Istanbul, Turkey: Raising Awareness of the Chinese Communist Regime’s Persecution

(Minghui.org) Practitioners conducted truth-clarification activities in the center of Beşiktaş district on August 20, 2022. They collected signatures and called on the public to help stop the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa and the CCP’s state-sanctioned organ harvesting from practitioners while they were still alive. They also held activities and a candlelight vigil on the beach across from the Chinese Consulate on August 27.

Practitioners demonstrate the exercises in the center of the Beşiktaş district on August 20, 2022

Candlelight vigil on the beach opposite the Chinese Consulate

A practitioner talks with a passer-by about Falun Dafa and the CCP’s persecution.

One lady said she traveled to India and learned some practices there. During the Beşiktaş event, she was surprised to see practitioners demonstrating the exercises and teaching them for free. She asked a practitioner to show her the exercises. She learned about the CCP’s persecution from another practitioner and signed the petition to end it.

Practitioners protested the CCP’s persecution on the beach across from the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul on August 27 and held a candlelight vigil for those practitioners who lost their lives due to the persecution. The candlelight vigil drew the attention of people walking by and vehicles passing on the street. Some people broadcast the activity live on their social media accounts.

A police officer told practitioners, “You always come here. Your determination and what you are doing are very good.”

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why Is the CCP Persecuting It?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 23 years. The actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.