One year ago, modern Turkey had arguably witnessed one of the biggest protests in its history, the Gezi protests. It all started when on May 28, 2013 hundreds staged a sit-in in Gezi Park, one of last remaining green areas left in Taksim Square located in the heart of Istanbul. The sit-in, which university students and young people from Istanbul participated in, was a response to the Istanbul municipality's plans to demolish the park to make way for the construction of a shopping mall. The demonstrators "occupied" the park in a similar fashion of the occupy Wall Street movement's that took place in the United States in 2011. However, the police quickly cracked down on the sit-in, burned the demonstrators' tents and fired, in a random and arguably dangerous manner, tear gas and used water canon to disperse the environmentalists and their anti-government supporters. "The Turkish authorities should urgently review policing policies and hold to account police chiefs whose units attacked peaceful protesters. The government should also examine police use of tear gas, which poses a significant health risk and can be lethal," Emma Sinclair-Webb, a senior Turkey researcher for the Human Rights Watch, said in a report by the organization on June, 2013. The police's heavy-handed crackdown on the environmentalists triggered a wave of protests across Turkey that saw, according to official estimates by the interior ministry, nearly 2.5 million of people take to the streets to protest the government and in some cases demand the prime minister and his party to step down. The anti-government protests lasted over the course of a month in different cities in Turkey and claimed the lives of seven people including a policeman. "Gezi resistance happened because of AKP [Justice and Development Party] government oppressive policies that restrict freedoms and plunder with the nature and the city." Ahmet Saymadi, a Gezi activist who was one of the early protesters at Gezi Park, told the Islamist Gate. Since Gezi protests, the Turkish government led by the Justice and Development Party, known as AKP, has been under mounting pressure due to domestic and regional changes. Shortly after June protests, the government's foreign policy received a blow when former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, whom Erdogan rallied for in Turkey and beyond, was ousted following big protests and a military intervention. Domestically, in September Erdogan unleashed a campaign against Fethullah Gulen a former ally and a US-based Islamic preacher whose influence within state institutions seemed to unhinge Erdogan. As a result of the conflict between Erdogan and Gulen, on Dec 17, a corruption investigation was launched against government ministers and high profile businessmen with close ties to the government. According to anti-government circles and some officials in the European Union and the US, the government responded with restricting freedoms and compromising the rule of law and separation of powers by introducing laws that give the government and the intelligence agency sweeping powers over judiciary with great impunity. Some social media websites, such as Twitter and Youtube, were blocked for the government due to flood of incriminating leaks of government officials committing graft. Leaks were never confirmed. Twitter was later unblocked. Following Gezi, the government's reputation suffered significantly on an international level, Saymadi said. "They had to revise some of their polices, but in terms of freedoms, nothing really changed." Since Gezi protests last June, the government's reaction to protests developed into a usual scene of tear gas and water cannon with many riot police ready to intervene to break any anti-government gatherings. Dr. Aykan Erdemir, a Member of Parliament representing city of Bursa for the Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party, known as CHP, argued that a sense of paranoia had dominated the AKP-led government. "Authoritarian regimes and leaders have a tendency to become more paranoid over the years," Erdmir said in emailed comments to Islamist Gate. "This has also been the case for Turkey, especially since Erdogan fully consolidated his one-man-rule within AK Party and Turkey. Erdemir concluded that Gezi was just one of the many excuses for Erdogan to propagate his paranoid conspiracies. "The corruption scandal and graft probe of December 17th and the Soma mining disaster of May 13th also led to similar paranoid rants." On the other hand, in speeches following Gezi incident Erdogan maintained that the protests that ensued for over a month were in fact a plot against him and his government orchestrated by foreign conspirators who wished Turkey's decline. Even following the corruption scandal and the countless unconfirmed incriminating leaks that suggested corruption by government officials and even Erdogan himself, the premier always hinted that Gezi was the starting point of this anti-government campaign. Dusting off all challenges, Erdogan's party managed to win the March municipal elections by a 45 percent national average, exceeding its last year's average by 6 points. "I am pretty sure it was a plot," Merve Sebnem Oruc, a Turkish columnist with both Daily Sabah and Yeni Şafak, told the Islamist Gate. "There were, of course, some people who really cared for environment but they were very few in number. All anti-Erdogan people whom I know never cared about urbanization in their life and saw the incidents as an opportunity to topple him." Oruc argued that pro-Gezi propaganda; lies and deceits on media and social media raised the heat. "It was a political tension between seculars and Islamists, artificially created and controlled by financially powerful circles that are uncomfortable with Erdogan government's being behind the wheel; a plot that we saw its copy with a different ending in Egypt." However, Erdemir suggested that anti-government sentiment had to do more with Erdogan's autocracy than with his Islamist-rooted party. "Erdogan's anti-democratic, authoritarian, and majoritarian inclinations are the main reason for Gezi. We need to realize that Turkey is home to various Islamic movements, which, as different from AK Party, advocate democracy, pluralism, and accountability. We, therefore, have to look for AK Party's violent authoritarianism in its institutional heritage and its leader's idiosyncrasies," Erdemir maintained. As pro-Gezi activists and organizations marked the first anniversary on Saturday, May 31, with gatherings and protests in Istanbul's historic Taksim square, the government resorted the same heavy-handed policies to face one of Erdogan's biggest political challenges. Turkish police fired teargas and water cannon on to disperse the protesters in central Istanbul who sought to mark the one-year anniversary. Authorities closed roads and stopped public transport to deny access to Taksim Square and the adjoining Gezi Park. More and more, at least 80 people have been detained by the police including CNN's senior international correspondent Ivan Watson.
