Turkish delight served right on time to Mr. Erdogan

The standoff between the secular part of the Turkish people, brought up in the spirit of Ataturk and the Turkish government has been going on for several days already. It all started because the authorities of Istanbul wanted to destroy one of the few parks in the city to build a shopping complex there instead.

Photo: AP photo

When protesters gathered on the site, police used tear gas against them. The chairman of the Russian Society of Izmir, Andrey Ponomarev, told Pravda.Ru that such measures were not unusual for Turkey at all. Law enforcement agencies very often resort to them during riots. 

But what happened next was not a usual development. People in several cities of Turkey began to take to the streets demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mass rallies started across the country over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people took part in them, over 3,000 were injured so far, two people were killed.

Major Turkish media that belong to a small group of people associated with the government ignored the riots. They only aired usual entertaining television programs. The people became outraged. It is not the matter of the felled trees, and not even about how the police was acting against peaceful protesters. The people, who were keeping silence for long, rebelled. The Turkish people took a completely different look at their country.  They saw a complex social and economic environment, high unemployment - especially among young people - as well as government reforms designed to make Turkey a more Islamic country than it is today. The ban on alcohol, peace with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, interference in the affairs of Syria, an ill-conceived school reform and many other initiatives of Erdogan's government sparked furious protests in the country.

The prime minister again showed his iron will: "green light" was given to police to break up demonstrations brutally. That caused a backlash - people started setting offices of the ruling party ablaze. The crime rate related to robbery and rape increased, although it has nothing to do with the rebels. Such crimes are committed by local gangs, football fans or provocateurs.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the uprising has no specific leaders. Nobody organizes anything. They post messages on the Internet, and people come to specified locations. Even the opposition People's Party does not lead these protests. Some say that the protests, over the lack of leaders, may grow into uncontrollable riots. The civil society of Turkey may finally split into supporters of secular views and radical religious views. In this case, anything may happen. 

Pravda.Ru