June Fire: Documentary remembers the first casualty of Gezi protests

Just when we had carved the month of June into our collective conscience as the month that sparked the biggest mass protests Turkey had ever seen, June has boosted its historical importance with the recent elections. With the heated discussions about alternative coalition options and the possibility of an early election, time will tell whether June will live up to a double celebration when Turkey defied a nightmare in 2013 and woke from one in 2015.

Those using apps like Memoirs or Facebook's own anniversary feature have been taking a stroll through memory lane, when a peaceful sit-in to protest plans to redevelop one of the remaining green areas in the heart of Istanbul, Gezi Park, escalated into nationwide protests with over two million on the streets for nearly a month, two years ago.

The Gezi protests, or simply known as Gezi, was an unprecedented set of events on so many levels that it soon established its own sense of nostalgia. It has created its own icons, like the "woman in red," photographed as a police officer sprayed pepper spray from close range; or the "standing man," who inspired his own brand of civil disobedience when he stood silently for eight hours in the center of Istanbul during the heat of the crackdown.

Then there were the dozens of songs, some of which became the anthems of the protests, and the graffiti that lightened the mood amidst police brutality. Within a year, there were books, exhibitions, videos, short films, and numerous articles that made sure that the Gezi protests of June 2013 were cemented into our collective memories, the June that Turkey came together like it had never done before.

This week marks the release of the second feature-length film about the Gezi protests ("The first 48 hours...