The 2013 Gezi protests still remain the largest to have arisen in the AKP era of governance in Turkey. For three months, around 5% of the population dissented nonviolently against the incumbent government. To date, this wave of dissent has received substantial interdisciplinary attention. This present study analyses a previously neglected, yet salient dynamic, 'fraternization', that arose throughout thousands of
protester-police interactions. Among 150 videos that are publicly available in the social media on Gezi protests, we carried out a statistical analysis, complemented by qualitative interviews with Gezi activists. We discovered that 31% of the videos featured fraternization between the activists and the police, and a positive dialogue was established in 22% of the videos. Although fraternization did not end up spurring police to defect, this action was carried out by a heterogeneous group of activists (age, gender, identity) and exposed that not all police officers were of the same mind-set throughout the protests. In fact, there was a significant number of police officers that shared grievances with the movement.
