Wednesday, June 05, 2013



Turkey

Since last week, people have been protesting to save a park from redevelopment in central Istanbul. While the protests have been peaceful, they have been met with violence: with midnight raids, tear-gas, beatings, and water cannon. The response has been disproportionate and indiscriminate. At least two people have been killed, and thousands injured. Thousands more have been arrested - some for merely tweeting their support of the protests.

While the Turkish government was democratically elected, this is not how democratic governments are supposed to behave. Democracies respect opposition and uphold the right to protest. Instead, the Turkish government is acting like a dictatorship. And dictatorships deserve to be overthrown.