A FIERCE police crack down on demonstrations has turned a peaceful sit in against a local development project into widespread angry uprising against the Erdogan government. In a few short hours, the revolt spread from one city to another against the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seen as increasingly authoritarian. The fast spread of demonstrations in Turkey sent a shock wave worldwide, not only because of the ferocity of the police response, but also because of the image Turkey has acquired under the rule of Erdogan. Although he belongs to an Islamist party, he keeps asserting his respect for the secular nature of Turkey, the matter that made Egyptians wish that the MB regime would follow the example of Erdogan in ruling the country in a way that Turkey to achieve a flourishing economy and a prestigious position in the region. Until recently, Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) was enjoying wide popularity in Turkey despite its Islamist conservative nature. During his decade in power, Erdogan turned Turkey's once crisis-prone economy into the fastest growing in Europe. It is no exaggeration to say that the AKP's success in ruling Turkey made the Western world and the US in particular more ready to accept the Islamists rule in other countries such as Egypt, hoping to enjoy a similar outcome seen in the Turkish experiment. However, it became clear that it is not poverty or injustice alone that drives a nation to revolt against its rulers. Rather, it is also the rulers' oppression that could trigger public anger and cause it to escalate to the point of toppling the entire regime. This oppression could come in the form of forcing a decision on the people, or using an iron security fist on the society to pass certain projects as it was in Turkey. Instead of admitting his fault of first dealing with the peaceful demonstrations in a tough way, the Turkish premier accused the opposition Republican People's Party of utilising the public anger against the redevelopment of Taksim square park to stoke tensions in the country. "If this is about holding meetings, if this is a social movement, where they gather 20, I will get up and gather 200,000 people. Where they gather 100,000, I will bring together one million from my party," Erdogan said in a televised speech. Therefore, there is no much difference between the Turkish AKP and the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party that respond to opposition demonstrations by merely assembling his party's supporters instead of tackling the points of differences and withdrew projects that caused public anger. So does this mean that Turkey will suffer an Egyptian-like polarisation to put an end to the successful experiment of a religious party in a secular society?
