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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2013 5:03:31 GMT
It looks like the situation in Turkey is not likely to be resolved easily. Man dies during protest in TurkeyFrankly, I am not unhappy to see some resistance being shown to this government. While it remained "reasonable" for years, lately it has been blatantly trying to impose Muslim rules on a proudly secular country. Also, the park and Taksim Square are lovely in Istanbul, and I see no reason to rip everything up for a building project that seems to interest nobody except the people making money off it. The area can certainly be pedestrianized easily without demolishing everything. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2013 5:12:22 GMT
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Post by anshjain97 on Jun 5, 2013 10:24:02 GMT
Kerouac, I've not been following regarding this latest tension. What exactly is the motive behind these protests?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2013 14:37:04 GMT
It started as a local protest in Istanbul against an urban renrewal project, but it quickly spread to most of the cities in the country. What the protesters can't stand is that the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, has been acting like a sultan rather than an elected official. He has been trying to ban alcohol even though a large part of the Muslim population has consumed alcohol for centuries, he has restored the veil in the universities, even though it was banned in the 1920's. Lately he even tried to ban the flight attendants on Turkish Airlines from wearing makeup or nail polish. Worst of all, now he is trying to change the constitution so that he can be elected President once his second term as Prime Minister is finished (it is non renewable). Even though his political party still holds a comfortable majority due to the fact that the opposition is very disorgansed, the protesters want him to just respect the laws of the country as he promised to do, instead of changing them. And everybody is distressed in Turkey about this sort of thing eliminating all chances of ever being able to join the European Union even though Turkey has anchored itself to European ideals and institutions ever since the reign of Atatürk rather than turning towards the Middle East. Anyway, now the protests have even spread to Paris. I came across this gathering last night in the center of the city (and not even in the Turkish neighbourhood). |
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Post by anshjain97 on Jun 5, 2013 16:22:42 GMT
Thanks for the background.
Hope he is brought down soon- and that peace is soon restored.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2013 17:32:31 GMT
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Post by nautiker on Jun 9, 2013 20:31:33 GMT
given the importance of Turkey as a NATO-Allied, I don't want to envisage the amount of headwind Erdogan is going to face from the EU and US - I guess it will be twice as worse as if I switch on our hairdryer...
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Post by lugg on Jun 11, 2013 6:47:38 GMT
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Post by anshjain97 on Jun 11, 2013 7:08:39 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2013 21:07:57 GMT
Fireworks used as a protest device. Brilliant!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2014 22:46:41 GMT
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