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What's causing the protests in Turkey?

What started as a peaceful sit-in to protect one of Istanbul's last public parks has escalated into nationwide protests. But why are people protesting and what's causing the continued unrest? Share your story in the comment thread below.
Istanbul protests continue in Turkey Protesters walk to Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. Growing opposition to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian agenda has triggered the unrest. Photograph: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Protests in Turkey are entering their fifth day with one of Turkey's biggest trade unions starting a two day strike in support of the anti-government protestors. Sporadic clashes between riot police and protestors have continued in Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul, with two deaths confirmed.

But why are people protesting?

Share your own experience of what's happening in the country or your thoughts on why people are continuing to protest where you are in the comment thread below. We'll move the best comments above the line as they come in.


Several reasons.

The first of which is the heavy-handed actions of the police which led to an outpuring of anger and upset. Of course, the police alone didn't cause it but there were issues which have long been there that the police's actions brought to the surface.

This leads onto the second reason. According to those I know within the country and those outside who left recently for work reasons, it can be stifling. Journalists control what they say and self-censor which is never good for democracy. Others, though they may not be journalists, feel the same. Not to mention, Erdogan saying things about Twitter like an Arab dictator is never going to solve the long-standing issues.

However, there is an element of over-reaction with regards to accusations of the Islamisation of Turkey. Of course, some recent abortion proposals terrified me as a woman who wants the freedom to have an abortion, and this is indicative of some stricter values. But the banning of alcohol adverts and controlling of when alcohol can be on sale is by no means a bad thing, since we in England also have limits for when we can buy alcohol.


I've tried to avoid exaggeration, and to stick to things I know personally
what it's about:
- years of an increasingly authoritarian government with an ineffective opposition
- a PM who is arrogant, pig-headed and despises anyone except conservative Muslims (roughly half the country which is partly why he wins elections), and who simply does not listen to people who think differently from him
- a corrupt and nepotistic system where all the main checks and balances of a democracy are brought / bought under government patronage / influence / control
- as a result there is a great deal of frustration and loathing of the government, of the PM especially then- Istanbul has the lowest % of parks of any city in Europe
- the only central park is a pitifully small park called Gezi Park near where we live
- the PM decided himself to rebuild an Ottoman building which once stood in the park and which had been pulled down by Atatürk; the building has symbolic value for the PM; it's an order from the PM to the mayor of Istanbul who is a lickspittle member of the ruling party; there's been no public enquiry or consultation about this plan, or any other redevelopment plan for Istanbul for that matter (and there have been many awful ones and there are many more in the pipeline)
- last week work started to cut down trees on one side of the park, preparing the ground for the new-old building (the government's story is a bit different about the reason but no-one believes them)
- a group of about 300 mostly women green activists occupied the park last week under the name of 'Occupy'; they are totally committed to peaceful protest (I know one of the organisers and she is very determined about this)
- on Thursday morning the police raided the camp at 5am without any warning using teargas and burned the tents and sealed off the whole park behind barricades
- on Friday morning the police attacked unprovoked a small group (a few hundred if that) protesters near the park with teargas, I was there, subsequently a friend of ours (Lobna Allamii) was struck in the head by a teargas canister and is still in a coma, other people have been also badly injured (see these pictures for example
- by Friday afternoon thousands of people had arrived from all over Istanbul and the battles began
- by yesterday they had gotten very ugly, and literally hundreds of thousands of protesters were now converging on Taksim and some other areas, by now including a proportion of people ready to use violence, though always a minority
- the President gave the order for the police to withdraw (smart move, it was obvious that things were about to escalate and heaven knows where things would have ended up)
- some of the demonstrators trashed some vehicles in and around the squares, and built barricades (still up) using anything they could get their hands on all roads leading to Taksim and Gezi Park (they're next to each other); mostly the barricades were made from police barricades taken from the Park, along with some wrecked public buses which had been used to bring the police to Taksim
- today was a big party in the Park and Taksim with many thousands of people celebrating their victory over the State
- in the meantime the PM has said I am not dropping the project and the State will retaliate, also in the meantime the courts have ordered a stop to the building project in the Park saying that it's illegal, the PM says that the courts are interfering.

Ekin Turesay

There is a lot of confusion among the International community regarding what's going on in Turkey. Why is the public so outraged against a government that came to service by democratic election?

Here is a sampling of what the ruling party AKP is doing to create so much reaction from its own public.

1) The constitutional amendment they are trying to pass moving Turkey to a US based Presidential system - This will give AKP another 10 years of electability. Convenient timing as under the current regime Erdogan won't be eligible to run for PM in the next elections.

2) Restriction on Alcohol use. It started as a bill for a full ban but under public pressure was passed as "restrictions". Oh and did you know our national drink is now Ayran (Watered down yogurt) instead of Raki? (Anice based liquor widely popular in Turkey). Yup cause Erdogan said so. Because with 1.5 litres per capita consumption a year, the Turkish youth clearly needs to be put in an AA program.

3) Turkish Airlines ban on red lipstick for hostesses.

4) Subway authorities making announcements regarding "moral rules"

5) Did you know that our PM decides how many kids we should have? The magic number is three. Because clearly there is not enough orphans in the world.

6) Interfering with the freedom of Turkish Press. We have more journalists in jail than Iran.

7) Imprisonment of the Turkish thought leaders with the "Ergenekon" Operation which accuses them of conspiracy against government. We are never told what specific evidence the government has against these people.

8) Building shopping malls and mosques in historical public spaces, changing the landscape without asking the public. The monument they want to erect in Gezi Park has religious significance and is something that the public did not ask for.

9) For wanting to name the new Bosphorus bridge after a Sultan that the Alevi minority regard as a mass murderer. This is also example of insensitivity to public opinion.

10) For meddling with other countries politics and attracting terrorism to Turkey, yet failing to protect its own citizens. Reyhanli attacks were significantly impactful yet got little attention from our government and media.

On top of all of this our PM calls his own people drunks, marginals, the others, the mob who should be hanged.

What we see is our freedoms eroding under this government. People are speaking up against oppression and for human rights in Turkey. We are the Public.

Share your own experiences or thoughts on what's causing the protests in Turkey in the comments section below.

You can also share your own images or video of the situation Turkey via GuardianWitness here.

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