Bristish newspaper The Guardian has published an article devoted to the protests continuing in many Turkish cities.
"The mushrooming protest has temporarily united a suspiciously wide spectrum of grievance – from those who object to their favourite Gezi park being turned into a shopping mall, to those who object to restrictions on the sale of alcohol, to the decision to name a third bridge over the Bosphorus after an Ottoman ruler responsible for the massacre of thousands of Alevis, the largest religious minority in Turkey, to those who object to Turkey's proxy war in Syria," the article reads.
"From micro issues to large ones, the common denominator is Mr. Erdogan's and by extension the AKP's overbearing personality. They are no longer seen as the facilitators of individual freedom but big brothers interfering in them."
"The jury is still out about the ambitious marriage of forces that the AKP seemed to have achieved – Islamism as a reformist vehicle in a democracy under a secular constitution. But one thing is clear. Democracy is not just about elections and it is not, as Mr. Erdogan once said, a means to an end. It is an end in itself. Mr Erdogan has done his job application for president no favours. He should react to this protest with humility and listen to what it is telling him. He has yet to do so," the authors of the article conclude.
