The Turkish Government Is Massively Underestimating Ongoing Nationwide Protests
On Sunday tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Turkey, clashing with riot police in the fiercest anti-government protests since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumed office in 2003.
Erdogan dismissed the protestors, whom he called "looters" and "bums," and The Washington Post reports that "Sunday brought moments of calm in Istanbul and Ankara."
But all signs point to deep civil discontent being stoked by a savage police crackdown.
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More than 1,700 people have been arrested (though many have since been released). Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have condemned the excessive force employed by police.
"This park was just the ignition of all that," Yakup Efe Tuncay, a 28-year-old demonstrator in the park told CNN. "The Erdogan government is usually considered as authoritarian. He has a big ego; he has this Napoleon syndrome. He takes himself as a sultan. ... He needs to stop doing that. He's just a prime minister."
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http://www.chron.com/technology/businessinsider/article/The-Turkish-Government-May-Be-Massively-4570117.php
