This movement does not seem to be about Turkey’s next election or even electoral politics. It is not a culture war either, although framing it that way is to the AKP’s benefit. And it’s not really about 75-year-old trees. As one sign in Gezi Park reads, “This is a struggle of rights.” It is a challenge to the belief that democracy is the ballot box and nothing more, a claim Erdogan repeated in a direct rebuke to President Abdullah Gül’s efforts to ease tensions on June 3. It is a rejection of a democratic majoritarianism that treats the opposition as disloyal and of a patriarchal model of citizenship that prioritizes duties over rights, the nation over the individual. This model dates back much further than the AKP’s rise to power in 2002.
A democratic majoritarianism that treats the opposition as disloyal - no wonder Obama and Erdy are so close - pretty much sums up Obama's whole approach to politics: demonize your opponents, present yourself as some wise and magnanimous healer, and then trust in your incestuous relationship with the media to flesh that narrative out - Obama imposes conformity through his mendacious maenads in the press, Erdy's got Islam.