This Amazing New York Times Article Is The Only Thing You Need To Read About Protests

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In Turkey

Michael Kelley|Jun. 8, 2013

Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times has published an amazing article about Istanbul's Taksim square — where protests against plans to demolish Gezi Park have entered their ninth day — and the power of public space.

Kimmelman, the architecture critic for the Times, details why Taksim is "the heart of modern, multicultural Turkey" and may be Prime Minster Recep Erdogan's Achilles' heel.

Read more: Why Protests In Turkey Have Been Successful - Business Insider

 

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Erdogan's patience wearin' thin...

Erdogan 'Losing Patience' With Protests
June 09, 2013 - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told thousands of his supporters that he has limited patience with the anti-government protests, now in their 10th day.

Erdogan delivered several speeches Sunday, demanding that the protesters give up. He said the marchers would "pay a price" and he said he would have to "speak the language" they understand.

He also urged his supporters to avoid violence themselves and use local elections next March to "teach a lesson" to their opponents. Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up more demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul Sunday.

Three people have been killed and thousands hurt since the protests began 10 days ago against government plans to tear down a public park in Istanbul. They have since turned into protests against what marchers call the prime minister's imposition of his Islamist views on a secular nation.

Erdogan 'Losing Patience' With Protests

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Turkey's leader lambasts protesters
Jun 9,`13 -- In a series of increasingly belligerent speeches to cheering supporters Sunday, Turkey's prime minister demanded an end to the 10-day anti-government protests that have spread across the country, saying those who do not respect the government will pay.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his patience was running out with the protesters, who have occupied Istanbul's main Taksim Square for more than a week and have held hundreds of demonstrations in dozens of cities across the country. Raising the stakes for those opposing him on Turkish streets and squares, Erdogan said he plans to bring out his supporters for rallies in Ankara and Istanbul next weekend. Erdogan's increasingly fiery tone could inflame tensions, with tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in the country's largest city, Istanbul, and thousands in the capital, Ankara, remaining on the streets. On two occasions, including one in the southern city of Adana on Saturday night, clashes have been reported between Erdogan supporters and protesters.

Protests have been held in 78 cities across the country since May 31, sparked by a violent police crackdown on a peaceful protest objecting to the redevelopment of Taksim Square and its Gezi Park. They have since morphed into a general denunciation of what many see as Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian ways after a decade in power, and as an attempt to impose his conservative, religious mores in a country governed by secular laws.

The protests have attracted a diverse crowd from all social backgrounds and age groups. Three people have died, including a police officer in Adana who fell into an underpass under construction while chasing demonstrators. More than 4,300 protesters have sought medical treatment, human rights groups have said. "We showed patience but our patience has its limits," Erdogan told a crowd of thousands of party supporters who turned out to cheer his arrival at Ankara airport on Sunday, in the third of about seven speeches given through the afternoon and evening.

Looking much like a candidate on a campaign trail, Erdogan delivered speeches at two airports, a sports hall, two Ankara districts and atop a bridge before heading to his party headquarters. At each, thousands of supporters turned out to cheer him. "Stand firm, don't yield, Turkey is with you," they chanted. Erdogan called repeatedly for the protests to end. "I call on my brothers who are duped: please put an end to your actions. Look, we have come to these days with patience. As a prime minister I say: enough!" In a separate speech, he added: "Otherwise I will have to speak the language you understand. Patience has an end. You cannot show Turkey as a country where there is an environment of terror."

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Uncle Ferd says dat's what he would do...

Erdogan Agrees to Meet with Turkish Protesters
June 10, 2013 - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to meet with anti-government protesters, even after saying his patience with the marchers is running thin.

His deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, says the meeting will take place Wednesday. Arinc also warned Monday that what he calls "illegal demonstrations" will no longer be allowed in Turkey.

The protesters refused to back down Monday, even as police again used tear gas and water cannons to break up an anti government march in Istanbul. Demonstrators responded with rocks and gasoline bombs. Three people have died since the marches began 11 days ago. Thousands have been hurt and thousands of others arrested.

The opposition party accuses Erdogan of fueling tensions and dragging the country into fire. The protests started against plans to tear down a public park in Istanbul. They have since turned into protests against what marchers call the prime minister's imposition of his Islamist views on a secular nation.

Erdogan Agrees to Meet with Turkish Protesters

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Young women the face of Turkey’s protests
Tue, Jun 11, 2013 - They are young, urban and well-educated, and for the past week they have been sleeping in an Istanbul park: meet the women on the front line of Turkey’s mass anti-government protests.

“We are the women Erdogan would like to see staying at home,” actress Sevi Algan, 37, said, referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who protesters say is forcing his conservative, Islamic values on the mainly Muslim, but staunchly secular nation. Many of the women happily admit they are accidental activists who never would have guessed two weeks ago that they would be pitching a tent in the epicenter of a nationwide civil unrest. Yet now these young Turks, many of them students, lawyers, teachers and office workers, account for half of the thousands of demonstrators in Gezi Park and nearby Taksim Square — and they have taken to their new routine with gusto.

They spend hours under the park’s sycamore trees debating their cause, take part in all-night singing and dancing sessions and, when necessary, stand shoulder-to-shoulder with soccer fans on guard against police action outside the park’s police-free zone. The protest began after a small campaign to save the park’s 600 trees from being razed sparked a police crackdown with tear gas and water cannon on May 31, quickly spiraling into widespread anger against the government. The unrest has injured more than 4,000 people and killed three across the country. Many of the female protesters say the time has come to stand up for their rights in the face of creeping infringements on their freedoms by Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Erdogan has won three successive elections, gaining almost 50 percent of the vote in 2011 after presiding over steady economic growth. However, critics accuse him of increasing authoritarianism and of polarizing the country. “Women are on the front line because they are the first victims of Erdogan’s projects,” Sevi said. Her list of grievances include Erdogan’s proposals to limit abortion rights, tighten the rules for the morning-after pill and ban the late-night sale of alcohol. Erdogan has also sparked outrage for declaring that every woman in Turkey should have three children. “Would he like more children like us?” Ozlem Altiok, an unemployed former flight attendant, said as she chatted with friends in Gezi Park.

