User:Ph8l/sandbox/Istanbul 2014

"Istanbul 2014" A primer on the current situation in Turkey by the members of A History of Constantinople at A.C.S.

Taksim Square

Taksim Square, which is considered to be the heart of European Istanbul, because of its great atmosphere and variety of cultures, is today torn apart by millions of protesters. Initially, the protests stared because people were unsatisfied with the Taksim Gezi Park project, which is the government's plan to urbanize the popular park area. More than 3.5 million out of Turkey's 80 million people were involved in the protests, which started on May 28th, 2013 and are still going. The sit-inof Taksim Gezi Park resumed after the police officially withdrew from Taksim Square on June 1st, 2013. The park itself was turned into a Occupy-like camp, where protesters would live inside tents. They also had medical care, food supply and even their own media. The protesters created a small community, operating outside the law.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician Born: February 26, 1954 in Istanbul. Prime Minister of Turkey from March 14, 2003. Recep was elected as a mayor of Istanbul in 1994. After he had spent three years in this position in 1997 he's been judged and put in jail for 4 months because of propaganda during the military revolts in the country. He created a new Party of justice in 2001 and wins the vote for parliament in 2002. At the beginning he had no right to become a prime minister because of his past and especially the fact that he was proclaimed guilty by the court. Then just after the mission against Iraq, the Turkish want to make a change in the law so that he could become the prime minister and he did so. He supports the idea that Turkey should join the European Union. On March 22 2014 Erdogan made an attempt to ban Twitter in all of Turkey but the court decides on March 27, 2014 that the government has no right to do that.

Fethullah Gülen

Born 27 April 1941 Religion: Muslim (Sunni and a Suffist)

“Be so tolerant that your bosom becomes wide like the ocean. Become inspired with faith and love of human beings. Let there be no troubled souls to whom you do not offer a hand and about whom you remain unconcerned.” (Fethullah Gülen, Criteria or Lights of the Way. London: Truestar.)

He is a modern Turkish leader, poet, scholar, author, educational activist, who's believes are mostly in opposition of Erdogan's. Right now he has a great authority in Turkey. Fethullah supports the international cooperation towards peace, and stands against violence and terrorism. In fact he was the first Muslim scholar to publicly condemn the attacks of 9/11. He also helped to publish a book on Islamic view of the terrorist attacks.

His movement is considered a religious one, but is also politic and social. What Bayram Balci(French-Turkish scholar) says about the Gülen movement's goals is: "And therefore, (Gülen) wishes to revive the link between the state, religion, and society,"

Wiretapping Scandal

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