Sense of smell is the strongest memory trigger and thus we could make people remember their memories from the Gezi Park Protests by getting them to smell tear gas again. Thus we decided to create tear gas scented candles.

We produced tear gas scented candles and sent them to hundreds of people from different sections of the society, primarily activists, influencers, Gezi victims and journalists, who had been exposed to tear gas during the protests. When lit, the stench of tear gas coming from the candles triggered their memories from the days of Gezi Park Protests, bringing back the feelings along with them. The call-to-action text on the packages invited people to share their feelings on Twitter using the hashtag #BiberGaz?Kokunca (#WhenItSmellsOfTearGas) that was printed on the candles.

The project created great hype on social media and grabbed the headlines of leading national and international newspapers and news websites. Thus, we reached millions of people with zero media budget. Due to the scale of public awareness that was aroused against disproportionate use of tear gas by the Turkish police, the Turkish government silently cancelled their order for 1.9 million tear gas canisters.