Well as much as I agree with the protesters, it is much easier to go protest than to win an election, and well the AKP is legitimately a popular party in Turkey and the opposition is a disaster. So unless the protesters can get the opposition to get their shit together I am not sure how much the will accomplish.
BTW when you look at the Turkish elections what does this remind you off when compared to the USA? Independents (blue) are usually Kurdish candidates. As you can see the largest cities are strong holds of the Opposition secular parties, the rest of the country (excluding some Kurdish areas) are the strong hold of the AKP. Urban = Opposition Rural = AKP There is a reason why the protets are mostly in urban areas.
Opposition doesnt seem to have that much political message other than "Beer, not Ayran". lol But in all seriousness, I think the protests will die out in a week tops, and Erdogan to be reelected in next elections. AKP doesnt have any real competitor, as indicated by the map posted by ceezmad.
I don't know how accurate that map is, but almost all the major cities lie in the yellow area. Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, ... Only Izmir on the west coast lies in the red area. Of course, there will still be large red population in major yellow cities. And they can make a lot of noise. With the huge success of the ruling party and how they transformed the Turkish economy (amazing how all of Europe is suffering, yet they are thriving), improved citizens' quality of life, increased general freedoms (religious, cultural, political, etc..), and decreased the suffocating military influence over politics, I am surprised at the level of animosity of the opposition towards Erdogan and his rule. He has been by far the most efficient ruler they've had in a very very long time, and less dictatorial I might add. And why? cutting down trees to build shops and rebuild a famous Ottoman building? ban the sale of alcohol near schools and mosques and at late hours of the night and require alcohol bottles to have a health warning label? These are relatively trivial matters and some of them are obviously in the right direction. I am actually very concerned for personal reasons. I'm going to Istanbul next week and don't want those pesky hippies ruin my stay there
Very good points, and totally agree; the AKP is very popular and have won the elections fair and square. That is why is hard for me to see this as a “Turkey spring” type of protests, I understand they have legit censers (or at least they feel they are) but they do come across as sore losers IMO. Here is a good descriptions about the 2011 election results and why the AKP is popular, not only for their religiosity, but because in large they seem to be doing a good job. http://regionalgeography.org/101blog/?p=2258
Thanks for the informative articles. Indeed the AKP accomplished a lot and managed to put a lid on corruption. I have to admit thou that the way they handled the events of the past couple of weeks are worrisome and maybe a sign of bad things to come. Erdogan's relentless confrontational style was praised when we was challenging the big tough generals. But he is no longer an under dog after defeating the giants. Using that same style and with brute police force against unarmed young men and women makes him look like an ugly bully. And now things look really bad in taksim square. Maybe I should cancel my trip
And it makes him appear quite untrustworthy after he condemned i.e. Assad's dictatorial style/overbearance. There might be reasons for the current protests in Istanbul & other cities ... and calling peaceful protestors "terrorists & agitators" + ordering police action against them, gives one the feeling that he's Assad's & Ahmadinejad's "brother in mind". Pity. Erdogan can't be taken seriously as "defender of human rights & democracy" in the Arab world if he doesn't prove to be a real role model to them. http://www.spiegel.de/international...dates-and-imprisons-journalists-a-905164.html
Outside of the very, very downtown areas, there was NOTHING going on. I find the ham-fisted attempt to draw parallels between AKP and the GOP and the CHP/et. al. to the Democratic Party...well, ham-fisted.
This is another failed attempt to remove Erdogan by a minority constituency who have failed to remove him via the ballot box or via a coup.
That's not really how it was put to me by the Turks I worked with a week ago. Just as Erdogan claims a "silent majority", there is a very large, quiet set of protest sympathizers, and they're the urban educated and relatively well-off. This isn't just something that can be passed off. Erdogan got too cocky for his own good, then managed to bungle this challenge to his authority. It's something that's been building, too. I saw hints of it as recently as October last year.
Indeed, it is hardly noticeable. I have been travelling around in Turkey the last 2 weeks and nothing indicated that there is any kind of demonstrations or protests except for one day we ventured to the end of istiklal st. near Taksim square. We had visited Taksim square the day before and there was nothing going on. Another exception was in another location in Istanbul some men and women were standing silently like statues. Somebody had to explain to us why they were doing so. However, almost all the people we talked to were supporters of the protesters. Even those who like Erdogan. Of course I only talked to people that provide services to tourists so they are not a proper sample. I have no idea what other "normal" working Turks think.
