Erdoğan's chilling warning: 'these protests will be over in 24 hours'

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Turkey's prime minister defied a growing wave of international criticism on Wednesday and issued a chilling warning to the protesters who have captured central Istanbul for a fortnight, declaring that the demonstrations against his rule would be over within 24 hours.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ultimatum, which he said was conveyed to his police chief and interior minister, ratcheted up the tension in Turkey after a relatively calm day following the mass teargas attacks by riot police in Istanbul city centre on Tuesday evening.

"We have not responded to punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently," Erdoğan said after meeting a team said to be representing the protesters for the first time. "This issue will be over in 24 hours."

The sense of a looming denouement at Gezi Park off Taksim Square in central Istanbul was reinforced when a deputy leader of Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) said the park had to be cleared of demonstrators as soon as possible.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/turkey-prime-minister-raises-fears

[MynameisBlarney]

1. Oh damn.

This is gonna get ugly.

[Hotler]

15. It's time it got ugly here. Oh! I forgot. americans are too....

lazy to protest. It is easier to sit behind a computer keyboard and bitch than to take to the streets in such numbers that we out number the police 20-1.

[Sand Wind]

2. I just dont understand his behaviour. He is really searching for it. Nt

[Ed Suspicious]

4. He hates peaceniks in parks. HATES them.

Why is fucking beyond me. God forbid they listen to the protestors and act on their concerns. That would only encourage more protests I guess.

[Sand Wind]

10. Ok I got it : he will make a referendum on the project...

Direct democraty that will blow away the contestation !
He is a fox, since the Istanbul region is pro AKP. Lol.

[SoCalMusicLover]

3. I'm Sure This Will Go Over Well W/Protesters

Certainly this won't incite them, which in turn would create more problems.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Berlin Expat]

5. I don't know

if it'll all be over in 24 hours, but I do know that the AKP (Erdogan's party) has a major pro-AKP rally scheduled for Sunday, June 16th.

If I recall correctly, the last big AKP rally drew about 250,000 people, and the AKP is hoping to double that this time - they're bringing in AKP folks from all over Anatolia, the party's base. Imagine 500,000 AKP party loyalists against 15 to 20,000 protestors. Oh, and did I mention that your average AKP loyalist views the protestors as little more than whiny communist punks who deserve a pimp slap upside the head?

That's a recipe for disaster. In any event, they need to find a way to keep the sides apart because if they don't, the hospitals are going to have their hands full, to put it mildly.

I know people in the AKP; they used to be students of mine in Ankara, if you're curious as to where I got my info from.

[Sognefjord]

12. Thanks for the information. Turkish politics has always interested me.

[Little Star]

6. He sure does know how to ratchet up the tension. Stupid ass. n/t

[starroute]

7. Erdogan is completely out of touch

I don't know if it's a Turkish equivalent of the Beltway Bubble -- or if it's just that his poor and rural supporters love him -- but he has no clue what he's dealing with. It isn't an "issue" that can be over and done with. At the very least, it's a set of long-simmering internal grievances. And at most, it's an outbreak of that much-abused concept, a "clash of civilizations," which runs right down the center of Turkish society, just as the Bosphorus divides Europe from Asia.

Whatever else the protesters may be -- and they include many diverse factions -- they are on the same wavelength as their counterparts in the West. There were whole tables of Guy Fawkes masks being hawked in Taksim Square. There were A-in-a-circle anarchism symbols everywhere, whether scrawled on walls or included in the slogans on protest signs. The protests themselves grow out of environmentalism, multiculturalism, and opposition to neo-liberal economics and gentrification -- along with a fear that Erdogan is trying to turn Turkey into a Middle Eastern nation.

And Erdogan is completely oblivious to all of this -- which is why he sees the protesters as thugs and looters who can be stamped out with a show of force. The only real question is whether this can still be resolved peacefully, or if Erdogan is determined to call out his own thugs and incite civil war.

[bloomington-lib]

8. Usually when that's said, it's the beginning of the end for the guy issuing the threat.

[Swede Atlanta]

9. I read an article about a year ago...not sure where that anticipated this.....

Ergodan's party is a pro-Islamist party - not in the genre of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or pro-Islamist parties in other countries but it does support a platform of more islamist-influenced policies.

That position is juxtaposed against a substantial majority of Turks who, while at least marginally Muslim, prefer a secular state with the ability to practice their religion. These include most of the professionals and business leaders who are west-leaning and who aspire to an eventual membership in the EU.

I think the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back in this case is that Ergodan proposes to hand over to what are rumored to be some of his cronies the last greenspace in the center of Istanbul for development. Activists from the green movement to the anti-Islamist movement have coalesced around what is seen not only as cronyism but also the brute force of what is supposed to be a democratically-elected leader.

I recall being on a cruise about 10 years ago and had a couple of Turkish professionals at my table. One is a doctor and she is manages a marketing firm. They shared the fact they were 'devout' Muslims who didn't believe in the extreme version of Islam espoused by the radicals who believed that individuals should live in a free society where individual rights were respected and individuals were free to make choices good and bad. They had two children, both sons. They aspired for them to educate themselves for success in the future but to make their own decisions regarding their religion and their life choices.

i think much of that thinking permeates much of Turkish society today. They are a nation being torn between Islamists or Islamist-leaning factions and what I believe is the majority of Turks that prefer a secular society that has allowances for religious observation.

[starroute]

11. There are even anti-capitalist Muslims among the protesters

I haven't gotten a clear sense of where they lie on the devoutness scale -- whether they're mainly anti-capitalist and justify it with Islam or mainly Islamic to the point where they regard capitalism as heretical. But either way, is shows that the protests cut across what you might think were the expected divisions.

The protests have even brought together three groups of soccer fans who support rival teams and were formerly at each other's throats. And there are also Kurds involved -- and some of the young Turks are starting to conclude that maybe the government has been lying to them about the Kurds all along.

Even if Erdogan does crush the protests in the short run, he's going to find himself faced with a massive social realignment that will frustrate all his expectations.

[Leontius]

13. The army used to be the guardian of a secular Turkey.

Who or what has the ability to perform the task now?

[David__77]

14. It's still the army.

It would be an anti-democratic coup for sure, but perhaps one that I would support, were I a Turk. Rule of the majority isn't everything.