Protests in Turkey
Berker Parlaker
21202604
ENG 102-74
Essay1-Final Draft
PROTESTS IN TURKEY
The Gezi Park movement has a huge importance for all Turkish citizens because after many years in silence people took action to protect their rights and they aimed to foster Turkish democracy. Just forgetting the demonstrations would be a great mistake result in missing the chance to create more democratic country. In this paper the situation in Turkey and Burak Kadercan’s view about it will be discussed. First of all we have to separate the protests and Arab Spring. Arab Spring is a popular movement (uprising) against dictatorship and Arabic people fights for their freedom and democracy. On the other hand Turkey’s situation is different, we still have democracy and Erdoğan is still a popular leader. From another point of view Arabs rise up all together against their dictators however in Turkey just a group of people –AKP haters – started the protests. If the protestors were united we could talk about a Turkish Spring. How the protests began? All the protests started initially to oppose the construction plan that destroys trees at nearly Taksim Square, Gezi Park. The project was about building a mall and offices and the protest had started with just dozens of people. People who like Gezi Park or who care about trees were there to stop construction and firstly they were just sitting and reading books. The police response was brutal and it created a reaction. Police’s intervene to those calm protestors wakes up Turkish youth so the main protests began all of major cities in Turkey, based on Istanbul, Taksim. The protests were not about the trees anymore, it was the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Burak Kadercan states that the protests are not the problem they are symptoms. This is actually an irrefutable truth because the government created that protest. The actions and behavior of Erdoğan is the main problem. We can find many examples of his controversial movements. The
21202604
ENG 102-74
Essay1-Final Draft
PROTESTS IN TURKEY
The Gezi Park movement has a huge importance for all Turkish citizens because after many years in silence people took action to protect their rights and they aimed to foster Turkish democracy. Just forgetting the demonstrations would be a great mistake result in missing the chance to create more democratic country. In this paper the situation in Turkey and Burak Kadercan’s view about it will be discussed. First of all we have to separate the protests and Arab Spring. Arab Spring is a popular movement (uprising) against dictatorship and Arabic people fights for their freedom and democracy. On the other hand Turkey’s situation is different, we still have democracy and Erdoğan is still a popular leader. From another point of view Arabs rise up all together against their dictators however in Turkey just a group of people –AKP haters – started the protests. If the protestors were united we could talk about a Turkish Spring. How the protests began? All the protests started initially to oppose the construction plan that destroys trees at nearly Taksim Square, Gezi Park. The project was about building a mall and offices and the protest had started with just dozens of people. People who like Gezi Park or who care about trees were there to stop construction and firstly they were just sitting and reading books. The police response was brutal and it created a reaction. Police’s intervene to those calm protestors wakes up Turkish youth so the main protests began all of major cities in Turkey, based on Istanbul, Taksim. The protests were not about the trees anymore, it was the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Burak Kadercan states that the protests are not the problem they are symptoms. This is actually an irrefutable truth because the government created that protest. The actions and behavior of Erdoğan is the main problem. We can find many examples of his controversial movements. The