Seeing the forest from the trees in Turkey

TEHRAN,June 12(MNA)--The demonstrations in Turkey are about much more pressing issues than the sycamore trees of Istanbul’s Gezi Park. In fact, the unrest is being driven by the decades of social and political disparities in the country and should not be mistaken for a protest against the government’s controversial decision to uproot the trees of the park to build another shopping mall. The public resentment toward Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian government, and especially the way he has dealt with the crisis in Syria and many other foreign and domestic issues, is the main reason the protesters have taken to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s policies. There are also some groups who feel marginalized by Erdogan’s agenda. For example, the Alawis, who are one of the main religious minorities of Turkey, are highly critical of Erdogan’s policies. These factors have created an opportunity for secularists and retired army generals to incite the people to protest against the government, with the goal of facilitating their return to power. These groups are Erdogan’s archenemies in the political arena, and the demonstrations in Istanbul’s Taksim Square gave them the opening they have been looking for over the past few years. Erdogan’s decade of economic success has made the secularists jealous, and the recent incident gave them a great opportunity to strike out at him. The unrest has also exposed some signs of an internal rift in the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Turkish President Abdullah Gul tried to adopt a moderate stance toward the protests, while Erdogan criticized the demonstrators and called them thugs. The future of the AKP is at stake, and its leaders must show contrition to the voters in order to rehabilitate the party’s image. Seyyed Javad Salehi is a political analyst and lecturer at Shiraz University. (By Seyyed Javad Salehi)