Members of Kültür Sanat-Sen, Association of State Theater Artists (DETİS) and Association of Istanbul City Theater Artists staged a demo in Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday. Artists protested against the AKP government's attempts to commercialize the institutions of art and to destroy them under the name of the law on the "creation and operation of art institutions in Turkey".

Artists were blockaded by police teams as they started to march from Taksim to Galatasaray square. They staged a sit-in to protest against the police blockade. The protest demo began with one-minute's silence for the victims of Reyhanlı attacks which killed at least 50 people on 11 May 2013.

Speaking here, theater player Levent Üzümcü pointed out that artist will continue telling the public that art institutions serve for the people. Speaking after, Ataol Behramoğlu said that the current process Turkey is going through was much repressive than even the times of Italian fascism and German Nazism. "Government authorities are intervening in the essence of our lives by means of the laws they are enacting. They are openly trying to determine the way we think and live and to destroy the values the modern people have saved for centuries now. These people are enemies of the humanity", he underlined and noted that artists will continue fighting until the downfall of the AKP government. Theater director Yücel Erten also called attention to AKP government's repressive policies and intentions to "destroy art and science institutions by ill-treating artists". Erten remarked that art and science served for the creation of a more democrat, fairer and gentler society and that these investments could never be used for policies of rent.

Making the joint statement on behalf of artists,  Kültür ve Sanat-Sen chairperson Yavuz Demirkaya said that the AKP government commercialized all areas of the social life in the cause of "making more profit", thus being the single government trying to gain profit by means of art. Demirkaya remarked that the AKP government intended to create a structure of its own in the field of art by wrting the script and directing the works of all art institutions itself. "We do not want this kind of a democracy. The system intended to be established in the field of art is made up of people who represent the government but not art", he noted.

Demirkaya added that artists will go on a general strike on 5 June and gather at ancient theater Aspendos on 20 June to protest against the law draft on the  creation and operation of art institutions in Turkey.