Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Turkey’s four biggest cities yesterday, clashing for the third consecutive day with riot police firing tear gas in what has been the fiercest anti-government demonstration in a decade.
The catalyst is the destruction of a park in Istanbul. Though appearing insignificant, it has been for many Turks just the latest attempt by the AKP government to assert ever more control over public life.
"Tayyip resign, Tayyip resign," has become the anthem of the street in Istanbul and elsewhere with protesters calling for an end to the rule of Tayyip Recep Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister since 2003.
Since Friday, tens of thousands of people have filled Taksim square and the streets and alleys in central Istanbul. On Saturday evening just before 5pm they succeeded in driving out riot police to take complete control.
In Ankara, Turkey’s capital, protesters clashed with riot police in some of the most violence exchange of the six-day movement. Almost 1,000 people had been arrested by yesterday with dozens of injuries reported.
Turks have slowly become aggravated by their government over the past number of years. The AKP was at first lauded when it sidelined the once powerful military in 2008. However, violent police raids and the arrest of top military officers as well as journalists left a bad aftertaste.
The government’s domination of the country’s media – particularly for failing to cover the protests – has been another cause for concern.
Furthermore, Mr Erdogan’s recent comparing of Turkey’s economic renaissance to past Ottoman glory, when it was a feared and respected empire, has been viewed by many as bordering on dictatorial.
There was anger when on May 24th parliament passed legislation to curb the sale of alcohol, including banning its sale from gas stations, health clubs, student dorms and sports clubs.
Turkish opposition
In a country where the laws were more relaxed than many European countries, shops can no longer sell alcohol after 10pm or within 100m of a mosque. With thousands of mosques in Turkey's city centres, residents and shop-owners alike have complained.
Parliament also passed a Bill ending the over the counter sale of the morning-after pill.
And so on the streets of Istanbul this weekend were LGBT activists, Greenpeace supporters, communists and backers of the far right, as well as people representing the kaleidoscope of Turkish opposition parties.
Many protesters were not motivated by their own politics, but by their government’s. Many were university students, a strata of Turkish society particularly affected by the government’s new restrictions on alcohol and contraception.
Mr Erdogan has spoken several times since Friday and his response has been uncompromising.
“[They say] Tayyip Erdogan is a dictator. If they call one who serves the people a dictator, I cannot not say anything,” he told a group representing Balkan migrants.
He argued that there was “no conclusive decision to make a shopping mall” on the site of the park in Istanbul now destroyed, but few believe him.
Many Turks still back the prime minister, who has been elected to office twice.
His AKP party won 50 per cent of the vote in parliamentary polls two years ago.
Until now, Turkey’s growing economy has been a powerful buffer to political change and the government’s moves to control public life.
Thousands of protesters
Many Turks look west and see economic recession, while in the Middle East to the south, war and revolution have ravaged several Arab states.
Back in Taksim Square yesterday, thousands of protesters swelled the plaza for a third night and in other districts of Istanbul the carnival atmosphere was encouraged by residents banging pots and pans. In Ankara, 1,500 people gathered at a city square in continuing protest and in solidarity with the people in Taksim.
“He has to abandon his idea of constructing a mall and this will certainly affect his charisma,” said Bayram Balci, a visiting scholar in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Middle East Programme, “but I don’t think he will resign”.
Vandalised city buses
While many activists and protesters cleaned up rubbish around Taksim, by yesterday evening some mounted vandalised city buses and sprayed graffiti on shop fronts and cars. The machinery used to uproot trees in Gezi park, adjacent to Taksim Square, was looted and smashed.
However, political analysts say the prime minister’s popular base remains strong.
“If Erdogan wants, he and his political party can easily descend at least one million people in the streets,” said Mr Balci.
With demonstrators in firm control of the street and Mr Erdogan defiant, a quick settlement to what has become the greatest threat to the prime minister’s 10-year rule is no nearer.