They’re young, they’re angry and they reportedly don’t have any major political alliances, except that they’re no fans of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Prime Minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan.
The original demonstrators, who called themselves the Taksim Solidarity Platform, were a group of environmentalists, architects and academics, who camped out in Gezi Park in a bid to spare the park’s trees from being destroyed.
No longer limited to the 50-100 environmentalists – the number has grown to tens of thousands in cities across the country.
Read also: Turkish protests – It started with a tree
The English-language Hurriyet Daily News published the results of an online survey on Wednesday that revealed details about the protesters’ motives.
More than 92 per cent of the 3,000 people who participated in the survey said they were driven to take part in the protests because of Erdogan’s “authoritarian attitude” while 91 per cent said it was the police’s “disproportionate use of force” that influenced them to take to the streets.
According to the survey results Hurriyet published, the majority of the people taking part in protests, 64 per cent, are between the ages of 19 and 30, and many are believed to be students.
Hurriyet reports some university administrations in Istanbul will allow their students to write the exams later in the summer if they are unable to “due to the extraordinary circumstances.
Erdogan said putting off finals is tantamount to encouraging the students to take part in the anti-government demonstrations.
Full coverage of the protests in Turkey
Several unions have now joined the protests or gone on strike in solidarity, including the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (the country’s largest union), the Turkish Doctor’s Union, the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects and the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Union. According to the website Today’s Zaman, those three organizations represent almost 850,000 people across the country.
But Turkey’s European Union Minister is reported to have said protests have been infiltrated by groups aiming to “exploit” the demonstrators. Erdogan has also accused foreign agents and extremists of meddling in the manifestations.
Two groups that have gotten involved are the hacker group Anonymous – which claims to have attacked government email accounts — and a group of U.S.-based Turks who crowd-sourced money to take out a full-page ad in the New York Times.
The Guardian reports Oltac Unsal, Murat Akhtihanoglu and Duygu reached their goal of collecting $53,800, through IndieGoGo, to buy an advertisement to condemn police brutality and what they call the “steady erosion of our civil rights and freedoms,” throughout Erdogan’s 10 years in office.
Read the text of the yet-to-be published ad below
What is Happening in Turkey?
People of Turkey have spoken: We will not be oppressed!
Millions are outraged by the violent reaction of their government to a peaceful protest aimed at saving Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
Outraged, yet not surprised.
Over the course of Prime Minister Erdoğan’s ten-year term, we have witnessed a steady erosion of our civil rights and freedoms. Arrests of numerous journalists, artists, and elected officials and restrictions on freedom of speech, minorities’ and women’s rights all demonstrate that the ruling party is not serious about democracy.
Time and again, the Prime Minister has mocked and trivialized his nation’s concerns while Turkey’s own media have remained shamefully silent.
The people protesting bravely throughout Turkey are ordinary citizens. We span several generations and represent a spectrum of ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, ideological, sexual, and gender identities. We stand united because of our concern for Turkey’s future. Our future.
We demand an end to police brutality.
We demand a free media.
We demand open democratic dialogue between citizens and those elected to public service, not the dictates of special interests.
We demand an investigation of the government’s recent abuse of power, which has led to the loss of innocent lives.
Join the conversation and stand with us in solidarity.
Crowdfunded Entirely by Concerned Individuals from Around the World
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