Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon today (May 31, 2013) at demonstrators in central Istanbul, wounding scores of people and prompting rallies in other cities in Turkey in the fiercest anti-government protests in years, the Reuters website reports.
Thousands of demonstrators massed on streets surrounding Istanbul's central Taksim Square, long a venue for political unrest, while protests also erupted in the capital, Ankara, and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.
The unrest reflects growing disquiet at the authoritarianism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdogan has been changing the democratic form of government in Turkey into an Islamist-centerd government during his decade in power.
"We do not have a government, we have Tayyip Erdogan," said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Bosphorus University, who attended the protest.
Erdogan remains Turkey's most popular politician, and is widely viewed as its most powerful leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern secular republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago. "These people will not bow down to you" read one banner at Istanbul's Gezi Park protest, alongside a cartoon of Erdogan wearing an Ottoman emperor's turban.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment