Photo Gallery No Turning Back
Tayyip Erdogan, 60, has been in power for 11 years, and because he can no longer serve as Turkey's prime minister after three terms in office, he is now seeking election as president on Aug. 10.
Erdogan has grand plans: The premier wants to build a third airport in Istanbul that would be three times the size of Frankfurt airport; a third bridge over the Bosporus with the biggest supports in the world, and a mosque with the world's tallest minarets. There are is also a plan to build a canal between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, a plan so absurd and costly that even the government has deemed it a "crazy project."
Erdogan warned protesters that police would do "whatever is necessary" to clamp down on demonstrations in late May in Istanbul's Taksim Square to mark the anniversary of last year's turmoil. Last year, what started as a small campaign to save the nearby Gezi Park from the bulldozers eventually drew an estimated three million protesters in an outpouring of anger at the perceived authoritarian tendencies of Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government.
The conflict in neighboring Syria has also taken a toll on Turkey, though Erdogan had been hoping to support Syrian opposition movements in the effort to depose Bashar Assad. But the move has backfired.
Erdogan refuses to accept the growing need of many Turks for self-determination. He cannot tolerate dissent. Nevertheless, a gay parade was held in June as part of the Trans Pride Week 2014, which is organized by Istanbul's Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals (LGBTT) solidarity organization.
Last week Erdogan's deputy, Bülent Arinç, claimed that it was an abomination for women to laugh in public. "Where are our girls who lower their heads and turn their eyes away when look into their faces?" he asked. His remarks prompted Turkish women to post pictures of them smiling on Twitter, under the hashtag #direnkahkaha ("smiling protest").
