Transcript Gezi Park Protests - University of Colorado Boulder

The Turkish Spring 2013
Gezi Park Protests
“The
woman
in the
Red
Dress”
The Legacy of Mustafa
Kemal “Attaturk”
The secular
Turkish Republic
and the military
as the defender
of that principal
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Is the Problem Islam or
Erdogan?
Sultan
Tayyip
PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
AKP – Adalet ve
Kalkınma Partisi
(Justice and
Development Party)
•“AK” parti (means white or pure)
•Elected for the third time in 2011
•Turkey has average over 5% GDP growth since their
first election in 2002
•Is Democracy “a train from which you get off once
you reach the station”.
•More journalists are in jail in Turkey than in China
Erdogan’s
Development Plan
for Turkey
Erdogan’s
Development
Plan for Taksim
Square
May 28, 2013 Fifty environmentalists
camp in Istanbul’s Gezi Park to prevent
its demolition. The government intends
to build a shopping mall that is a replica
of an Ottoman era military barracks.
31 May – Due to social media, the
crowd expands, followed by the
1st severe police crackdown
Istanbul’s Gezi Park
Is it just about the trees?
The Turkish Media
Taksim Square becomes a festival as the
police withdraw due to international
pressure
Gezi Festival
“We are all çapulcu”
Looters, louts, rif-raf, vandals or
criminals
Man the Barricades!
Erdogan cracks down: at dawn on 11 June, Police
broke through the barricades and began retaking
Taksim Square around 8am. Hundreds of riot police
with tear gas and rubber bullets took down banners,
injuring hundreds
“Erdogan’s Kiss”
The governor of Istanbul, after promising just to
retake the Square and stay out of Gezi Park, orders
police to retake the Park on the afternoon of 15 June
Return to Normal?
Attaturk Cultural Center
Future Mosque?
After
Before
The “Standing Man”
Headscarves in the Meclis
Nov 13
Is It
over?