[jstrate]

My girlfriend is vacationing in Turkey and in Istanbul currently. I spoke with her last night and asked what was going on, she said a small amount of people were protesting trees being removed from a park. She said she believed it was a little more than that but nothing very extreme. It was interesting to hear her view after seeing it and then read the reddit/hn talk of government overthrow, rampant police brutality, and revolutions. I suppose it will be interesting to see what happens. And then uninteresting to see how few of these comments are relevant.

[litmus]

Both your girlfriend and enraged camel are correct. enraged camel will probably agree that at this stage that talk of government overthrow and revolution is ridiculous--he says as much in his earlier post. Compared to Egypt or Syria the reasons for the protests are indeed laughably quaint by comparison. The lead-up involved the gov's attempts at the demolition of a historical movie theater, building a third bridge across the Bosphorus, restricting alcohol sale laws which were previously laxer than most EU countries, and this whole Taksim park and historical ottoman barracks "reconstruction". As you can see, most of these things are mostly grievances you would see in western democratic countries. The most undemocratic component in the past years that has been the hallmark of previous governments as well--the lengthy jailtime for people being accused of abstract & extreme anti-government activity--has been mostly out of play in this most recent of public shit fits.

The main difference this time around, and the government's biggest mistake, has been the continued disproportionate police response...

[enraged_camel]

Your girlfriend is probably not near the same park where the protests started. People are literally rioting on the streets - there are photos all over Facebook and Twitter documenting this.

[jstrate]

Certainly possible, she said Gezi park which I had heard come up so I just assumed.