‘PM who takes things personally’: Erdogan to demolish park despite protests

[Coyotl]

Source: RT

Turkey’s PM has vowed that development of Taksim Square will go ahead, despite ongoing protests. Tayyip Erdogan made the remark in Tunisia, and is due to return to Turkey today. Erdogan is also under scrutiny, with opponents blasting him as authoritarian.

As the protests enter their seventh day, casualties have risen, with three people dead and more than 4,000 injured. What began as an environmental protest against the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul to build a mall has turned into Turkey’s biggest wave of anti-government protest in years.

"There is a problem called Twitter right now and you can find every kind of lie there. The thing that is called social media is the biggest trouble for society right now," Erdogan said before leaving for North Africa. The Turkish prime minister also slammed the protests as undemocratic, and dismissed them as being organized by extremists.

In their list of demands issued to Erdogan, activists are calling for the firing of the chiefs responsible for the violent police crackdown, the release of protesters detained by police, and for a ban on the use of teargas. ....

Read more: http://rt.com/news/turkey-demands-erdogan-returns-300/

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One photo is worth 1,000 words,
and four photos tell a whole story:

[hlthe2b]

1. This is one very foolish man...

Heading straight down the Gaddafi trail-- and given how important is the continuation of Turkey as a secular Republic--that is NOT a good thing at all.

[Coyotl]

2. The protest are in favor of the continuation of Turkey as a secular republic instead authoritarian

Albeit, the situation may enable the authoritarians to impose their Muslim sultanate.

Why My 60-Year-Old Mother is Protesting the Turkish Government
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/why-my-60-year-old-mother-is-protesting-the-turkish-government

... Ten years ago, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his far-right religious AK Party came into power in Turkey. His rise to power was cause for alarm among progressive secular Turks, who wanted to uphold a democracy that has strictly separated government and religion. The separation of church and state is a founding element of Turkey’s modern government—just like America’s—and was put into place by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. This central policy states that members of any religion can practice their faith without letting their beliefs interfere with public policy and atheists or agnostics (like me) don’t have to live by religious rules.

Ten years ago, Turks like me feared that AK Party, with its fundamentalist Islamic views, would meticulously chip away at Turkey’s secular laws, cultural and social progress, and Ataturk’s modern legacy one small chunk at a time, molding Turkey into a country more like its neighboring Islamic states. As AK Party stayed in power since then, those fears have all been realized. The future for a progressive, secular Turkey is becoming grimmer by the second.

Like the right-wing in America, AK Party has been eroding women’s rights through making religious standards a part of their laws, trying to shame and discredit secular women and keep religious women under even more control. They signed legislation that limited rights to abortions, birth control, and for some reason, C-sections. They spread homophobic lies about the gay community while officially calling homosexuality a disease.

During the last couple of years, with more executive power under his fingertips, Erdogan ramped up his efforts to turn Turkey into an Islamic autocratic state. .........

[hlthe2b]

3. I know that...

Erdogan can back down and initiate reforms that will return Turkey to its secular roots, or be overthrown. Unfortunately, if he is overthrown in a vacuum (without a favored strongly supported replacement), I fear the Islamic factions will get their opening.

[athena]

8. Erdogan's party *is* the Islamic faction in Turkey.

We're not talking about Iran, Iraq, or Egypt here. Turkey was a secular state for eight decades before the AKP came into power. There is no generation alive in Turkey that didn't grow up taking certain freedoms for granted. This is a country that has its own national alcoholic drink. It's not going to turn into an Islamic state as a result of a democratically-elected Islamic-leaning PM resigning.

[athena]

9. One more thing:

The recent protests in Turkey are actually a very good sign. Erdogan had been aiming to change Turkey's constitution to give the presidency more powers, such as the power to dissolve the parliament. He's running into his term limit and planning to run for president in 2014. The protests show, first, that Turks won't just roll over and accept this, and second, that others in his own party are not necessarily happy with Erdogan assuming so much power.

Not all of the majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East are the same.

(Edited to remove snark.)

