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"The first real victory over [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan was celebrated on June 1 by nearly 500,000 demonstrators in Taksim Square, in Istanbul's city centre. All over Turkey, demonstrators called on the government to resign, reports German daily Die Tageszeitung. The demonstrations continued during the entire weekend.
The protests were sparked by the proposal to build a shopping mall in place of Gezi Park, in the centre of Taksim Square, the paper writes, adding –
This time Erdogan's arrogance led him to make a mistake. The conflict around the park turned into a settling of scores for the ban on alcohol, pressure on universities, curbs on freedom of speech and the cockiness with which the Islamists imposed their will, thinking that the country belonged only to them.
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