Dear Gents and Ladies. I have read the comments and wanted to give my ideas on the events that had happened being a person in those protests in the front line, most of the time. First off majority of those people protesting were not out there to overthrow the government, or to put the country in a state of anarchy as Erdogan and his party accused the protestors of doing. From my point of view and from the point of all secular, middle to upper class, western oriented people, Erdogan and his ruling party is becoming more and more oppressive. That's the whole issue. I have voted for AKP two elections back, and I want them to remain as the political party that was then I voted. However as years passed, they are realizing that they are becoming more and more powerful, and the current motto that they have is that, people selected us and we can do whatever we want. Does democracy mean, if you win the elections, then you can do whatever you want, when you want it, no matter what people think? In my book, democracy means consolidation of and service for everyone, not just for the people you know who have voted for you. This is what exactly AKP and Erdogan did when they first came into power in the first couple of years. However the situation is not the same anymore. In GEZI PARK issue, let me give you a brief story. GEZI PARK is in the middle of taksim, which is the heart of the city, and the only green area in the center of the city itself unfortunately. Erdogan decided, as if it is his living room or something, that he is going to put a shopping mall there, and some other building around and rebuild the taksim square totally. Lot if people in Istanbul, as you can imagine, did not like this idea. However only 20-30 people of Turkish hippies as you can say, went down there and built some tents, and started to spend their time in the park, to block the destruction of the trees by the construction workers. This is of course heard by the government and riot police was sent there, early in Thursday morning around 4-5 am and the tents were set on fire, and these 20-30 people running away. Next day again some other people came and again built tents to spend overnight. Again around 4-5 am riot police with full gear came and burned down the tents and kicked people out so the construction work can continue. This was huge news on the internet and especially on twitter. So on Friday after work was off a lot of people started to go to GEZI PARK to protest what was done. Erdogan tried everything in his power to stop people from going. He stopped the subway service to a certain stop, he stopped the ferries crossing over from asian side etc.. However on friday night people from all around managed to get there and protests contunied through out the whole night and into the morning, even tough riot police used a lot of tear gas, water what they have in their arsenal. The next day they found out that people were impossible to stop and the crowds were getting bigger and bigger, they opened the GEZI PARK and Taksim square. On Friday night in a fast decisions, courts with the order of Erdogan of course, claimed the construction on Gezi Park to be illegal and halted it. Then you know the story. Protests were spearheaded to almost whole parts of the country and continued for around 1.5-2 months. If only those initial 20-30 people were listened and taken out from the GEZI PARK by goodwill by negotiation, none of this would have escalated. Now GEZI PARK still remains but for how long, we will see.
By the way, majority of the people protesting were just ordinary people like me, who have, first time in their lives, were participating in a political get together. They were not mossad agents, nor terrorists, nor American agents trying to destroy the country, as Erdogan put it We were just peaceful people, gathering for our right to have our voice heard, because frankly speaking, in the last 2-3 years, no one gave a shit about what we do.
Erdogan turns more and more into an idiot. I hope you folks in Istanbul continue to stay brave and give him contra (so he finally realizes that he's not the prophet Mohammed).
Erdogan is going through power poisining, as most of the the leaders in the middle east. After 10 years in power, he is turning more and more into a dictator type of governing the country. He simply sees himself as invincible and that he can do anything that he wants, without asking anyone, because he has won the elections. That's his notion of democracy. As long as you are elected, you can do anything.
Erdogan has VASTLY improved the economy beyond any politician has managed to do in the history of modern Turkey. He will be reelected at the ballot box.
yeah it's unbelievable how he has improved the financial situation in Turkey in the past years, but apparently it's wrong when your country has one of the fastest growing economies in the world while almost all neighbor countries are dealing with huge financial/war problems. the fact that the police are trying to stop those who're starting riots, devastating shops in various streets is definitely a sign of dictatorship. But by all means, let's do nothing and devastate the country while there is no reason to it. Look at the alternatives. CHP's leader, who does nothing than criticize Erdogan for literally every little fart he makes and who his immature enough to insult his mother, is not suited. MHP's leader is an old man who screams every time he wants to say something and wants to go extreme. ''Pisküvit.'' Erdogan is one of the best (maybe the best) prime ministers turkey has ever had. Of course every prime minister has its ups and downs but the majority of those who're against him are either hipsters or CHP thugs. Rezalet.
My engineering colleagues would like to vehemently disagree. I think you're selling the opposition very short.
Your engineering colleagues are probably spoiled brats and didn't know how this country looked before Erdogan was the prime minister, what king of terrible things were happening in the 70s and 80s, how we had a prime minister who was wearing diapers, how we're almost bankrupt in 2003, how a certain prime minister got hanged by spreading lies from the media (Menderes) etc. etc. Sure, he is not the Messiah but compared to the others he did many good things. I think you don't know who the opposition is to begin with.
My engineering colleagues have told me quite a bit of that era. When they talk about all this, they absolutely cite the economic improvements as a good thing, for the most part. Just because they don't write him love letters and think he has become too authoritarian doesn't mean they don't give him some credit.
authoritarian in what way? Listen, I'm not saying that he has done everything right. He hasn't. No one has. Prime ministers in Turkey made mistakes, they always do but in comparison with other ones this man has done quite a lot for the country. From the quality of the regional borders to the military services, from government organisations to a fast growing economy, from accepting other religions to a possible peace pact between turks and kurdish PKK terrorist. If it was up to MHP's leader, a senile old man, the kurdish leader would have been executed immediately and the kurds would be in suppression.
Edrogan is certainly an improvement over anyone the Turks have had in recent memory and Turkey has no doubt improved in every sense since AKP and Edrogan have come to power. However, the past couple of years, and in particular ever since Edrogan began to suddenly make it Turkey's business to unseat Bashar Assad in Syria, it seems to me that Edrogan and AKP have begun overplaying their hands. In any case, I haven't been thrilled with Edrogan lately and find the path that he has begun pursuing one that cannot be rewarding for either Turkey or Iran.