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A top Turkish official apologized for the "police aggression" that fueled nationwide protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as trade unions threw their weight behind the demonstrations Tuesday. The 240,000-member KESK confederation of public-sector workers called for a two-day strike to protest what it called the "fascism" of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party. The protests began over plans to replace an Istanbul park with a new development, but spread nationwide after a heavy-handed crackdown by police. After chaotic scenes in the streets Monday that continued late into the night and sent tear gas wafting through the air, the situation was relatively calm Tuesday in Istanbul's Taksim Square, near the park where the protest movement began, and in the capital Ankara.
Riot police around Ankara's central Kizilay Square brought in armored vehicles topped with water cannon in a show of force Tuesday evening, but the demonstrations throughout the day were calm. The protests have morphed into larger complaints against Erdogan, who has led Turkey for 10 years. His critics call him paternalistic and authoritarian, accusing him of accumulating more and more power and growing less tolerant of dissent. In Istanbul, the crowds have been chanting "Tayyip resign" -- referring to Erdogan -- and "shoulder to shoulder against fascism."
Police, protestors clash in Ankara, Turkey
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologized Tuesday "for the police aggression against our citizens who were involved in the initial protests and acted with environmental concern," Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported. He said security forces had been ordered to only use gas in self-defense. "They are doing a hard job. When they are executing their jobs, they may sometimes use extraordinary, even excessive, use of force. But they wait in a passive mode unless something comes from the other side," Arinc said. And he added, "I don't think we owe an apology to those who caused destruction on the streets and who interfered with people's freedom."
The Turkish Medical Association said that at least 3,195 people were injured in clashes Sunday and Monday, with 26 in serious or critical condition. Most of the injuries were in Istanbul. One protester, Mehmet Ayvalitas, died of his injuries, the medical association said. And the governor of Hatay in southeastern Turkey said that a 22-year-old man, Abdulah Comert, was killed with a firearm by unknown people during demonstrations late Monday, Anadolu reported. Erdogan's opponents appear determined to continue the demonstrations despite the prime minister's comment Monday that he expects the situation to return to normal "within a few days." Erdogan, who left the country Monday on a four-day trip to North Africa, has responded by dismissing the demonstrations as the work of "extreme elements" and marginal groups. "My smart citizens will recognize this, then they will give them the right lesson," he said Monday.
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As Istanbul was convulsed by some of the most severe anti-government protests Turkey has seen in decades, the country's broadcast media looked away. Regular newscasts briefly mentioned the protest, before moving on to other topics. There was no word of the violence, of the riot police clashing with protesters for hours, or of the many injured in what even Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said might have been unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics. Turks were outraged. They turned to social media in droves; Twitter and Facebook updates were virtually the only means of finding out what was going on in Istanbul, where tens of thousands of protesters were facing off against riot police.
A furious Erdogan lashed out. "There is now a menace which is called Twitter," he said Sunday, dismissing the protests as demonstrations organized by an extremist fringe. "The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society." But to many in Istanbul, it was a lifeline. As word spread through cyberspace, more and more people crowded onto Taksim Square, where protests began last Friday over government plans to rip up trees in neighboring Gezi Park to make way for reconstructed Ottoman-era barracks and a shopping mall. Eventually, the outcry was too loud to ignore. Television stations gradually began showing snippets of the protests during the weekend, until many had near-blanket coverage by Monday night.
But the damage had been done. In the days of protest that have ensued, demonstrators held up placards lambasting the media, criticizing them for keeping the public in this country of about 75 million uninformed and turning a blind eye to events that quickly spread from Istanbul to the capital, Ankara, and other cities. On Sunday and Monday, protesters converged outside the offices of the private NTV and HaberTurk television stations. Some held placards depicting the country's three main private television stations as the three wise monkeys, who see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil. In Taksim, protesters overturned an NTV satellite van, smashing its equipment and ripping the doors almost off their hinges. The battered, graffiti-covered shell still stood on the square on Tuesday morning.
In a country where authorities have few qualms about jailing outspoken journalists, many have accused the media - particularly TV - of self-censorship, shying away from anything that could anger the establishment and Erdogan's government. Some television personalities turned to more subtle ways of making their views known. A popular quiz show on the Bloomberg-HT channel, Word Game, made the protests the theme of Monday night's competition. Host Ihsan Varol asked competitors what "must be done to decrease tension?" The correct answer was one of the protesters' main demands of the heavy-handed police in Istanbul and other cities: "Withdrawal."
