Hundreds of thousands of people across Turkey took to the streets in outrage, only to be met by security forces using tear gas, batons, and water cannons. At least two people have died, and unconfirmed reports put the injury toll at over 2,000. Physicians on the ground are accusing police of deliberately harming protesters. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has largely shrugged off the situation, must step in to end any continuing violence.
Moreover, the unrest should serve as a wake-up call to Erdogan and his government, which has been in power since 2003. They must listen seriously to the demands of the protesters. What began as a small sit-in to save a city park from being demolished to make room for a shopping mall has become an eruption of popular discontent — including from some Erdogan supporters — toward an elected but increasingly uncompromising leader who has sponsored runaway development, discouraged political opposition, jailed journalists on questionable grounds, and attempted to impose a conservative lifestyle on one of the Muslim world's more secular societies, including recent restrictions on alcohol sales and proposed curbs on abortion.
With good reason, the White House has stressed the need to uphold "the fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, and association." US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone has emerged as an important advocate for press freedom in Turkey. But as one of the country's strongest allies, the United States should also play a larger role in pressuring the Erdogan government to respect those democratic values in practice.
Vowing to move forward with the demolition of the park, Erdogan has unhelpfully blamed the demonstrations on extremists. He has noted that his party took nearly 50 percent of the vote in the last elections, as if that statistic validated every policy decision he might make. He has railed against social media, calling it "the worst menace to society," and clamped down on conventional media more conspicuously than ever. As the world watched clashes between police and protesters last weekend, CNN Turk, a leading news network, aired a cooking show and nature documentaries. On Wednesday, 25 protesters were arrested for supposedly "spreading untrue information" on Twitter.
Yet, unlike in Egypt or Tunisia, where long-serving strongmen governed with little regard to public sentiment, Erdogan can't just ignore the message that he's overreached. Turkey has a history of free elections going back to 1950. Erdogan cannot run for a third term as premier but is believed to be staging instead a run for president in 2014. The current protests show a significant undercurrent of dissent, and unhappy Turks must be sure their voices are heard at the ballot box.