Yavus Selim writes: “What’s going on in Turkey?” is a common question on the lips of people as varied as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and some American Muslim scholars. People are finding it hard to wrap their head around the facts. The most stable, economically successful and popular democratically elected government in the Middle East has been experiencing widespread protests over… a planning application? That doesn’t sound right and of course, it isn’t the case at all.
I do not condone violence against protestors-there is definitely some police brutality at play which President Erdogan himself hinted at and said that it would be investigated and dealt with- but do want to take a closer look at the why people are gathering in Taksim Square and elsewhere in Turkey.Here are ten tweets that expose what the current “protests” in Turkey are all about:
Tweet 1: So much for the trees
PM Erdogan live: In 10 years we planted 2 billion new trees across Turkey. More 160 new parks built. More than 3 million older trees planted
— Ziya Meral (@Ziya_Meral) June 2, 2013
Yes. The figures are astronomical but in the last ten years this Turkish government has planted enough trees to repopulate a sizable section of Amazon. So we can now establish that these protests have nothing to do with the environment at all and they were merely using it as a cover. A cover for what?Tweet 2: With friends like these
Turkey: Violent protests against Islamization in Istanbul and Ankara: Obama’s favourite and “most trusted ally… bit.ly/14j60Tv
— Pamela Geller (@Atlasshrugs) June 1, 2013
For once, Pamela Gellar (the well known anti-Islam blogger who stated that she hopes Israel bombs Mecca and Madīnah) is right. This isn’t about trees at all. It is about the secular bloc in Turkey making a final anarchic stand against what they hate most in this world – their nation coming closer to Islam once more.Tweet 3: Don’t believe me?
To my Arab friends who support the protestors, look at their tweets: “I want at least one hijabi woman dead today.” twitter.com/ceylanozbudak/…
— ceylan ozbudak (@ceylanozbudak) June 1, 2013