street for a while seeing people pass us who were crying and sneezing and coughing because of the tear gas.

We reached a main street that leads to Taksim (a big square downtown) and noticed that traffic was being redirected because the police were blocking the street. There was hardly anyone walking down the street like we were- mostly just shop owners. I started to feel uneasy. There was a police helicopter hovering over us up above. We stopped at one point because a group of police men had their tear gas guns ready and masks on walking towards us. I gave a shop owner a look of desperation and asked if we could come inside his shop just as the tear gas was fired towards protestors coming down a side street. BC and I along with several local Turkish men went in the store and closed the door behind us. We waited for a few minutes, and even through the closed door the tear gas was hurting our eyes and nose. We bought water from the nice shop owner, and left as the commotion died down.

When we walked by Taksim, the police had it completely surrounded and barricaded. As we continued walking, trash cans were turned over, and bus stops and police stations had broken glass.

The people were protesting the International Monetary Fund, which is holding a two day meeting in Istanbul today and tomorrow. The IMF is holding their annual meeting to discuss ways to battle poverty and avoid another global economic collapse like 2008. Turkey is one of the world’s 20 wealthiest economies, but a huge income gap exists. Recent government statistics show that 1 in 5 Turkish people live in poverty. The lower class has been hit hard by the economic downturn. (Taken from CNN article)

We are fine, but it was a little scary because we almost found ourselves caught in between protestors and police several times, although unintentionally. Thanks to the shop owner that let us in, mine are mostly tears of joy with a few minor tears of tears gas remaining.

Update:  Yahoo News has posted a gallery of photos from today's protests:  Link to the gallery