Turkey is bracing for the first anniversary of the demonstrations that started as a simple protest to save trees in Gezi Park, near Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and ended up convulsing the country after the government’s heavy-handedness toward the protesters.
Many in and outside of Turkey saw the demonstrations as Turkey’s version of the Arab Spring, hoping it would bring down the country’s increasingly authoritarian and bellicose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.