

What the Heck Is Happening in Turkey? A FAQ for the Rest of Us - richeyrw
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/03/turkey_faq_what_s_happening_in_istanbul_will_recep_tayyip_erdogan_be_ousted.html

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diminoten
Democracy has always struck me as an interesting form of government, precisely
for the reason being shown here: If the voting wasn't rigged, and we have no
reason to believe it was, then Erdoğan was indeed voted into office according
to the laws of Turkey, and thus has about as legitimate a reason to do what
he's doing as anyone in his position would, at least if you buy into how a
representative democracy works.

So then a man who was ostensibly elected by his people starts taking actions
that _some_ (it's not all) of his people disagree strongly with, and they
attempt to show that disagreement in the form of protesting. So far so good,
right? The system is working, about as well as it can. There is a vocal
minority attempting to gather numbers by protesting the actions of an elected
official the minority disagrees with. That sounds like a country I'd like to
live in, right?

But then the oppression begins, and here is why this got so bad, from what
I've just read: out come the tear gas and the riot shields. This goes from a
beautiful process of democracy in action to what we in the US would call a
blatant violation of First Amendment Rights (capital F, A and R). Now you've
got a national incident, which grows as the mistreatment grows, and soon it's
an international incident that looks a _little bit_ like what many other
countries in the area have gone through, which lead to the ending of a
government. But it's not that, because what would you replace this government
with? A democracy? That's what got them to this point in the first place.

So what exactly happens now? By all rights, Erdoğan should remain in office
for the remainder of his term. How can the protesters ask for anything else?
He is, after all, a fairly elected leader of their country. I honestly don't
know what the alternative would be. I keep trying to imagine how this would go
down in America, and I can't imagine a President stepping down because of
violent protesting in NYC or D.C..

~~~
cup
These protests remind me a lot of protests that were seen during the world
trade talks or other free trade conventions in the US. Passionate young people
protesting about injustices they see in the world and severe retribution by an
aggressive militarised police force.

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diminoten
You mean the G20 riots in Pittsburgh, PA in 2009?

Here's some information on those protests:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit#Pro...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit#Protests)

Those were much smaller, and the reaction from the authority there seems to
have been harsh, but not much like what the pictures I've seen have
represented the violence in Turkey. Those riots also seem to come in the form
of the economically disenfranchised, where what's happening in Turkey has
religious undertones, which in my subjective opinion gives it a more powder-
keg feel.

~~~
cup
Oh yeah those are the ones. I remember I was in Australia a few years back
when there was some economic forum going on and they had locked the entire
city down in anticipation of protests. The protests did start (probably more
because young people love to protest) and the police got carried away in some
cases toto.

I think you're right though, Turkey is much more unpredictable and
inflammable. I mean the country has a long history of military coups, it has
major political parties which are extremeley well organised and committed and
a long and interesting history which has developed a strong culture.

I think this is a religious issue as you said as well, in the sense that the
traditionally poor, religious under class (farmers etc) have gained the most
during Erdogans tenure and now the upper, liberal secular class may be feeling
threatened by this growing religious and productive force. Allahu alim though.

------
cup
That article was much more informattive than most that have been posted on HN
but it still misses a lot of issues. For instance it leaves out the fact that
Erdogans party first came into party with 35% of the votes. That shows that
theres been a steady inccrease in support for his party over the years.

I think HNs need to realise theres more to this than a simple park and
underlying social tension. There are a lot more issues at play. There are
political parties taking advantage of these protest tto cause social tension.
There is unacceptable police violence which is fueling protestor anger and
there is a constant superficial narrative as to why these protesst have
started and continued. This is a very complex issue which isn't black and
white and which can't be summed up in a 140 character tweet!

