TALKING TO BESIKTAS' BULLDOZER JOYRIDING FANS ABOUT THEIR ROLE IN THE TURKISH UPRISING

"Men wearing surgical masks and safety helmets, chasing the police and waving Turkish flags from the top of a bulldozer they've just hotwired. That has to be one of the most enduring, and certainly most entertaining, images from what's been a grim couple of weeks of social unrest in Turkey.

The group staging this avant-garde protest performance were Çarşı, hardcore fans of Istanbul's Beşiktaş football club (or "the people's club"). For the most part, the members of Çarşı share an anarchist, anti-racist ideology, as well as a love for what is generally considered to be Turkey's third most prominent football club after Istanbul rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe. On the night of the 2nd of June – the third day of an out-and-out war between police and protesters – Çarşı members hotwired a bulldozer that had been left at the construction site outside Beşiktaş' Inönü Stadium and used it to push the police’s water cannon trucks away from their home turf... "

Vice UK, Jun 17 2013