Mayor of Istanbul

This is a portrait of the actual mayor of Istanbul since 2004, Kadir Topbaş. He's from the AKP (Justice and Development Party). You have to know the symbol of the AKP (which is a light bulb) to understand the stencil. They replaced the light bulb with his head and let the rays of light around.
Those stencil where found in Cihangir respectively in Başkurt Street, in Somuncu Street and in Güneşli Street near Susam Street.

Nato Kills

By the starbucks in Kallavi Street in Taksim.

Handala

You can spot this one in many districts of Istanbul. The first time I saw it, it was in the Fatih district, a very conservative and religious district of Istanbul, probably the most religious district. It represents a little boy seen from behind. I didn't really know what it represented until I saw this sticker in Taksim. Handala (Hanzala in Turkish) is the name of this 10 year old boy drawn by Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali (on the left on the sticker). Naji al-Ali was killed by a man in London in 1987. via Wikipedia : "Noted for the political criticism of Israel in his works. He drew over 40,000 cartoons, which often rflected Palestinian and Arab public opinion and were sharply critical commentaries on Palestinian and Arab politics and political leaders. He is perhaps best known as creator of the character Handala, pictured in his cartoons as a young witness of the satirized policy or event depicted, and who has since become an icon of Palestinian defiance".
Handala has the same age Naji Al-Ali had when he had to go into exile (message on the sticker).

Against Institutions

I found this one in Tünel near Taksim. You can actually see many stencils on this wall on top of which a big graffiti was done. I will share about those stencils later on. I will also share about this graffiti and more, later. Today's stencil is on the right. It represents a man from the prehistoric era with a lance in his hand. On the side you can read "Kurumlar! Dağılın Lan!" which is actually not that easy to translate (for me). It means :"Institutions! Disperse!" or "move away". A socially engaged message actually done by an anonymous artist but it looks like Osman's work (here, here, here or here).

Euro Apartimani

I found this one in Bogazkesen street near the Galatasaray H.S. It represents Turkish P.M. Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the left and what looks like Russian P.M. Valdimir Putin on the right, but I'm not sure. If someone could enlightened me. 50x40 cm.
In Turkey all the buildings have a name. This one is represented as the old (early 19th century) Beyoglu's buildings of european style.

Kardeşimsin Alexis

Those stencils are very recent ones and when I first saw them (on the Istiklal Boulevard and adjacent streets) I was wondering about this guy, of who he was. As I took photos I saw a guy 30 feet in front of me taking photos of the same things too. I was like :"there's nothing on those walls, what's he taking a picture of ?". He was taking a picture of the stencils and "posters" of this guy too until I realized they were (he was actually with a friend) the one doing this by gluing those on walls. But they were looking at me suspiciously as I was kind of following them and taking photos too. They just disappeared at a corner before I could ask them what it was about.

I found a website with more photos and the pattern for the sticker or/and stencil to download : http://kardesimsinalexis.blogspot.com/

Interested in photos of the riots, it's on my other blog.

Alexis (Alexandros) Grigoropoulos is actually the reason the Greek riots are happening since December the 6th. 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was deliberately killed (according to the Chief of Police of Athens) by a special guard of the Greek Police, following an altercation between police and a group of youths in the Exarcheia district of Athens, Greece.

The writing below the image says "Kardeşimsin Alexis", meaning "You are my brother Alexis". This is a strong sign in Turkey if you know the relationship Turkey has with Greece, depending of course of who did this.