The rally fell on the first day of a 9-day holiday, and a lot of people had already left Istanbul to visit their hometowns.
A considerable amount of people work 6 (or at least 5.5) days a week, so Sunday is normally a better day for these rallies.

When you take these into account, 2.2mil looks even more insane. In a more ideal situation we'd have at least 3mil people there.

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Akira9911@reddit

We started the protests 12 days ago, 2.2m in 12 days is not that bad

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Ok_Landscape_3587@reddit

And 10% more than whole population of my country, lol.

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And today is the last day before the Ramadan holiday (9 days). Normally half of the city goes to their hometown cities for ramadan holidays. If this were a normal weekend this would be tripled. Im hopefull that this will happen again with many more people, İstanbul has 20 million people living in it , i think we could gather 4 million. But i don't think doing this once will change anything, we should do this for months. Also people started boycotting brands / media outlets which are close or have ties with AKP ( Erdogan's party),this could change things. These brands will be forced to stay away from Erdoğan if they want to survive which in turn weakens Erdoğan (hopefully)

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RegularOrdinary9875@reddit

Its a lie ofc that number of people

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xolana_@reddit

So you’re suggesting most Turks are racist?

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RegularOrdinary9875@reddit

No, just number or people is not right but generally western media wants to remove Erdogan for a long time now

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dsilva_Viz@reddit

Amazing stuff, grandpa Erdogan is probably shitting in his pants!

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xolana_@reddit

He’s preparing his escape. He’s been funnelling millions out of Turkey for years cause he knew this would happen eventually.

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dsilva_Viz@reddit

Think of it as a lesser evil, I'm afraid authoritarians elsewhere don't even do that.

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EfficiencySmall4951@reddit

I have no words, best of luck to you guys. Love Turkey (and its cuisine)

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DreadingAnt@reddit

Nothing is going to happen if they don't get violent.

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xolana_@reddit

Yes. My Revolutions lecturer told me peaceful protest only works in democracies. Autocracies need violence.

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xolana_@reddit

I love it too but I’ve been boycotting it because it’s a racist regime that has funded isis and the genocide if my people. Beautiful country and lovely people. I will visit when the leadership changes.

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Key_Morning8269@reddit

finally someone appreciating turkish cuisine and not thinking cacık is greek and döner is german

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alpie2k@reddit

yes they are from the turkish cuisine, but I would highly recommend trying doner in germany tho. It is dope and little different than doners from turkey (the portions are huge also in germany).

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JohnLeg1973@reddit

you a weird man...obsessing over this stuff. Just take the compliment dude...jeez. Serious small dick energy..

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iongion@reddit

And its people full of heart!

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Bargothball@reddit

They say hard times breed strong men. These are the hardest times in a long time. Those Gen Z and Alpha kids in Turkey will be the strongest men since the war of independence.

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xolana_@reddit

Unless they fall for his social media propaganda and racist brainwashing.

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Unclepan1@reddit

I breed strong men

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zizuu21@reddit

Where is everyone going for toilet 🫣🫣🫣

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xolana_@reddit

Erdogan🫡

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iongion@reddit

Wish you all to be strong, brothers! It is our time, the 1980+ generations! I was looking at Turkiye with such a strong admiration in the early 90s, what happened? Come here, your place is in Europe and EU cannot be complete without you! ❤️

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skylueee@reddit

Erdogan and his cronies is what happened. Some people may say how bad Turkey had it back in 90s in other ways but i don't think the system was this terrible back then. We had some kind of democracy not a dictatorship.

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xolana_@reddit

And social media brainwashing. Unfortunately this culture of ultranationalism and racism has spread throughout the population through misinformation on the internet.

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Technical-Net7426@reddit

Praying for a good 20 years more of Erdogan 🙏. Its the least turkey and its people deserve 🙏

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xolana_@reddit

Beyond the racism issue he’s also tanked the economy more times than I can count.

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xolana_@reddit

Seek mental help 🙏

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Celloed@reddit

No one deserves that.

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Technical-Net7426@reddit

Turks do 🙏

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NoAmbassador443@reddit

yunanistanın asla bir geleceği ve umudu olmayacak ama türkiyenin her zaman bir umudu olacak

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Emotional_Money3435@reddit

The fact that its even possible to stay in power when 2.2 mil protesters meets up, something is rly up. Imagine if all those people just went in and dragged the old man out of office

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xolana_@reddit

While researching for my essay a few years ago I read an academic article that accused him of using dead people as votes. He has to cheat in every election because statistically speaking most people don’t vote for him.

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fabvz@reddit

At this point i am thinking wouldn't anyone that run against Erdogan win? Is there a way for him to win without cheating or he does really have strong support still?

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xolana_@reddit

No he has to cheat. He has lost so many elections but still stayed as leader. I remember while researching for my essay I read he’s been accused of using the names of dead people to get votes.

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kontra33@reddit

Serious question, how many people do support him? Let's say there is 10 times more people who doesn't, that's still only 22 million out of 87.6 who live on Turkiye.

