Protests in Turkey worsen, spreading to 67 cities, targeting Tayyip Erdogan more directly PHOTOS
While the mainstream media appears have not noticed the massive riots in the streets of Turkey and the rage that has turned against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, PolicyMic published a collection of photos to capture the chaos and mood.
The protests have now spread to over 67 cities with thousands and thousands joining in opposition to the regime.
Foreign editor at ABC Jon Williams has tweeted that “Clashes Sunday night worst yet.”
Photos (see below) reveal the makeshift blockades made by both the police and the protest groups
#occupygezi is one of the key hashtags on twitter, which can be assumed to be an Occupy Wall Street style group, offering several photos of the protests – OCCUPY TAKSIM
Erdogan is now blaming twitter and this has actually encouraged the protesters.
“”There is now a menace…called Twitter”-#Turkey‘s PM blames opposition and social media for unrest http://soa.li/IEOi1nN ”Keep it up!
Possibly one of the best summaries of the chaos is from European Council on Foreign Relations which attempts to summarize the motivations:
Today’s Turkish urbanites are not rallying against the Ottomanist nostalgia dear to the ruling Justice & Development party (AKP); nor only over the transformation of a public space into a swanky shopping-mall (which would have included restoration of the historic Topçu military barracks which stand in the park); nor, despite the anarchist and communist flags, is kneejerk anti-capitalism the Occupy Gezi movement’s primary motive (after all, most of the protesters are hardly the losers from AKP’s romance with the market).
At heart, the mass upheaval in Istanbul (and across urban Turkey) is about one individual: Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his ambition to shape Turkey in his own image. Erdoğan’s overwhelming presence in Turkish politics is what brings together liberals and nationalists, old-school secularists, leftist trade unionists, football fans and iPhone-carrying youths. Simply put, people have had enough of their leader’s arrogance. Anger has been piling up: most recently over the bomb-attacks at Reyhanlı, across the border from Syria, and proposed legislation placing limits on alcohol consumption.
Turkish police regrouping with a new blockade
“Police regrouping around #Besiktas #Istanbul” = BBC’s Ben Thompson twitter
This is a rebel blockade. The Dispatch cannot confirm it’s in the same area as the above photo but it came from a similar feed on twitter.
Besiktas tırcı abiler maşaaallah as Transformers! Walk man, worthy of you! twitter
Protests in front of the national tv channel against their censorship on #occupygezi #Turkey p/v @khanism twitter
Check out the photos from the Imgur page Hamza Atik
Additional twitter, man with Turkey flag – here
[…] Photos from twitter when the protests began – click here […]
[…] Protests in Turkey worsen, spreading to 67 cities, targeting Tayyip Erdogan more directly PHOTOS (theglobaldispatch.com) […]
[…] Protests in Turkey worsen, spreading to 67 cities, targeting Tayyip Erdogan more directly PHOTOS (theglobaldispatch.com) […]
[…] Protests in Turkey worsen, spreading to 67 cities, targeting Tayyip Erdogan more directly PHOTOS […]