Turkey has been in a deep financial and monetary disaster for nearly two years now. The alternate price of the nationwide forex – the lira – is falling. The unemployment price, particularly amongst younger individuals, is excessive. The scenario is aggravated by the implications of the coronavirus pandemic. The tourism business, one of the crucial worthwhile and necessary for the Turkish economic system, has suffered vastly from them.
At this tough time, the residents of Turkey are pressured to tighten their belts or go away the nation in quest of a greater perspective. Many younger individuals had to decide on this path. But as an alternative of in search of a approach out of the tough scenario, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is beginning massive building tasks one after one other.
Why Erdogan is constructing one other palace
Despite criticism from the opposition, Erdogan is investing tens of millions within the building of a variety of controversial websites, one in every of which is a palace on the banks of Lake Van. The constructing ought to resemble the palace of the Seljuk ruler Kei-Qubad I, constructed within the thirteenth century.
According to official knowledge, the palace can be erected on the identical place the place the Seljuk sultan Alp-Arslan pitched his tent after the victory over the Byzantine military. This battle was known as the Battle of Manzikert and befell in 1071. Therefore, the dwelling space of the palace that Erdogan is constructing can be 1,071 sq. meters. Turkish media reported that the development of this facility has already value greater than 14 million euros, whereas the Turkish authorities initially named a unique determine as an estimate – 3.5 million euros. The head of the corporate that’s constructing this palace, in line with media stories, is Erdogan’s good friend from faculty.
Erdogan’s residence constructing in Ankara
The implementation of this venture was stopped in July 2019 by the choice of the Turkish Constitutional Court, because the palace would have blocked entry for the inhabitants to the lake shore. But the nation’s authorities, having modified the regulation, really canceled the courtroom’s resolution. “The palace can be constructed,” Erdogan instructed his critics on the time. At the top of August, he delivered a solemn speech on the shores of Lake Van, devoted to the Battle of Manzikert, after which symbolically initiated the development of the palace.
Why Erdogan is being criticized
“Because of the greed of one person who wants to benefit, the shore of Lake Van was sacrificed,” criticizes Erdogan, a politician from the opposition Republican People’s Party Gyulizar Bijer Karadzha. palace after one other. “
But this type of criticism in Erdogan’s get together brings its personal arguments. “For us, this building web site is a house for the whole nation,” mentioned Jahit Ozkan, vice chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Here, close to Marmaris, Erdogan’s summer season residence can be constructed
In addition to the palace on the shores of Lake Van, Erdogan is constructing a summer season residence in Okluk Bay, close to town of Marmaris on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. And this building venture, in line with the Turkish media, may be very costly and may hurt the setting. Until now, the development of the constructing, consisting of 300 rooms, has value the finances 37 million euros. To clear the location for the inspiration of the residence, 50,000 bushes have been destroyed.
This is the third palace that Erdogan is constructing with taxpayers’ cash. In 2014, he moved to his large residence in Ankara. Due to the excessive prices of its building, which value half a billion euros, and likewise attributable to the truth that it was constructed contained in the protected space, the opposition harshly criticized Erdogan even then, however her arguments weren’t heard.
Now Erdogan can be blamed for the truth that in his interpretation of historical past he’s more and more extolling the deserves of the Ottoman Empire, and never the Turkish Republic and its founder Ataturk. Erdogan’s three luxurious palaces and lots of different smaller tasks lately differ from the standard monumental buildings because the founding of the republic in 1923, however are very paying homage to the Seljuk-Ottoman previous of the Turks.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Guy Fawkes masks at the moment are in Istanbul
Young individuals donned masks which have change into an emblem of the worldwide protest motion. With picket swords, youths stroll in Gezi Park on June 12, from the place the police drove out demonstrators at evening. But a number of hundred individuals remained within the park.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Resistance to authorities
Four lifeless, hundreds of injured and detained. Protests and riots have continued in Turkey because the finish of May. On the night of June 11, in Istanbul, police drove the demonstrators out of Taksim Square and destroyed the barricades that they had made. The police fired tear fuel, water cannons and rubber bullets in response to Molotov cocktails and stones. The space seemed like a battlefield.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Istanbul has not but returned to regular life
An injured protester appears to be like out of his tent in Gezi Park on the morning of June 12. Despite the truth that for the primary time in two weeks because the begin of the wave of protests, Taksim started to drive in one of many central squares of Istanbul, town has not but returned to regular life.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Mass demonstrations
“Your actions are damaging the picture of our nation,” Governor of Istanbul Hussein Avni Mutlu mentioned, defending robust police motion towards the demonstrators. He known as the latter “outsiders”. The demonstration in Istanbul was attended by as much as 100 thousand individuals. Protests additionally befell in different cities in Turkey.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
It all began with chopping down bushes
Large-scale protests started with the battle of activists towards a building venture within the middle of Istanbul. According to the plan, a shopping mall can be in-built Gezi Park, positioned subsequent to Taksim Square. Dozens of previous bushes ought to change into victims of the development web site. The park is without doubt one of the final inexperienced areas within the metropolis middle. Demonstrators defended the bushes by organising a tent camp within the park.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Tough measures
The first wave of protests in late May was dispersed with the assistance of enormous numbers of law enforcement officials. The safety forces taking part within the dispersal of the demonstrators used particular tools, in addition to water cannons and tear fuel.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Protests in different cities
Demonstrations befell in different Turkish cities, they usually acquired a political overtones. The essential goal of criticism of the demonstrators was the federal government of Prime Minister Erdogan. The largest protests befell within the capital Ankara, in Izmir within the west and even in vacationer facilities within the south of Turkey.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Government criticism
The politics of Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) are perceived as more and more authoritarian. By his response to the protests, Erdogan solely strengthened this impression: he refused to vary the development plan in Istanbul, and sharply condemned the actions of the demonstrators.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Not (c-) solely Molotov cocktails
Many demonstrators don’t need to affiliate themselves with those that throw Molotov cocktails and maintain peaceable protests. Theatrical and musical teams carried out on Taksim Square with spontaneous performances. In Gezi Park, protesters practiced yoga, even the classics have been heard.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Protest image: “the girl in pink”
This is {a photograph} that has change into an emblem of protest in Turkey. It depicts Jida Sungur, who works on the Technical University of Istanbul. After a policeman sprayed tear fuel subsequent to her, the woman required medical consideration. But the subsequent day, Jada once more took half within the protests.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
Improvised protection
The picture exhibits demonstrators in Istanbul utilizing a big parasol to guard themselves from water cannons. Everything that got here handy was used. Some used snorkeling masks as safety towards water cannons and tear fuel.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
In assist of Erdogan
In the midst of the protests, Erdogan flew away on a tour of North Africa. In Ankara, the place he returned on the finish of final week, the prime minister was met by hundreds of his supporters. He acknowledged that the federal government’s persistence with the demonstrators is “operating out.” The protesters, in his opinion, go “hand in hand with terrorists.”
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Turkish Spring – 2013
International assist
The protests in Turkey have been supported overseas. Thanks to the media and social networks, the entire world follows the occasions in Istanbul. In New York, Athens, Berlin and different main cities, demonstrations befell in solidarity with Turkish demonstrators.
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Turkish Spring – 2013
How will the Turkish spring finish?
What started as an area protest towards the felling of bushes has changed into large anti-government protests throughout the nation. Until the top of the unrest is in sight. Despite the actions of the police, the organizing committee of the protesters introduced new performances. Meanwhile, on June 12, Prime Minister Erdogan is to fulfill with representatives of the demonstrators.
Author: Klaus Janzen, Mikhail Bushuev