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xolana_@reddit

It was about 50/50 a few years ago and now it’s shifted. Maybe 70/30? Mainly young people are against him. Unfortunately there is a strong ultra nationalist (racist) group in Turkey where even if they no longer agree with Erdogan they still believe in oppression and the return of the Ottoman Empire. I’m Kurdish so I’ve been on the other end of the bs.

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xolana_@reddit

Thank God

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Lloyd-Garmadon@reddit

as a Greek I hope your protests go better than ours

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lisu_@reddit

What transpired in Greece?

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Lloyd-Garmadon@reddit

It is a bit too long and complicated for me to properly explain I suggest you and anyone who sees this look it up

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lisu_@reddit

Can you just link something?

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Overall-Passion8613@reddit

As a Hungarian, I find it incredible that 2+ million people came together. I'm with you in spirit, I love Turkey and its people❤️

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Top-Classroom-6994@reddit

Time for you guys to do the same against Orban

Oh wait, you guys are already a part of the Balkan Spring

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Overall-Passion8613@reddit

You’re absolutely right, it’s a hopeful moment for us too. For the first time in 15 years, there’s a real sense of change in the air here in Hungary. People aren’t always as vocal or enthusiastic here, but seeing the strength and unity in Turkey’s protests is truly inspiring. Stay strong!

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Top-Classroom-6994@reddit

We were inspired by the months of protests on Serbia, I guess we are all inspired by each other, hence the name Balkan Spring, stay strong, let's show the world that Balkan can into Democracy

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Mmakelov@reddit

Erdogan is fucked

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31_hierophanto@reddit

God, I hope he's gone after all of this.

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Khal-Frodo-@reddit

Is he tho?

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Live-Ice-2263@reddit

is there any protests in Bulgaria?

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31_hierophanto@reddit

LET'S GO, TURKEY!!!!

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MayPlayzChannel@reddit

1300 people in big jackets

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KiezKraut@reddit

Finally Turkiye wakes up.

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Forward-Buyer8936@reddit

May Allah guide them

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Bucketstar@reddit

That's substantial

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cryptme@reddit

These dictatorial regimes must go. Hope it starts from Türkiye, Hungary next.

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X-East@reddit

Props for staying off the grass

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BorisMifflin@reddit

Bravooo Turci!

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SnooSuggestions4926@reddit

thats like my whole country

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radical_0ptimist@reddit

Serbia is with you!

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Live-Ice-2263@reddit

Thanks, we are orthodox brother nations.

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Uh0rky@reddit

Man youre like... one of 6 christian turks on the entire planet

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Dependent_Opening767@reddit

Brother, you might be Turkish Orthodox but don’t make fake religious brotherhood when it clearly is not on the sight. Huge respect to Serbian protesters though.

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ReplacementCrafty304@reddit

Wow...

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Ok_Detail_1@reddit

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Onaliquidrock@reddit

This is the US in a few month/years.

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Fistijack61@reddit

If chp shit on the brains from this people they will stay at chp 🤣 this are really stupid persons they stole 12,5 billion € !!!!!

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Tritschii@reddit

Almancı moment

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MightbeSuicidal@reddit

Go jerk off to the corpse of bahçeli you stupid fuck

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Brecium@reddit

That's 20% of mine

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OkArmy8295@reddit

Not more than 30000, obviously wearing thick coats and walking around in X pattern to create optical illusion /s

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therimed2503@reddit

Stay mad lmao I was there no one wearing thick coats it was really hot we were wearing shirts And no one walking in any x pattern? How would that even work

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NoLocation8895@reddit

This is before they took the barriers down, green area was filled with people as well.

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Tenchi_Muyo1@reddit

So you are saying that there are more people in this picture than the entire population in Monkedonia, Albenia, Kosovo region, Slovenia, Moldova and Montenigro ?

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No-Ad-2125@reddit

There are 20 millions people living in İstanbul. Ofc the picture is not capturing all of the 2.2 million but there circulation, people are coming and going. There are other areas which are not in the picture etc.

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Hmk815@reddit

İstanbul's population is 16 million. I don't know where that 20 million number comes from.

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ElectronicStatus5352@reddit

Let's go brothers and sisters! Love and support from Serbia!!! 👏🏼

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AdNew9111@reddit

Now that’s a rally !

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Apart-Persimmon-38@reddit

Vučić would count 100k tops

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Present-Bunch6833@reddit

They walk back and front so you get the illusion of larger crowd.

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wild_courier@reddit

i hope that they won't use a sound weapon as that coward did

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BornDefinition2_0@reddit

78 people with fluffy jackets

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Professional_Ant4133@reddit

Oh, you mean 17, 656 people? Yeah 😂

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jaleach@reddit

And apparently his government developed a new technology that can accurately tell crowd sizes! We haven't heard about it since (I haven't anyway), but just trust them!

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Apart-Persimmon-38@reddit

Oh it’s called “the dot software”

It’s pretty funny when you read it out loud

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Foreign_Owl_7670@reddit

100k? Are you crazy? There are no more than 100 people there! And they are all antifa fascists!

