Protests in Istanbul, Turkey rage on after police reacted violently to an occupation Gezi Park, located in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, initially because of government plans to develop a shopping mall over the park.
Violent crackdown of protesters transformed the protest into massive anti-government demonstrations around the country.
After the protests became world news, Western media got it wrong by characterizing the uproar as a revolt against Islamic influence in Turkish politics or simply an environmental protest.
But to be more accurate, these protests should be seen as a chain of demands of people from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government over recent years.
More than 1,700 people have been arrested and dozens are injured or dead. The anti-government demonstrations have flared up in 67 cities as well as important cities of Izmir, Ankara, Antalya and Konya.
These demonstrations had a negative influence on turkey’s economy leading to a fall in its stock exchange market and decrease in its tourism industry.
Iran has a great influence in its neighbor, Turkey. However Sayed Abbad Araghchi the spokesperson of Iran’s Foreign Ministry strictly denies any interventions in Turkey and described it as an internal issue of the country.
“The protests in Turkey are a domestic issue and Iran will never intervene there,” said Mansour Haghighat-Poor, The deputy of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis in an exclusive interview with Iran’sView.
He, however, invited the turkey to “peacefully dealing with the protesters and avoiding violence”, and emphasized “the need to respect the demands of the protesters.”
“These protests somehow roots in Turkey’s Foreign Policy. Iran had previously warned the Prime Minister Erdogan about opening borders to terrorists and helping subversion of Syrian legal government which will leads to the Turkish dissatisfaction and finally protests, besides ending in chaos in the region,” he said.
Haghighat-Poor suggested to Erdogan “try to solve the domestic issues and welfare problems” by ending “support for the Syrian armed opposition”.
“If the Turkish government doesn’t correct its mistakes and instead continues in its current policies, more opposition will emerge and Turkey will follow the pattern that Syria has,” he warned.