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I was, in my capacity as a reporter, among the thousands of citizens who thronged the streets of central Istanbul on May 31 in what some are labeling “A Turkish Spring” and “A Turkish Occupy” movement. Other commentators have resorted to the lazy old clichés of “secularists versus Islamists.” Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists they are "provocateurs." None of these capture the nature of protests that have engulfed the country. These began when police staged a predawn operation on May 31 to disperse citizens who were demonstrating peacefully against a government-backed development project that would uproot dozens of trees in Taksim Square. The diversity of the protesters defies any such neat categorization.
Destination Taksim
It was close to 8 p.m. as I inched my way along Istiklal Avenue, one of the main commercial arteries leading up to the square. When I hit the historic Francophone Galatasaray Lycee, the crowds grew. I could barely move. Amid all the clapping and chanting, there was one common refrain, “Erdogan resign! Government resign!” Early on, I encountered a group of young men and women who were all wearing the same white and yellow masks to shield themselves from the acrid stench of tear gas that pierced the air. They said they worked for an advertising company. "Our boss printed special T-shirts for us and gave us the masks; he encouraged us to be here,” Selin Bayraktar told Al-Monitor. “Why would he do that?” I asked. “We initially joined the demonstrators to protect our trees, nothing political,” explained Bayraktar. But when Erdogan, “imperiously” waved aside their objections, declaring that the project would proceed, “something snapped,” she said. “We are not for or against any political party, we are against dictatorship, Erdogan is a dictator, write this if you dare.”
Riot police use tear gas to disperse the crowd during anti-government protests at Taksim Square in central Istanbul
Farther on, members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) linked arms to form a human chain. There may have been around 50-60 of them. I couldn’t quite tell, but they were a minority. Ilhan Cihaner, a CHP lawmaker, nodded at me bleary-eyed. “Pepper gas,” he said. “The protests will continue until the park is saved. But it's not just about the park, it's about this repressive regime: People are fed up. They have to go.” Never mind that CHP members on the city council voted in favor of the project. Time to move on. As I get closer to Taksim, the smoke thickens. I feel dizzy and my lungs begin to burn.
The scenes are increasingly chaotic. Water cannons spray the crowd. Police in riot gear are dragging a man toward an armored van. “For me, it's only about the trees, nothing else. I voted for Erdogan,” piped up an unfazed 30-something housewife, her hair covered Islamic-style. “Destroying all the green space, where will my kids play? It's not right.” And her name? “No need,” she responded as a youth with a pierced nose and tattooed arms sprayed a milky liquid on her face. “It's for the tear gas,” he explained. His name was Mert and he was in his final year at the nearby German Lycee. Were his parents worried about him? “No, they support me. Look, we are talking about one and a half million trees.” What? Had he seen the park? It couldn’t even fit a hundred, let alone a million. Disinformation, it seemed, was flowing as fast as the gas. He shrugged and continued to spray.
Read more: Who Are Turkey?s Protesters? The View From Taksim Square - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
Throughout the recent upheaval, Mr. Erdogan’s behavior has given new fuel to already-simmering questions about his aims and methods — whether he has turned more autocrat than democrat, or at the least whether a deft politician has fallen into overconfidence. Mr. Erdogan’s political rise has been widely seen as the catalyst for a new era of Turkish influence and prosperity, and he has cast his government as a democratic model for nations with Muslim populations rising up against dictators. Domestically, he has the security of a strong power base among Turkish religious conservatives — a majority of the electorate — who were marginalized by the military and the country’s old secular elite. He alluded to that support on Monday, as protests continued across Turkey’s major cities. He said he could “hardly contain” his constituents from leaving their homes to mount a counterprotest on his behalf. “Be calm, this will all pass,” he added.