[hlthe2b]

10. I hope you are right...

I spent much time in Egypt during their own "strong man", Mubarak's time, which, admittedly served to contain the more extremist Islamic factions. Yet, his own dictatorial tendencies aided the Muslim Brotherhood in gaining the sympathetic foothold that haunts them today, despite the revolution's goal of a true democracy.

[athena]

13. I don't think Erdogan has been containing any Islamic factions.

Last edited Thu Jun 6, 2013, 03:59 PM - Edit history (1)

The levels of support for Islamic law are much lower in Turkey than in Egypt (see this and this). I don't even think Erdogan could have won any elections in Turkey without pretending to be more interested in the economy than in Islam. He even got votes from leftists who thought he would improve the rights of minorities and reduce the power of the military.

The only danger now is that the protests will turn violent and result in civil war, at which point Erdogan would be able to declare an emergency and change the constitution. Fortunately, the protesters are well aware of this danger. (In fact, I learned about the possibility on a Turkish site advising protesters to remain non-violent and to use humor rather than anger.) The media like to focus on the few acts of protester violence, but if you look at videos posted by individual Turks (such as the ones I posted here), the vast majority of the protests are still remarkably peaceful.

I used to be interested in Turkish politics but stopped following it years ago, when the Turkish press suddenly stopped criticizing Erdogan. I feared that the country was on a slow path to Islamism, like the slowly boiling frog. The AKP's plan seemed to be to weaken the justice system, the press, and the military, and then establish sharia. It was never clear that the plan would succeed, since Turkey has a much longer and stronger history of secularism than Iran did at the time of its revolution. It now looks like the people won't allow it to succeed.

What annoys me is how consistently wrong the U.S. media have been about Turkey. From the beginning, they've seen Erdogan as a "moderately Islamist" leader (whatever that means), who would modernize and improve Turkey's democracy. They didn't notice his habit of scolding journalists for asking tough questions (not a sign of a leader who understands democracy). Now that the Turkish public is protesting, the media interpret this as a sign that Turkish democracy is on the rocks. Aren't protests a part of democracy? In fact, the public uprising is a reason for hope, not despair.

I could be wrong, of course. I could be underestimating the level of religious sentiment in Turkey's smaller cities. But it seems to me that others underestimate the strength of Turkey's secularism. I think that the probability of an Islamist government taking over Turkey is about the same as the probability of a tea-party government taking over the U.S. (not impossible, but unlikely).

[stevil]

14. Well done

Thank you.

[BillyRibs]

12. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

the rest of us are just along for the ride.-the Vicar

[heaven05]

4. what

do you expect? There is a huge amount of MONEY involved here and many, many payoffs to politicians and their cronies! MONEY trumps(pun intended) EVERYTHING, including human life, liberty and pursuit of safety and happiness. Those photos piss me off, such brave officers of state security.

[Coyotl]

7. I wonder if gas mask boy has been identified yet?

[Javaman]

5. this won't end well. nt

[fasttense]

6. The cop would have done the same thing to a child or puppy.

A vulnerable creature must be abused. It's what happens when authoritarian religions mix with a militarized police force. Besides, the AK has to have another shopping mall no matter what. You know, it has to do with God and the need to shop.

[Ash_F]

11. I didn't know they made backpack canisters for mace...

Bet that's an American product.

[alp227]

15. The Guardian: Thousands greet defiant Erdogan

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has delivered a fiery speech on his return to the country, telling supporters who thronged to greet him that the protests that have swept the country must end.

In the first large public show of support since anti-government protests erupted last week, more than 10,000 supporters cheered Erdogan outside an Istanbul airport.

Despite earlier comments that suggested he could be softening his stand, Erdogan was in combative mood on his return from a four-day trip to North Africa.

"These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end immediately," he said.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/turkey-erdogan-defiant-supporters1

[fujiyama]

16. Disturbing how much support the thug still has

The events going on in Turkey are a true test of whether a majority Muslim nation can remain secular or fall to religious law. I fear with Erdogan, he has proven the latter. The protesters give me hope, but they will be crushed - just as they have been in Egypt. One authoritarian falls, and an even worse one emerges.

The world is in a state of despair.

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. "Let them eat cake", eh? n/t