Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Mark Lohen and in BBC OS conversations, we bring people together to share their experiences.

This time, our conversations are on the protests in Turkey.

The country is experiencing the worst unrest for more than a decade.

Police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters and arrested hundreds of people.

I was in Turkey earlier this week talking to those taking part in the demonstrations.

In this edition, three journalists share their experiences of being targeted by government security forces.

I was also one of those journalists who have been tear gas directly by the police, which blinded us for 30 minutes.

We couldn't move. We couldn't do anything. We were just blinded.

The protests began about 10 days ago after the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamolu, a political rival of President Recep Taip Erdogan,

was arrested and charged with corruption, charges he denies. I used to be the BBC's correspondent

in Turkey and lived there for five years. After following events at first from London, on Sunday,

I travelled to Istanbul to witness what was happening close up.

After 22 years of President Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule,

I was struck by how so many I met feel stifled,

desperate about the state of their country, and simply chanting enough.

We begin with a conversation I had earlier this week when I met two women taking part in the protests. We all dentistry students from Yedzapi University. We've been here for like

five days and the weather won't stop us. And what are your names? Udmack. Tell me, what do you

are holding signs here and Turkish flags.

What do your signs say?

It's hard to translate to English, but it's almost revolution.

It says here.

And it says, I think the most wonderful is this one.

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