Erdogan quiets Istanbul with softer tone, but calm is likely to be brief
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Today, only a day after issuing his 鈥渇inal鈥� warning to Taksim Square鈥檚 protesters, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan softened his tone, telling them that he has received their message and will at least temporarily halt plans for redeveloping Gezi Park.
After a night of meetings with protest representatives, Mr. Erdogan announced in a speech that the future of Gezi Park, the issue that sparked two-week long anti-government demonstrations, , reports聽the Guardian.
Although tensions across the country have eased since reaching a fever pitch earlier this week,听many believe that Erdogan鈥檚 bid to defuse the unrest won鈥檛 be enough to end the demonstrations. For many, the protests are about something much bigger than the issue of Gezi Park: the direction Turkey will take in the future.
Protests began two weeks ago, when a group of peaceful protesters staged a demonstration to attempt to stop the destruction of Gezi Park, one of Istanbul鈥檚 last green spaces, to make way for a mall and housing complex. After police violently broke up the sit-in, to protest what they see has the increasingly authoritarian style of Erdogan鈥檚 rule and the gradual erosion of secular values by his Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), says聽the Los Angeles Times.
Protesters accuse Erdogan, who won 50 percent of the vote in his last election, of behaving like an autocrat and only representing those who voted for him. Much of the country feels increasingly alienated by controversial policies, such as limiting the sale of alcohol and birth control.
Though at first defiant, even going so far as to label the protesters as "terrorists," Erdogan came under increasing pressure after several brutal police crackdowns which resulted in injuries to some 5,000 people. Yesterday the European Parliament voted to condemn Turkey for its use of violence against the demonstrators. And according to聽Today鈥檚 Zaman, Germany is .听
Should the court rule in favor of the government, a referendum will be held over the fate of Gezi Park. But many protesters told 海角大神 this is not enough.
Demonstrators and others at odds with the government say they are skeptical of its commitment to conducting a free and fair referendum about the park. Many point out that Erdogan could have held such a vote聽long before the situation escalated to clashes聽between protesters and police.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 trust the results of these elections. Maybe they鈥檒l change the results,鈥� says Yasin Arslan, an aeronautical engineer now in Gezi Park.鈥�
What鈥檚 more, it is not clear that Erdogan's concessions will end the demonstrations. According to Al-Monitor, the Taksim Platform 鈥� a coalition of 80 NGOs leading the protests 鈥� have stated that they will .
This weekend, as protestors remain at their camps, in Istanbul and Ankara, reports聽Today鈥檚 Zaman. Widely believed to be displays of force to counter the anti-government protests, AKP officials claim that the rallies are simply a part of their campaign for 2014 municipal elections.
But as Bloomberg points out, opposition parties have , fearing that the rallies will only stoke tensions.