But for his opponents, his harsh dismissal of the protesters gathering in Istanbul and Ankara as “bums,” and in particular his allowing the police to crack down on what began as a peaceful demonstration against the razing of a park in Taksim Square, is public evidence of a longer slide into authoritarianism. They cite years of intensifying crackdowns on dissent and the news media, and purges of the military officer corps. “He has a highly majoritarian understanding of democracy,” said Ilter Turan, a political scientist at Bilgi University in Istanbul. “He believes that with 51 percent of the vote he can rule in an unrestrained fashion. He doesn’t want checks and balances.” And after 10 years of Mr. Erdogan (pronounced AIR-doh-wan), a former Islamist activist, many liberal or secular Turks have expressed weariness over what they see as his attempts to impose on their private lives: what Cengiz Candar, a popular columnist, described Monday as his “conceit and arrogance.”
Demonstrators ran from tear gas fired by the police during a clash in Istanbul on Monday. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing a political crisis.
He has sought to restrict alcohol, has repeatedly held that women should have at least three children and sometimes seems drawn to peculiar topics for pontification: this year, for example, he declared that the “era of white bread is over,” and that Turks should go whole grain. There is an added sting for many who have supported Mr. Erdogan. In his speeches, he has been an eloquent defender of inclusiveness and human rights — statements that added to his political draw among Turks who might otherwise have been put off by his Islamist past. Increasingly, however, his actions have seemed at odds with his words. Mr. Erdogan has been lionized for serving jail time for reciting a poem with religious overtones in public while he was Istanbul’s mayor. And in an interview last year with The Istanbul Review, a literary journal, he said: “Censorship is an unacceptable method of obstruction, not only in literature but in all arts, media, politics and many other fields. The freedom of expression is a right that we work to solidify every day and a subject we are particularly sensitive about.”
But in the years since he became prime minister, his government has become a leading jailer of journalists and opposition writers. And over the weekend, he was particularly vocal about protesters’ use of social media, singling out Twitter as a “menace” used to disseminate lies. Mr. Erdogan, 59, grew up in a pious, low-income neighborhood in Istanbul when Turkey was ruled by an elite that heavy-handedly banished religious expression from public life. In rising to power, he took that once-peripheral social class to the center of Turkish public life. And analysts say it will be that constituency’s reaction that determines how he weathers the current crisis. For now, it seems to be standing solidly behind him.
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In the first extensive public show of support since anti-government protests erupted last week, more than 10,000 supporters cheered Recep Tayyip Erdogan with rapturous applause outside Istanbul's international airport. Despite earlier comments that suggested he could be softening his stand, Erdogan delivered a fiery speech on his return from a four-day trip to North Africa. "These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now," he said. Tens of thousands of protesters have held demonstrations that have spread to dozens of cities across Turkey, sparked by the violent police reaction last Friday to what started out as a small protest against a plan to develop Istanbul's central Taksim Square.
Since then, three people have died - two protesters and a policeman - and thousands have been wounded. One protester is on life support in a hospital in Ankara. Protesters from all walks of life have occupied the square and its park, objecting to what they say is Erdogan's increasingly autocratic and arrogant manner - charges he vehemently denies. Turks have been awaiting Erdogan's words upon his return, seeing them as a signal of whether the demonstrations would fizzle or rage on.
Erdogan at times was almost drowned out by his supporters, part of the base that has helped him win three landslide elections. "God is Great," they chanted, and soon moved on to slogans referring specifically to the protesters in Taksim Square. "Let us go, let us smash them," they shouted. "Istanbul is here, where are the looters?" Erdogan had initially referred to the protesters as looters and troublemakers, while also acknowledging that excessive police force might have been used, and promising it would be investigated.
Erdogan's speech, delivered from atop an open-air bus outside the airport terminal, appeared at first to be an attempt to strike a unifying note. "They say I am the prime minister of only 50 percent. It's not true. We have served the whole of the 76 million from the east to the west," he said, referring to his election win in 2011, when he took 50 percent of the vote. "Together we are Turkey. Together we are brothers," he said, adding "We have never endeavored to break hearts. We are in favor of mending hearts." But he soon became more combative. "We have never been for building tension and polarization. But we cannot applaud brutality," he said.
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That impression is reinforced at night when residents in nearby neighbourhoods stand at their windows to clang their pots and pans in support of the protests. But away from the square and the park, there are other views. The neighbourhood of Uskudar is a ferry ride across the Bosphorus. From Istanbul's Asian shore, the demonstrations feel a long way away. In Uskudar there have been no large-scale protests. Next to the ferry port, shoe shiners bang their brass stalls to try to attract customers.
