“Neither masks nor vaccine” and “Turks are not guinea pigs,” shouted thousands of people who gathered in Istanbul on Saturday in the largest anti-vaccine demonstration since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Turkey.
The man of the hour was arch-conservative columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak, who masterminded and led the so-called “Great Awakening Rally.” In a fiery speech he urged the government to close down the World Health Organization's office in Ankara. A man wearing a Fidel Castro-style cap waved a banner reading, “World Health Organization, get the hell out of my country.”
