When protests broke out in Istanbul\u2019s Taksim Square in May 2013, the world braced itself for another of the Arab Spring uprisings that exploded across the Middle East\u2019s landscape in 2011. Though technically a secular democracy since 1923, to many a Western eye, Turkey continues to be lumped with its authoritarian-ruled, Islamic Republic neighbors. People taking to the streets and mobbing Istanbul\u2019s central square thus came as little surprise; the very name \u201cTaksim\u201d eerily echoing Cairo\u2019s \u201cTahrir Square,\u201d which erupted in anti-government protests in January 2011. However, unlike the pre-revolt administrations in nearby Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, Turkey\u2019s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, was democratically reelected by a large majority in free and fair elections in 2011. So, when 50 Istanbulites set up camp on the edge of Taksim Square in Gezi Park, one of the only green spaces remaining in the city\u2019s sea of concrete, they had no intention of emulating their neighbors and bringing down Erdo\u011fan\u2019s government. They were environmental activists, peacefully protesting the planned construction of a shopping mall on the park\u2019s current area. When the government\u2019s police forces responded with tear gas, water cannons, and fully armed SWAT teams however, the protests expanded, exposing a set of tensions and issues at work in Turkish society that go far beyond the desire to save a few sycamores.<\/p>\n
The environmental factors in Istanbul\u2019s protests are the result of contention surrounding Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan\u2019s lofty urban development schemes. Since coming to power in 2003, his administration has sponsored colossal building projects all over Istanbul, time and time again transforming historic neighborhoods or the city\u2019s rare forested hills into ritzy shopping malls and residential skyscrapers. The renovation of Gezi Park is just one of many proposed projects that would further decrease the city\u2019s limited green space. Mr. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s administration is beginning construction of a third bridge across the Bosphorus, the mile-wide body of water separating Istanbul into its European and Asian halves. Despite relieving some of the city\u2019s severe traffic congestion, the bridge will destroy one third of the 14,000-acre Belgrad Forest on Istanbul\u2019s northern edge, causing immense environmental damage and substantially diminishing one of the few oases in Istanbul\u2019s chaotic cityscape.<\/p>\n
This urban development issue also hints at the Turkish urban populations\u2019 religious grievances. In addition to a shopping mall, Erdo\u011fan\u2019s development plan for Gezi Park and Taksim includes the construction of an immense mosque complex. Given Turkey\u2019s majority Muslim population, it is, perhaps, counterintuitive that building a mosque in the center of Turkey\u2019s most treasured metropolis would provoke countrywide protests. However, when viewed alongside Erdo\u011fan\u2019s host of other Islamist-leaning undertakings, the mosque\u2019s construction carries quite a bit of symbolic significance, representing the current administration\u2019s increasingly heavy-handed religious policies.<\/p>\n
Though ideologically moderate Islamist, Mr. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s political party, the Justice and Development Party (A.K.P.), is somewhat constrained in its public pursuit of religious endeavors by Turkey\u2019s secular constitution. Behind the scenes however, Mr. Erdo\u011fan has quietly but effectively pursued a far more conservative Islamic agenda than any administration since the Ottomans. In the past 10 years, Turkish urban populations have felt mounting pressure from Ankara to increase their piety and return to more traditional Islamic values. Turkish women are finding it more and more difficult to be seen in public showing skin or without head coverings. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s administration has sponsored conversions all over the country of churches and museums into mosques. And, in an attempt to curb alcohol consumption (prohibited under Islam), he has enacted limits and increased taxes on liquor sales. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s administration\u2019s policies, and the cultural atmosphere they create, have added fire to the Gezi protests, leading to complaints from urban centers around Turkey that the government is trying to impose its religious beliefs on the people.<\/p>\n
Given that the Istanbul protestors\u2019 long list of grievances against the current government quickly provoked similar demonstrations in cities all over Turkey, it may come as a surprise that Erdo\u011fan has won the last three general elections by huge margins, increasing his share of the popular vote with each election cycle. His support comes primarily from the rural poor and conservative Islamic communities, while the protesters represent the younger, more educated, urban middle class. The protests have thus brought to light a demographic tension within Turkey; one that ultimately hinders the country\u2019s recognition as truly \u201cWestern.\u201d While the West has long hailed Turkey as the example for the rest of the Middle East of a successful marriage of Islam and secular democracy, Turkey has still not been granted membership to the European Union. Although Turkey\u2019s urban class predominantly supports secular policy and has, in many ways, come to be very \u201cEuropean,\u201d the rural populations make up the moderate Islamic base thought to be incompatible with the EU system. The Gezi protests thus dig much deeper than their environmental roots, revealing a stark ideological divide in the country that follows along its demographic fault lines. Up to this point, Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan has successfully toed the line between modernization and moderate Islamization. However, in the midst of this tumultuous landscape, his reelection will certainly be no walk in the park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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