Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Turkey in protest. So far, more than seventeen hundred people have been arrested.
The protests began over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to build a shopping mall on Istanbul’s Taksim Park, but they have grown into a more comprehensive rejection of what demonstrators say is the Prime Minister’s dictatorial ambitions.
Aslı AydıntaÅ?baÅ?, columnist for the Turkish daily “Milliyet,” has the latest on growing unrest.
Erdogan has become a forceful critic of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and Syrian refugees have streamed into Turkey since Assad began cracking down on his citizen protesters in 2011.
Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, weighs in on the unrest in the region.
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