TAKSIM ON COMPROMISE PATH

It seems like the political crisis in Turkey is now undergoing a breakthrough moment. After 12 days of unrelenting protests, police squeezed the protestors out of Taksim Square in central Istanbul, once again using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. However, it is evident that confrontation that started in defence of the Gezi Park and grew into anti-government protests, will not end without consequences. Irrespective of how this will affect the country's political image and balance of political forces, one thing is clear - Turkey is going to be different. 

To a certain extent, the protesters won after the Istanbul authorities rejected the plans to build a shopping centre on the territory of the Gezi Park. However, Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas made it clear that the government is not going to completely reject the plan to reshape the park. He said that at the moment, the government is considering projects to build a museum or an exhibition centre in place of the Gezi Park. Therefore, the fate of the park and its trees which triggered the large-scale protests, is still under question. 

Importantly, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologized on behalf of the country's leadership to the protesters who had fallen victim to police violence. However, he clarified that the government acknowledges its responsibility only before those who suffered due to their aspiration to protect the environment. This means that the government's apologies do not extend to the persons who turned the ecology protests into political ones and put forward demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his cabinet. 

Police brutality against protesters on Taksim Square and other protest areas started after Prime Minister Erdogan expressed his intention to undertake all necessary measures to completely end the unrest in the country. However, dispersing protests does not mean quelling protest sentiments in the country. The anti-government protests showed that over 10 years into Erdogan's leadership of the Party of Justice and Development, a significant part of the Turkish public have sufficient reasons to express their dissatisfaction with the country's policies. This especially applies to a certain Islamist inclination in Erdogan's strategy which makes one think that the changes being carried out by the government in the socio-political areas are aimed to reconsider the Kemal Ataturk legacy. This is why protesters demanded that Turkey return to the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. One spark was sufficient for the people's protests to pour out onto the streets of many of the Turkish cities. The government's decision to get rid of the park in central Istanbul was the last straw that sparked the protests of the people dissatisfied with the government's policies - the left and the right, nationalists and cosmopolitans, students and even football fans. Despite the fact that the Turkish protest movement did not prove to possess sufficient potential to secure Erdogan's resignation, it may be enough to raise the issue of the necessity of a compromise between the secular and Islamist components of the Turkish politics. 

In addition, factors that have little relation to the domestic conflicts in this country are having increasingly noticeable effect on the developments in Turkey. Certain foreign political and financial-economic circles are interested in perpetuating Turkey's domestic conflicts as they are dissatisfied by Ankara's growing influence on the international scene and Turkey's transformation into one of the leading regional powers. Erdogan himself clearly pointed this out. Despite the fact that the Republican People's Party is his main critic, Erdogan also lashed out at the social media (Facebook and Twitter), and certain fringe groups that receive their support from abroad. Moreover, Erdogan openly accused foreign forces of supporting the protesters with an aim to weaken Turkey's economy. He said that they aim is to "bring Turkey to its knees and scare away foreign investors".  

Indeed, it cannot be ruled out that certain global centres would rather have a repeat of the Arab Spring in Turkey. Western media are drawing annoying parallels between the Turkish Summer and the Arab Spring, speculating that the Turkey developments may continue the Middle Eastern revolutions. 

Certainly, Turkish leaders, first of all, Erdogan, currently found themselves in the role of opposition to popular protests, exactly the way this happened with authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Libya and a number of other countries, let alone Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, whom Erdogan strongly criticizes. The world political elites may be dissatisfied with Erdogan due to Ankara's stubborn position regarding a number of urgent global issues. This, first of all, refers to condemning Israel's position towards Palestine. One can also say that the West is certainly displeased with what it believes is Turkey's insufficient engagement in the efforts to topple the Syrian regime. After Erdogan's recent visit to the USA and his negotiations with President Barack Obama, there were talks that the Turkish prime minister, despite his strong support to the anti-Assad forces, declined the White House's plan to launch military operations against Syria. This is despite the fact that, in all likelihood, in the Syrian conflict Turkey would have been assigned the same role as France and Britain played in toppling Muammar Kaddafi's regime in Libya. 

However, despite all the fuss, the Turkish protests have little semblance to the Arab Spring that led to the toppling of a number of Middle Eastern dictators. In the countries of the Arab Spring, the world observed the falling of secular but long-serving and morally discredited regimes. On the other hand, Erdogan's Justice and Development Party won in fair elections on several occasions and is prepared to resign as a result of a democratic process. 

Erdogan, who refers to the democratic way with which he came to power, now insists that people will have the final say in the current political turmoil in the country. The Turkish people will express their attitude in municipal and parliamentary elections due in March 2014 and June 2015, respectively. 

Despite the serious political tension in Turkey, it is evident that the leading forces in the country are still seeking ways of starting a dialogue between the opposing sides. The Turkish state is strong enough to prevent chaos, a necessary component of the revolutions in a number of Middle Eastern countries. 

Apart from this, one needs to take the Turkish army into consideration. Despite the fact that Erdogan's government weakened its influence on the political developments in Turkey, it will not observe indifferently the internal confrontation in the country which poses a threat to the security and integrity of the Turkish state.