First person: Protesters in Turkey are gaining popular support

Rhonda Abrams | USATODAY

They're calling it history in the making: That's the consensus of most people here in Istanbul as the country encountered a fourth day of anti-government demonstrations nation-wide.

Wanting to be a part of this history – since I happen to be in Istanbul for the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network, a gathering of leading global business women, Monday morning, I set out to Taksim Square and Gezi Park, the area that sparked the protests and violent clashes with police.

Once there, I was given a most unusual 'souvenir' – a face mask to help protect me against tear gas. When my sister, Janice Hill, and niece, Adeena Colbert, and I were given masks by earnest volunteers, I certainly never thought any of us would ever use them. But they proved to come in handy tonight.

The park and square had a somewhat festive air. Hundreds of young people were walking or lying around – breaking out in chanting or singing every half hour or so. They would suddenly start jumping up and down, singing – "Jump, Jump, If you don't jump, you're Tayyip." (Tayyip refers to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who sparked the protests with plans to destroy the popular Gezi Park and replace it with a shopping mall and mosque.)

The chanting made no particular sense, but it reflected the general joyous feeling.

There were tables with free food, water, face masks, and water bottles filled with a solution – alkaline, I believe – to drink instead of water in the case of being tear-gassed. Graffiti was everywhere with anti-Erdogan slogans, but there was hardly a piece of trash to be found, as volunteers cleaned the area. Sightseers were taking pictures in front of the half dozen or so burned out cars and vans.

Everywhere we went, the feeling was virtually unanimous in support of the protestors. Our guide told us that her brother-in-law, a policeman, refused to show up for work because he was ashamed of how the police were being used against the protestors.

As we walked down the crowded and popular Ishkatali Street, we noticed dozens of windows that had been broken – either by protestors or by police. And every hour or so, an extremely peaceful demonstration would come down the broad shopping boulevard, shouting, "We are the soldiers of Ataturk" – Ataturk was the founder of the republican, beloved by virtually everyone who transformed Turkey into a modern, secular state. Shoppers would stop, applaud, and then go back to their shopping.

As we passed by some of the stores, wearing our gas masks on our arms – as instructed by the demonstrators - many people pointed to the masks and made positive comments, always expressing sympathy with the demonstrators. "I will come with you to Taksim," said one. "I will be your body guard," said another.

Virtually everyone I spoke to expressed sympathy for the demonstrators. Two female clerks in the upscale shop of Pasabaghe said they would like to close the shop early so they could join the others at Taksim. The store had lost 2 days of business due to the demonstrations.

Only one person I talked to was willing to speak of his support for Erdogan. "If they build the shopping mall (and tear down Gezi Park), he told me through my interpreter, ""then they will create 1,000 new jobs."

Most of the street life went on entirely as normal, and I had to leave my sister and niece in the old city to sightsee, while I returned to the Dell conference.

But this evening on the waterfront in Istanbul, right near the bridge to Taksim, their noses and eyes began burning, and then their eyes. "You could feel it instantly," my niece said. Everyone was coughing and covering their faces, and they whipped out the masks they had received that morning. Many others were also choking, but no one could identify the source of the problem, until they saw other people coming over the bridge from Taksim wearing face masks.