What started as a protest over the plans to re-develop the Taksim Gezi Park to a shopping mall triggered an intense conflict between the protesters and the Turkish government in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. Protests that began in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, on May 28, 2013, by environmentalists and other activists who opposed to the local development project, escalated into a wider revolt against Turkish conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoāŸan who inflicts the Islamization of everyday life. Thousands have flooded the streets nightly since then, many shouting anti-government slogans and waving Turkish flags. The government’s response was violent, including intense police clashes with demonstrators, using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, in order to disperse them. A whole generation seemed to be reborn through these events.
