Gezi Park Protests in Turkey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gezi Park Protests in Turkey - Essay Example Therefore, the governments construction plan at Gezi Park was like the last straw that broke the people’s patience thus releasing all the pent up emotions they felt Although the protest started as a sit-in in the Gezi Park, the brutal force with which the government uses to evict the participant precipitated a widespread protest in other areas. The incident provided an opportunity for the people to express their anger not only about the treatment of those in Gezi Park, but in other spheres where the government had introduced controversial laws like not kissing in public, authoritarianism and curbs on alcohol. Consequently, the protests were not about these issues but about the government and its policies over the years. As the confrontation between the demonstrators and the people developed, the participant was bottling their anger, which had been growing over the years (Mullen & Cullinane) The reasons why the sit-in at Gezi Park erupted and became uncontrollable can be blamed on several factors chief of which being the brutal force used by the police force that t=had entered the park to end the sit-in. The first days of Taksim Gezi Protests before interruption by the police force was peaceful in the history of the protests. ... Of course this reflected the government’s attitude that had been going on for years where the people were not let to express themselves and any effort to express contrary opinion that was not in favor of the government was quashed with the most brutal force. The police could be seen by those watching from television at home attempting to burn the protestors’ tents down. Those that were watching from other places some of whom did not care about the devilment plan at Gezi Park were brought into the protest as they could relate to how the police treated the participants to other government injustices over the years. Effectively, police brutality stretched the extent of the political sphere of the protest that now included other areas apart from environmental concern (Ozcan 396). Further, the brutal force also made the protestors to shift from peaceful mode of expressing themselves to a violent one that involved Molotov cocktail since they now realized that force could only be mate by an equal force (Mullen  and  Cullinane). The Prime Minister’s rhetoric also acted as a catalyst to the protests given his stance and attitude towards the protestors. From the beginning of the protests, the prime minister viewed the protests as a coup against him in addition to the pejorative rhetoric to the protestors in his reference to them as looters. Instead of making efforts to appease the protestors by taking steps that would be viewed as increasing the people’s democratic space, through establishment of channels of communication, he blatantly criticized the protestors as serving the interests of foreign powers and international investors. Additionally, instead of moving to appease the environmentalists, the prime minister emphasized on the environmental conservation