gezi park protests

Gezi Park ProtestsThe Turkish Spring 2013

“The woman in the Red Dress”

The Legacy of Mustafa Kemal “Attaturk”

The secular Turkish Republic and the military as the defender of that principal

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Is the Problem Islam or Erdogan?

Sultan Tayyip

PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

•“AK” parti (means white or pure)•Elected for the third time in 2011•Turkey has average over 5% GDP growth since their first election in 2002•Is Democracy “a train from which you get off once you reach the station”.•More journalists are in jail in Turkey than in China

AKP – Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party)

Erdogan’s Development Plan

for Turkey

Erdogan’s Development

Plan for Taksim Square

May 28, 2013 Fifty environmentalists camp in Istanbul’s Gezi Park to prevent its demolition. The government intends to build a shopping mall that is a replica

of an Ottoman era military barracks.

31 May – Due to social media, the crowd expands, followed by the 1st

severe police crackdown

Istanbul’s Gezi ParkIs it just about the trees?

The Turkish Media

Taksim Square becomes a festival as the police withdraw due to international pressure

Gezi Festival

“We are all çapulcu”Looters, louts, rif-raf, vandals or criminals

Man the Barricades!

Erdogan cracks down: at dawn on 11 June, Police broke through the barricades and began retaking Taksim Square around 8am. Hundreds of riot police with tear gas and rubber bullets took down banners, injuring hundreds

“Erdogan’s Kiss”

The governor of Istanbul, after promising just to retake the Square and stay out of Gezi Park, orders police to retake the Park on the afternoon of 15 June

Return to Normal?

Attaturk Cultural CenterFuture Mosque?

Before

After

The “Standing Man”

Headscarves in the MeclisNov 13

Is It over?