By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
It is important to view the rioting in Turkey with the proper perspective.
Thousands have been arrested. The destruction is very ugly. But what has been happening in Turkey for the past four days, without letup, is not an Arab Spring.
Part of the success of the rioting is due to the Arab Spring, but Turkey is the most democratic of all Muslim countries - they have free elections - and the concept of Arab Spring is antithetical to democracy.
Current leadership in Turkey, under Recep Erdogan, has been in place since 2003. Erdogan won three landslide victories. But now the time is approaching for municipal elections and Turks are using the opportunity to express their frustration.
Turkish protestors are all secularists. Erdogan is a liberal Islamist.
The protestors are calling Ergodan a dictator. They reject his ideas and his policies. They are frustrated by his economic policy and his foreign policy. They are angry. The Web is lit up about
the protests.
Erdogan, for his part, has called the protestors hoodlums and looters.
The protests originated with a rejection of the re-planning and redesign of trees in Taksim Park in central Istanbul. The government was planning on pulling up trees. But we all know that these protests are not about trees - they were the fuse that ignited the anger and hatred.
When Erdogan said that the park re-planning will go on as planned, he showed just how distant he is from the message of the protestors. And the protestors are spelling and acting out their message loud and clear.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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