Gâvur Izmir*
"Come to us, Tayyip**, water is fresh here". That's how people in Izmir greet any newcomer to the improvised tent camp at the Mediterranean seafront in the Alsancak park in Izmir, Turkey's 3rd biggest city. And though the police eventually managed to disperse their counterparts in Istanbul and Ankara by using force, the protest camp in Izmir still remains intact. And there are several reasons for that.
Izmir is undoubtedly the face of secular Turkey. Even a brief walk around the seashore pedestrian alleys would help understand why this is so. Those streets are lined up with cafes, night clubs and restaurants where people can have a few drinks without fear of harassment from the "tradition police" that could be seen scouting the streets of other cities across the country; boys and girls can be spotted showing their affection in public around the parks without fear of repercussion. Head-clothes are a tiny minority among women, and the national flags hanging from the facades often have the image of the founder of the modern Turkish state, Kemal Atatürk displayed on them.
The devotion of a large part of the Turkish populace to the secular society has never been good news for the parties with a religious inclination. It's not good news for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has ruled since 2002, either. In 29 out of the 31 municipalities of the 3.5 million city, the opposition Republican People's Party is in fully control, and Erdogan's party has just 1 seat. What's more, his party is not only lacking support in Izmir, a lot of hatred is being directed at it on a regular basis. As soon as the first night of the clashes between police and protesters at Taksim, in Izmir the AKP headquarters was set on fire, and the police did nothing in response.
There were thousands of police at the Izmir Expo Center but they didn't move a finger to prevent setting its gates on fire. Of course, the peaceful majority of the protesters now claim that the act was organized by some violent provocateurs. But whoever the culprit, it's evident that the authorities are doing their best to steer clear of the protest camp as much as possible. And the closest police station to Alsancak is just a couple of blocks away. But the police has shown little interest in containing the protests.
As far as I've heard from the social networks, there's a kind of a daily routine now at the camp. The participants in these events have developed something like a dual life. They go to work and stay at the office until the evening, then they turn into a sort of politically active supermen. Far-left activists raise flags with Lenin on them, next to secularist nationalists waving flags with Atatürk, then go to the soup kitchen at the far end of the Alsancak park, where they're joined by a group of youngsters calling themselves "Youth Resistance" who are sitting peacefully nearby and having a beer and a hamburger.
This colorful face of the Izmir protests, as well as those in many other cities across Turkey, is both their strength and their weakness. At the moment their message is so diverse and incoherent that there'll probably have to pass some time before things have calmed down and real political activity has commenced and a clear political agenda has emerged. But, in order to see the street protests subsiding and things reverting to their normal daily rhythm, first the authorities would have to play their part as well, and actually start listening to the people.
The fact that Erdogan remains as unyielding as ever, while people of influence within his own party, including president Abdullah Gül and parliament speaker Cemil Cicek, are openly calling for dialogue, is hardly a surprise. There are tensions within the AKP as well. Not everyone approves of Erdogan's plan to change the Constitution and turn Turkey into a presidential republic, and then in turn occupy a presidential post of newly enhanced prerogatives. Erdogan might've apparently softened a bit lately, and he may look more willing to accept some of the demands of the protesters now, for example the original demands of the environmentalists who started everything by protesting the planned destruction of that green spot in the center of Istanbul. His purpose being to calm things down for the time being. But on the other hand, he definitely won't yield to the political demands of the larger part of the protesters.
Although it's clear that these protests cannot topple Erdogan's regime, they may've already done him a serious harm in the long-term. His plans of changing the basic law of the land will be surveyed very closely from now on, and the Turkish society will retain its right to react to the slightest attempt to tilt things toward authoritarianism. On the other hand, some of AKP's political allies have already made signs that they're prone to withdrawing their support from the ruling party. And this promises some trouble for Erdogan at the next elections.
But the challenges that the opposition faces are still there as well. The opposition parties with parliamentary representation are still incapable of matching AKP's power, come election time. Creating and building an alternative movement out of the protesters' circles will take time, if it ever happens at all. For the time being, the unifying demand of the people in Alsancak is, "We want more democracy". Whatever that's supposed to mean.
* the title means "Izmir the infidel"
** "Tayyip" is how Turks refer to Erdogan in a mildly disrespectful way