Sevi said supporters of the ruling AKP consider the demonstrators “bad Muslims,” but she insists they are not against Islam. “We like to drink, debate, but Erdogan and his people do not have a monopoly on Islam,” she said. “Look at the solidarity on Taksim Square. That’s what it means to be Muslim.” In the park, where free food, yoga lessons and concerts are on offer, clusters of feminists and gay rights activists are camped out next to veil-wearing anti-capitalist Muslims, the site’s festive atmosphere and a sense of camaraderie outweigh any ideological differences.

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Turkish unions declare one-day strike in support of protesters...

Unions give lift to Turkish protest movement
Jun 17,`13 -- Turkish labor groups fanned a wave of defiance against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authority, leading rallies and a one-day strike to support activists whose two-week standoff with the government has shaken the country's secular democracy.

Riot police again deployed in Turkey's two main cities, and authorities kept up their unyielding stance against the street demonstrations centering on Istanbul's Taksim Square. But Monday's police sweep was less forceful than in recent days, with only scattered firing of tear gas and water cannon on pockets of protesters. After activists were ousted from their sit-in in adjacent Gezi Park over the weekend, two labor confederations that represent some 330,000 workers picked up the slack Monday by calling a strike and demonstrations nationwide. Unionists turned up by the thousands in Ankara, Istanbul, coastal Izmir and elsewhere.

The turnout defied Turkey's interior minister, Muammer Guler, who warned that anyone taking part in unlawful demonstrations would "bear the legal consequences." But one analyst called the rallies a "legitimate and a lawful expression of constitutional rights." "People are raising their voices against the excessive use of police force," said Koray Caliskan, a political science professor at Istanbul's Bosphorus University. Demonstrators, he said, were showing they were no longer cowed by authorities, and "the fear threshold has been broken." In a sign that authorities were increasingly impatient, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc floated the prospect that authorities could call in troops to quash the protests.

People shout anti-government slogans during a rally by the labor unions in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday, June 17, 2013. A day earlier, riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent anti-government protesters from an effort to return to Taksim Square in Istanbul. Labor unions and political foes of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan rallied Monday by the thousands across Turkey, hoping to capitalize on weeks of protest that began as small-scale activism and parlay it into a chance to register broader discontent.

Erdogan's opponents have grown increasingly suspicious about what they call a gradual erosion of freedoms and secular values under his Islamic-rooted ruling party. It has passed new curbs on alcohol and tried, but later abandoned its plans, to limit women's access to abortion. The government set off protests nationwide and drew criticism abroad over a police crackdown that began May 31 against environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square who were protesting against plans to tear down trees and re-develop Gezi Park. Thousands have flooded the streets nightly since then, many honking car horns and waving Turkish flags.

Erdogan, who has held power for 10 years and was re-elected in 2011, mobilized his supporters over the weekend in two huge rallies - insisting his duty was to keep order, railing against media coverage of the protests and lashing out at unspecified foreigners whom he said want to hurt Turkey. TV images Monday showed crowds of government supporters in Istanbul facing down some protesters and chanting "the hands targeting the police should be broken." On Twitter, a trending topic urged protesters to stay home - some expressing concern that pro-government mobs might attack them.

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Turkish government says it may use army to end protests
17 June 2013 > Turkey's government has said it could use the military to end nearly three weeks of unrest by protesters in Istanbul and other cities.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told A Haber TV that the state would use "all its powers" and the armed forces if necessary to "establish peace". It is the first time the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has raised the prospect of deploying troops. Later, Mr Arinc complained that his comments had been taken out of context. On Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of thousands of supporters at a rally in Istanbul that the protesters had been manipulated by "terrorists".

Anti-government protests continued in Istanbul and Ankara on Sunday night

Trade unions have called a strike to protest against the police crackdown on demonstrators which has seen some 500 people arrested. Medical officials estimate that 5,000 people have been injured and at least four killed in the unrest. The protests began on 28 May against a plan to redevelop Istanbul's Gezi Park, on the city's central Taksim Square, but it snowballed into nationwide anti-government protests after the perceived high-handed response of the authorities under their three-term prime minister.

Gendarmes

In an interview with A Haber, a Turkish news channel, Mr Arinc insisted that "the innocent demonstrations that began 20 days ago" had "completely ended". Any further demonstrations would be "immediately suppressed", he added. "Our police, our security forces are doing their jobs," he said. "If it's not enough then the gendarmes will do their jobs. If that's not enough... we could even use elements of the Turkish armed forces." The deployment of gendarmes - a military unit under control of the interior ministry in peacetime - shocked some protesters in Istanbul this weekend.

Mr Arinc later wrote to the BBC to complain that the TV interview had been "taken out of context" and "created the misperception that the Turkish government might use its army and all its forces to suppress the protests". "The AK Party would never consider declaring a state of emergency or anything similar," he added. "The powers that we are entitled with are sufficient to settle such events. "When a societal event breaks out in a region, our governors are responsible for restoring order and security. In such a case, they deploy firstly police forces, then gendarmeries. If the incidents become widespread, armed forces might be also called on the governor's order to establish peace."

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