Over the last decade, this district has been redeveloped by the prime minister. His government is renovating a mosque. It's also building a tunnel to connect the metro to this side of the Bosphorus. Not far from here, Mr Erdogan proposes further redevelopment in the hope of getting the 2020 Olympic Games.
In Uskudar's market, the prime minister has both supporters and critics. Outside a fish stall, a handful gather for a conversation. "No-one is infallible," says a man who works in the tourism industry. "Erdogan has some good policies, and some bad policies. 90% of what he does is good for the country. There are people that love him and people that hate him. People shouldn't burn police cars, throw stones." "Erdogan is the only leader there is," insists another man. "He's the greatest leader in the world after [Turkey's founder] Ataturk. The police don't attack people if they're doing nothing. What is the job of the police ? To protect people."
An older man sees the conversation and walks straight over to make his point. "Tayyip Erdogan is a dictator and I've had enough of him," He doesn't care about our founder Ataturk or the republic. He's tried to get rid of our republican identity. The public is fed up with him. They've had enough. Tayyip is not good for this country." The others let him speak. The differing opinions in Uskudar haven't provoked demonstrations or unrest. No-one here suggests the prime minister's position is under threat. But for the first time, his future as Turkey's leader is the subject of open debate.
BBC News - Turkey protests: Erdogan support still strong elsewhere
Traffic came to a standstill and people crammed into any available space. It was a loud and boisterous show of backing by more than 10,000 followers of Erdogan, who for perhaps the first time in a decade of power appeared vulnerable after a week of protests challenging his rule. To his pious and conservative base, the three-term prime minister deserves respect for raising Turkey's international profile, improving their standard of living, cleaning up hospitals and providing better services. They adore him for curbing the powers of Turkey's secular military and for standing up to Israel when they felt Palestinians were oppressed. Here's what some of his supporters from Ankara's Sincan neighborhood, which is a major ruling party stronghold, have to say:
THE CAR WASH EMPLOYEE
Ramazan Usur, 52, is the only breadwinner in his family. He has three children - something he knows Erdogan would approve of. Usur said it's thanks to Erdogan that his family is able to live "in luxury" despite earning a minimum wage. The prime minister, Usur said, is the only leader "for our country and the party." "He is a great man, he is the greatest master, he is our emperor," Usur said. "He works day and night for his country. What else do they want from him?," he asked of the protesters.
THE GROCERY SHOP MANAGER
Sait Demirel, 38, is married and has three children. "The protests aren't about the environment anymore," he said, as he supervised his employees offloading watermelons from the back of a truck. "We are hearing that the protesters are hurling rocks and stones at police." Demirel supports Erdogan, but doesn't agree with all of his policies. "I don't drink liquor, but if someone wants to drink it then no one should try to prevent that," Demirel said, referring to a law that would restrict the sale and promotion of alcoholic drinks. "I think Erdogan, sometimes, can be overly reactive," he said.
THE CAR MECHANIC
Father of one, 27-year-old Yasin Bagci, works for minimum wage as a car mechanic and takes care of his family. He said they "suffered" economically under previous governments. "Erdogan's government solved most of these problems," Bagci said. "We still have problems that should be solved but there is no other person who can govern this country as well as Erdogan." Bagci said Erdogan has "all that it takes to be a leader. He stands behind his words. He is a straight talker." The protests were innocent in the beginning, he believed. "It was about protecting trees but turned into something else later on," he said. "If our leaders had listened to these people in the beginning the incident wouldn't have grown so much. Both sides should have listened to each other."
THE KEBAB SHOP CHEF
It might even have rattled the nation's grand ambitions on the world stage, which include a bid to host the 2020 Olympics and its long-standing aim to join the European Union. Thousands of protesters gathered for the eighth consecutive night Friday in Istanbul's Taksim Square, where the demonstrations originally began, and about 10,000 showed up at the main square in the capital, Ankara. They are venting anger at Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the protests are bordering on illegality and must stop immediately.
