Currently, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan is away in North Africa. He left behind a country exhausted by four days of intense struggle. If nothing else, it appears now that many of Gezi Park’s trees may have been saved. Deputy Chairman of the ruling Development and Justice Party (AKP), Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu today claimed the government did not have plans to build a shopping mall next to Taksim and that the number of trees will in fact be increased. This is patently false, but in the dystopian world of a country where media is controlled by the government, many will be convinced. Furthermore, there are reports that a temporary peace has been reached at Taksim Square. Police have acknowledged the right of citizens to occupy the square, while protesters have stopped attempts to march on the Prime Minister’s office. Deputy PM Bulent Arinc has apologised but remains insistent on the role of terrorist elements. The protesters yesterday issued these demands:

1- Gezi Park will stay as a park. We will neither allow you to build Ottoman Barracks nor to plunder our green areas.

2- Those responsible, especially the Mayor of Istanbul and Chief of Police who have given the orders to oppress people with violence - wounding hundreds - should resign immediately. In addition to that, usage of gas bombs should be banned.

3- Our friends who have been taken under police custody should be immediately released, no further prosecution should be pursued.

4- The bans of protests or meetings in any public space of Turkey should be ended.

Many of the comments on that picture suggest there is one more: “Tayyip resign”.

The trees and settlement are only a small part of what Turkey’s citizens have won however. They have found that by pushing hard enough they can still be heard. Even if their own media, CNNTürk specifically, would prefer to show penguin documentaries than the country’s largest upheavals of this generation; at least rest of the world is willing to listen.

It has not been easy putting the AKP on its heels. Many are still and will be suffering from injuries sustained this weekend for months to come, or indeed the rest of their lives. Others will be mourning the loss of those close to them.

One man I spoke with was arrested Friday night in Ankara. His story is a fascinating look into the dynamics of the protest and of the attitudes of police. Friday afternoon, a Facebook invitation prompted him to join his friends in Kuğulu Park, Ankara. When police arrived with tear gas they began moving with the crowd towards kızılay - a 30 minute walk. Upon arriving and seeing more clashes he and his cohorts took to a fifth floor café to watch and wait out the worst of the clashes before going to stand in solidarity. That plan would never materialise.

Police approached the buildings, firing canisters. One other source was struck by one in a Starbucks, so it is no surprise that at this point café owners quickly closed up, leaving along with patrons. After descending the building he and his four friends were confronted directly by police. Along with one of them his hands were tied, and he was beaten. As journalists arrived taking pictures the beatings stopped and police instead threw him in the back of their car, bound for police holding cells.

Arriving at the station they were met by unlikely allies. Communist Party lawyers had taken up vigil in the jail’s processing center. They were there to provide food and moral support but more importantly to use the threat of future testimony to keep things civil. After being examined by a doctor, he was charged with terrorism, and lead to the cells. Access to the holding facilities was forbidden to the lawyers.

Outside the view of prying eyes, the treatment of prisoners was starkly different. He shared a cell - three to a 3 x 1.5m pen - with a hysteric claustrophobic and a wounded and pepper-sprayed man denied any medical treatment. They would spend the next 15 hours in an unclean pen with one concrete bed. Once inside, food was scant, and water and access to toilets provided only with two hours notice and accompanied by physical threats.

After a total of 24 hours in custody he was released. He credits the work of the Communist Party’s lawyers for not being held the full 96 hours allowed by law. As nearly 100 detainees were waiting to take his coveted spot, one could wonder though if the police simply did not have the capacity they wished for.