Taksim Is Not Tahrir

... the ruling party. In particular, there are rumours of disagreements between Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gül, who are supposed to be close associates and co-founders of the ruling party. When the party won election in 2002, and Erdogan was still in prison, it was Gül who became the acting prime minister. They are both close in their ideology, and have long-established political ties. However, Gül tried to contact the protestors at the very start of the Taksim events. He held meetings with key opposition forces and accepted their demands. Even more importantly, in their statement, both the President and Vice Prime Minister Bülent Arınç accepted that most of the protest demands were quite ...