In his decade in power, Erdogan has been the driving force behind many of the reforms essential to push Turkey's EU bid forward, including significant improvements to human rights legislation. The country's economy has blossomed and infrastructure projects have burgeoned, especially in Istanbul. But many say he's gone too far. Dissent is rarely tolerated and some outspoken critics, including journalists and politicians, have been jailed. Now critics and even some supporters, accuse the prime minister of ignoring the fears and concerns of the 50 percent of the electorate who did not vote for him. "Turkey has been harmed in many ways in the last ten day in terms of the image (and) financial markets," said Cengiz Aktar, professor of international relations of Bahcesehir University.
The main index on the Istanbul Stock Exchange fell by 8 percent Thursday, after Erdogan made statements in Tunisia during a North Africa trip saying that the development project for Taksim Square would go ahead. It recouped some of its losses Friday, but has lost about 9 percent in a week. "There is only one, just one person who can solve this problem and his name is Erdogan. We are all watching his lips," Aktar said. On his return to Istanbul early Friday, Erdogan was greeted by thousands of chanting supporters at the airport. He made a fiery speech in which he insisted he was mindful of the wishes of the entire population and not just his own supporters, but also insisted terrorists and a banking conspiracy were involved in the protests. "The messages he gave last night were very concerning, and the mounted troops that were brought there, their slogans were really worrisome. These are indicating that this problem isn't going to be solved by dialogue," Aktar added.
The tarnishing of Turkey's international reputation was evident during a Friday conference in Istanbul aimed at furthering the country's decades-long EU accession hopes. "The duty of all of us, European Union members as much as those countries that wish to become one, is to aspire to the highest possible democratic standards and practices," said EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. "These include the freedom to express one's opinion, the freedom to assemble peacefully and freedom of media to report on what is happening as it is happening." Democracies, he told an audience that included Erdogan, must heed the needs of the whole of society, including those who disagree with the government. "Peaceful demonstrations constitute a legitimate way for these groups to express their views in a democratic society. Excessive use of force by police against these demonstrations has no place in such a democracy," he said.
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While the atmosphere in Istanbul's Taksim Square has changed dramatically from music festival by day to frontline fight by night, there has been a constant throughout: the endless jokes about an elected prime minister who is seemingly out of touch with a large portion of his nation's youth. Istanbul's anti-government protesters have inhaled tear gas and faced water canon, but they are still laughing all the way to Gezi Park, the symbolic centre of the demonstrations, which have now spread to at least 60 cities across the country. "We have witnessed incredible things that have left us psychologically traumatised, and although we are determined to win, we may actually lose this revolution because of laughter," said Fatih, a graphic designer who clashed with police overnight earlier in the week.
Gezi Park 'for sale'
In the past two years, Turkey has become known for a crackdown on freedom of speech and is well-documented for jailing one of the highest numbers of journalists worldwide. No surprise then that once the liberals broke their silence over how they felt about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative views and policies, an explosion of expression followed in the form of satire, irony and outright mockery of the popular leader on Istanbul's streets and social media.
Turkey's answer to Ebay, Sahibinden.com, became Tayyibinden.com where Gezi Park is now up for sale. The advertisement reads: "A place far from the hustle and bustle of the city, but in the heart of downtown. It's an ideal space for the family. You can use it comfortably. With planning permission for shopping mall. Ten steps from Taksim Square with road access. Special subway entrance. I'm selling it because I'm no longer interested in it. Sun from four sides. Includes activities."
Protesters also placed an ad, in which a water canon is for sale, poking fun at the police: "The water canon we took from our dear state two days ago is for sale. Hardly used. It has a capacity of spraying 1,000 police offers in one hour." It continues: "Painted with words on it that I can't say here. Includes a bonus, police uniforms are inside. Includes a smoke machine. We are selling it because we are upgrading to the next model. Price: you can ask the media, they know the true value."
'Riffraff' phenomenon
Revolutions take commitment and determination.
Erdogan wants Turkey to become an Islamic nation, and the citizens are demonstrating against it. The citizens like Turkey as the secular nation that it's been for 90 years. They don't like that Erdogan's wife appeared veiled. Who can blame them for not wanting to go backwards?
Erdogan wants Turkey to become an Islamic nation
They don't like that Erdogan's wife appeared veiled. Who can blame them for not wanting to go backwards?
