On Thursday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blocked access to another social network, YouTube, which comes just a week after banning Twitter from the country.
However, the Turkish people have not yet taken it up with themselves to protest in the streets, despite having a history of public demonstrations.
People of Turkey have no fear of protesting. Last summer a peaceful sit-in that opposed the urban development of Gezi Park in Instanbul turned into a country-wide movement known as Occupy Gezi. When authorities tried to shut down the movement even more people joined in the protest.
It’s estimated that around 3.5 million Turks participated in the Occupy Gezi protests, which ended up becoming violent, claiming 11 lives and resulting in over 8,000 injured people.
Pinpointing exactly why protests over social media haven’t been taken to the streets remains a mystery, but many speculate that it’s because Erdoğan is trying to spark more violent protests.
Turkish-American journalist, Kathy Hamilton, says Erdoğan wanted people to run wild through the streets causing chaos to prove that the country needs him, but so far things have remained peaceful.
[Photo Credit: Wikimedia]
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