If you thought Syria was bad....
Turkish authorities said that they would make no effort to clear Taksim park, the focus of the protests in Istanbul, before Monday. In the meantime, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took on a menacing tone toward the protesters.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned protesters who have taken to the streets across Turkey demanding his resignation that his patience has its limits and compared the unrest with an army attempt six years ago to curb his power.
Riot police used teargas and water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters from a square in the capital, Ankara, just a few kilometers from where Erdogan spoke.
He held six rallies on Sunday, a measure of tensions after a week of the biggest demonstrations and worst rioting of his decade in power. Thousands waved red Turkish flags and shouted Allahu Akbar (God Is Greatest) as he accused protesters of attacking women wearing headscarves and desecrating mosques by taking beer bottles into them.
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In the commercial center Istanbul, tens of thousands flooded the central Taksim Square, where protests began nine days ago when police used teargas and water cannon against a peaceful demonstration over plans to build on a park there. Many see Turkey's secular order threatened by Erdogan.
Protesters, many camped out in tents, now control a large area around the square, with approach roads barricaded by masonry, paving stones and steel rods. Police have withdrawn completely from the area, water cannon kept hundreds of meters away by the side of the Bosphorus waterway.
Western countries have held up Erdogan's Turkey as an example of an Islamic democracy that could be emulated elsewhere in the Middle East. Violent police action, however, has drawn criticism from the West and Erdogan has increasingly accused foreign forces of trying to aggravate the troubles.
He also rounded on speculators, foreign and domestic, in the country's capital markets, vowing to "choke" those who he said were growing rich off "the sweat of the people", and urging Turks to put their money in state not private banks.
"Those who attempt to sink the bourse, you will collapse ... If we catch your speculation, we will choke you. No matter who you are, we will choke you," he said.
Turkey's financial markets were turbulent last week and investors are preparing for more volatility this week.
Early on Friday, the lira hit its weakest point against its euro/dollar basket since October 2011, while Istanbul's main share index lost around 15 percent over the week. The yield of Turkey's two-year benchmark sovereign bond hit a six-month high on Thursday.As some of you might recall, Turkey's economy is all a lie. It's constructed on a house of cards. That's likely part of the play here as well. Erdogan is trying to take Turkey Islamist and then make up its deficits through trade with Iran. Turkey already has a waiver on the Iran sanctions regime - it can just go back to trading gold for oil.
Read the whole thing. It should be an interesting day in Turkey.
Labels: Iran, Iranian oil, Islamist, Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization, Turkish spring
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:54 AM
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