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pat6376@reddit

I'm sure Erdo does the same.

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This-Investment-7302@reddit

Crosing the streets so it would appear to be mor of them

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Apart-Persimmon-38@reddit

It’s the jackets 🧥 …

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Jodorowsky18@reddit

2.2 million came together and ANY OF THE MEDIA from Türkiye didn't show it and they said "we are independent media". They think People vote opposition are indifel and they want to kill us.

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KhanTheGray@reddit

That’s lot of angry Turks to have against you as an enemy.

Erdo is really in trouble now.

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zickolai-ieo@reddit

Congratulations, but… It is impossible for that many people to fit in that space. The entire area has a maximum of 300,000 square meters.

This means that if there were 2.2 million people, there would have to be 7.33 people per square meter, which is impossible. More than 3 people per square meter is already extreme overcrowding.

In the image, we can see green areas, and in some parts, it is not that densely packed with people. We could assume an average of 2 people per square meter across the whole area, which brings us to a realistic estimate of 600,000 people.

Still, an impressive number!

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ataket1@reddit

I’m a proud supporter of the opposition in Turkey, but I have to give credit to you on this one. A similar figure was given a couple of years ago when Erdoğan held a similar rally at the same place, so they may have just used that number. From a political standing point completely justified, but realistically you are probably right. Still, I’d prefer to be optimistic and put the upper bound at 900.000 considering there were people with different body volumes (currently Turks are especially malnourished :/). So more than 3 people could’ve easily occupied 1m^2 in many instances.

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zickolai-ieo@reddit

I understand you completely, and you should be optimistic. I also support protests in my country, but I like to stay realistic.

It's totally reasonable to add some number on top.

I don’t understand people who downvote my comment. I simply explained how things are. There’s no need to exaggerate.

But regarding your calculation that there were 900,000 people, it's totally possible. Let's say the protest wasn't limited to just the area shown in the picture and that it lasted longer, with people coming and going. Then we could say there were up to a million people.

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Boring-Perspective16@reddit

Wish you guys all the best, keep pushing, don't stop!

No individual is stronger then a united group, he will fall, I am sure of it.

All the best from Serbia 🇷🇸

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Etnrednal@reddit

Where is Waldo?

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loleenceee@reddit

What does the turkish state controlled media say, how many people were there. I wonder if they twist the numbers like here in Serbia

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MerTheGamer@reddit

They don't mention these, like, at all. The channels talk about Israel, Myanmar earthquake, Ramadan holiday etc. I am not surprised people who only watch those select channels have no idea how big these protests are.

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MeowDaddi535@reddit

they are choosing to completely ignore these events and opt to show for the new hip way to make ramadan deserts

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KV-2000@reddit

I dont want nothing burgers anymore boss...

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bigmangoatman@reddit

This will go nowhere unless heads roll, good luck

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11mfp@reddit

Good for you!

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Yellow_Otherwise@reddit

Sadly, nothing will happen. People have been silent for too long, there were previous arrest starting with opposition leader Selattin Demirtas in 2016, then other opposition party leaders, mayors, activists and so on.

Now it is too late. There is no real condemnation in EU or US press because Erdogan already cut a deal with Donald Tusk and Trump. Economy is fixed to a degree that it is still bad but functional enough.

It is extremely unlikely that anything meaningful will come out of this. Which is terrible because if Erdogan can get away with this, then he can get away with practically anything.

I wish I did not live in this life time

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eriomys79@reddit

EU are afraid a pressured Turkey will play the immigrants card again like few years ago and things will start all over again

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Yellow_Otherwise@reddit

Main issue is Russia, EU need Turkish fleet in Black Sea as well as their army for peace keeping in Ukraine.

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No_Slide5742@reddit

Fuc off

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Tenchi_Muyo1@reddit

So you are saying that there are more people in this picture than the entire population in Monkedonia, Albenia, Kosovo region, Slovenia, Moldova and Montenigro ?

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8r3a71@reddit

He is probably preparing the tanks.

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dobbbie@reddit

I just spent a week in Istanbul (left 4 days ago.) Was definitely interesting to see and be around for that moment in history.

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Live-Ice-2263@reddit

I went too!

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eurhah@reddit

godspeed.

And good luck.

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wisdomHungry@reddit

From romania I wish you guys to find a peaceful solution to your strugle. You guys were so amazing and kind when I visited Istanbul!

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iongion@reddit

Visited the entire country from west to east, by train, in sandals, lovely people everywhere, at home anywhere. 10 years ago visited Strasbourg, arrived at 23:30, only place open was a turkish shawarma, a turkish grandma was cleaning to close, she only looked in out eyes and she knew we are hungry, she made an on spot shakshouka for us and some sandwiches, no money asked, love you grandma and all your nation!

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Caveguy5@reddit (OP)

I lived in Romania, Constanta for 5 years! Lovely people! 😊

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Caveguy5@reddit (OP)

What a horrible thing to say

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