Taksim Square protests
Christian Rice
PolicyMic
2 June 2013
Protesters flooded Istanbul’s Taksim Square Friday after heavy-handed police tactics and increasing dissatisfaction with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who some say is becoming increasingly authoritarian.
The mainstream media has yet to highlight the protests. Meanwhile, police brutality continues as over 900 people have been arrested and several have been killed.
Here are thirteen pictures from Twitter that show why we should take offense with mainstream media for not covering what could become an historic event.
Is This Arab Spring 2.0? Clearly, Gezi Park is a microcosm of seething resentment that has deeper roots, and urban planning spats like this are at the bottom of the list of grievances.
Why Has Turkey Exploded In Protest? Read more on the unfolding situation.
Police brutally deal with a protester. Via: Twitter
For more on protests in Turkey and politics around the world, follow me on Twitter: @C_Rice3
The article continues at PolicyMic
Related: The New York Times, Police Retreat as Protests Expand Through Turkey
Violent protests against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan engulfed Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, on Saturday and spread to other cities, including the capital, Ankara, as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in a second day of civil unrest and faced the tear gas and water cannons of a harsh police crackdown…
…While the protest began over plans to destroy a park, for many demonstrators it had moved beyond that to become a broad rebuke to the 10-year leadership of Mr. Erdogan and his government, which they say has adopted authoritarian tactics. Some saw the police pullback as a historic victory…
…The Islamist-rooted government retains wide support among religious conservatives, and Mr. Erdogan insisted Saturday that the redevelopment of the square would continue as planned…
Also, Protests in Turkey Reveal a Larger Fight Over Identity
…In full public view, a long struggle over urban spaces is erupting as a broader fight over Turkish identity, where difficult issues of religion, social class and politics intersect. And while most here acknowledge that every Turkish ruling class has sought to put its stamp on Istanbul, there is a growing sense that none has done so as insistently as the current government, led by Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, despite growing resistance.
On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan went on television to reject accusations of dictatorial behavior while flatly discounting the protesters’ legitimacy…
…Edhem Eldem, a historian at Bogazici University in Istanbul, has criticized the government for undertaking large-scale development projects without seeking recommendations from the public. “In a sense, they are drunk with power,” he said. “They lost their democratic reflexes and are returning to what is the essence of Turkish politics: authoritarianism.”…
…Mr. Erdogan’s decade-long rule has dramatically reshaped Turkey’s culture by establishing civilian control of the military. It has broken down rules of the old secular order that now permit the wide public expression of religion, seen in the proliferation of women wearing head scarves, by the conservative masses who make up the prime minister’s constituency. His rule has also nurtured a pious capitalist class, whose members have moved in large numbers from rural Anatolia to cities like Istanbul, deepening class divisions…
